 OCTOBER – NOVEMBER 2019
Dear friends, as you read these words, it is November, the month of Thanksgiving. We can’t let this time go by without expressing our gratitude to each one of you who during this year has contributed to make this year a very successful one for us. Your faithfulness, prayers, funds, and visits to our field have helped bless our ministry and the Iglesias Comunidad de Amor, Internacional mission. Throughout the year, you have been able to see our previous updates and see what the Lord has done here in Honduras during the year. So, my friends, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR LOVE. Have a very blessed Thanksgiving dinner with your loved ones. PRAISES:
PRAYERS REQUEST:
Dr. Hector Newman Executive Director Greetings from Honduras.
As you may know, we have a school program at our Danli headquarters in collaboration with Compassion International. As of today, we have an enrollment of 311 children and adolescents. We’ve had tremendous success throughout the years with this educational partnership. As a result of this program, we can see many youths finishing high school and even college. We provide medical assistance, hot lunch, Bible classes, and school support for students. Many low-income children and single mothers have been able to benefit from this opportunity. Very frequently, we bring the parents of the school students to meetings for a special church service in which we encourage them and share the gospel of salvation. Many of them are part of our congregation at the San Cristobal Church in the city of Danli. We are very thankful to all of you who support our ministry with your prayers, coming to help to build, and with your finances. We could not do this important work without each one of you. PRAISES:
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Dr. Hector Newman Executive Director We find in Acts 2:47, "And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." This is true also of our churches in Honduras. The church at Colonia Satelite in Choluteca, pastored by Jose Martinez, is currently providing discipleship classes to a new group of believers. He baptized four new converts recently - all women and young people. This church meets in a car port; however, they already have the land to build their church building. They have faith that the Lord will provide.
Pastor Santiago, of Colonia El Palomar in Choluteca, baptized three new believers. These were young boys that had previously joined gangs in the city of Choluteca. We are so thankful with the Lord for the new people that have been added to our churches in the south of Honduras. Sonia, my wife, started a two-month sewing training course with eight ladies from one of our churches in In Moroceli, el Paraiso. This training will help them earn their own money by making and selling dresses, curtains, bed sheets, and tablecloths. This will be very beneficial specially in places were there are not many available jobs for women. Any donations towards materials (they are very poor people ) will greatly help them. We continue reaching out for the lost and making Jesus known to those who need him. Thank you for all of you who are praying for us and supporting our ministry financially; without your help this will not be possible. PRAISES:
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Dr. Hector Newman Executive Director These are some of the activities that happened in our ministry in July.
Women are the core of church ministry around the world and Honduras is no exception. A few days ago, we had the women's conference for our Northern Coast churches. Around 75 women from all of the regional churches got together at Dos Caminos Church in Villanueva, Cortes. As always, women play an important role in the evangelization and development of our locals churches. It was exciting to see their excitement, great courage, and vision for the church growth. Our churches in the Southern Zone celebrated a night of Koinonia (communion/fellowship) among the pastors and leaders who shared the vision and duty of the church and how to reach out the lost for the Lord. Thank you to those who have recently sent in donations for bunk beds. PRAISES:
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Dr. Hector Newman Executive Director On the 15th of June, 13 people arrived at Toncontin International Airport in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. They were members of the medical brigade, led by Dr. Patrick Reeves, our Medical Mission Director. We had representatives from NH, MA, RI,CT, MI and TX as well as four Honduran doctors.
During four days of intense work, they assisted 1,497 people with various needs for medical attention and medicine donations. The team focused on providing cervical cancer tests, general medicine, dentistry, eyes glasses and spiritual help. The Lord sent very dedicated doctors, nurses and lay people to work from 8am to 4pm every day. It was gratifying to see hundreds of people being cared for, especially when all the hospitals and clinics in Honduras were closed due to a nurse and doctor strike. Thank you so much to our volunteers who provided special care to the poorest of the poor of Honduras. In June we completed the bathrooms and the septic tank for El Arca. On Sunday, June 16th we dedicated the newly finished building with the presence of Judy Margetts. This was Judy's 20th missionary trip to Honduras! She has been such a great blessing to our nation and people. The Lord has used her mightily for many years. The building was dedicated to those who have financially contributed to the completion of the project like the First Baptist Church of Hingham in Massachusetts, Reset Church in Rhode Island, Judy Margetts, and Wayne and Cynde Robbins. A plaque was unveiled in gratitude to all of our friends. We also presented plaques of recognition to Dr. Gustavo Argeñal and Adine Latimore, for their valuable support and work in our medical brigades. Lastly, after a month of waiting for the bunk beds to be completed, we finally received the finished products. We now have 14 completed bunk beds but still need 31 more to complete the dormitory. Each one is $270. Thank you so much for your monthly support of our ministry. PRAISES:
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Dr. Hector Newman Executive Director Greetings from Honduras! This month we had two very important events. The first one was the women's conference in the Danli area. Over sixty women came together under the theme: "Woman, you have come a long way." Through this conference the women learned to understand the role of the many courageous women mentioned in the Bible such as: Esther, Rahab (Joshua 6:17 ), and the women mentioned in Luke 8:1-3. They left challenged and excited to continue to be the kind of women that our Lord needs in the world today.
