Dear Family and Friends,
Greetings from a wet Texas. We are currently in Baytown Texas. We have been itinerating since August 1 of last year. We have had the privilege of being in over 80 churches to present the Honduran and El Salvadoran Missions. It has been 10 years since we have done an entire itineration of all the supporting districts. Continue to remember us in prayer for strength for the rest of the journey
The first week of January Les was able to be in Honduras for 6 days. It was a week of District elections and listening to reports. There were reports of victories and of challenges. One of the challenges that were reported is that we now have 16 congregations that are without a permanent place of worship. A couple of them are in rented or borrowed buildings. Most of them are on a porch or under a "Galera". Some are just under a tree or in the open air. One of the victories that was reported is that the Honduran National Board has been going to help with the construction of 3 of these churches. This was done entirely on their own initiative.
I want to share with you the story of the church in El Aguacate. This is a story about faithful ministry. 15 years ago Pastor Francisco Sevilla began to preach the word in El Aguacate. He rode his bicycle 22 kilometers every day for 18 months. During that time a small congregation was established in this unreached community of over 1000 people. There had never been a church in this community. This was certainly a stronghold of the enemy. There was opposition to the church because lives were being changed.
One of the difficult parts of establishing churches is sending faithful pastors. Over the next 2 1/2 years we sent 3 different pastors to El Aguacate. At times I wondered if it was worth the effort. We were also able to build a nice building thanks to the generosity of Victory Temple in Baytown, Texas (the church that is currently hosting us). God raised up a faithful pastor for El Aguacate. Rufino Arrevalo pastored there for over 10 years. Even though the opposition to the Gospel continued God’s servant remained faithful. Not only did the local church grow but they started another church in a neighboring village. Now Juan Aleman is pastoring. He is the nephew of Pastor Rufino. The church reports over 250 in regular attendance. I was able to visit this church last month. There were over 300 people inside and many more outside as for the service on a weeknight.
Please continue to remember us in your prayers as we travel here in the States. We hope to be able to return to Honduras the first week of July if we have our budgets completed. We have attached to this letter a 2004 "project list". Please join with us in prayer for these projects. If you are interested in any of them please let us know.
Yours for Missions,
Les and Charlene Melton
Last Updated on 2/28/04