Missions Sunday

Father, we adore you.

Lord, we give praise.

Lord, we elevate you to the position that you deserve.

High above all else.

We exalt you, God.

Lord, we sing, we echo the revelation song, the song of heaven that will be sung throughout all of eternity.

Holy, holy, holy are you.

God, we give you what you can't give yourself.

We worship you.

God, we pray that these words have exalted you, pleasing to your ears.

May we bless you, God.

For you have blessed us greatly.

Father, we pray that you would just be with us during this service today.

We pray that you'd be honored, that you'd be lifted up, God.

That your word would be heard.

We thank you for the church at Chelsea Westow.

Thank you for this lighthouse in this community.

And we pray, God, that it pleases you.

We love you, Lord, in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Y'all can be seated.

We have a very special honor this morning.

And uh this morning our missions team come and share uh of their goings on from this year.

They've been all over the map.

And I don't know if you you know what happens out of this church in Westover.

It's really exciting.

Uh, what God is doing.

When you look at the numbers, it's staggering.

About one percent, one percent of church budgets in our nation, all over, go to worldwide missions and evangelism.

And when you look at what's happening from this little church, it's kind of exciting.

Um, all the missions trips that you're gonna hear about 30% of the money that God allows to come through these doors goes back out to missions locally and on these trips and continue.

But I want to read to you just a commission.

And then we're gonna let this the team come up and share.

I got a little story, and then but I want to read this.

It says, Matthew 28.

This is a great commission.

This commission was not for a pastor, this commission was not for uh just clergy or people in ministry.

This was the great commission to all those who would come to Christ.

And he says this.

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

To go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of an age.

And so we're given a great commission.

If you're looking for purpose as a saved individual, if you have accepted the blood of Jesus Christ for your sin and you're a Christian today, this is our commission.

Our commission isn't to retire well, have a few houses, to even have season football tickets.

Those are fun, good, fine things.

Our commission is if we're going to heaven, that we do a job about getting people to go with us.

That we do a work about getting to do so.

You have a job.

Your commission is the same at your job.

You have a family, your commission is the same with your family.

We have students in school.

That commission is the same.

If you know Jesus as your Savior, that's the commission.

He doesn't make it some mystery for us.

And so you use whatever avenues you can.

That's why we have an ice cream truck.

We will ice cream people to Jesus.

That's why we have a lot of food.

Okay?

That's why we do some of the things we do that may seem crazy to people.

Um, I want to read to you just a little mission story, and then I'm gonna let the team take over about soul winning.

Because the point of missions isn't just that we have missionaries and that they're in different cultures.

The point of missions is the other part of the big part of our budget, evangelism.

Okay, we give to missions, but a huge part of what we do here is to evangelize, to find lost people who haven't heard about Jesus or maybe haven't given their life to him.

And so it's about soul winning.

Let me reach you this story.

A missionary to Africa told the story of an elderly woman who was reached with the gospel, which is a miracle sometimes when you get set in your ways for somebody older in life.

But it says she was reached with the gospel, even though she was blind and could neither read or write.

Now she wanted to share her newfound faith with others.

She went to the missionary and asked for a copy of the Bible in French.

When she got it, she asked the missionary to underline John 3.16 in red and mark the page it was on so she could find it.

The missionary wanted to see what she would do, so one day she followed this new convert.

In the afternoon, just before school let out, she made her way to the front door.

As the boys came out when school was dismissed, she would stop one and ask if they knew how to read French.

When they would say yes, she would then say, Can you read this verse for me?

The one Martin read.

Then she would ask, Do you know what that verse means?

And then she would proceed to tell them about Jesus Christ.

That missionary said that 24 of the schoolboys that day was led to Christ, and later on found out that there had been hundreds of young boys who became pastors because a blind person underlined a scripture and made some boys read it.

The gospel is powerful, folks.

I'm gonna ask the team to come up and share about their journeys, Miss Deedra, and uh with the gospel.

That's the point.

It's a prescription for a hurting world as a ministry, but the point is that hurting people need Jesus.

And that's the medicine we give them, Jesus Christ.

So I'm just excited that uh you all came to hear from all of us, and I want you to hear their experiences.

Many of them didn't want to go on a mission trip, and um, it is just exciting how the Lord's got a hold of our hearts, and I just have prayed all week about this presentation that you will catch the vision for missions and that you will want to go and experience firsthand for yourself.

So um I'm gonna let these guys tell you about Honduras, and one thing they won't tell you about is how the Lord blessed and touched us, and they got even got a little dust in their eyes, or so they say.

So, anyway, I'm gonna let Todd start.

Hey, good morning.

Well, every year we take these trips.

Um, it's not just a trip to go do work, we do we do devotions every night, and uh Deezer has everybody or somebody different do devotion every year, kind of spread the load around.

But this year we did uh we studied the attributes of God.

These are just some of his character traits that make him so great.

And uh it was uh we'd worked all week, and Thursday night uh the topic of our devotion was the providence of God.

And uh providence is just a fancy word that means God is in control.

Uh Proverbs 1633 says that the lot's cast into the lap, but every decision is from the Lord.

So, in other words, we might roll the dice, but the Lord determines the outcome.

Um creation, you know, God used his power in creation to bring everything into existence.

And he uses that same power providentially to sustain his creation and to bring everything to his appointed end.

And uh it was Thursday night as we were studying Providence that we we saw this clearer than ever.

All week long we'd watched all this stuff take place and how God had behind the scenes just worked all this stuff out perfectly.

Um I don't want to steal any of Deeja's thunder, but according to some God's working providentially, even through bad math, to meet the needs of uh yeah, Deeja's bad math, to meet the needs of some people that lived up on a hill behind the church that we didn't even know about before we went to Honduras.

But he was working, he knew they were there, and he just worked it out perfectly so that the that a needs of every one of those families was met this time.

So God just showed up, showed out.

It was an awesome trip.

So you're telling this story.

Oh, this story.

Yeah, exactly.

Oh, I can tell the details.

Okay, so we we know there's an orphanage.

Yeah, we know there's an orphanage that we're going to that has a certain number of kids in it, so we've prepared for that, but Deedra also knows that uh they're always bringing kids in and different kids going out.

So she got a few extra backpacks.

But the bad math gave us seven extra backpacks instead of six extra backpacks.

So anyway, while we're there working all week, I'm getting away from the mic looking at the pictures, um, she keeps asking Pastor Freddie, you know, is is there some people in the community that we can help?

How can we help?

But um there were seven families that lived up behind the church, and the bad math gave us seven extra backpacks.

So we were able to give backpacks to every one of those families that lived up there behind the church.

And this one little girl with a handbag, she'd been carrying her books in that handbag.

It didn't even belong to her, she bought it from somebody else.

So it may not sound like much, but in a country where people don't have much of anything, to give them those backpacks to put all their school books in because they walked to school every day was just phenomenal.

It was it was great.

She's after me.

Yeah, I don't I just do it.

Yeah, we always have to wonder what's gonna go on.

We never really know.

And Rick just mentioned the power of the gospel.

We met a gentleman on this on this job site who was a hired thug for a cartel for most of his life.

As a grandfather, he came right there he is.

As a grandfather, he came to find Christ.

His reputation was so bad he had to walk around the entire town to cross it.

And he had he worked there with us, he outworked us all, and he was half our size.

And you just never know who you're gonna meet and what they're going to have turned around.

He did more than a 180.

I think he did a 360 and then a 180.

