May 29, 2010: Ocotillo School Wall Collapses

Please praise God but also pray for Lifeline's school at Ocotillo, Honduras:

50 meters of our 3 meter high perimeter wall and several adjacent school classroom walls collapsed yesterday as the result of a "cloudburst" type of heavy rainstorm Friday afternoon.  The water level rose quickly and with nowhere else to go, pushed the walls into the classrooms.  A temporary wall has since been erected.    
 
Praise God that no children were injured or killed!
 
Carlos, Lifeline's Honduran Administrator, informed us that our Chief of Construction and Maintenance, Osmaro, and members of the community (students and parents of students) will come in this weekend to clean up and prepare for rebuilding.

 

Carlos also writes: "We praise the Lord because our primary students leave school at 12pm and secondary school students leave at 1pm; and this happened around 1:30pm. God is Good."
 
As you know, Bob just returned from Honduras where work teams this spring and summer are working on renovations, painting, stucco and other projects at this school.  Now, additional work will need done.  If you would like to participate in an upcoming work team to Honduras, please contact Keith at 614-794-0108 or Keith@Lifeline.org. 

 

There is a lot of clean up and additional renovating and rebuilding that will need to take place at the school.  Please pray for financial resources to accomplish this, probably in the range of $5,000-7,000 (US dollars). 

You can help with this rebuilding by donating online (you can designate your gift in the "comments" section), contacting Lifeline's office at 614-794-0108 weekdays, or by sending a check to Lifeline's office at 184 Olde County Line Road, Westerville, OH, 43081.  Thank you!

 
God bless you and thank you again,

Bob and Gretchen
Lifeline Christian Mission
 

The Ocotillo Christian Church under construction.  The front glass doors have been installed.

Bob is currently in Honduras leading a work team from Gladstone Christian Church (Oregon) along with Celeste Craig and Brenda Johnson.  Bob returned "home" to a surprise birthday welcoming him at the airport in San Pedro Sula, Honduras!  The precious girls from the Lovelink Children's Home at Omoa came to meet him!

 

Learning to pray

Bob was also able to spend time with the kiddies from the Children's Home, and enjoyed lunch with them at Pizza Hut.  Carlos, Lifeline's Honduran Administrator and Director of the Children's Home, shared this photo of this precious little girl praying at Pizza Hut during lunch; she is one of the new residents at the Home.  He says she has been learning to pray.

 

 

 

January 2010: Lourdes' Graduation

One of Lifeline's ministries is to help the youth realize their educational goals.  In Honduras, Lourdes, a resident of the Omoa Children's Home, has achieved her first goal of graduating from high school!  Lourdes' says "Thank you because you are giving us a blessing to live here (at Lifeline's Omoa Children's Home, Honduras) and because I could finish high school.  I appreciate all of your love; Lifeline is doing great "God´s work" in my country.  This is was my first goal that I won.   May God bless Lifeline Christian Mission and all its supporters."

December 2009: Graduations

Antonio, Lifeline's pastor at Ocotillo, writes:

Eleven boys and girls graduated from preparatory school.  In the church we did a special ceremony of graduation and party

November 30, 2009

Carlos writes: I feel very happy because the (national) elections were on peace. I know many of you were praying for us all the time. I can say this democrat process was and is on the Lord's hand. Jesus loves Honduras. God bless USA.

October 2009

A team of 23 persons served in Honduras last week on a Lifeline mission trip.  The team consisted of 8 people from Journey Christian Church (CA), as well as team members from Ohio, Minnesota and Tennessee. Lifeline’s ministry is in the San Pedro Sula, Honduras region.

 

The primary focuses for this team were: 1) Distribute gifts for January, April and Christmas from sponsors to their sponsored children; 2) Complete the installation of a ceiling at the Omoa Lovelink Children’s Home in the kitchen storage room; 3) Conduct a Leadership Seminar with the pastors and the leaders form Lifeline’s 5 Christian churches in Honduras.

 

It was a shortened trip to only 7 days, and one that had to be delayed because of the political problems in the country earlier this past summer.  But God blessed and things were “business as usual” in Honduras the entire time we were there and we had no limitations on our travels or activities; everything was calm.

