JoAnn and I send our warmest greetings to you from Guaimaca. We’ve been back in Honduras for several weeks and are enjoying our work with the pastors and churches here on campus and in the mountains.

It is also good to finally have a home. Although unfinished, our living area is comfortable and much better than our little dorm apartment of ten years. Our kitchen cabinets may be installed next week and we have a few sticks of furniture for our living and dining areas. Thank you so much.

We want to thank you for your wonderful hospitality while we were in the States. We weren’t able to see everyone, but we were able to make a big loop through Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and back through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Georgia. We also made another trip to Boone, NC for a meeting at Samaritan’s Purse and World Medical Mission.  We stopped along the way to visit Missionary friends in Webster, NC  and Tennessee. Just before leaving for Honduras we also made a quick trip to Florida for JoAnn’s family reunion and visits with other Ministry friends.  We always enjoy traveling and enjoyed seeing the beautiful country as we drove.

In addition to the blessing of being able to see and visit so many of our Ministry friends, we were able to report and work on plans for our Ministry in the future as we serve the Living Water Baptist Church and all of the mountain churches the Ministry has started through the years.

We thought it would be good to divide this newsletter into categories so you can read about each area and send us any questions you have. We want to begin a line of regular two way communication with you to keep you informed on what we are doing and to hear from you often. We pray you will take the time to write us with any ideas you have and any questions as well.

Remember, we are partners in God’s call to service here in Honduras. You are equally important to the partnership. Your support and active participation is essential to success.

Our Ministry

JoAnn and I continue to live and serve in the Ministry we founded and have served for many years. We are now commissioned Missionaries of BMDMI. It has been a blessing to be part of BMDMI and to be able to continue our work and calling here in Guaimaca.

We have been asked to continue working with the Living Water Baptist Church and the numerous mountain churches we started up to 70 KM from the campus here in Guaimaca. We will continue to raise support to help the churches and pastors with the purchase of Bibles, literature, generators, construction of churches, and many other things. Many of our pastors are unable to serve their church full time because of the inability of the members to support him financially. We want to help the churches to pay their pastors in order for them to be able to serve the church and Christ full time.

JoAnn will continue to head the feeding program and I will continue to head maintenance of the physical plant as part of our responsibilities here.

Cheves Ministry

We call our Ministry the “Cheves Ministry”. Although many of you are supporting our partnership with monthly donations, we are still short of having enough support to meet our personal needs. As soon as our personal needs are funded we will use all additional moneys to help the churches as described above.

If you are already supporting our partnership we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Without your support we would be unable to continue here in Honduras. We are praying for others to understand the need and respond with their fervent prayers and financial support.

If you are not supporting our partnership monthly, we want to encourage you to begin including the “Cheves Ministry” in your personal Ministry donations each month as we continue to encourage the people of Honduras to receive Christ as their Personal Savior. There is much to be done and we are counting on you, our partner, to help us get the job done.

Sending Support

To partner with us please send your monthly donations to BMDMI,  11 Plaza Dr.,  Hattiesburg, MS 39402. It is important that you mark your check For: Cheves Ministry.

You can also set up an automatic bank draft through BMDMI. To do so please call Christy Draughn  or Carrie Foster at the BMDMI office: 601-544-3586.

Funding for our Ministry is provided through the BMDMI office in Hattiesburg. All donations are tax deductible as BMDMI is a Non Profit organization.

New Pastor

The Living Water Baptist Church has a new pastor. His name is Glen Portillo. Glen is 36 years old and comes from a smaller BMDMI church in Orica. Glen is here for a three month trial to be sure this is where God is calling him to serve. He is a graduate of the BMDMI Bible Institute.

Glen is married to Eva Isable Martinez age 34. They have a son and two daughters, Glen 6, Glenda 13, and Marlen 15. He has been preaching here for the past four weeks. He is an excellent preacher and pastor. Our church members are already enjoying his well delivered messages and the church is full every week.

We ask you to pray for Glen and his family as they seek God’s will for their ministry and calling.

Mountain Churches

We are really pleased to report that ten of our mountain churches are meeting regularly and growing in the Lord. They are located as close as 7 km from our campus to as far away as more than 70 km from campus. Their names are: Living Water Baptist Church, Agua Fria, Chulom, Guarlaca, La Cabaña, Los Jobos, Monte Galan, Quebrada Larga, San Jose, and San Marcos.

We will be sending you information about one of our mountain churches in each newsletter. This newsletter features the church at San Jose de Guayape.

The ministry in San Jose was started when several years ago when Dr. jim McCann came to visit us for the first time. One of his patients was from San Jose. You may have read Dr. McCann’s letters about San Jose on our old website. San Jose is more than 70 km from Guaimaca. It is located on the Guayape river, which must be forded to reach San Jose from any direction. During the rainy season it is difficult to impossible to ford the river. We try to visit San Jose at least twice each month, but during the rainy season it is often impossible to cross the river. There is no bridge. Here is a photo of the river during the extremely dry season. As you can see, it is very wide when the river is up.

When we started the work in San Jose there was no church at all in San Jose and the people were hungry to hear God’s word.  Even now we have the only church in the town of around 500 people, but serves a large area of farm land and mountain families. Eventually a small group was organized and a church was begun. Their first pastor was from the congregation in San Marcos, our first off campus church. 

After several years the congregation grew became ready to build a church building. Property was obtained in the center of town and a church constructed of mud brick was built by the members. (It would have been very difficult to transport cement block to such a remote location.) The Ministry provided funds to purchase cement, roof metal, and other items, but the members did all the work.

Today San Jose is a strong and growing church with a full time pastor, Jose Reinieri Lagos, and weekly attendance of more than 50 people.

Their greatest need is for a small generator as there is no power in San Jose. A generator would enable them to have musical instruments, (keyboard, electric guitars, sound system, projection equipment, lights, and video equipment.) The cost of a generator is around $800.00.

We are praying for a sponsoring church in the States for San Jose and all of our mountain churches. Perhaps your church would like to sponsor San Jose or another of our mountain churches. Let us hear from you if you want more information.

Thank You

JoAnn and I want to thank you for your prayers and financial support. Your partnership with us is essential in the call placed on our lives. We always like to hear from you. Please drop us a line as soon and as often as you can. Our e-mail address is: sandy@bmdmi.org or joann@bmdmi.org