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April 2010 |
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Hello again to all! God has, is and continues
to bless us beyond what we can think or imagine. We are so blessed it’s hard
to know where to start… Oh, wait, we’re PREGNANT!!! That’s probably the best
place to start. Rebecca is about a month in a half pregnant now and we are
expecting a beautiful
Christmas gift from God this year. Because of these events, we don’t
plan to visit the states this
Christmas (but hope to see many of you down here with us instead).
Also, Rebecca’s sister, Katie, is now engaged
and has a wedding date set for
this October. Her fiance, Chuck, is a
wonderful man of God
who hopes to work full time in Honduras along side of my father-in-law,
Frank. Katie and Chuck have received blessings from both their families and
are excited to step out in what God has planned for them.
I’ve started forcing myself to speak out and
use my Spanish. I try to preach a small message once or twice a week. God
has given me a vision to unite the youth leaders of our church here. I’ve
written out my plan of action and am, through God’s grace, beginning to see
it through. I also am teaching the youth that faith without works is dead
and Christianity without love is a waste of time. To practice these truths,
we’ve made up a list of outreaches and love assignments for the youth to
start breaking free from religion.
For the first time in a long time we are
learning to keep up the mission grounds while maintaining the school and
advancing the
kingdom of God through evangelism and outreaches. The boys and I go
walking many times a week to visit, encourage, and challenge those in the
community. People are becoming familiar with our faces and accept us, avoid
us, or curse us. It is so much fun to be radical for God! So often, our
lives get stagnate and it’s easy for our friends and neighbors to live their
comfortable half-Christian lives around us. It’s awesome to see God moving
in us so much that others greet us, run, or yell when we walk by.
The other day God encouraged me with the story
of the widow and the judge. The widow asks for help and doesn’t stop until
finally, out of annoyance, the judge helps her. As I read this story I
thought, “you know, I’m going to ask, beg and pry people to get right with
God until finally, out of annoyance and a desire for me to leave them alone,
they come to God.” This isn’t actually the meaning of the story but that’s
something new I got from it. In the words of Mr. Rob Russo, “The most
unloving thing to do is to not warn someone of the hell to come.” I’ve been
unloving and selfish for far too long and I want to live every moment
snatching souls from hell. So my challenge is this, let’s make it
uncomfortable for people around us who are on their way to hell.
I love you
guys, Nathan.
P.S. The goat project: Rebecca and I have been
searching out ways to use the property of the mission here more effectively.
We are sectioning off parts for growing fruit trees and other things. We
would also like to try out some goats. To start we want to buy a few and see
how they work. We would like to build a small pen and running lines for them
in the day time. The idea is for them to help keep the grass short, give
milk and meat and, if that works out, maybe bless others with the increase
from them. We would like to raise a little extra for this project and just
wanted to throw it out there for anyone who might be interested. For 2
goats, it will cost about $50 and for a pen and running lines, $250.
Thank you for your continued prayer support of this ministry
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March 2010 |
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There’s a song that says “Every blessing you pour out I’ll
turn back to praise, When the darkness closes in, still I will say, ‘Blessed
be the name of the Lord’.” But a lot of the times, when the darkness
closes in, I struggle with praising Him. My prayers sound more like: “God? I
don’t understand? I prayed for safety in this area, so why aren’t you
answering? I work so hard to do Your will, and then, my computer breaks
down, my generator stops working, my students’ parents are mad at me” etc.
Then, after struggling for a while, I finally pray “Lord, You’re in charge.
I’ll trust You.”
I know God doesn’t mind my whining; the Psalms prove that,
but so often when attacks come, for a period of time, I let frustration and
anger sneak in. I’m short with my family and the people I minister to. If I
give in, even just for short time, it shows me that Satan still has some
strongholds in my life. What if Job, for just a moment, gave in? Or what if
every time my wife, Rebecca, challenged me to grow, I questioned her on her
love for me and why she makes it so hard to love her and why she’s always
testing me and pushing me to do better? I don’t do this because I know her
character. I know the love she has for me and the great wisdom she has to
see the whole picture.
