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March 18, 2009
Dear friends in Christ,
We are back in Honduras, after spending two months in North America. The time went fast as we visited family, made visits to a number of churches, and spent some time relaxing. There were happy times with visiting friends and family, and sorrowful times at the loss of sister-in-law Jocelyn Langendoen, who died in late January.
The first few days in Honduras felt somewhat strange, as we tried to get re-adjusted to the change from North America to Central America. There continues to be much political instability, and the violence has greatly increased. Corruption, drugs, gangs and death have become a way of life.
The first Wednesday back we had our prayer meeting at the church. Afterwards we had a birthday celebration to celebrate the first birthday of Orlando Sierra's first grandchild. And on Sunday the church had a welcoming lunch to welcome us again to Honduras. And so our time up North quickly faded into the past.
Orlando Sierra, our preaching elder, reported that attendance overall was consistent while we were gone. After our return a new family started coming to church. Orlando has had a Bible study with the man for the last couple of months, and was happy to see them in church.
One of the men who attend church, Jose Robles, went with me to visit the churches in southern Honduras, the church of Nueva Union and the church of Ojo de Agua. Both churches had a combined service in the church of Ojo de Agua. The two leaders there, Faustino Flores and Antolin Mendoza, were present. These two groups have existed for about 30 years, and continue to struggle on, even though both are fairly small. My wife has not had a chance to go there now for years, and the women expressed their desire to see her. As one of the elderly ladies said, "At least one more time before I die." We spent 4 busy years continually visiting the churches in southern Honduras from 1990 to 1994--good years where we learned much about mission work. While working there we made friends that we have to this day, and it is good to see these people struggle on in the midst of many adverse conditions.
One thing that Jose Robles noted was how the people in the south could sing. A number of years ago my wife and I edited a Psalter Hymnal from the Associated Presbyterian Church of Mexico. It was in the south that the people took this song book as their own, the songs of the Reformed Churches. They made it a point to memorize the songs, and to this day they sing them wholeheartedly.
I have been preaching through the book of Judges, and when I got back I took up where I left off. One thing I have pointed out in my preaching is the humanism of the Canaanite religions--the glorying in the satisfaction of our lusts as worship to the gods. These gods are nothing more than the creation of perverse minds that have followed the lie of the serpent, which encourages them in their sinfulness. The Israelites, seeing all this "fleshly worship", would adopt Canaanite practices in their service to Jehovah, but it wasn't long before they had carried their worship to its logical conclusion, and dragged in the man-made gods of the Baals and Asherahs. A choice must be made in our lives and service--the glory of God or the glory of our own humanness as expressed in idol worship. But human self-worship is always failure, and the result is the curse. Our only hope is in Jesus Christ our Lord.
A couple days after we returned to Comayagua Antolin Mendoza phoned to say that his youngest sister was gravely ill in the hospital, and if we could send some money to help pay for the expenses. Since then she has received some treatments and now is doing much better.
This past week has been busy as I helped one of the ladies of the church, as we successfully worked our way through getting her son out of jail. It is now our prayer that he may look to the Lord for liberation of his soul from the chains of spiritual death.
And so life continues on in Honduras. Our days are full with study, prayer, homeschooling and school, and visiting the members and contacts of the church. In the middle of it all I try to keep up with all the paperwork that a foreigner in Honduras has to do to keep everybody happy. We do ask for your prayers, that the Lord may bless us in our work, and that His Church may prosper.
Yours in Christ,
Ernie and Betsy Langendoen
