This past week, June 16th-23rd, Maplewood Baptist Church from Paris, Tennessee came and carried out a packed week of ministry. They were able to share the love of Jesus in 5 different communities outside of Comayagua, and also brought His love into the city through street evangelism. Many seeds for the Gospel were planted this week, and the team witnessed 6 people accept Christ into their lives.
For the first few days, they hosted Vacation Bible School at the school in the community of Crucillal. They taught the children about being strong and courageous, and even made it possible for Captain Courageous to make an appearance with the children! The children learned new songs and Bible verses and stories, and were shown lots of love through the team’s games and activities. A couple members of the team also helped install a water filter, electricity and fans into the school. The learning environment for these children was dramatically improved through the efforts of this team. This was also the second year this team had been to the school, and it was probably not the last. The kids remembered many of the team members and were thrilled to see them again. The team also revisited Victory Baptist Orphanage, and were able to host another Vacation Bible School for some of the same kids they got to know last year.
The second half of the week was spent at the Salt School in a nearby community. The team hosted Vacation Bible School with a similar message, and was also able to install a water filter, and provide the school with fans. While at this school, a few of the team members noticed that one of the young boys’ was wearing shoes with soles that had worn through. He had many holes in the bottom of both shoes, and he also was not able to afford the uniform shoes that all the children are supposed to wear to school. Normally these shoes cost about $7.50. Individual team members offered to purchase shoes for some of the children. These will be given to the teacher who will distribute them privately to those who need them most. But it is so sad that there are so many school children that cannot afford these shoes. Funding for simple things, like shoes and uniforms, is so needed in these communities.
On one of the first nights of the week, the team invited the local community members to a movie night at El Ayudante. The played The Courageous and Pastor Corey gave a brief message halfway through about how the movie can be applied to their lives. The movie communicated the same message of being strong and courageous in following the call of Christ, and it was heard by about 150 attendees.
Maplewood Baptist also installed 13 water filters into nearby homes, and checked and fixed 33 filters that had been previously installed. This ministry allowed them to enter individual community members’ homes, and offer clean drinking water and living water at the same time. As they checked or installed each filter, they would go through Gospel tracks with the families and pray with them. One girl came to know Christ through this ministry, and hopefully many more will continue to come to know Him.
The team ended the trip by doing evangelism in the mall in the city of Comayagua. Five people came to know Christ through this evangelism, and hopefully many more hearts will be changed because of these personal interactions and information from the tracks.
Maplewood has been coming for many years now, and their ministry continues to grow each year. We cannot wait to see how their team will continue to invest in this community next year!
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