So, how am I in any way justified in questioning God’s wisdom
and love for me? He is my Creator, all-powerful, all-loving, all-merciful,
all-knowing. I know and have seen His character. So why do I so quickly let
my guard down to Satan’s darts of stress and worry? I prayed this prayer
the other day (I know I will be tested on it, but that’s okay): “Lord, I’m
sorry that I let myself so quickly be overwhelmed. Help me to mature in my
walk with you and respond to pressure with true joy. Help James 1:2-4 to be
a quick reality to me.” How awesome would it be if my response to “you just
received $1,000 to help your ministry” was the same as my response to “your
generator is unfixable, it will be $1,000 for a new one.” I believe this is
very possible and very Biblical (2 Cor. 1:9; 4:8,11,12,17; 7:4; 12:7-10)
(for your sakes, I only did one book). Since this prayer last week, I’ve
been blessed with many opportunities to rejoice.
You know,
you’d think the demons that attack us would try to be a little sneakier but
they’re so blatantly obvious about the problems they create and when they
create them. Yesterday, I was reminded, while in school- my most brain
stressed time- that our printer was broken. I laughed at Satan and said,
“Oh, come on! Six printers in less than a year? I know it’s you, and you
aren’t stopping the ministry, so you might as well give up because I’m not
going to.” Then, after lunch, same day, my generator wouldn’t start. I told
my wife, “Don’t worry, I’ll have it fixed in 15 or
20 minutes,” 2 hours
later, we had power. Later that evening, my two interns pulled out with the
4-wheeler to show a movie and preach the gospel. {A little background to
this story: 2 weeks earlier the boys went to show a movie. On the way, the
4-wheeler broke down. They still showed the movie and took 4 quarter-mile
trips with chairs, speakers, and equipment, there and back to finish their
mission. (Note: my 4-wheeler has never broken down.) The next day we got it
running again, which could only have been by the grace of God because I know
didly-squat about mechanics. } Now, two weeks later, the boys pull out
again, and after rounding the corner, the 4-wheeler breaks down. I called
across the clinic yard to my brother, Paul, “Man, Satan really doesn’t want
you guys ministering; that’s awesome!” I ran across the yard and God showed
me what the problem was as I was running. 20 minutes later they were on the
path again! You know, my confidence was boosted 100% that God was going to
move because Satan proved it by trying so hard to stop it.
God is so
awesome, who, in His great mercies, comforts us in all our tribulations so
that we can comfort others who are going through hardships, with the comfort
we ourselves have received from Him. Now, if we are in trials, it is for
your comfort and growth. And when you are comforted, it will give you the
strength to withstand your own trials. Yes, we are pushed beyond our
breaking points so our trust will not be in the flesh but completely in God
who gives supernatural energy.
Please don’t forget that you are helping us through your
prayers, so much that on the day Jesus returns, many people will thank you
for giving us the power to do what we did. Thank you.
2
Corinthians 1: 3-4, 6, 9, 11
Nathan Lloyd-Jones
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February 2010 |
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From the Lloyd-Jones':
We made it to Palacios without a
scratch. Praise the Lord! God gave us safe travels and provided for
every need that arose.
The closer I get to God the
smaller I feel. It’s like when we see a city from a long way off:
we know it’s big and grand but, as we near it, we feel less and less
significant. And, as we stand before the great skyscrapers, we feel
like an ant, realizing that we didn’t even comprehend the grand
splendor of the city from the road so far away. God is so amazingly
big and all consuming.
The other morning in my studies
I read Isaiah 40, WOW! No one has anything on Him. He holds all the
oceans in one hand. Scientists have said that it is impossible to
count all the stars yet God calls them all by name and number. The
universe is a small tent He made to cover His children, yet man
worships the tent. All the people of the world amount to a speck of
dust yet we worship man in sports, TV, movies, and countries. That
means we’re bowing down to a piece of dust. Crazy, isn’t it? I love
how
awesome God is!!! Yet I still struggle to believe that He can
handle my problems. Oh, the wretched man that I am. Wherever you
are, God can handle your problems! All you have to do is wait
(Isaiah 40).
I could talk of His greatness
for the rest of this newsletter but then I’d have to call it a
praise-letter.
We arrived 2 weeks ago and have
been preparing the mission for the ministry. This includes 6
buildings that have to be cleaned, sprayed, organized, and repaired.
Also about an acre of grass and bush to chop with machetes and, when
blessed, a weed eater. Needless to say, our days have been busy.
We are so blessed to have Kolt,
a young man from Colorado, who has made a decision to spend one more
year with us and we can’t thank God enough for him. He has a heart
to serve and learn.
