August & September 2002 Activity Report
Jarrod W. Brown
The past two months, August and September, have been great months for the Lord’s church in Choluteca. After much seed planting, fruit is now being produced in great quantities. Outside of the establishment of the church of Christ in the village of Las Pitas, there has been much growth elsewhere. This past summer the church in Limon where I spend most of my time went through some “growing pains.” Some of the brothers were upset but after a big meeting and many prayers the church got passed the jealous feelings that Satan had achieved at slipping in and the church has grown out of the struggles. When you are so closely related to a work it is painful to see it go through struggles like that, but if a church does not have struggles, it is not growing and when a church is growing Satan is working overtime. Now two and a half months later the church has grown closer together and our attendance numbers have sky rocketed. The church in Limon had been having a regular attendance of around 200 and now the church in Limon is averaging around 300 on Sundays. I am happy to report that some 35 of the 107 kids from the church run kindergarten are now attending church regularly in Limon. The kindergarten was set up as strictly an outreach to the community and for that reason no children from the church were allowed to be enrolled. It is our hope that soon these kids will be bringing their parents with them. Currently the teachers from the kindergarten have teamed up with the youth group from the church to evangelize in the community with the parents of the children at the kindergarten being the target of their efforts. Three men from the church in Limon have taken the initiative to evangelize in the local prison. They are now teaching at the prison every Sunday afternoon.
The work in the mountains continues to grow. On September 15 the village leader, Abilio Estrada, was baptized into Christ. Brother Abilio has a strong influence on many in the village and his faith to make this decision speaks very highly of him. Currently between 60 and 80 people are meeting twice a week in Las Pitas. The new Christians in the village of Las Pitas are being persecuted emotionally by their family and neighbors. I, along with most Americans, am fortunate to have never had to experience this kind of persecution due to my faith. Please pray for the new Christians in Las Pitas as they deal with many new challenges as Christians.
On August 5 the youth group from Spring Woodlands Church of Christ arrived led by Dave Gibbs. This group was here until the 13th. During their time here they turned an over grown vacant lot next to the church in Limon into a beautiful park complete with over 100 new trees, benches and two new soccer goals. They also put on VBS activities at the church, the kindergarten, the local school and in Las Pitas. The last two days of their trip were spent in the neighboring town of Nacaome where they also worked with the church.
On August 13th I traveled to San Miguel, El Salvador to meet up with Jack Walker from Bridges to the World to make plans for their group that will be coming next May from Abilene Christian University. This past year they brought 55 students and professionals to Choluteca for two weeks.
On September 6th a small group of men arrived from Middle Tennessee. The group was made up
of Dan Florida, Rex Barker, and Ronnie Strickland. Ronnie had come down a month earlier.
While here the group finished wiring the new classrooms at the church in Limon as well as the new pulpit, storage, and office inside the church building. They also built a small building at the kindergarten that will be used as a guard post for our two guards. They also made more plans for a planned water project for the village of Las Pitas. The Rotary Club will sponsor this project.
The month of September marked the beginning of another project at the church in Limon. There are now 12 young boys studying carpentry in the church’s carpentry vocational school. This school was supplied with tools by Bridges to the World and Healing Hands International. All of the students are from the community and most are from the church, but all were without education or a skill to help them be able to earn money. Now Juan Flores is combining theoretical and practical carpentry classes with biblical studies five days a week.
On a more personal note, the past month has been of great excitement for me. After an unplanned quick trip to Nashville over Labor Day week I got engaged to my girl friend Allison Thweatt. Allison is from Lebanon, Tennessee. We will be getting married on February 22, 2003. After our wedding we will be moving back to Honduras. Allison is a nurse practitioner and plans to work with the local church clinics, visiting medical brigades, and start a new health and medical outreach to the mountain villages that we are working in. That update sounded very cold so here is how I really feel; love is great, being in love is even greater, the Lord has blessed me with the most amazing woman and I can’t wait for you all to meet her!