 

In addition to the rich blessings we received from the loving children of Honduras a couple of the highlights included sharing the Witness Soccer Ball for the first time there. The kiddies loved the devotions using the ball and we gave a few away to the students who were able to repeat the colors on the ball and what they represent in the steps to salvation.

 

But another exciting happening was that we were there for a very historical event.  Honduras played and won right to the 3^rd seat in the world cup final up-coming soccer competitions.  So the night they played and won we were in the city and it was a huge celebration!  Everyone was wearing their Honduras soccer team shirts, and there were fireworks, flags flying, caravans of happy Hondurans and people everywhere!  And because the U.S. had to beat Costa Rica that same night in order for Honduras to go to the finals, the U.S. tied with Costa Rica but that assured that Honduras WOULD GO!  So as we were driving home we were caught up in the parades and celebration and everyone was thanking us and the U.S. They were waving the American flag and saying “God bless the United States” and “Thank you Americans”, etc. etc.  It was just a really exciting time as we were able to share in their joy and see how they are so patriotic and joyous.

 

We thank God for the hard working team and what they did for the mission and God’s work in Honduras.

September 2009

Carlos sent us this wonderful news: Catherine (age 16), Estephany (age 12), Fany (age 16), Carmela (age 34), were all baptized last Sunday at Omoa!!!  He requested prayer for these new Christians and for several of the girls at the Omoa children's home who have fevers.

May 28,  2009

This morning we received a call from Carlos, our Children's Home Director in Omoa, Honduras: early this morning a 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit Honduras off the Caribbean coast.  In the general Omoa area, Carlos reported that walls had fallen down and that the electricity was out.  At the Children's Home, their TV and dishes fell down.  A tsunami warning is in effect for 24 hours, so they had to evacuate the area.  Carlos, Paty, and all the girls are safe and on their way to CaryHill (the work team dorms) for 24 hours.  Carlos will return to Omoa to take pictures and assess the damage.  Please be in prayer for Carlos, Paty and the girls, for the victims of the earthquake, and potential relief efforts that Lifeline may be involved with.  Thank you for your prayers for our precious Honduran friends!

April  2009

We welcome Pastor Roberto, his wife Norma and their family as the new pastor as Omoa!  Roberto is a graduate of the Christian Church Bible Institute in Honduras and originally was from Omoa and so is Norma.  They ministered in San Pedro Sula and worked closely with Pastor Antonio of Ocotillo; for a time they lived at Cary Hill awaiting God's direction for their lives in full time ministry.  He was placed in the position of Pastor of Omoa Christian Church in February.  They are very happy to be back in Omoa!

 

Pictures: Roberto family (left) and Roberto performs his first baptism at Omoa (right)

March 2009

• Baptisms: Pastor Antonio baptized 6 youth: Kelvin, Oscar, Delmar, Jose, Brayan, and Katharine.  Kelvin is a former gang member who Darwyn (the school director) decided to not give up on!  A few years ago Darwyn was getting a lot of pressure to expel him from school…this was coming from teachers and staff. But “something” told Darwyn to persevere.

• Baby news: Congratulations to Ana & Darwyn Sanchez (Ocotillo School Director) on the birth of their son.  Darwyn writes:  Please, I want to thank to God because, Darwyn Samuel was born very well.  His weight was 7.3 pounds and his birthday is March 12.  Pray for Ana and her recuperation.  (picture: Darwyn Samuel at 25 days old)

February 2009

Exciting things are happening in Ocotillo!

• Kindergarten @ Ocotillo: The new kindergarten opened in February with the start of the school year; over 70 excited little Kindergarten kiddies attend. The new Kindergarten is fantastic and renovations and modifications are still in progress.  Praise God!  If you would like to sponsor a new kindergartener, please contact Erma@Lifeline.org. (more about sponsorship program)

• Decisions for Christ:  One of the Ocotillo young men has become a believer; his name is Kelvin Angel Lopez.  He is one of the former gang members who Darwyn (school director) decided to not give up on!  A few years ago Darwyn was getting a lot of pressure to expel him from school…this was coming from teachers and staff. But “something” told Darwyn to persevere. Sunday night Kelvin came forward in church and accepted Christ and will be baptized very soon.   