This week we had our water pump
blow out and we have been going to our neighbors to borrow water.
It’s just another way to remember how blessed we are when we do have
running water. But I will say that cold showers feel a lot more
chilling when you can’t jump under the water flow at once, instead,
it requires throwing cups full of water over yourself multiple
times. But praise the Lord, after a lot of running around we were
able to get our water running in just a couple of days.
This week we will have 2 pastors
from Cocoa Beach
visiting us, and next week the ship will arrive with all our
supplies from the container and it will feel just like
Christmas. The
week after that we will start another year of school and we already
have 9 students signed up for the
Kindergarten
and we haven’t even gotten a chance to promote the school. God knows
what He is doing, we’re still praying for a kindergarten teacher.
He has provided for us again and
again and I wonder when we will stop being surprised. He is great,
awesome, all powerful, and faithful. People hear that all the time
but so few allow themselves to experience it. God showers us with
His faithfulness and awesome power and we are so grateful for all He
has done for us.
Please continue to pray for us
and for our ministry here in Palacios, and please pray that as we
continue to go through trials that we rejoice in them knowing that
through them we will grow in faith. Thank you for all your prayers
and your support. It is a great blessing to know that we have
brothers and sisters in Christ like you fighting next to us for the
glory of God. God bless you all.
The Lloyd-Jones Family
FROM KOLT:
Dear Friends and Family,
Let me start by saying thank you all for
your prayer and support, I could never express in words what it means to
me. I have now been in Honduras for a total of 6 months, I have moved
from my original location
La Entrada, to a more secluded region named La Moskitia. I am
currently helping a missionary couple in the small town of Palacios.
They are an amazing couple, and are completely loyal to their calling to
Honduras. As for what I am doing here in Palacios, my jobs consist
mostly of teaching in the small
Christian School
here, and doing manual labor around the mission.
On my final day in the states I woke
up early, got all my things ready to go and did my morning devotion.
Chris and I were
headed out in the car, when he realized that he didn’t exactly remember
how to get to the airport. After talking with his dad on the phone and
getting lost a few times we finally make it to the airport. I had 30
minutes to check my bag, get through security, and then finally go all
the way across the airport to get to my gate. That thirty minutes seemed
to go by extremely fast, I found myself racing to my gate after hearing
my name over the intercom for final boarding. So after getting to the
plane finally everything went well. I made it to
Miami for my short
layover then I headed out to Honduras. The plan was for me to meet up
with Nathan and Rebecca at the airport so that we could all head out
together to
La Ceiba. When we landed I gave Nathan a call to make sure that
everything was going according to plan. He assured me that they were
there waiting for me. So after going through customs I go to get my bag
only to find that of all the bags to not make it mine was the lucky
candidate. So after discussing my problem with
American Airlines
they tell me that they are going to overnight my bag to La Ceiba where
they would call me so I could pick it up. So the next day after doing
all the errands that we needed to for Honduras, I got all the money I
needed for the next three months. For some reason after I got the money,
I decided it would be a smart idea to put 250 dollars worth of it in my
shoe. I had never done it before, but was convinced that it was the best
idea. So the next day after finding out that my bag didn’t make it we
were on the road headed out when I realize that I don’t have the 250
dollars that was in my shoe. It had somehow fallen out and I didn’t
realize it. I convinced myself that it had just fallen out in the room
and that the pastor we were staying with would find it and could ship it
out to Palacios with my bag. After putting all that in the back of my
mind, we make it to the truck and head out to the rural area where we
live. It was a very relaxed trip due to the fact that this time Nathan
and I didn’t have to sit on the back in the scorching heat and get
covered in dirt from the roads.
To make it short for ya, Pastor Nephatli
never did find the 250 bucks, and I’ve got to go 2 weeks without my bag.
Luckily though Pastor Nephatli did get a hold of it, and Nathan is
picking it up tomorrow when he goes into the city to pick up some
pastors from Cocoa Beach, FL. I wanted to write that short story just to
show you that life down here in Honduras is full of it’s own ups and
downs. Granted some of the events that took place were due to a dumb
choice or two made by yours truly. I love the ups and downs though, even
though sometimes it may seem as if I despise them. I like them because
they are what make my life unique here in Honduras. From losing my bag
in a third world country to waking up to Nathan asking me if I could
help him catch a horse. The little luxuries that I thought were so
necessary in the States I’ve found aren’t so necessary here. For
example, in the States we have running electricity and hot water
everyday. Here in the last few days in
Honduras, we’ve
nearly ran out of gas thus cutting out our possibility for electricity.