The second event consisted of over twenty teenagers from Danli attending a second retreat. This is our ministry's effort to continue to invest in the youth. Our goal is to discourage the youth from the use of drugs, organized crime and criminal behavior. The emphasis of the retreat was to help them seek a deeper relationship with the Lord. It was very gratifying to hear their testimonies, feelings and their renovated vision and understanding of God's purpose in their lives. Please support us by continuing to help the youth of our country that are in great need of guidance. Thank you so much for all of you that are supporting our ministry very faithful. PRAISES:
PRAYERS REQUEST:
Dr. Hector Newman Executive Director Greetings from Honduras,
During the first quarter of the year, our ministry sponsored many events and activities reaching out to the lost. I'm excited to share them with you today. The pastor and members of the San Cristobal Church in Danli have been diligently working in one of the most drug and gang infested areas. A few weeks ago, they baptized, two teens: Carlos Triminio and Jonatan Flores. We are very thankful with what the Lord is doing in the lives of these two teens and many others from EL Barrio "San Francisco." The second weekend of April we had another great outreach event for the youth. 0ver 25 youth from Danli came to El Arca to participate in a two day camp retreat. They were challenged to search for the Lord and to seek a better way to live. We saw great results and many of them committed their lives to the Lord. On Saturday, April 27th, I was invited to an evangelistic event. The outreach took place in the street of one of the most densely populated colonias in Choluteca, Ciudad Nueva where we have a church. I preached outside on a podium that was set up in the open air on the street. It was a great night of blessings and many made decisions for salvation and others rededicated their lives. During these past three years, the congregation of Colonia Satelite, in Choluteca, with a congregation of 35 to 40 people, has been meeting in a provisional (car port style) place. A few months ago we bought a piece of land and just last week the church members started the foundation for the church building. If you or your church have an interest in sponsoring the rest of this $22,300 church building project please let us know. Thank you so much for all of your prayers, physical help (coming on mission trips) and financial support. We need more of you visiting the field to see first hand what the Lord is doing here. You are investing in the Lord’s Kingdom in Honduras. PRAISES:
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Dr. Hector Newman Executive Director Dear friends, during these past two weeks I have been visiting many places in New England. As some of you know, we continue to develop El Arca Campground. Our camp is located on 33 acres of land that our mission owns. This land serves as a retreat center, a camping place for churches, a training center for pastors, and a preventive program facility to help the youth stay away from drugs. Our goal is to help the youth grow spiritually and help them avoid joining gangs and organized crime. We initiated a drive to raise funds to buy 45 bunk beds for the camp's dormitory. On Saturday, March 30th, I spoke at a dinner fundraiser at First Baptist Church of Hingham, MA. Many of our friends and supporters donated funds so we could purchase these beds. That night we received enough to buy 12 bunk beds and two additional ones from other friends. We now have 14 bunk beds. PRAISE THE LORD! Would like to donate one? If so, please write your check to Mission Honduras (memo: bunk bed) and send to our treasurer: Ray Riddle, 41 Fairview St. Hingham, MA 02043.
I also had the opportunity to go to Cranston, RI to meet my granddaughter Gia Jade, daughter of Enrique (my son) and Brigid. It was a special experience. On Sunday, March 31st, I had the joy of presenting Pastor Dr. Roberto Miranda with a plaque for all his support that he and his church, Congregacion Leon de Juda, in Boston have given us for many years. Finally, I also went to my annual physical checkup, which found me healthy. I also visited my eye doctor for my glaucoma disease at Massachusetts General Hospital. We are very thankful with all of you for being our faithful supporters in ministry. PRAISE:
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Dr. Hector Newman Executive Director Pastor Juan Sanchez is back in Honduras after spending a year in Valencia, Spain. We are so thankful to our Lord for his return. Since January he has taken back many of the duties that he previously had including pastoring the Manacales Church, leading the Honduras board, supervising our churches in the North Coast and serving at the National Coordinator. This year we plan on new churches being planted, regional seminars and conferences, retreats and also a few national youth, women, pastors and wives conferences at El Arca Campground. Some of his responsibilities include organizing these conferences and follow up. We are excited to have Pastor Sanchez back. He is very valuable to our ministry and has been with Iglesias Comunidad de Amor Internacional since we started in 2001. He is a very capable pastor and leader.
