Honduras |
Currently, Grace Community Church is involved in short-term missions work in Honduras - primarily sending teams of volunteers in mercy work to an orphanage for girls. (Schedule of teams leaving in the next year). The vision, Josiah says, is to establish the outworking of grace along several different fronts: Continuing to partner with Christian Mission of Central Honduras (CMCH), a missions agency based in Asheville Grace’s initial involvement with mission work in central Honduras was established in partnership with CMCH and we will continue to partner in appropriate ways to bless the work of this missions board. CMCH supports and rents property for the orphanage, which houses from 12 to 14 Honduran girls, who either have no parents or find refuge from abusive homes. CMCH also owns a medical clinic, which is currently not functioning.
Grace has sent numerous teams for short-term missions to help with the girls in the orphanage. “We really don’t have an agenda for these trips,” says Debi Rayl, whose family has been actively involved from the start. “We are just there to love on the girls.” Grace also helps provide financial support for the girls. Operating costs run about $3,000 a month to meet basic needs. Exploring the possibility of opening the medical clinic owned by the CMCH A medical clinic exists on the campus where the orphanage is located. Grace hopes to be able to find a doctor or a medical team to open the clinic - at least for certain periods. “This is very much in the exploratory phase,” says Josiah. Poverty and disease are grinding and oppressive in central Honduras and a medical clinic would have an enormous mercy mission. Nurturing and expanding the partnership with Yobani Alas, a local Honduran Pastor Yobani is a man of many hats and talents. In addition to pastoring a church of more than 300 in central Honduras, Yobani is networked in multi-faceted ministry: • He is legally responsible for the orphanage and the medical clinic; “Yobani is a very competent, high energy man with good focus and vision. He’s honest and much sought after. He pastors a charismatic central American church, which represents well what God is doing in that area. He shares a love of grace. We would very much like to help support and expand Yobani’s ministries.” Instead of simply providing short-term financial relief, which often can do little more than bandage critical wounds, Josiah would like to help partner with local businessmen to provide sustainable improvement to the central Honduran economy. “Improving the economy is important,” Josiah says, “because Yobani is not just pastoring one church, but overseeing a network of 25 different mountain churches, which represents a small Gospel movement. Almost all of these pastors are bi-vocational, which is just the reality. A lot of times, though, they are forced to leave for the city to make a living. Long-term sustainable improvement to the local economy would mean they wouldn’t have to leave their families and churches simply to exist. “There are very few economic options besides coffee beans, day laborers or subsistence farming for people in central Honduras.” For example, one idea recently surfaced, which might give the people some financial independence. “One of guys in the church has a microeconomic project that he has worked up to a science. The church wants to partner with Mick. His idea is very specific. He trains young girls between the ages of 8 to 10, and gives them one chicken. The chicken makes an egg, which produces another chicken. When that girl has 10 chickens, she gives one of her chickens to another girl between the age of 8 and 10. Pretty soon a number of families have chickens for consumption and sale. Mick has this relationship with Tyson farms so that when so many families have chickens, they will become a distributor. That’s just one idea that could provide some economic options.” Present a Gospel approach for training in church planting and pastoring In addition to developing and overseeing the short-term missions work with the orphanage, Grace Missions Pastor Jim Pearce has been spearheading ministry to establish an outpost for the gospel of grace. “Part of what Jim and I have been doing and want to do more,” says Josiah, “is to help local pastors grasp a Gospel approach to sanctification and training for church planting and pastors.” In April, Josiah will be leading Gospel seminars for 20 to 40 local pastors. Josiah is excited about the possibilities to establish an “outpost of grace” in central Honduras – one that could serve as a model for other partnerships throughout the world. His desire is to expand the Gospel by serving as a catalyst for what God is already doing through local churches. “Unfortunately, a lot of American mission work tends to use local people and pastors – simply as a site to do short term missions work. But that’s not a true partnership because they can’t say no because they need our resources and we simply forward our local aims here. That’s been so much what they experience from all Americans. Americans are often blind to it, thinking the Hondurans ought to be more grateful for our participation and presence. Reworking that relationship is a major project both on this side of the church so we have a bigger view than that, and converting the Hondurans so they are able to see that there is at least one American group that is not using them. That’s big on my agenda for the church. I would very much like to be part of a process that helps to do that. That’s an outworking of grace in how we partner with people outside of our own culture.” How You Can Help |
Grace Community Church • 495 Cardinal Road, Mills River, NC 28759 828 891-2006 or 828 684-0033, fax 828 891-3534 |