And he was the nicest guy you could ever meet now, and just had a heart for the Lord working for the church, raising his grandkids in it, and you could really see that, and you just you don't get a chance to see that in other places.

It just doesn't make the same impact.

There we go.

That's what I wanted to see with somebody else's name.

Get up there, buddy.

Right in the middle of the house.

Jesse Lay's putting me out here in the middle.

But so Honduras, the great adventure.

Uh yeah, I'm making that bag of sack creek look heavier than it really was.

But I missed I missed the gym that week, so I had to try and show out.

But small bags of sack creek is Honduras, though.

We're all one size.

Yeah, so but uh yeah, it was you know that uh, you know, for God to put this team together, you know, it it really was uh proof that God has a sense of humor with uh this crew, this crew here.

Sometimes DJ's probably like, what did you do to me?

But uh oh yeah, it's talking about getting dust in your eyes.

That would that was my job.

Here you go, Paul says, Hey man, here you can run this and cut the blocks all week.

I'm like, these you know, you can take a brick hammer and tap that thing a few times and it'll crack.

You know, I've seen it.

You know, I know the Honduran guys know how to do that, but for some reason I got to cut those blocks all week until they finally got aggravated and they would just come by and hit it about four times with a hammer and walk off with the half block they needed.

So I wound up changing jobs.

But I'll tell you though, these it was it was such an honor just to be the hands and feet of Jesus, you know, like that with that.

And I know Todd got to tell the story, but the thing with the girl with that backpack, that guys, that broke me.

I mean it did.

And it really broke all of us because that, you know, we were like, hey, Dee Ger, Dee Jer, what else can we pack?

You know, because you know, at first we were like, oh, we gotta stuff backpacks, you know, you know, we're tired, you know, and uh after that there was no more whining about anything.

It was what else can we pack?

What else can we pack?

You know, what else can we, what else we got, you know.

But like, you know, it those little things, like I told the kids last week, when you do something like that for somebody, those things matter.

Like I told the children last week, you know, Jesus said, just to give a cup of cold water in my name, you're doing it like you're doing it for me.

You know, and moon pies and backpacks and lollipops may all seem like little things, like why, okay, you went all the way down there to give them a lollipop.

But you know what it does just to somebody that's been orphaned or somebody that doesn't have much, it shows somebody cares about me.

You know, and you can say, yes, they do.

One, I do, but somebody else cares about you too.

Because God sent me here to do that for you.

And like Rick talked about before, you know, you never know what's going to come with that little girl we gave that backpack to.

She may, you know, that may grow up be a pastor, a teacher, or just a prayer warrior in a church.

We don't know till we get to heaven.

But the little things matter.

So to everybody who has given anything to any mission trip, a dollar, a lollipop, a moon pie, whatever it is, thank you.

Because it matters.

But I want to say it was just an honor to serve with these guys and these ladies on this trip.

You know, God, this this unit gelled together.

I mean, we really did.

And the bond of brotherhood that you get on these trips, you you won't know what it's like unless you go.

And we we can preach it all day long, but until you go, you're not gonna know.

So, so anyway, it was an honor, and we thank the Lord, and we thank you guys for everything.

Come on, all right, all right.

All right, Elaine, you're you get to stand in from Melbourne.

Okay, I'm Melbourne.

That is true.

Um, yeah, we we had uh two basic jobs going on this week.

We were building pews and we were building the walls.

And I don't know if y'all remember the preview of our movie, uh our little The Quest last week, but the quest for the bathroom was real.

Um we went a couple days with no water in the toilet.

You know, you're having to scoop water to get your toilet to flush.

Um there's a lot of luxuries that I will admit I missed.

Flushing toilet paper is one of them.

Um you don't realize what a nice thing that is to be able to do is to flush toilet paper.

But the Lord taught me that wealth is relative, and our experiences with wealth and what we see here, and then going there is just change my mind on what true wealth is.

And so by the end of the week, as things progressed, our last day, we had all these church members that keep coming up and keep just accumulating, and we're wondering what's going on.

You know, maybe they're curious, maybe they want to see what the final product is.

We're really not sure.

And that's our pastor's wife, that's Pastor Freddie's wife, and she loved the pews.

She was so excited, she kept bringing church members in to sit on the pews.

And think about the final product that we had that week.

We had block walls and wood pews.

If we had that here, we probably wouldn't have any church members.

Nobody would come.

Yet they were super excited about it.

And so by the end of the week, they had showed us a presentation.

They gave us a huge gratitude of um, they gave us coffee, they gave us or presented us with these certificates, and they were just so grateful that it just opened my eyes to, you know, that's really what wealth is all about.

Being appreciative, knowing where what what you have is coming from God.

And uh I prayed last night before I went to bed, you know, Lord, what do you want me to share today?

And about 1.30 in the morning, you know, he always seems to do that, wakesh up in the middle of the night with something, and he woke me up with this, and it's seemingly unrelated, but y'all bear with me for a minute.

Um next week, next Sunday, our son Garrett, Paul and I'm son Garrett, Garrett Wave, uh, he's he's gonna be marrying Ryan, who is also back there.

Um, and he proposed last November, so for about a year, we have been in the planning stages of this wedding.

The wedding will be happening at our property.

Lots of time, lots of effort, lots of energy and money that has gone into this.

And the next week we continue on to finish it on out.

Um, but I have already had one daughter who has been married, so I know what the end of that day feels like.

And you have put in so much time and so much effort, and then it's over.

It's it just flies by.

That whole wedding thing is over and gone, and at the end of the day, you're like, wow, what just happened?

I just invested all that, and it's over.

And what you have at the end is the marriage.

That's what the celebration is about, correct?

Well, that's what the Lord kind of told me.

He was like, you know, your one day, your wedding day is kind of like your time on this earth.

It's gonna go by and it's gonna be over.

And just like Pastor Danny taught on the um the beam of judgment seat last week, we're gonna be asked, did you invest your time?

Did you invest in the wedding day, or did you invest in the marriage?

And I want to be able to say I invested in the marriage.

And I have to follow that.

I don't have anything profound like that.

So do is it over?

Where are we?

No slides.

There we go.

Um, go back one slide, please.

I want you to look at the bottom of their feet, because that's kind of important for the last day.

All right.

That spot was a very important spot.

That was a lot of work took place in that spot right there.

You can go ahead and go forward.

Um, as Elaine said, and and somebody says we don't really know what we're doing.

Well, some of us do know, that's why we get to pick some of the better jobs.

So no.

No.

Actually, I tell you, we gave Matt that because I knew Matt would look awesome in this today right here.

And that's you had dust going, you had the saw going, you had it all going, and you gave Todd and I some really smooth blocks to lay.

So thank you so much.

Um, this slide right here is pretty important.

I mean, because we did.

We had a walls project and a um a pews project, and uh we're setting we set the foundation for this next March when we come in to take that building down because the walls are now there, and as we take it down, they will put a roof on it.

But all of this debris, I mean, y'all, there was that's there's just yards and yards of debris all the way around, and the many hands that God provided uh throughout the week were amazing.

Um, you can keep going there.

What you had here was continuous walls that went up ultimately about 10 feet to get above the building, and there was a lot of uh of work that goes on to just to get those walls straight, and occasionally they would come by maestro.

You have to get to know the maestro, he's ultimately in charge, and he would try to make sure we were keeping it running straight.

Uh, this is a just a scene of uh some walls that did come down.

Uh that was nobody was hurt.