This was followed up by the water pump breaking leaving us without
water. So in order to get around we had to light candles for light and
fill buckets up with water to shower. Just another example of our lives
here in Honduras.
The best thing about being here isn’t
the little adventures that you can’t find anywhere else though. It’s how
I get to see the amazing
God I serve working in the lives of people down here and in
myself especially. I get to serve two amazing people everyday down here,
all while getting to be one on one with God everyday. He has truly
blessed my life over the last six months, and I know He’s going to stick
it out with me over the next 11. Though I’m not always sure what He has
planned for me, I remember what He says in Psalms when He says “ Be
patient and wait for the Lord.” No matter how many tribulations I may
face here, I know that He will raise me. Like it says in James chapter
1, “ Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, for when he has
stood the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised
to those who love Him. So I’m going to keep beating my body and making
it a slave so that I won’t be disqualified from the prize.
If you could please pray for the
missionaries that are going to be arriving on the 2nd of
February, along with the missionary couple that wasn’t able to make it
back due to health problems. Their names are Chris and Naomi. Also
please pray that God will keep showing His grace down here and that we
will all keep serving Him with everything we have. Thank you again for
all your prayers and support. I will be writing you again either at the
end of February or the beginning of March. Nathan is actually the one
who sent this for me because I wasn’t able to make it to the city with
him. Hope to hear from you all soon.
Love,
Kolt |
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April 3, 2009
The
hardest thing about writing this newsletter is deciding where to start.
There is so much to say and so little time to say it (as most of you know, I
am a terribly slow writer). But here is a hint for all of you writers that
are like me: just start writing about God's goodness and ten pages later
you'll have a newsletter.
The other day I watched a reality show that Calvary Christian
Center put out called, The Biggest Winner. Through the show the players are
challenged to step out of their comfortable lives and win souls for Jesus.
At the end, the young man who wins the grand prize is speechless, he feels
like all the others tried so hard and in reality they all deserved it. He
felt humbled and unworthy to accept the prize given to him. Every time
Rebecca and I receive money or hear about the people who pray for us I feel
so unworthy. There are so many people striving and working, why are we any
better? I know the fact is, we're not. I know it's because of God's
greatness and mercy to us that we have anything. It brings tears to my eyes
when I think of why the Great Super Hero, Maker of everything, the
incomprehensible God wants something to do with me; and not just something
but to serve, help, heal, free and bless me. I have no idea why, but I love
it and every day that He chooses to let me see the sunrise again, I am so
honored. I am honored by those of you that take the time to make us part of
your life, thank you.
Well, we headed out from the States on Jan. 28th and even in the
airport God's mercy was with us. As our plane in
Miami started to take off the right engine stopped. The captain said
that it was a good thing that it happened on the ground. I agreed
whole-heartedly. Even though we had to sit there for the next eight hours,
I was completely content. I got to talk with a church group that was waiting
with us also. Many of them were very upset with how long the airline took to
fix the plane. It was so much fun to reply "I'm just so happy that we're
alive." They replied, "Well, ya...." I don't think they liked talking to me
very much. On our way here we were traveling with a lot of valuables because
we were coming from the States. It's amazing how much more faith it takes
when you have a lot of investments on you and you're traveling across a
third world country. I tell you that anyone who does that has got to be
crazy. (If you know anyone like that I'd like to have them visit.) God's
hand was with us the whole way and I love Him for that. Thanks to one of the
school moms, we were able to paint the inside of the school, it looks great!
We started school last week. We started school on the 16 of Feb. We have 4
new 1st grade students that keep me running, 3 kindergarten students,
(that's a story for another time), and 2 transfer students. These first 2
weeks have been so faith challenging and I love the press. We really love
you and thanks for taking a little time to read this letter.
Nathan |
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June 1, 2008
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Greetings, Prayer
Warriors! Here is a story from Nathan & Rebecca. Enjoy!