We are so excited about our new church plant in Las Tuzas, Tela in the departmento (state) of Atlantida. The church is growing fast. Three months ago I spoke by phone with Kenia, a woman from las Tuzas, Tela who currently lives in NYC. She owns a lot of land in Las Tuzas and we asked her to donate it to our church (which is in her community). She instead offered to sell it to us for $15,000.00. We don’t have that kind of money so that is why we were asking her to donate it. Well, one of her older brothers accepted the Lord in our church and all his family attends our church. Recently, his mother came to visit him from NYC and she realized that our church is doing good work. She asked her daughter to donate the lot to the community for us to build a church. Miraculously, the Lord touched her heart and few days ago she decided to donate it. PRAISE THE LORD!!! There is going to be a church building there as soon we have the funds to do so. Also we are in the process of building 6 rest rooms with showers at El Arca Camp. We would like to use the existing building that can accommodate 90 people as a dormitory for many activities for our churches and many other churches from the Danli area. We have had many requests for the use of our campground facilities. We just started to raise the funds to buy 45 bunk beds at a cost of $270 each. Can you help our camp by donating one bunk bed? We deeply appreciated the support that many of you are given to our ministry. PRAISES:
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Dr. Hector Newman Executive Director Every year, I make the effort to connect with our ministry in Honduras and experience a different perspective. That meant that this year it was my turn to switch it up again and come on the medical mission led by our medical director Dr. Patrick Reeves.
On Saturday, January 19th, sixteen of us from Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Michigan woke up very early to travel to Honduras. This particular trip was very meaningful to me personally because it is the first time that I got to travel with members of my new church plant (Reset Church) in Rhode Island. Most of the Massachusetts and Rhode Island team gathered at Logan International Airport really early to try and prevent any delays with TSA check in. I had heard that the government shutdown was creating some unnecessary check in delays in airports all over the country. To our surprise, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush was on our same flight. We met the rest of the Michigan and Massachusetts team at Miami International Airport where we boarded the flight together. There were seventeen of us on this team and we were happy to arrive safe and sound in Tegucigalpa. Awaiting us was my dad, missionary Hector Newman, with his unfading characteristic smile. On Sunday, January 20th, we started the day by celebrating Ashley Reeves' birthday. Ashley is Dr. Rick Reeves' wife and has been to Honduras many times on previous medical missions. We headed to El Arca Camp with the whole team. As part of her birthday wish, Ashley had requested to be baptized. It was a special occasion as well because the baptistry was being dedicated to the Lord. Rev. Dr. David Kilpatrick, who is the Senior Pastor at West Medford Baptist Church and serves as Mission Honduras Chair was very influential in donating the needed funds to complete this new baptismal pool. After the dedication, he performed the baptism and we all rejoiced with Ashley. Later in the afternoon, the youth in our mission team left the hotel to go to a special pre-teen/youth service. Ethan Pino, the youth leader at my church, preached to the youth on the topic, "Don't Miss the Point." It was a very blessed service. Afterwards, we hung out with the children and teens. An hour later, we dedicated the sports court at the Cofradia Church in Danli. This is the same sports court that Judy Margetts, Jonathan DiLuglio and I worked on with some college students from Rhode Island last March. The sports courts looked incredible. The dedication ceremony for the sports court was especially touching to Judy Margetts because Dr. Hector Newman unveiled a beautiful plaque naming the court after her. As tears rolled down her eyes in surprise, I caught a couple of tears streaming down my face as well. The plaque also had a dedication to the young college students from Rhode Island who invested a lot of effort, time and money for its completion. Just last year, our mission team then had seen all the filler soil poured and the more than 120 loads of dirt to level the court. We were so ecstatic to finally see the court completed. The children and youth looked extremely happy. After the ribbon cutting ceremony, Judy and I received plaques for our fundraising efforts and then Judy had the honor of shooting the first basketball. Even though it was an air ball, we had fun seeing the next 20 children, teens and adults try to get the first bucket in. I also had the chance to kick the first soccer ball to the goalie. After the dedication service of the, "Judy Margetts" sports court we moved inside the church for Sunday service. I was already under a lot of unspoken pressure. You see the church service began at the same time our beloved Patriots were playing in the division championship. We had an amazing worship time with the praise and worship team of the Cofradia church. With the game in mind I went to the pulpit to preach. You see I was always taught that God comes first in everything so I