There was that that young gentleman that um Jesse was talking about, not young, small, he wasn't young, uh, that was walking through there just shortly before that fall.

The safety that God provides uh throughout the project was is amazing.

You can keep going.

I just wanted to show this picture here.

Uh the amount of the many hands that God provided, that last day in particular, I don't know how many yards we mixed, but these these gentlemen mixed, we all mixed, just the constant flow of concrete that was going up and into these walls to pour these forms.

Um, they do it a little different than we do.

Uh we would pour the columns first and then fill in between the walls, but what they do works so well as a team because they all know how to put it together, and there were literally yards upon yards upon yards of concrete that went into these forms to get them up to where we needed to leave them, and just the safety that God gave throughout that project was amazing.

Um, and that's pretty much all I have, I think.

Is there anything else?

That's it.

Thank you.

Well, y'all, this is my third trip to Honduras, and um as some of y'all may not know, I am self employed.

So when I go on these trips, not only do I pay to go, but I don't make any money while I'm there.

And I say that to God be the glory because He provides whatever I need.

So, whatever thought that you may have that I can't go for whatever reason, I say different.

God provides.

He'll take care of whatever you need to go.

That being said, it's a great opportunity for you to see God at work in other people's lives, but also in your life.

And you know, I love people.

I love relationships.

And and the Bible says for a man to be fri to be to have friends, he must show himself friendly.

You know, and you can't be in a little nest of your own or your own life, but you have to invest your life in other people and you have to give to other people.

And we we've went to uh I've got to share my testimony as as an opportunity to just tell of God's goodness each time we've went, you know, and uh it's a challenge because, you know, of the communication.

We have people that we're working around, they don't know Southern, they don't, we don't know Spanish, you know.

But God does provide us with awesome interpretators that sometimes we'll say something to them and they'll look at us like, I don't know what you're talking about.

But that's the Alabama, you know.

Um but but yet we we have relationships with people, and what I want that's what I want to share about.

I want to share the opportunity that you'll have to build relationships with other people.

And like Matt said, you may invest your life in someone's life there at that opportunity that you do not know what that outcome will be this side of heaven.

But who who is to say what that outcome would be other than God?

So you have to make yourself available.

You have to be there and be willing to do and to go, you know?

And um, you got a picture of the orphan over here.

I think that's what's well this is the church body that we built the church for.

And y'all, this lady that has the red shirt, the red sleeve shirt, uh, if y'all want to know, that has to be the hardest working woman on the planet of the earth.

Okay.

Uh she mixed concrete, and little did we know how great she was, but she was three months pregnant also.

We found that out after we got back, and that really made me feel, wow, that's great.

I mean, look, she came to me one day with a bucket of, and we were taking the mud, mixing it, and putting it in the bucket, and they were toting it and giving it to people and put it over, like Paul's talking about for the forms.

She's a lady, okay?

I'm gonna fill the bucket up what I think a lady.

She looks at me and she says, more.

I said, more?

Moss, yeah, more, right?

Yeah.

I said, Una mass, he said, dos moss.

So I like, I mean, I feel this thing almost brim.

She grabs it up and takes off to it.

And I I mean, I'm just filling them up, and she's back for another one.

I mean, but it was an amazing thing, but yet they did it, they did it work, but we we worked for them, but it was a blessing to see how appreciative they were by what they gave to us.

And y'all, I have been on many trips and I've never, ever been recognized by a church body like they did when they gave us that little plaque.

That was awesome because these people have nothing, y'all, but yet they they cared enough about what we did to to show appreciation by giving us that, you know?

And uh, you know, we went to the orphanage, and this is where all those backpacks went.

Minus the seven that the children got in the neighborhood, okay?

But all these children, y'all, there's a family of four there that their their mom and dad just gave them up, so we can't we can't take care of them.

They just left them.

You know, year before last they were there, and they were there again this year, and you know, and we got to see them, and there's a little boy.

Um let me see, I'm trying to find him.

But but but the minute last year he was like super small, and we went back and we saw him a year older, you know, and that's awesome to see that this orphanage is taking care of them for a year and how they've m matured and nurtured them.

But there was this one particular girl that that we went last year and Harry met, and whenever I got there, I saw her, and you know what she asked me?

She said, Where's Mr.

Harry?

You know, I said, Well, he couldn't come this year, but she was so glad to see me, and she took a picture with me, you know, and it was just an awesome opportunity to to invest our lives in other people's lives that that, you know, we don't have other than Christ, we don't have things in common with them because we're blessed.

We have so many things, but yet they have so little, but yet they're so content and happy.

Amazing.

But, you know, I I would challenge each of you to go and see what God has for you.

But if you don't go, you'll never know.

And last but not least, um I was uh yeah, just pause over there for just that mud hole that Paul uh mentioned a minute ago that we were standing in, that's it right there.

And uh, and as you see, you know, if we were doing this job over here, we'd go rent a little portable mixer.

In fact, we did that when we poured some concrete down the hill here.

We went and rented a little portable mixer that mixes this stuff up.

No.

Over there, you take the sand and you take the um cement and you take the water and you pour it on the ground right there, and then you get shovels and you scoop it around.

So there's non-skilled labor.

Oh yeah.

Yeah, and up in the top of the picture there, you can see the little sand pit there.

It's and it's got big core stone in it, and you have to sein it and and get it get it down to where it's just sand before you can mix it.

And so we did a lot of that that week, but again, that's unskilled labor that's normally sitting at a desk during you know, during during most weeks.

But so go to the picture with that has all the little kids there.

So I was gonna talk about you know, why do we go?

So, yeah, just pause it right there.

Why do we go?

Um well, first of all, let me tell you a little bit about uh Honduras, just to put it in perspective.

Honduras is a country that's about the size of Virginia, so land mass area.

If you can kind of picture Virginia, that's about how big Honduras is.

And that's a good bit smaller than the state of Alabama.

The state of Alabama has less than five million people in it altogether.

The country of Honduras has over eight million people in it, in an area that's much smaller than the state of Alabama.

So there's a need there.

There are people there.

When I think of Honduras, you know, I think of those faces right there.

And everywhere you look, there's kids everywhere in Honduras.

Um in Genesis, uh, God tells the people, be fruitful and multiply.

The Hondurans have got that down, they they understand that.

And you see kids everywhere.

There is no shortage of young people in Honduras at all.

And so, you know, so that that's one of the reasons the the um the harvest is ripe and the harvest field is ready to be harvested there in Honduras, and so there's definitely a need there.

But um, Deidre, I wanted to ask you this because you're a lot more spiritual than I am.

It does it count as a as a mission trip if you have fun when you're there, because I always thought of it as you know, you you're over there and you're sleeping out in the, you know, in the wilderness and you got no food and you get dysentery and all that.

And so this this probably is not a real mission trip because I have more fun in that week, and I probably laugh more in that week being around these guys.

You can't be around Darren Hyde for a week without laughing, because he's hilarious to know.

So, anyway, that's another reason I go.

But put up the uh the Great Commission.

Rick talked a little bit about it just a minute ago.

Is that one of the slides?

There you go.

So, so really, why do we go?

Um, I'm gonna I'm gonna preach a three-point sermon in less than a minute here.

And it's that verse right there.

So let's just let's just look at it.

Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Surely I'm with you always to the end of the age.

So, what are the three points of that?

The first, all authority.

So the first point, Jesus comes and says, I've got the authority.

That's what I want you to do.

Second point is the instruction.

Therefore, go.

It doesn't say, therefore, think about going.