Remah words
As I was reading in the
hammock to Nathan one night, I looked out the screen to the porch and just
barely stopped myself from jumping up with a scream. Right in front of me
was a hideous mask. Two seconds after seeing it, I realized it was only a
neighborhood kid dressed as a Barbarian Indian. Its a custom in Palacios and
many other places of Honduras for some one to dress up as an Indian with a
scary mask and then go through the town threatening to hit any one who
didn’t give him money.
All the kids in the
neighborhood love to follow the Barbaric Indian around to see who will get
scared. This night, there was an especially large crowd of kids around the
man because every one in Palacios knows John, the little 11-year-old boy
living with us, is very afraid of anything and everything. When he heard all
the kids calling his name, he knew why; he burst in to tears and crouched on
the kitchen floor, too scared to go into his dark room to hide.
I knew that they didn’t
mean any harm but they weren’t going to leave until I gave them a few limps.
I felt bad for John, who was so scared, so I headed to my room to get some
limps so the crowd would leave. When I tried to open the door, it was
locked. I knocked on it and then I heard Nathan’s voice, "It’s ok, John, you
can open the door it’s only Rebecca." After a few seconds, he finally opened
it but wouldn’t come out of the room until after the Barbarian Indian left.
I felt bad because he thought I was going to let them in to chase him, which
had never crossed my mind.
John has always been a
fearful boy and we have tried again and again to tell him that he shouldn’t
let fear control him. He told me once that he thought God had made him that
way. I explained to him about how God didn’t want us to live in fear but he
didn’t believe me, even when I showed him in the Bible.
Then one day I was
sitting at the table checking his homework, he randomly grabbed my Bible and
started reading. "D-u-u N-o-t Bu... B-ee A-ff-r-a-ee-d" he sounded out
slowly. The very first verse he read was in the New Testament when Jesus was
walking out to His disciples on water and He said to them, "Do not be afraid
it is I." John excitedly showed me the scripture, yelling in my ear the
whole time (he talks very loudly, especially when he’s excited), "It says
don’t be afraid!" After that, for the next two hours, he slowly sounded out
the whole page to see if God wanted to tell him any thing else. He has been
reading every day since. I thank the Lord for speaking to him in that way.
For, even though we had said the same thing so many times before, it meant
so much more to him when it was coming directly from God, it was divine, it
was Remah.
The End of the story
The Beginning for John
Please pray that God
keeps teaching him and teaching us how to work with him.
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April 18, 2008
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Hello to all our loved
ones,
We pray
that God has blessed you as He has blessed us this past month. We have been
busy with the school and running the mission and have enjoyed seeing the
fruit of our labor.
We now
have a full house; in addition to Aiden, we now have Rebecca’s mother and
youngest sister staying with us for a short period of time. We also have two
more boys staying with us: Yecson who is going to be 14 this year and Gian
who is 12. Both boys were abandoned by their fathers; Gian rarely sees his
mom, Yecson doesn’t see his at all since she left for the U.S. Both boys
are struggling with insecurity and we pray every day that we can reach out
to them more and more. Please keep these wonderful boys in your prayers.
Our
kindergarten teacher, Jenny Johnson, is a wonderful young lady. She seeks
after God with much passion and we know that as she teaches her class she
inspires her students to do the same.
We are
always overwhelmed by God’s love for us and how He blesses us every day. He
provides our every need and reminds us we are not alone on this battle
field. We invite you who are willing to come and share these experiences
with us. The only way you can fully understand what we do here is to come
and experience it yourselves. We promise you that the experience will be
heart-changing. God bless you and thank you all for supporting us and
encouraging us in so many ways. We truly appreciate your help.
The Lloyd-Jones
family.
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March 3. 2008
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It was June 19th, 2007. My
wife, Rebecca, had stayed in the city (La Ceiba) following our last visit to
the doctor. I couldn't stay with her because a group of young teens had come
to help us work at our mission during that time. The last few days since the
group had arrived were quite crazy; Satan was determined to stop their
purpose here. It was now Saturday; I had stretched myself to the very max,
but I was excited about what God would do that night. As we walked into
church and filled the two front rows, I greeted the Pastor and said, "I am
looking forward to what God will do tonight." We had invited a lot of youth
over the last few days and we were praying for a good turn out for the youth
service. Many older people and children were walking in, but not many youth.