was not going to cheat anyone out of a spiritual blessing just in the name of a football game. My message was titled, "Breakthrough" based on the passage in Mark 2:1-12. The spirit of God worked through the message and forty minutes later I was making an altar call. What a day! This is what mission trips are all about. Mission trips are all about getting to know the locals, while getting to know your fellow team members, while continuing to know more about God. On Monday, January 21st we left the hotel and for the next hour rode our bus to Teupasenti, El Paraiso. This is where we were located for the next four days helping those in need of medical assistance. When we arrived, there were many people patiently waiting for us under the sun and in the shade. That night, after the brigade concluded, I joined the board of Iglesias Comunidad de Amor International for an executive meeting. It is always great to hear from my colleagues the wonderful news about our ministry amongst our churches in Honduras. On Tuesday, January 22nd, we went back to our medical site in Teupasenti. I love this church because it is on the side of the road in the belly of a big mountain facing a picturesque forest. The weather was lovely compared to the freezing temperatures of New England. At the end of the day there was a lady that seemed to be in a rush to get done with her medical visit. I asked her, "Why are you in such a hurry?" You see the Honduran culture is very laid back so this caught my attention. She looked at me, pointed to a mountain behind us and said I came from the other side of that mountain and it's going to get dark soon. I asked how long it took her to get to us and she said 3 hours. She had 3 little children with her walking another 3 hours up a mountain while the sun sets was all I needed to know. I immediately helped her get through the line. What a great reminder to never take any of the conveniences that we have living in the USA for granted. God has placed all of us in places where we can make a difference whether it is locally, nationally or internationally. Later on in the afternoon we celebrated Samantha's 17th birthday with a piñata party. That night Dr. Kelly Wemple, who had just arrived from Michigan, joined the rest of the team. Later on, Dr. Kilpatrick preached at the night at the Cofradia church service. The message was focused on the excitement about sharing Jesus. On Wednesday, January 23rd, the youth from our team went to El Arca campground to spend the day building the bathrooms for the dormitories. The rest of the team went to Teupasenti to continue with the brigade. At noon I took the youth to one of the many hills on the property. Every hill at El Arca is named after a mount in the Bible. Right in front of the mount you will see the name of it posted on a piece of wood. I decided to take them to Mount Zion. This is the hill that caught fire last March and our courageous teens stopped it. The hill looked way different this year. It was green and at the top there are many benches to enjoy the amazing sight. Once at the top I had everyone sit in a circle and we had a time of intimacy with the Lord. After a brief time of meditation on God's word we prayed for each others needs. It was such a special moment to share with the youth. On Thursday, January 24th, we all gathered for our last day of service. Throughout the week Pastor Hector, Pastor Kilpatrick and myself took turns praying for people and preaching to the crowds waiting to be seen by our medical team. Our teenage team members played soccer, gave away bracelets and toys and connected with their Honduran friends. In the middle of the day Suzanne, who is a nurse, said to me, "Pastor I need you to talk to this couple and pray for them. They are going through a rough time." I waited for the couple with 3 children to see the doctor and get their medication. When they were coming out I grabbed some chairs and sat down to talk to them. They went on to tell me that they recently lost their 9 year old boy due to a stray bullet on Christmas day. The mother started to cry and looked away from me. I could see her sorrow and my heart felt her agony. The dad had this broken look on his face. You see it was almost a month to the day that their son was senselessly killed. I sat there for a while and talked to both parents. I mainly listened and then gave them a word of Biblical counsel. I grabbed Pastor Toribio Santos (our local pastor) and layed hands on the family and prayed for God to comfort them. When we were done praying I gave them a big hug and blessed them. On Friday, January 25th, we stopped by El Arca Campground on our way back to Tegucigalpa. During the week two of our team members rededicated their lives to the Lord and decided to be baptized. Dr. Kilpatrick baptized them. It was a wonderful time. These are some of the stories and amazing experiences that the Lord gave us during this mission trip. Overall our team helped around 861 patients with medications and treatments for all kinds of medical conditions, including: diabetes, infections, high blood pressure, arthritis, carpal tunnel, asthma, acid reflux, dental infections, vision difficulties, and more. Everytime I go to Honduras, I feel blessed and come back filled with more energy and passion to continue to do the work that the Lord has set for us to do. I can't wait for next year. Will you come with us next time? PRAISES:
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Pastor Enrique Newman Assistant Director |