Therefore, well, maybe when you get around to it, go.

No, therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you.

And then lastly, the provision.

He doesn't say you're going off by yourself.

You got to do this by yourself.

He says, No, and surely I am with you always to the end of the age.

So he tells us to go, but he tells us he's going with us.

And so that's to me, that is why we go.

All right, thank you.

Y'all can stay or you can go, whatever you want to do.

You can.

You too can.

Okay, I now we're going from Honduras to Nepal.

We got back in the end of February, and I had about a week turnaround time to prepare to go to Nepal.

And the reason we went to Nepal in March, they said the pastor that I was working with there, he said it starts raining in April.

And once it starts raining, you can't get the work roads are impassable.

So we said, okay, we'll do the first of March and we should be good.

So the night before we were to leave, I pulled up weather.com and it said 95% chance of rain.

And so I sent it to TR and he said, Oh, that just means for five minutes and it'll be over.

So we got there.

This is where we went to Goomda that had the earthquake and everything was destroyed, and they were rebuilding a church and wanted a medical team.

So, and just let me just tell you about that picture there.

Um, I didn't put that in because I thought I could win a beauty contest.

I put that in because it did rain, and it didn't rain for five minutes, and it was cold.

We're in the Himalayan mountains, let me remind you.

And these people in Goonda walked and met us.

We had been walking because the roads were impassable.

We had to walk about five miles, and I'm gonna show you a video where you can see that.

This is probably one of the hardest trips I've ever taken, but I think it was one of the most blessed I'd ever been on.

But they met us with that burlap, and it felt so good and warm water, and I thought, would I walk in the rain, in the cold rain to meet strangers?

So it was a blessing to be there, and um this is some this is what we saw.

We were at the end of the road, and they said, Gumda means center, and I said, shouldn't it mean the end?

And they said, No, it's the center of the area, and all these you could just see villages as far as you could see, and that the Lord convicted me and he said, These are the unreached people groups because nobody can get to them.

So, Lord willing, we're going back next February, and we're gonna trek into those unreached people groups.

So I'm excited and just covet your prayer.

So I just um look at this video and just see some of the things we went through, but just the precious faces of the Nepali people.

And my heart was stirred by the true God.

Because as Paul was stirred within Paulit by his heart was burdened because they worship false gods.

And they were stealing the glory from the true God.

Because they were worshiping idols.

So I'm not sure how I became the missions director to take construction teams, but we were in Romania last October, Carolyn Matt and I, and the missionary um Gerald he said, I need you to bring a construction team back in April.

So um, whoops.

Oh, there's a I want to tell you, there's our manly construction men coloring.

Yeah.

Just thought I'd throw that out.

I had to put that in there.

But these guys are amazing, they do whatever they need to be done, and that even if it means shopping at the grocery store or whatever, they're willing to do, and it's a blessing to be able to go with them and just serve together.

And while they were there, we're doing construction, not much I could do there, didn't have a clue, and but I had the opportunity, I'd been invited to bring a team back to Greece.

So I took that opportunity, and I'm not sure what these guys are going to tell you because they made up stories about why I was going to Greece and uh meeting a Greek, I don't know.

Anyway, they even made up his name.

So uh, but um I went and I got to meet the Negro family, and it was a blessing to be with them as they're discipling.

Their heart is to reach the youth in uh Greece.

And so they're there in Athens, got the opportunity to spend some time with them, and Lord willing, he wants us to bring a drama team in December so that we can go into the schools using the Christmas story to share the gospel with them.

So, Lord willing, we'll be going there in December.

So it was exciting to be there with them.

And then our last night we got to be at the church that they're building in Valle Agravey.

And I don't know if you remember it.

Several years ago, I had a picture of a little girl that was starving.

And I said, Pray for me as we go back, and I'm I get to do take a medical team back, and I'm gonna take food for these kids that are starving.

And that stirred Jesse's heart, and he came to me afterwards and he said, Could you use some moon pies?

And I said, Absolutely.

So it's so neat.

That's where the moon pie ministry began, and then that's it was neat then because Jesse got to go back to this area, and they're gonna talk about this, but I just want to tell you what what I hate to say pride, but it was a good pride, just that these guys stood up and gave their testimony, and some they're not crazy about it, but just that they were so thankful for what God has done in their lives that they stood up and gave their testimony.

And I thought, if that just made my heart overflow, how did God feel as he saw them in Romania standing up and saying, Thank you, Lord, for what you've done in my life.

So uh thank you for listening to us, and I just want them to tell you their side of the story.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Go ahead and tell them about that.

Yeah, pork chop bone.

Yeah, I I would rather fight a stray dog for a pork chop as speak in public in case in case you do not know that.

If you go on one of these trips, Deedra will make you speak in public when you get back, and probably there.

Uh by the way, her Greek boyfriend's name is Nicholas.

We did we did make that story up while we were pouring concrete and she was on the Greek coast.

Uh you you do have to be ready for anything.

Uh Deedra mentioned rain in Nepal.

We were supposed to have rain and 60s the entire time that we were in Romania.

It was 90, there was no rain, and we were not in shorts.

Pouring concrete.

Maybe, maybe not.

We'll just keep talking.

I'll keep talking until you tell me stop.

Yeah, there we are.

Uh oh.

Yeah, this is what they consider a barbecue in Romania.

You'll notice there are no vegetables.

Yeah, you'll notice the men are deep in that.

That that is our kind of food.

You we were supposed to be laying block, and our permits did not come through.

So we ended up pouring concrete sidewalks, concrete steps.

Uh, we had to go to a couple other locations and work just to fill the week.

Uh, you can see there, there is a cement mixer.

Just so you know, we did not do it on the ground clay.

But we did mix a lot of it.

A lot of it.

Oh, there's Todd.

Todd telling about the babies.

My turn.

Well, I always like to see the babies.

Babies are cute and sweet.

So anytime I always bribe them, say I'm not going on any trip unless we go to an orphanage or something.

So Deedra's got that figured out.

But um, let me start by saying that uh Romania's the trip I was not gonna go on.

Um hadn't even considered it.

We were coming back from Honduras and they're asking me if I'm going.

I'm like, nope, just an emphatic no.

Easy, easy answer.

And they said, well, maybe you should pray about it.

And I said, Well, no, I I refuse to pray about it, because if I do pray about it, you know, the Lord may tell me that I need to go.

But uh I was sitting over there, hadn't prayed at all, listening to uh, I forget his name, the evangelist that came and did the temple thing, and uh the Lord got me, told me I need to go to Romania.

Randy Spencer, that's it.

Uh just hands and feet, your gifts, your talents, your abilities, you know, they're not yours, they belong to God.

So wherever there's a need, uh, we just try to go meet it.

And sometimes you're compelled uh when you don't think you want to be there.

But anyway, and often me anyway, I wonder why I do what I do.

And sometimes you don't get that answer until you're there in the midst of it.

And on these mission trips, we're not there doing anything they can't do themselves.

We're not doing anything special, we're not great, we're just average guys.

The difference is this is if you go and and just labor alongside them, it's just like Max says, you're telling them that you care enough to go out of your way to come alongside them and and just labor in the gospel with them, and that's that's what makes the difference.

So that's why we go, just to make the gospel known.

Just encouraging our brothers and sisters all over the world.

Whether it's working on pouring forms at a church, tearing down form boards, pouring concrete till 11 o'clock at night, working 18 hours a day, you know, doing all this stuff, or just fellowshipping over a miller at a Bible study.