January 2009

The Honduras youth attended the CIY Camp.  Claudia, from the Omoa Children's Home, was baptized.  Also, some of girls had the opportunity to teach a class on how to make bracelets.

December 2008

God is good…in November Lifeline was granted our PJ Status by the Government of Honduras. This has been a long time in coming and much work has been done in the past, but God’s timing is to be trusted and we are now officially recognized by the Honduran government. Although we were previously allowed to function with the various ministries in place, this official recognition status will open doors for additional benefits.

Schools

• The Jason Ray Memorial Library at Ocotillo Christian School has been completed; only the windows, screens and air conditioners remaining to be installed.  We need Spanish and English books, videos, and a good TV/VCR combination.  The parents of Jason Ray have provided encyclopedias that will ship to Honduras in early January.

• The Day Care Center is being changed to a kindergarten, at the request and recommendation of Pastor Antonio Orellana and his wife, Maya, who were the founders of the Day Care Center.  The Day Care did not seem to be accomplishing the outreach purposes desired and a plan was presented to transform the facility to a kindergarten.  The Ocotillo school did not have a kindergarten.

• A new Scholarship Program has been formulated for the high school students who qualify, show academic promise and who are Christian students.  The goal is to prepare qualified young people to be the future teachers in Lifeline’s Christian Schools.  Initially the Scholarship Program will be to study teaching/education.  From there we will see what God does.

• The next major project at Ocotillo Christian School is to add a Biology/Science Lab. The hopes and plans are to then begin a Mechanical/Wood/Metal Shop as part of the on-site vocational training.

• The Higher Ground renovation work at Colony Gonzales Christian School and Church is now complete and hopefully there will be no more flooding.  Classrooms have taken on a fresh look and, when school resumes in February, the students will return to an even better learning environment.

Churches

• The new church at Choloma is well under way and the new pastor has jumped in with both feet to grasp the challenges and calling for this new work.

• Evangelism is the key focus in Honduras and our lead staff/pastors have been very effective in spreading the Gospel.

• Three new Christians accepted Christ and were baptized December 21; they are Reyna, Amado and Silvia.

• The pastors and key leaders attended the Willow Creek Summit Leadership Conference, an internationally renowned event designed to encourage and equip pastors, their wives and church leaders to be more effective in ministry. This is the second year that they have been able to attend, thanks to a generous gift by Mark Scholten.

Work Teams

• In October, a group of 14 women from the U.S. went to Honduras for our annual Women’s Christmas Crusade to distribute Christmas gifts from sponsors.  Our annual Ladies Rally was a huge success and, for the first time, was held at the Ocotillo Christian Church. Over 300 ladies attended and it was an exciting day of praising God, great lessons and fellowship.  The women from all four Lifeline churches in Honduras were invited to join in the festivities.

• This past year Lifeline hosted about 130 people on work teams to Honduras and they spent time working on the schools, the Omoa Children’s Home, and on some of the churches.  Labor projects were abundant but time spent with the children is always a highlight of work trips.

• Scott McFarland taught the pastors during one of the Leadership Mentoring programs. Thanks to Matthew Allen for translating for this seminar.  The pastors and leaders received this program well.

• Also in 2008, we began shipping sponsor gifts to Honduras via container rather than trying to take them with the work teams as checked luggage on the airplanes.  This has gone well and reaches our premises in Honduras in about two weeks after they leave our Ohio warehouse. One group of gifts containing 3 large packages were stolen and the sponsors are aware of this; theft is always a risk any time you ship anything to a foreign country.

Omoa Children’s Home

• More work on the Omoa Children’s Home has taken place. Thanks to donations from several sources and to the hard working work teams, the new dropped ceiling, lights, fans and ventilation improvements were completed.

• Two of the Omoa young ladies graduated from middle school in November and six others graduated from primary school.

• Valerie celebrated her 18^th birthday in November!

• The girls at the Omoa Children's Home baked Christmas cookies for their neighbors.

Honduran Staff and US Volunteers

• Roberto and Norma (along with their two precious little girls) are doing outstanding work at CaryHill; they became the new caretakers earlier this year.  Roberto is a graduate of the Bible Institute and is active at the Ocotillo and Choloma churches.

