20 Feb News from Honduras Conference

Honduras Conference held its annual meeting January 16-21, 2012. Superintendent Juanita Chavez (right) sent this report.

Juanita Chavez, superintendent of Honduras Conference

We are rejoicing in the Lord for the strong representation that we had from our churches at this years conference. We had nearly 300 people present each day.

Here are just a few items to report:

1. Although Zion Church of Puerto Cortes nearly left the denomination, they have now asked that we send them a pastor. Pastor Neptaly Ponce has been assigned and will soon relocate along with his wife and new baby. In total there were four pastors reassigned at this year’s conference.
2. Four new district superintendents have been appointed. None have been part of our administration before, but are outstanding young leaders who are acting quite responsibly.
3. Five pastors were ordained–four men and one woman.
4. The church plant in El Chaparral was officially received and a pastor has been assigned.
5. We have now officially assigned Pastor Gonzalo Alas to El Salvador only. He no longer divides his time between El Salvador and El Copan in Honduras. We trust this will encourage the growth of the work in El Salvador.
6. We have two feeding programs providing nutritious meals to more than 200 children through Mercy Ministries and our United Brethren in the United States. On March 10, 2012, we’ll have the first meeting of the Combehul Cooperative. The leadership team of Honduras has approved the construction of a retreat center on the Maria River. The goal is to develop a self-sustaining ministry that will benefit ministry to youth in this area.
7. We continue training pastors and leaders regarding stewardship using a program called Total Stewardship.
8. During the first week of March, we will launch a church-based theological program. We’ll be offering four-week intensives each month in various districts.
9. Abdiel Lopez of Guatemala continues to offer seminars and training in the integration of scripture in ministry for pastors and leaders.
10. We were blessed to send out 10 teenagers for 33 days of intense missions training with Teen Missions. It was a wonderful experience. These young people have returned with a renewed commitment to the Lord and his work. They have also been awakened to consider becoming missionaries.

We continue to thank the Lord for the short-term teams that come to Honduras and especially the medical team that will be arriving in the coming months.