And um theological discussions in the middle of the night.

It's just good to be with your brothers and sisters around the world, just to come alongside and labor in love with them.

Back to me.

Uh yeah, you can tell from that picture of uh me and Todd holding babies who the father uh is there, uh or who who who a father is.

Better say that.

Um let me clarify that statement.

Which one of us has children?

Because uh, you know, I was holding that thing like it's a carton of eggs, and Todd's just there like, hey, it's a baby, you know.

Uh So yeah, Jesse's gonna hold that one over me forever, just by the way, so y'all know.

I shall not live that down.

Um but yeah, Romania, you know, Romania was another another great adventure.

It's it's a place I always wanted to go, and and uh last year I had the opportunity to go um actually by another trip, following uh not happening, and uh Deidre said, Would you like to go to Romania?

It was only like three weeks away, and I was like, Yes.

You know, and I didn't I didn't have a dime to pay for it, but I was like, Yes, I'm going.

Um But uh it's a place that has really, really captured my heart.

And uh, you know, it when you head off with uh when you head off with Gerald Zemmer, the missionary over there, you better, you know, when when the Bible says be ready in season and out of season, that Gerald takes that pretty seriously because you you can work a 12-hour day and you're headed back to the house and you get uh about three minutes from the driveway, and hey guys, we have church.

It starts in about 30 minutes and you guys all have to speak.

They're like, what?

He's like, Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You guys, I want you guys all to speak tonight.

Okay.

So you you would think, you know, I'd after being there the year before, I would have known better and always be prepared, but I got caught.

So hopefully from now on I'll just always have sermons in my pocket when I hang out with Gerald Zemmer.

But uh one uh one humorous story I want to tell.

We were pouring this sidewalk here, and and uh one day, and and uh I had been everywhere I go, I like to try to learn some of the language, you know, because I you know it's just a thing that's fun for me.

And so, you know, I took my handy little Romanian dictionary and phrase book, and I'd been studying it in Ash and Gerald things, and so the there was a picture of her earlier, but she's not in there, but there's a older lady and she was out there, and she's part of that community, and she wanted to help.

And so she walks by and and she asked me, and it I sounds like she's saying, Can she help?

And I was like, Oh, you know, die, yes, you know, come.

And so we had these broken shingles that we were using as filler in that sidewalk there.

There's a pile of those Spanish shingles that we were breaking up and putting in there.

And here she comes, and when she she said, asked if she could help, and I said yes, she got after it, okay?

And so she's bringing them and she's not stopping.

So we only needed, we didn't need that many, but she's dropping, she's dropping them right at Jesse Lee's feet over there, and she keeps bringing them, and I'm noticing that Jesse's about ankle deep in these shingles, and the look, the look on his face is, I'm gonna kill you, you know.

So he he hasn't said anything yet, but so eventually he looks up and he goes, All right, Matt, you're gonna have to tell grandma how to quit bringing these shingles over here because I got I got way too many that I need.

You're gonna have to start moving these out of here.

So I'm thinking, all right, I I understood how she could ask the help, but I'm thinking, I have no idea how to politely tell this woman we don't need anymore.

Okay?

So I'm thinking, I don't want to just scream out, no, you know, that would be rude.

You know, I mean I could have done that, she'd understand it, but she'd be like, yeah, rude American.

So I'm thinking, I'll get Marion.

Marion is is a guy that's in Gerald's church that helps him with all his construction work.

I'll just get Marion.

He'll come back in a second and I'll get him to tell her.

So anyway, he comes back around the corner.

I said, Marion.

He's like, I said, tell her, tell her no more.

We don't we don't need any more.

Just tell her no.

He looks over, he sees her, he goes, Hey, no.

And I'm like, apparently that's how you say that politely in Romania.

So anyway, she didn't bring any more shingles over there.

But uh, but yeah, once again, it, you know, it it was just, yeah, hi la munka.

Yeah, we once we, I was the only thing about Marion.

We we started, we we asked somebody, how do you say get to work?

And they said, hi la mucca.

You know, mucka means work, and hi means go.

So hi la mucka, you know.

So, okay, so we just thought it was funny to walk around and say hi la mucka all the time.

So once Marion learned that we knew that in Romanian, every 10 minutes, hi La Mucka, he'd walk by.

So he started working at, you know, he's like, okay, y'all understand Romanian, so I'm gonna put y'all to work.

So, but anyway, yeah, it was just another, another, like I said, a great opportunity to just be the hands and feet of Jesus, you know, to see what Gerald and Kristen have going on, the missionaries have going on over there.

I I think they have four church plants.

They got one they haven't even started construction on.

They've got three that are operational church plants, plus their home, their mother church that he preaches at every Sunday.

He's training up pastors in these churches, they're doing construction work, the summer camp that they do all summer long, it's just that's one place I don't have to worry about.

You're not gonna stand around with nothing to do.

Because it's like you when you get ready to go, because Gerald's not, you want him to give you this detailed plan of what you're gonna do every day, you're not gonna get that with Gerald.

Because he doesn't know.

He's got plan A, B, C, D, E.

And then it just goes on, you know, if that doesn't work, we're going to the next one.

That was just like that.

We got shut down that project.

Hey guys, we're going to camp.

We loaded up, went to the summer camp, and and I got a building that needs to be built.

We can come, I can bring another team, we'll finish this later.

You know, so you know that that's that's a missionary that needs a lot of prayers, and and um hopefully this year it hadn't been worked out yet, but hopefully we get that trip together.

I I would love for some of y'all to go with us uh this year because you know it is a tough trip, but but uh you would enjoy it.

But uh I want to talk to you a little bit about uh Costa Rica where my parents are.

You know, they were in Africa for uh 17, 18 years, and then the Lord uh closed that door and opened an opportunity to to serve in Costa Rica.

So um this church right here called Paso Ancho, this is a this is a pastor that Pastor Jose uh Silise that he uh we his house and and my dad had the pictures and I don't know what happened to the pictures.

It was between me and my dad, and we are not people to trust with pictures.

So anyway, he his house, they went over there.

It started with another church from I don't remember where it was from, but anyway, they they had some money, they had raised for missions, long story short, they wanted to know if there was anybody that needed, it was like 500 bucks, and they needed to spend that, and they wanted to know if there was anybody in his community that needed a project.

He said, Well, he said, I I went over to uh this was the pastor in in the church that my parents go to.

He said, you know, I went and saw a pastor friend of mine at another church, and I went by his house, and he uh I went in there and he's got buckets all in the floor.

He said, He's got holes in his roof.

And uh so my parents were like, What?

And they're like, we they said, well, it started off he needed some paint, saying he needed painting.

I asked him and he said he needed painting done.

So they went to his house and they were like, they walked in there and they were like, brother, there's no point in painting these walls if it's raining inside.

I mean, so they were having to sleep with a blanket with a shower curtain over their blanket on their bed to keep from getting wet while they were sleeping.

But the reason that that they sacrifice, he and his wife had sacrificed, they were gonna, they were saving the money to put that roof on their house.

But the reason they haven't done it yet was this right here.

He years a couple years ago, he started feeding, he opened, started opening that church up because he noticed children walking around uh after school, and he opened that church up and he started feeding kids.

And that, you know, one to two, it's just it started multiplying.

And so he he told God, he said, you know what, I'm gonna feed these kids no matter what.

Every day I'm opening this church up, and we're gonna feed whoever walks in here.

And so the Lord has really blessed that.