• Darwyn Sanchez, Director of Schools, is going to be a father for the second time. His wife, Anna, is pregnant with a little boy! So far all is well.

• Congratulations to Felix Pedro Garcia, a teacher at Ocotillo, and Lideny Marilu Deras, a faithful sister in the church, who just got married.  Both are a blessing in the church and school in Ocotillo.

• Brenda Johnson has taken on the task of soliciting and preparing “Pantry Gifts” for the children in Honduras. These gifts go to children who do not receive a package from a sponsor. She has done an outstanding job this first year. Thanks to Brenda for accepting this challenge.

• Celeste Craig-Zipperlen continues to serve the people of Honduras through Lifeline, volunteering with work teams and health clinic activities.  She is an encouragement to the Honduran clinic staff and has been working to recruit more health care professionals from the US to join work teams and serve in the Honduran clinic.  Pray for Celeste’s husband Dr. Wayne Zipperlen, a dentist who recently underwent some very serious surgery to his sinus region.

• The Honduran staff had a great Christmas party!

Prayer Needs

• That the new vocational school in San Pedro Sula will open so that our Scholarship students can begin attending. Pray that funds will come in for those Scholarships.

• For the funds needed to continue the step-by-step completion of the church at Ocotillo. Also for funds to continue the work at CaryHill on the main multi-purpose building. 

• The church work at Choloma.

September 2008

An update from Carlos...

We has a blessed time with all employees in our retreat last Friday.  We were talking about the blessings that God is giving us in Honduras.

• The principals were giving testimony about the school changes. For example, Rossy and the teachers at Gonzales are so happy to see how the school building changed with the work that the North Americans (US work teams) came to do.

• Darwyn was talking about the Library. This place is now a great blessing for the Ocotillo School. Darwyn said that is is very interesting to see how the students go and read information at the library.

• Pastors were talking about how God is showing His mercy in their ministries. And we were talking about Choloma, where God is using Emilio Lives to see a great church to the Glory to God. 

At the beginning of the our retreat I told everybody that this day we won't talk about negative things; we will talk about positive things. Because God is teaching me that many times we pay more attention to the negative things and we really don't pay attention about the Good things that God is doing every day for us.

We really had a great time. We really are thankful to God for the Lifeline ministry in Honduras.

July 24, 2008

• Two students from Ocotillo Christian School in Honduras won first place in their categories - one in a Spelling competition and the other in a Poetry competition - with sixty other schools in San Pedro Sula.  These sixty schools total around 12,000-14,000 students!  This was really a great honor for our "country" Christian School in an economically deprived, very poor area.  This is a tribute and another indication of the great staff that God has sent to work with Lifeline.   Congratulations!!!

• After 10 years of waiting, we finally received the legal paperwork for the Ocotillo Christian School in Honduras!  Praise the Lord!  The government approved our school.  We are still working and praying for the Middle School at Ocotillo.

May 31, 2008

Hello from warm, humid and overcast Grand Goave, Haiti.  Five staff members arrived safely on Wednesday without delays. Praise God.  As I sit here in Mission House #2 in Haiti we can see the sun rise and hear the roosters and the delightful noises of Haiti coming awake! What a blessing from God.

Heavy rains and hurricane weather have struck Central America.  We've had no reports of loss or damage in our ministries in Honduras or El Salvador and we are in touch with them regularly, almost every day.

A MAJOR NEED here at Lifeline:  Contributions really dropped off in May (early summer slump) and we are struggling to make ends meet. Would you pray about this for us and if you can help in some way, please do?

Honduras News:

• Our 2 little girls have never been located or returned to the Omoa Children's Home but the new ones there are doing very well. 

• Carlos remains a huge encouragement to us and he sends us notes regularly and they request prayers too because they struggle when funds are tight here in the U.S.  June is one of the 2 months where we are required to pay a full month of extra pay to the workers/staff there.  Pray that the funds will come in! 

• Praise God that the Explorer that we shipped form the states made it and we have another decent vehicle for there.  The old Explorer will go to El Salvador. 

• The construction on the Ocotillo church continues. 