When the service started, only about 15 youth had arrived. The Pastor
started with the usual reading of scripture then spoke for about 20 minutes
and then started to sing. After about the 6th hymn, I looked around and
noticed that already a few people were starting to doze and about half of
the youth were walking out. I had seen this happen many Pastor would preach
for about an hour and then it would be the group's turn to share. The church
was so caught up in keeping their schedule that they were losing the
opportunity to reach the youth. Frustrated, I got up to walk outside and
pray for a while. As I walked out, I asked God to help me to know what to do
and to keep a right attitude. When I walked out the door, there were teens
hanging out all around the windows, talking and watching. I walked out into
a field just out of reach of the light coming from the church windows and
sat down. Crying out to God, I said, "Lord, please help me never to get so
caught up in my ministry that I forget about the people right in front of
me." As I quietly prayed, I noticed some boys walking my way and thought
they might be coming to talk to me. They stopped 3 feet away and continued a
conversation with each other. Not being able to tell who they were because
of how dark it was, I stood up to greet them. As I did, one of the boys
shoved the other roughly with both hands. Pretty soon, a fight broke out and
I jumped into the midst of it before I realized what I was up to. I pulled
one boy away from the other while saying, "This isn't right!" Another boy
stepped in and held back the other youth. The boy I was holding said, "Ok,
ok, Nathan, I am fine." So, I let him go and he immediately went after the
youth being held down and started punching him. I grabbed him again, this
time falling to the ground and pulling him down with me. Somehow the other
boy got loose and started beating the youth on the ground with a belt. I
quickly rolled on top of him, receiving a few of the blows myself before the
boy stopped. I stayed on the ground shielding the boy for about 5 minutes
trying to speak to him with my broken Spanish saying, with tears in my eyes,
"This isn't right! This isn't what God wants. He loves you so much; you
don't know how much He loves you. God really wants to talk, walk and live in
you every day, not just
on Sunday. It's not just some game in church. That's not God. That's
religion and it's not real." It took me about 25 minutes to say that short
message but by that time, he had calmed down and we were sitting on the
grass together. I apologized for my bad Spanish and asked him to please stay
to listen to the youth that had come from the U.S. Dirty, over-tired and
over-worked, I decided not to go back into church. I walked back to my house
and again felt my heart break for the youth of Palacios. If the church would
stop focusing on tradition and schedules and literally take two steps out
the front door, they would change the world. Please, readers: don't let this
religious mess be you; step out and step into God's reality. Please join us
in praying against this spirit of religion. |
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Feb 15, 2008
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Hola to all our friends and
family,
We are doing
wonderful and God, as always, is awesome! I ask you this: who can separate
us from the love of God? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution,
or famine, or finances, or danger, or war? Like the Bible says, “For your
sake we are killed all day long; we are seen as sheep for the slaughter.
Yet, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that
loves us.” Romans
8:35
God’s love in us
helps us make it through any and every problem. I know I say it all the
time, but I can not thank you enough for all your prayers. Satan has
tried everything (and is still trying) to take our joy away, but he will
not win and we thank you for supporting us.
I’ll give you a
brief update on how things have been going. We headed out of the U.S. on
the 16th of January and that morning I woke up with the flu,
which didn’t make for very good traveling conditions. We arrived late that
night to the big city an hour away from our home. I can’t remember all the
problems we had that night but the final one was the computer I thought
had been fixed. I tried a few different things to get it working but
nothing was working. I quietly laid my head on the table with tears in my
eyes and I began to say to God, “God, I don’t want to go through all this
again. I am not ready for another year.” And then I heard that still,
small voice inside me say, “That’s what I wanted to hear. Now I can help
you.” With all I could, I mustered up a small prayer, “Lord, I’m sorry.
Please help me.” It doesn’t always come this easy, but right then a new
idea came to my mind about my computer. I got up, switched cords and the
power came on. It was that easy. I heard God say to me, “If you will
trust me with all you have, I will always come through for you.”
The next day
presented us with much greater challenges but I remembered the words to
one of my most favorite songs: “When the darkness closes in Lord, still I
will say: blessed be the name of the Lord”. Fighting tears, stress and
worry, I said these words and He handled all our problems.