And the reason I the the the reason I this picture is taken up high like that is he asked us to go up is the up top of the stairwell.

He asked me to go up there because this neighborhood, Paso Ancho, is is it's a very high crime, very high gang neighborhood.

So these these people don't, if you walk around just taking their, you have to really ask.

He said, You can walk up and ask, and some people will let you take their picture, but if you just walk up and start taking pictures, they're gonna run and they may not come back.

So he asked us to go up top and take those pictures.

So, but uh, you know, he he's really got it.

It started off, he was spent, you know, he's spends he still spends a lot of his own money, but the Lord has blessed that where he's got it, he's kind of got a deal now like we have with publics, where they there's a grocery store there that gives them food every week.

He's got a person that he's got a actually got a group of ladies that come in every day about 11 and they cook and serve.

So he all he has to do is open the church and they come in.

So what one of the things we're working on is is training the people in his church to be there to start witnessing to the people while they eat, and to start a uh evangelism discipleship while the people eat there.

So but uh I wanted to share that with you, and then this this project here we raised money.

Uh the this is at a um an orphanage uh called Casa de Pan, uh, which means house of bread.

Uh but you can see the the uh laundry situation here is a nightmare.

They have 50 people living in this house.

Uh well 50 plus, there's 49 children, uh, plus Victor and Melba and the helpers that live there.

But uh as you can see, they they just have we raised some money through the children's department here uh to buy to raise some money for some shelving and laundry baskets.

And uh I let the kids, if they told the the kids if they raised$500, they could help me with water balloons.

And uh they they took the challenge.

And uh the ones that don't break on impact, they hurt.

Uh you know, so I accused them of putting the things in the in the freezer before, but they they wouldn't admit to that.

But but uh this is a this is a place here that uh real quick story of the two people that founded that thing.

Their child was sick years ago, and they they told uh the lady told God that that if if her child would live, she was fine, whatever God, you know, it was in his hands, but if he would allow her child to live, that any child she sent he sent to her the rest of her life she would take care of.

And and so there was another another child in that hospital with the same disease that the doctors couldn't cure.

The disease they can't, the doctors told them they didn't know what it was and they couldn't do anything with it.

The other child's parents abandoned that child.

They told the hospital, we're gone.

We're we you you you deal with the child, we can't deal with it.

So she took, you know, obviously her child home, took that little boy home, raised them both up, and children started one by one, she started other children started getting sent to her because people started finding out she would take them, or she would take kids off the street.

So she had not told her husband, she had not told her husband this deal with God.

Okay, so he's he's working and he's coming home.

Victor's coming home, okay.

There's two kids.

All right, hey, how you doing?

You know, he comes home a week later, there's two more children.

Hey, how y'all doing?

Come home a week later, there's three more.

So finally, one day, you know, he's got a he comes home, he's got a house full.

He's like, um, honey, we got to talk.

And uh, these kids sure are here a lot, and you know, and so uh what are we gonna do?

And so anyway, she she finally comes clean and she tells him the deal.

He said, Well, if that's if that's the promise you made, God, that's what we're gonna do.

And for 20, I think 25 years now, they have they have said, we're gonna do this.

They don't take any government money, they trust completely on God, and they have God has given them so much.

And so they're they're they're there helping them and trying to get that laundry situation uh situated so that could you I mean you imagine a house with 50 people?

49 of them are children, you know, and they they just recently I was there in June and the hospital had called with uh there was a mother dying of cancer, she had two young children, and she actually actually asked the hospital to call them and will you take my children?

Because they knew that she would take care, that they would take care of her children.

So so God is God is definitely in that.

They also have two uh there, there's two, uh another picture fell.

There's two giant eucalyptus trees there.

I mean, one of them is about six feet in diameter, is a monster tree, and uh they had to send somebody up there to cut the limbs, and then they had to they're having to quarter it up and get it down, but uh there was somebody here who does not want to be named, and I won't name you because you'll get mad at me and I won't do that to you.

But we want to say thank you for the chainsaw that was donated.

He gave that chainsaw for that to be done.

Uh so but the Lord knows who he is, and so thank you.

But uh, real quick, uh, that's Costa Rica, and before DJ runs me off, I gotta share something God told me to share with you.

You know, Darren talked earlier about provision, you know, about these trips, about having to sacrifice, and yes, it's always a sacrifice.

But I one thing I gotta share with you that God told me to share when we started to do this mission today, you know, one that God provides.

But the one thing I always hear, you know, I talk about going on missions.

I wish I could afford to go.

I can't afford that.

See, let me tell you something.

Back in 2008, when God called me to ministry, God called me in 2009 on a mission on a mission trip that I said I couldn't afford.

God sent me to Aruro Bolivia.

I had five weeks before the trip.

I had no passport, didn't he?

I had to go, I didn't have my birthday, didn't have the stuff to get a passport.

Okay?

I got he said, I said, well, I'll pray about it.

He said, Don't pray too long, I gotta buy you a plane ticket.

$2,500, no passport, none of that.

Anyway, long story short, I got it all, got it paid, went on that trip, all the money came in, and it was on that trip that God spoke to me and said, as I we had been evangelism, God, people were getting saved, you know, we were doing door-to-door evangelism, discipleship, and God spoke to me on that street and says, This is what I have for you the rest of your life.

And since 2009, I've been multiple trips to Bolivia, I lived there for three months, I've been to Ecuador, I've been to Peru, I've been to Romania, I've been to Africa, I mean to South Africa, you know, I've I've seen or yeah, two different countries in Africa.

And so I've been on all these trips, seen all of these things, I've watched God move and people get saved one after the other.

You know, I was, I was, they asked me to speak at a, they did a pastor's conference in Africa.

And I, you know, I I said, well, I'm gonna I'm gonna go through the, I'm gonna teach them how to use the evangelic.

Y'all have seen an Evangelicube, right?

The little thing looks like a Rubik's Cube, you fold out and it's got the gospel in it.

So I'm gonna teach these people how to use an Avangic Cube.

So I take the Avanti Cube and I go through it and get to the gospel part, and you know, and I and I just say, and these are these are all pastors and leaders of a church now, but see, in this part of Africa, all that's you know, being a pastor is a privileged position.

It's a social position.

So a lot of it is passed down.

You can pass it down to your children, you can pass it on to somebody, versus when you retire or die, that church actually hires somebody.

So I just felt it in my spirit.

I want to make sure people are saved.

So I get to the end of the gospel presentation.

I said, is there anybody here that, yeah, you've heard the story, but you've never fully surrendered your life to Christ.

You've never come to a true understanding of sin and that you need to be saved, and that Jesus died for your sins, and he's the only way to heaven, and that you need to be forgiven.

And so we went through the gospel and and and uh did that and asked the question.

I've got 30 something out of 40 people raising their hands.

And these are supposedly pastors.

So, you know, I'm standing there like I don't know what to do next because I'm not expecting all of this.

And so so anyway, but I I've I've watched God move and I've watched God save, and I've and and not once, uh, all of these adventures, not once did I have the money.

In fact, most of those years from 2009 up until just a couple years ago, I didn't even have a full-time job.

I went to school, I got a college education, I got graduated from Liberty University, working part-time jobs, and got paid for all of that.

I walked out of school debt-free with my truck paid for, and been all over the world.

Not once could I afford it.

And last year, I and I thought about this this morning.

I I I should, you know, I should have been slapped for even thinking of this last year, but last year it hit me.

Deposits were coming up, and I had all this going on, and I told Deedra, I don't think I'm gonna be able to go to Honduras.