• The Day Care Center is coming along nicely and dedicated funds have come in to continue the work there!

• For the first time we shipped Lovelink Child Sponsor Gifts by ocean freight last week. These are the April 2008 deadline gifts and we sent them this way and are hoping and praying that they will clear customs without a hitch nor with any duty on them.  We've shipped other items before but not Lovelink gifts.   The total cost to ship the gifts will end up being several thousand dollars but with increased airline regulations and limitations on luggage we can no longer send all these sponsor gifts with work teams.  Thanks to you faithful child sponsors who remember to send your $5.00 shipping fee for every shoe-box sized package. 

• The churches in Honduras are doing very well.  Juan Carlos, minister at Omoa Christian Church continues to win souls for Christ and we've had a lot of baptisms in Honduras in April and May also!  Each time they perform the baptisms the pastors send us photos!  PRAISE GOD.

• Darwyn Sanchez and Antonio Orellana concluded their month long visit to the U.S. recently and while they were staying with us here in Ohio they were able to visit friends in Springfield, Ohio including Joel and Janny Augustus, and Cliff and Connie Allen. They stayed in our home here in Westerville and we had a luncheon for them and then they were able to visit a lot of interesting places such as a public library, sports complex, Christian book store, and the Creation Museum near Cincinnati. All in all it appeared to be a great trip for them. Darwyn took lots of photos; especially of the library!
• Darwyn and Antonio are on their way back to Honduras by way of El Salvador. This very day they are driving a bus for the El Salvador church work, which was donated through the help of many generous people in Springfield, Missouri. Thanks to Greg Stephenson for orchestrating all of this and for driving the bus to Texas where Darwyn and Antonio received it and are driving it right now. Greg was instrumental in getting the funding for this used bus that is like new (formerly a church bus with low miles on the odometer). Thanks to everyone who made this possible. A special thanks to our Lord!
• Pray for funding needed to equip the new library at the Ocotillo school. Darwyn enjoyed seeing what happens in a U.S. library. He has such a great vision for equipping our youth of Honduras.
• At Omoa the 2 missing girls, Anyi and Irsa have not been located. But about a week ago God put two new little girls in our hands and already they are settling in. Carlos reports that the 5 year old only weighed 30 lbs but is starting to gain weight already. Their photos show how they have been hurt and struggled in a painful life. We are going to give them the gift of Life and Light in Jesus! Thanks to Carlos and Paty and the staff at Omoa.
• The 4 churches in Honduras are growing. Juan Carlos is doing a remarkable job as minister at the Omoa church and our other Pastors/Leaders have taken the helm of the new Choloma church. Pray for all the churches and for continued safety for our key leaders there who continue to be in danger from gangs in the Ocotillo ministry.
• The winter team from Highland Meadows Christian Church in Texas worked on the Day Care Center at Ocotillo and put on a new cement roof. There is still much to do but it is looking awesome.
• Our annual Women's Work Crusade dates have been established for October 3-12, 2008. Contact Cathi@Lifeline.org if you are interested in particiating and to obtain the theme, prices, etc.
• *Summer work teams preparing for their trips. Pray for their safety and productivity and that the experiences will be great. Pray for Bob as he leads the teams.
• Pray for the shipment of sponsor gifts heading to Honduras by shipping rather than through work groups. It will ship May 15. These are the April 1 gifts from sponsors, along with some musical instruments and more.
• Thanks to a generous couple for their financial gift of $500.00 toward musical instruments for the Omoa Children's Home. We wish to begin music lessons for the girls there. We could use more instruments. So far we have a flute, clarinet and trumpet.