We arrived home and
started to work. When you leave a house for more than a day in Palacios
the jungle invades, so we had our work cut out for us. The second day
Rebecca woke up and thought, “I didn’t see the computer while I was
cleaning!” Later, she asked me if I knew where it was and that moment we
realized what had happened. The man we left taking care of the house
mentioned that one night while he was at a church service he only locked
the door to the wrap-around porch at our house but not the inside doors
going into the house (thinking it would be safe). When he got back, he
found that it had been broken in to. Being unsure of what we had in the
house, he really couldn’t tell if anything had been taken even though he
could tell that someone had gone through the kitchen cupboards and into
some of the rooms.
Earlier in 2007, a
girl that Rebecca had grown up with and was friends with had come to us
for help. Rebecca and I took her in and let her stay with us as well as
trying to minister to her and lead her onto a better path. After we left,
we let her stay in one of the dorm rooms of the clinic until she got on
her feet.
She knew how to get
into the house because she had stayed with us and she knew exactly where
to find anything of value. She took just about every electronically item
we had in working order. The total cost of every thing she took came to
over $3,500. These items weren’t all ours; some were for the Youth center,
School, and mission tools.
Feeling very
overwhelmed we sat down on our bed in silence. Rebecca felt terrible
because people had come to her on all sides as soon as she took in the
girl telling her she couldn’t help her; that she was just trouble and she
would never change. Knowing that the girl could change if she wanted to,
Rebecca was determined to help her, no matter what others said. And now
that we had lost so much, she felt like it was her fault. I told her to
stop blaming herself, we have prayed hard about every decision we made
regarding this girl and if the devil thinks he’s done anything to slow us
down, he’s wrong. We also have hope that this will give us an opportunity
to minister to the girl in a way we were never able to before by showing
her the power of God’s love and forgiveness.
When something bad
has happened, it’s hard not to let it consume your thoughts, but with
God’s strength we have already had many opportunities to share and witness
to many people. It’s a wonderful thing to be able to say our joy isn’t in
things or people but in the One who never leaves us, God.
Next week, we start
school and the new teacher for the kindergarten, Jenny, is wonderful.
Jenny is such an encouragement to us and it is awesome to have a helper
so sold out to God.
In all this, we know
that God has big plans for this year and we look forward to sharing them
with you, thank you!
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Jan 23. 2008
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Greetings faithful prayer
warriors and supporters!
Nathan, Rebecca and Aiden
Lloyd-Jones have arrived in
Honduras . Already we are lining up groups to join with them in
Honduras for short term mission trips throughout the year! It
should be an exciting year for the ministry in Palacios, so I ask for your
continued prayers for this family!
Once the school year has been
started, Nathan and Rebecca will update us. In the meantime, I have a
newsletter Nathan wrote in December. Enjoy!
Hello to all our loved ones,
We would like to start off by
saying thank you again for your prayers and your support; you can't even
imagine what a blessing you have all been to us.
This year has been,
by far, the most challenging and best year of our lives. God has stretched
us in so many ways and taught us so many things.
We went to
Honduras planning to work with the youth and expecting that to be
our main ministry. However, God put us through fire and tested our faith,
obedience, and love. He placed us in charge of an A.C.E. English school
that had eleven students and no roof.
At first, we decided that we
would only run the school until "God sent another". After many trials and
hardships, we realized that God knew exactly what He was doing when He
sent us to Palacios. God wanted to bring us to a new level with Him. He
wanted us to obey and be willing to set aside the vision He Himself had
put in our lives and hearts. He knew that our hearts were for working
with the youth and He knew that one day we would work with the youth, but
that day had not come. He wanted us to set aside our very strongest
passions and look only unto Him. He knew what would serve Him best and He
knew what would break us and make us, oh, so desperate for Him. And that
is what He did for us this year. He changed us and molded us and He used
fire to do it. And we are so very thankful that He did. If we had not been
through what we had this year, we would not have experienced these
blessings or, more importantly, this closeness to God.
God gave us the chance
to experience His faithfulness in completely new ways and we hope and pray
that by reading this you also are able to experience in some small portion
what we have. We thank you again for being a part of this ministry. God
bless and keep you.
The
Lloyd-Jones family
The current prayer request
list:
~Full-time teacher to join ministry
~Finalizing residency papers for Nathan
~Youth Center open, staffed and financially supported
~Improvement in Nathan's Spanish
~Release from the Religious Spirit of the area
~Healing & Strengthening of Rebecca's body for future pregnancies/natural
birth
~Boldness, Direction, Vision
~Financial support
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