And and so she's like, Well, we really want you to go.

I was like, I want to go too, but I just and I should be slapped for this because I know better.

I was like, Well, I guess I just can't go.

And I really, seriously, like this more.

I was like, somebody should have just hit me for this.

Because the way I've watched God provide, you know, and I had to ask forgiveness for this.

But last year, what when I said, I just don't think I can go, guys said, Oh, well, really?

Really?

Okay.

So somebody had already paid my$100 deposit.

I don't know who.

Okay.

So it came around to the game day thing we did out here last year.

I had$900 deposit due.

That's what got it.

We had$900 deposit due to Dan.

I said, Deedra, I just don't think I can go.

She's all right, well, we're gonna pray about it.

So I'm out there at that game day thing.

I get a text message from Deedra.

Hey,$900 is paid.

Your Honduras bound.

I about hit the ground, y'all.

Because I knew right here I didn't believe.

After I watched God put me through school, pay for my truck, to cover all my bills all those years, send me around the world, and I didn't trust him.

Can I tell you this morning, don't do that?

If God puts it in your heart to do it, do it, do it.

Just trust him.

Do not use your bank account as a guideline to what you can and cannot do for the kingdom of God.

I don't care what it is.

If he puts it in your heart and says, put$10 in that plate towards this or that, do it.

Do it.

I don't care what it is.

If he says, go buy this and donate that to that missionary, and you go, Well, I'm looking at my account and I don't have that.

Stop.

If he puts it in your heart, do it.

And that's what I needed to tell you this morning.

He who has called you as faithful, he will surely do it.

Amen.

I wanted to show you a little clip of Paraguay.

I was there, had the opportunity to go there in August.

Just had a family that wanted to go.

Everything they wanted a construction man and a teacher.

And I had a family that consisted of the husband and wife, that's what they were, and then their 11-year-old daughter got to spend her birthday in Paraguay.

So just a little video to show you.

But I just wanted you to see the people there and see if God will speak to you because they want us to come back and build a church there.

So I don't know how I've become instead of a medical missionary construction, but uh just excited about um what God's doing, opening the door.

So just look at uh Paraguay.

As the Peru team comes, don't you want the Lord to use all of you?

I just was a little overwhelmed yesterday when my, as Jesse says, my people sent that video to me, and I just thought about how God uses us if we're willing to go.

And I remember, I'm gonna tell my age here, but uh almost 20 years ago that I left, you know, Alaska, and they that was the thing that um here I am, Lord, I'll go where you want me to go.

And I just am so thankful to him that he's allowed me to uh go as an ambassador for him all these years, and so thankful to be here and you all to partner with me and go with me.

So I just encourage you to go to try it and go with us.

So I want you to um meet our Peru party of five, but one's missing.

He's in um Louisiana speaking at uh an associational meeting.

So let's have some slides, so I'm not sure what's next.

Oh, not that.

There we go.

Okay, so let me introduce that you don't, these are not home folks, so I'm so thankful they came from Chattanooga, Tennessee, two of them.

So we've got Linda and Dwayne Melton, who just had foot surgery, so he's made quite the effort.

And then um, you all know Heather's mom, Melanie Andrews, from Houston, Texas.

So we're thrilled to have them um with us in Peru.

So we're thankful to be here today, and like the others have said, I really want to encourage you to go.

Uh there's no excuses.

We take our vacation time and we go, and you will never regret it.

I've been on three mission trips with Deedra, and I've been on about seven with other uh mission teams, but I can tell you that Deedra's trips are the most prepared and organized and spiritual, and they are uh just a blessing to be a part of, and I enjoyed those more than any that we've ever gone on.

We've been to Africa, Guatemala, and Peru with her.

Um, but you may think, well, I don't do construction, I'm not a teacher, I'm not medical, what can I do?

Well, that's what my husband said.

I taught him to be my triage nurse.

I figured anybody could learn to do electronic blood pressure and prick a finger, which he hates to do.

But I am a nurse practitioner, but most of all, every one of you here has a testimony.

And that's one of the most important things I used during this trip was just my testimony.

Um, I used a subject, why do good things happen to Christians?

And I used the example of Job in the Old Testament, Paul in the New Testament, and I went through my life story.

I was saved at seven, and you know, I haven't hadn't done anything horrible at that time.

Of course, like I said, I disobeyed my parents and fought with my brother and told lies.

That was enough.

I was a sinner.

But things went downhill from there.

I'd been abused at 13 by a family member.

Uh, my six-year-old daughter, our daughter was diagnosed with cancer, spent two and a half years at St.

Jude and passed away shortly before her ninth birthday.

That was devastating to us, but we had a five and a half-year-old.

We had to get up every morning and live for her.

And I thought, what else can happen?

But that tragedy with her almost ruined our marriage.

I was gone two weeks out of every three for two and a half years.

But God brought us back together.

We're gonna celebrate our 44th anniversary in December, and I praise the Lord for that.

We were high school sweethearts.

I was 17, he was 18 when we got married.

So that's a miracle in itself that we're still married.

But then I've had 22 surgeries in my life, 10 of them in the last two years.

Uh I was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago.

So you think, what can I do?

So this is the verse that I used.

Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God, 2 Corinthians 1, 3 through 4.

So I think, well, what I've been through may be able to help someone else.

Because you think, well, you should be depressed, angry, um, sad, depressed, crawling a hole, something after things you've been through.

But I live victoriously and triumphantly in Christ, and I want other people to know that and know that they can overcome.

So I gave my testimony.

We also did some medical clinics.

But here was one opportunity that we didn't know we were gonna get.

We were out passing out invitations to do our medical clinic, and we came upon this open market, and this was where they did construction that Duane will tell you about, but it was literally a shanty town.

Most of the homes were made out of aluminum, dirt floors.

Some of them didn't even have roofs because it's in the desert, they get very little rain.

We came across at the end of the day, a lot of them had already gone home, but we had about 20 women, and I was going to present breast self-exams so other women could learn that they need to find their breast cancer early, like I did.

So these women gathered around, and I went ahead and gave my testimony on that, talked to them about doing breast self-exams, and we found that there was a clinic nearby that would do their mammograms for I think it came to probably seven dollars in American.

It was very cheap.

And um the lady in the pink is Melanie Woodard, the missionary's wife, and she was my translator.

And the ladies were just very um attentive and listening because they don't usually get to hear this kind of message.

And then Melanie presented a clear gospel message and invited them to the clinic the next day.

Uh we went to s a school and were able to go into all the classrooms, and that's one thing Melanie and Mike did.

They went into each classroom with the children, but I talked to the ladies.

Uh, they actually have to bring lunch to their children.

They don't give them lunch, so the mothers prepare it, bring it in at noon.

So I was able to talk to some of the mothers that came in and brought lunch to their children.

I gave them my testimony and also talked to them about breast self-exams and what they can do.

And one lady had a question about a lump she thought she found, and before the day was over, I examined every one of those ladies' breasts.

So you never know what you're going to get yourself into.

And then one night at church uh we had just a ladies' meeting, and I went through my testimony and the same talk with the we had breast models we passed around so they could see what it would feel like to find a lump and to show them what it looks like to find lumps sooner if you're doing mammogram, and then gave my testimony.

And then in the Woodards home, we had a ladies' meeting, and it was some of the neighborhood women and a couple of pastors' wives, and they came and listened to us talk and go over the same message, and it helped Melanie to start a monthly ladies' meeting, and she was so thankful that we were able to open that door for her.

