Dear Friends and Family,
August is already here! I feel like time has been flying and July passed in the blink of an eye. It was a good month for us, I hope it was for each of you as well.
As I mentioned in my last newsletter, the first week of July was spent with my parents, enjoying Antigua, Guatemala. After they left, Mario and I stayed for another ten days. Through a friend on the FSI Board, we had the opportunity of going and staying with another missionary family, the Harrolds, for that time. We got to participate in their ministry, and our time with them was such a blessing. They do a lot of work with children, helping with school and teaching them English, as well as a feeding center in one of the locations that they do outreach. It was such a privilege to get to be a part of all of it, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time with the Harrold family. Their ministry is called Hands of Grace, in case anyone wants to check it out!
It was good to get out of La Venta together for a while-- distance always helps with perspective. And with that perspective, we had a lot of life talk, dreaming and envisioning for La Venta and the people here. We discussed what we want to focus on, how we hope to execute it all, and the ways that we feel the Lord leading us and putting specific burdens on our hearts. We both felt ready to come back to Honduras and get to work, and we’re trying to focus on being faithful and obedient daily, but I have to admit that returning to some of our realities here was rather discouraging, and we need prayer. The main thing is for God to open a door for us to have our own space. As I have mentioned in the past, our current house is limiting in terms of ministry and the way we want to open our home to the community. Almost everything we want to do is based on having the space and freedom to receive anyone and everyone that wants to come. We especially want to focus on youth and young adults and hope to do so through game nights, providing a place for them to be real, one-on-one discipleship, worship nights, etc. The hope for a cafe would be to create an environment where people can come without fear or hesitation, be loved on, and encounter Christ. We want to be available and present for the people of the village and invite them into the safety of a home (and a cafe!) without judgement where the Gospel isn’t watered down, but is rich with life and truth and freedom. And yet, we’re at a bit of a standstill. We aren’t really allowed to have lots of people over at a time. We aren’t allowed to have a business in this house. And of course, there’s the inconvenience of having to move out for a month or two every year whenever the owner decides to come for vacation. It’s disheartening to say the least. So we’re praying a lot for God to open another door. Currently, there are no other rentals available in La Venta. It’s a door that only God can open. We also are praying for wisdom as to whether or not we should look for land to buy, and then build our house and our cafe, but that would have to be a clear yes from the Lord as we are not even close to being in a place financially where that could be an option. Only by His grace and provision! Please be praying for us and for clarity in how to move forward.
Since getting back to La Venta, other than lots of prayer and seeking what God is leading us to do next, we’ve mostly been visiting families here in the community and just spending time with them. Mario sometimes takes his guitar and we’ll sing some worship songs, or sometimes we’ll take coffee and a treat to enjoy with them. We still have a lot of people on our list that we want to see, mostly elderly couples, so we plan to continue doing that as we also wait on the Lord for another open door.
As always, we are so thankful for each of your prayers, and for your support. God shows us His kindness and faithfulness through it! Blessings to each of you, and love,
Katie and Mario
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