April 2008

• Both Irsa and Anyi, the 2 girls from the Omoa Children's Home who left over a week ago, have not been located yet. We simply don't know where these girls are and we DO know that her mother was attempting to get Irsa back recently. The court and police are now working on this. PLEASE keep this continually before our Lord in your prayers. Pray that no harm comes to these precious girls.
• Antonio Orellana and Darwyn Sanchez visited us last week and we had a great time. We had a luncheon for them at our office and then they spent time with Joel and friends in Springfield, Ohio. Upon leaving our home they went to the Creation Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio on their way back to Dallas. They are participating in a camp this weekend and then in about another week they will be driving a donated school bus back to Central America. It will go to El Salvador for the work of the churches there. Darwyn and Antonio were able to visit a U.S. library with us, a Christian bookstore and see some other sights. This was Darwyn's first time in the U.S. but Antonio lived here for several years while attending Colegio Biblico (Bible College) in Eagle Pass, Texas. Please pray for their safe return to Honduras in about 2 weeks. Driving the bus there is a challenge and new experience for them and they desperately need our prayers for safety en route. Pray for their families in Honduras while they are away.
• Carlos Cojon's family is struggling too. His brother Israel and his wife had a baby born this past week with Down's Syndrome and his other brother and his wife suffered from a miscarriage. On top of this the struggles and heart break over the 2 missing girls are all evidence of spiritual attack. We are seeing this happen among several of our key leaders in the mission fields.
• Patty Romero's daughter has now recovered from her injury and praise God!
• SPECIAL THANKS TO GREG STEPHENSON, Springfield, MO, and Northside Christian Church for providing the "like new" school bus for El Salvador. Greg has been fantastic as he's taken this project and made it become a reality through his own efforts and through many others who were convinced to participate in many ways from funding to free repairs, to providing parts, clean up, etc. Greg drove the bus to Dallas and Antonio will take it from there to El Salvador. Greg was successful in getting everything donated but we still need to recoup the money it will take to drive it to El Salvador. Donations are welcome.

February 2008

• Bob is there now with his 2nd team of the winter consisting of Lincoln Christian College (Nick Sheets, Leader), and Gladstone Christian Church, Oregon.  They are making great strides on the Omoa Children's Home ceiling work, and work on the Omoa Church.

• The library at Ocotillo is coming along well and Director Darwyn Sanchez wrote to tell us that he was able to procure a 3 month supply of some additional relief/surplus foods to feed our school children at Ocotillo to help us with our school canteen needs.

• Lifeline's Ford Explorer cleared customs today; PTL!  And the amount we had to pay to get it out was less than we anticipated but we will still need to cover several thousand in licensing and insurance fees.  But we are so happy to have this van to help us with our transportation needs there.

• Bob's last team of the winter season will be Highland Meadows Christian Church from Texas and they will be working on a project they are funding which is the Day Care Center construction (roof/ceiling) at Colony Ocotillo.

January 2008

• January found Bob DeVoe leading a great team of work team members from First Christian Church, Springfield, Ohio. Adding to the team were Celeste Craig-Zipperlen, overseeing clinic and dental work, and Brenda Johnson who had oversight of the Lovelink gift distribution for October 2007 gifts. One young lady joined the team from Canada.

• The primary work task was installing the ceiling on the new school library
  at Colony Ocotillo. Also, this team of Christian workers did insulation and
  preparation for drywall at the Omoa Lovelink Children's Home dining hall and great room/activity hall.

• Tremendous spiritual blessings accompanied the work times and one of the joys was working with the new CaryHill Resident Managers, Roberto and Norma Gavarrete Cruz and their two precious daughters, Sindy Yosary (age 4) and Katerine Jarielly (21 months). They have settled in and taken charge well at the compound. (Jesus and Sonia finally retired because they wanted to move back with their family in their own town; we were so sorry to see them leave.  They served the mission faithfully for about 4 years. And had been desirous of returning to their native community for about 3 years but we were able to keep them this long!  We are going to miss them so very much.)

• Many of our youth of our 4 churches in Honduras and 3 in El Salvador attended the CIY Conference (Christ In Youth) in Guatemala this past week and are certainly pumped and strengthed as a result!  Jose, Carlos, Darwyn and others went with them.  Lourdes from Omoa was able to go too!

• Also, we shipped our 2002 Ford Explorer with 4 wheel drive to Honduras earlier this month (Dr. Steve Kistler drove it to Gulfport for shipping) and Bob is hoping and praying it clears customs soon.

• As Bob DeVoe headed to Haiti for the next 3 weeks, Bobby Curlee and Tim Kaiser flew to Honduras, from Haiti to continue the myriad of tasks before them too.
  
  Praises to God for all that He is accomplishing in Honduras!