These are precious children, as I said in Honduras.

Uh the children just get your heart, but you probably can't see it from there.

But this little boy, his hat says, Women want me and fish fear me.

I don't know where he picked up that hat.

Then we did four clinical days, and I love this picture because that man was saved after he went through the clinic.

Um, every one of the people were taken aside one by one and witnessed to.

We actually had 65 people saved that week we were there.

I've never seen that many people saved during a medical clinic like we did in those four days.

It was amazing.

Uh, this is Melanie and I uh seeing patients.

We were averaging about 80 a day.

Um, I think our high day was about a hundred.

Uh, but the last day, we were only supposed to be there four hours.

We saw eighty in that four hours.

They mainly got triaged.

And we all had uh interpreters, and like one of the guys mentioned, it was really fun translating medical terms they never heard of.

And here's my husband's turn.

Uh I'm Dwayne Melton.

Uh it's nice to be here today.

Uh Deedra called and Ty had talked to Linda and uh said she had a medical uh building project going on that she thought we'd be great for.

Uh so anyway, I I I really didn't know what to expect.

She said we're gonna be putting a roof on a building and pouring, it was gonna be a concrete roof.

And I'm thinking, oh boy, a third world country, you know, we're going in and mixing concrete wheelbarrows, uh lifting it up in uh five-gallon buckets.

Uh so as you'll see in the video, it wasn't quite what I expected.

They did bring the mixers in and had lifts to get it up to the roof, but we were putting the gravel and the sea the cot the gravel and the uh sand in five-gallon buckets, putting it in the mixer, and 94-pound uh bags of cement, yes, putting in that thing.

And I tried to lift one of the five-gallon buckets of sand and put in the mixer, and I found out real quick I couldn't do that.

I did one and that took me out for the day as far as that.

But I helped fill sand buckets and moved them over for the guys to put in, the younger guys to put in.

But I told uh, I said, uh, you know, I'm 62 years old.

I don't know if I can do this type of thing.

But I found out brother Mike was going with us, and he too was 62, but we said we'll go do what we can do.

And we just had a uh great time together.

Found out Mike was only a week younger than I was, so we had we kind of bonded.

Uh, do you want to do the video?

There's Mike going up on uh we feel like we have the made with the equipment they have.

We uh we actually poured that, I think that roof, uh I don't really know how big it was, but it was a pretty good sized building, and we poured that in like four and a half or five hours.

And you're talking about a blessing.

These guys, we get there, and I mean there's just a yard full of uh young and old men there to do the work, and uh they were really workers.

Like you said, in Honduras, the people just pitch in, you're right right there alongside of them, you know.

Uh it's not that you're doing a lot, but you're there doing what you can, and uh it was just such a blessing.

And uh it came to me this morning, I was thinking about uh what I could say, and uh some of you older people may remember the movie uh Field of Dreams.

Um right there is uh kind of an example.

If you bill, they will come.

Uh man, it was just really great.

The Woodards uh are doing a tremendous work there.

Um and we did the building and the people came.

You know, it was just unreal at the people that were saved there.

Uh I guess the devil saw fit to take me out the last three days.

I was sick, but I prayed for the team, and uh we saw a lot of people saved, and it was just really a blessing.

And as you can tell, I am nervous to speak in front of people.

Thank you very much.

Well, I'm thankful to be grafted into this church in several different ways.

Rick is my son-in-law, and Heather used to park in Danny Lovett's parking spot when we went, she went to Liberty, which I had to pay those bills for.

And uh then really connected with uh David and Christy for a little while.

So in all that, I got to meet Deedra, and I that's how I got the opportunity to go on this trip.

But um a little beforehand on the trip, um, everything started going wrong.

I really wanted to go on this trip, but money fell through, the vehicle fell through, um, a little storm named Harvey was gonna come and wipe out Katie, and it almost did.

And I just called Heather and said, I can I can't do this trip.

Like it's I'm not supposed to go.

God has shut every door, and she goes, Mom, this is when you're supposed to go.

That's not how God does these things.

So, anyway, I got there and um fell in love with these people, they're just amazing.

They give out of their need.

We we uh peeled um 10 gallons of potatoes with our fingers, and uh we had uh hairy ham sandwiches and chicken foot soup.

It was great.

These people really gave out of their need.

Um I fell in love with them totally, but I'm gonna tell you a little bit about um uh Satan on this trip.

There's some more lovely people, but um, it says that Satan walks around like a roaring line, and that was so real there.

He tried everything he could to mess up this trip.

Am I talking loud enough?

There you go.

Sorry.

And uh he sent wild dogs.

We'd go out on visitation, we had packs of dogs after us, and um, little kids shoot them away, and we were scared of them.

And it was amazing the things that were bad dreams.

Uh, we had interpreters that froze up and couldn't interpret a word on one of the most important nights for the men in the church.

And uh he was just on the prowl.

And I had never, ever been in a battle like this before.

Um, but I have to say that God, he was um he won the war.

Satan got a few battles and confused um things, you know, schedules, whatever, but um he definitely won.

Like they said, 65 people were saved.

I had never seen anything like it.

Very happy to be a part of it.

But one story I'd like to share, um, I got to share my testimony about um, this is here, um, losing my husband, so we talked to some widows, and that was a great opportunity.

This is how much these people love the Lord.

So they usually go to a river and they get baptized because they thought when you got baptized in the river, that would wash your sins away.

Um, they knew nothing about you could just stand in a puddle of water and get baptized.

So there was a lady, one of the pastors was telling the story, I think it was Junior, and uh, she wanted to get baptized so bad, but they had to go down to the river and it was nighttime, and there was older people, and he said, You know, we just can't do this.

Like, it's too late, we have to wait.

And she said, I really want to get baptized.

He said, Well, we could do it some other way.

She ran in her house and got a tub and filled it full of water, and she got baptized in three parts.

Like, she got her head in, and she put her middle in, then she got her feet in.

But that's how much they love the Lord.

Like these people are so poor, but you would never know if they were the happiest people I ever met.

It was such a blessing to go to the school.

I had to call Rick to ask him what to say.

I'm like, I don't know how to speak to kids.

So he gave me a perfect message.

Uh, Peru had won a soccer game the night before, went right along with what Rick told me to speak.

But I have to say, I really learned to listen to the Holy Spirit.

I had to totally rely on him.

I couldn't rely on anything that I had to say.

We were thrown in some situations that we weren't expected to be in.

And anyway, the Lord really blessed.

He won the battle.

Satan did not.

Well, you've heard about missions abroad.

So I just wanted to give you some opportunities, uh, remind you that we're getting into the busy part of the year, and we always do the annual food drive.

So for those of you who are new, but as a reminder to those of you have been here, we will the whole month, well, the first three Sundays in November, we will be accepting food donations.

So October 29th, we have the bags from the Shelby Baptist Association, and they have the grocery list on the outside, tells you what they need.

So I wanted to warn you now.

So start looking at publics, they're buy one get one free ads, any canned goods, paper products, no glass, but any of those things, if they have it, buy one, get one free.

Go ahead and get it now, and then get your bag on the 29th, and then you can bring them back the first three Sundays.

So do that.

That's a great way to um to just share out of our abundance what we can share with the others.

So that's an opportunity coming up, and I just want to thank you for being here today and just listening to us talk about missions.

It's exciting to um see what God's doing and how He can use you, and I still am amazed that He can use me, so I'm thankful.

So we're just gonna close this out.