Honduras - 2010

Missionaries: Brad & Shelly Foltz – June 12—19, 2010

The Project

Bobby Basham of the Potomac District of the Assemblies of God organized this trip. We had a team of 25 going to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on the Central American Airline known as, TACA. The trip consisted of one week. Our goal was to erect two standardized churches known as Tabernacles. When I heard that we were going to do that I was amazed, thinking that reaching the goal was problematic.

Our team was split into two teams. Each team with the help of the local craftsmen built a church. A tabernacle is a standard size steel structure, 36' wide and 48' long. Concrete footings, structural steel columns, structural steel roof frame, and 26 gauge galvanized sheet metal roof. The cost per tabernacle is about $12,000. The tabernacles consisted of pre-fabricated parts that had "some assembly required." Actually, the assembly of the structure was done in less than a day with the corrugated sheet metal roof partially in place. The blocks were laid around the perimeter with openings for windows and doorways. In this fashion both churches were completed in 4 days. The local craftsmen had poured the concrete floor accurately so that the pre-fabricated steel structure fit nicely into place.

Working with the local craftsmen was a delight in spite of the lack of language skills on our part. We did have two of our team that spoke Spanish; one was Nelson Rodriguez from Centerpointe Church. Other team members from Centerpointe were Thom Clement and I, Henry Weigel.

The out-going missionary, Larry Walker, who is retiring had started a church-building program in August 2005 called Honduras 100. The idea was to erect 100 tabernacles in Honduras in five years. The churches we built were numbers 63 and 64. Perhaps not on schedule but it is a phenomenal feat for visiting teams to construct that many church buildings. The Churches consisting of the people are there but many lack the buildings.

According to the information we received:

"The General Council of the Honduran Assemblies of God have planted over 100 churches in the last 1 1/2 years throughout the countryside of Honduras. These new church plants currently have no facilities in which to worship. These new congregations perhaps are having services outside under trees, many times without protection of bad weather, or inside small dwellings with insufficient space. Project Honduras100 is designed to change these circumstances by providing a simple, relatively inexpensive, easily built structural steel frame that would allow a congregation almost instant access out of the weather and in the dry."

After we completed our part of the construction phase, the finishing work was still required. I believe the local folks will take care of that and in their participation they will have taken ownership of it.

The People

Honduras is a poor country, perhaps the next poorest, after Haiti, in the Western Hemisphere. Consequently, the churches are poor also. One of the church buildings we erected was going to a pastor who had been praying for a church building but his people did not have the money required to pay for such a structure. He prayed. We came with the funds and 25 "free" workers. The building is up and ready to be finished.

The day after we finished we had two dedication services, one at each church. Larry Walker spoke at both services. A "Missionary Kid" named Milo interpreted. After the service we laid hands on the buildings and prayed for the Lord’s blessings. Many children were present at the services. Of course candy and clothing items were given to the folks that had attended. With assistance from Lizzy Foltz (Brad and Shelly’s daughter) Milo developed a DVD video of our work.

Two of the local workers named Yojan (the j has the h sound) and Felix were especially delightful to work with. They both are master masons and Nelson, Thom and I took joy in working with them. Yojan is also a pastor of a Church. His tabernacle was constructed about three years ago and he now has 120 people in his congregation. We went to an evening service at his church and were delighted at the participation of so many young people. He had soloists that I guessed were as young as 6 or 8 years old. His young people did a fantastic pantomime. His church building also gave us a good picture of what the finished tabernacle building looks like.

One of the local workers (I think his name was Hector but Nelson thinks it was Jose) came to us on the last day at the church building that we had worked on as we were already in the bus to tell us a story. He attends a different church but felt impressed to help build the church we worked on. Friends questioned why he would do this. His response was that it was the Lord’s work and it didn’t matter that it wasn’t his church. He said that he had not been able to support his family (a wife and at least one small child). He cried out to God. The lord gave him to know two words, "I know," "I know." With that, Hector was at peace. Then he came to the church to work. When we heard his story we immediately passed the hat for his welfare. Nelson, speaking the language, had befriended him earlier, was aware of his need and had already helped him. Now the rest of us had opportunity to bless him.

On a personal note, I had taken a number of Gideon testaments along to give out along the way. Some were English and some Spanish. They were received with great joy.

Thanks to Bobby Basham for organizing this trip. May the readers of this report be encouraged to support our missionaries and their work.

On behalf of Nelson and Thom (two indefatigable workers) and for the King and His Kingdom, I submit this report.

--Henry Weigel