You can help!
In our last update, we encouraged you to begin praying the Luke 10:2 prayer at 10:02 am/pm each day and to begin to give an extra $10.02 a month as a tangible prayer for workers to engage in a harvest that is ripe and ready all around us. Several of you jumped on the bandwagon, and we are grateful to you for that! Keep those cards and letters coming!
As I write today, I am getting myself prepared to head to Guatemala and then to Honduras starting the Monday after Mother's Day. I would like to tell you about a couple of Texans who will be meeting Cesar Gonzalez and me in Honduras for the week of May 18-24. These guys are true heroes, and I want to tell you why.
Rick Watson, Cowboy Missions Recruiter
Rick getting ready to serve as the announcer at the Sergio Andrade benefit bull riding event at Denton County Cowboy Church last summer.
Some of you know Rick and have heard me talk about his role in getting some of his Texas friends to come down to Honduras in the past couple of years. This past summer, he was one of the go-to guys helping us receive a group of Hondurans in Denton, Texas. I think Rick has been on about 5 or 6 trips now. He retired a couple of years ago, and in his spare time he has recruited cowboy missionaries through the connections of friends in the American Fellowship of Cowboy Churches.
Last year on one of our trips I mentioned to you that Rick's wife, Peggy, was in critical condition dealing with the final stages of Huntington's Disease. I ask you to remember them in your prayers. Rick has been faithfully attending to her needs and has a team of family, friends, and caregivers who lovingly care for Peggy as well. Thanks to them, Rick is able to be away from time to time to serve on these mission trips.
Frank Milano, Spanish Cowboy Encourager
Frank Milano (orange shirt) and Alfredo Andrade (of Honduras) talk with Nick Gas (cowboy pastor and horse trainer) in a break in the action at the Denton County bull riding event put on in honor of Alfredo's son, Sergio, who was a professional bull rider and friend of ours who was murdered a couple of years ago.
Frank is a cowboy of Mexican descent who grew up in the North Texas region outside of Fort Worth, where Frank's dad was a pastor to Mexican immigrants. In the mid 1980's, Frank was the chaplain at high school rodeo events and had a tremendous ministry that saw many kids come to Christ. Today, many of those "kids" are pastors and leaders of cowboy churches. Currently Frank is serving as an interim pastor at a cowboy church near Fort Worth.
This past summer when the Hondurans came to Texas, Frank spoke to our mixed group of Texas friends, Hondurans, and one Guatemalan. Opening the scriptures, he shared how Jesus said that seeds don't sprout and produce fruit unless they die first. Then he confessed that he felt like God wanted him to follow through on a promise he made that morning and sow some sacrificial seeds in Guatemala and Honduras. Here is what Frank said that day.
"Six years ago I lost my wife to complications related to her diabetes," Frank informed. "A year or so before she died, a missionary to South Africa had spoken at our church, and I had felt compelled to give a couple of valuable rings I owned to help her out. One of those rings was one my wife had given me a few years after we had gotten married. When she saw me give those rings, I'll be honest, she was not happy with me! But what was done was done, and I prayed that the rings would be useful to this missionary in some way."
"After my wife died," Frank continued, "I got a big check from the life insurance, and for some reason I bought several rings. I don't know why I did it, particularly. I just bought them. But I have not worn them much at all. Today, I believe God is asking me to give up something I value very much in order to die to myself and plant a few seeds in Honduras and Guatemala."
Frank then pulled out four rings and called up Cesar and three Honduran men to the front. One by one, Frank gave a treasured ring as a token of his prayer that thousands of cowboys and ranchers would be won to Christ. As I dabbed my eyes, I looked around and saw others doing the same.
Next week, Frank goes down to catch up to the piece of his heart that has gone down before him.
Let's Bring in the Harvest Together!
"The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field." Luke 10:2
10:02 Prayer
Pray for us as we come alongside men and women of peace who are open to explore what God might want to do in their neck of the woods. During our time in Honduras, we plan to be in two regions. First, in Catacamas, we will be with the National University of Agriculture and with several of our Christian Rancher groups in that region. Then we plan to be with new friends wanting to start new groups near Comayagua.
By the way, the latest news from the University of Agriculture has not sounded good. To those new to the updates, over the past 5 years, friends from this University have introduced us to leaders all over the country. In that relationship, we have participated in agriculture and veterinary related projects and have used that as a platform to promote Christian Rancher groups. In the shakedown of the past few months, only one of the key leaders that we have worked with was retained. Fortunately, he is a dedicated Christian who has been a good friend to us.
1. Pray that our connections with the University would continue to be positive and that they will continue to be open to us working with their extension programs.
2. Pray that the newest Christian Rancher groups would gain momentum and that they themselves would naturally reproduce on their own by their own initiative.
3. Pray that God would use Rick and Frank's stories to point many folks to Jesus. And pray that the new stories that flow from their time in Honduras will spur on more of our friends to join us in this big harvest in Central America.
4. Pray for Cesar and me as we drive from Guatemala to Honduras. Pray that we have divine appointments along the way. We plan to see several of our key ministry friends both coming and going. Note that after Rick and Frank fly home, Cesar and I plan to spend 3 days doing Play.Story.Eat. training with our Kekchi leaders in the jungle in Guatemala.
Invest
Please consider sponsoring a PSE Missionary like Rick or Frank. The average trip cost is $1600 for a 7-day trip. Any amount is helpful and could be strategic in getting more and more of your friends in strategic places where God wants us to be part of His harvest team.
Engage
Plan to go on a PSE Mission Trip to Central America! Here's what is coming up...
July 18-23, 2017...Guatemala Dental Scout Team trip and Play.Story.Eat. training
July 24-31, 2017...Guatemala Women's Ministry trip
August 12-18, 2017...Guatemala Medical Clinic Construction Team trip
October 8-15, 2017...Honduras Fair and Rodeo trip
January 5-12, 2018...Guatemala Rodeo trip
Love y'all!
Steve