Honduras

Newsletter from Kyle Huhtanen for August 1997

Date: Wed, 03 Sep 1997

Kyle Huhtanen / Honduras Missions

Amacuapa Valley Missions August 1997 Report

Greetings:Hello to all of you who! I feel like I am writing a family, sharing what is happening with the other half here on this side of the gulf. First, I thank you for all your prayers and sentiments about the death of my grandmother. It is always an encouragement to know that our bond serves to heal so many kinds of hurts. I thank God she was taken quickly, because she wasn't the kind to wait around for things. As I look back to read over the comments of July and June, I feel a sense of awe. I feel a sense of awe at the intervention and aid of God's hand in showing us a path to the ideas and thoughts we had generated in these months. I came back to Amacuapa from the walkabout to Panama with a new energy. There was a new sense of calling, a fresh look at myself, and most of all an understood sense of belonging in the place I called home. We came back with strong sense of action, spurred on by the arrival of 28 people to our humble pueblo. A group from Searcy, Arkansas paid us a two day visit after spending two weeks working in Trujillo. They arrived in bus and numbered 23. After the initial realization that we actually had that many people, I remembered I had just pulled up in a truck with five more from Iowa and Nebraska. These two days were some of the most action packed for the whole town of Amacuapa. So many greetings, visits, help, and uncountable smiles were exchanged between these two contrasting cultures. The group poured five floors, and made one latrine in those two days. They held a children's festival for the school of Amacuapa, visited two other schools with first aid lessons, and handed out an amazing amount of school supplies to over five schools. Friday evening we held a "town-gathering-devotional" in the town plaza. The sharing of songs and a little more about our father was a very well attended occasion. While the Arkansas group left after these two exciting days, the ripples of excitement did not subside in Amacuapa. The five from Nebraska and Iowa were with us to help with our campaign which began August 7th and was concluded on Sunday, August 10th. Walter Clark, a minister in Sioux City, Iowa, was the speaker and gave a great series of talks from Hebrews 11. His focus was on really finding a faith in this God we can't see. Knowing that there are very few people (probably nobody) who would say that God doesn't exist, the message that he is more than some mystical character that should be responsible for the mysteries of everyday life in their eyes seemed on key. The fact that he is our father and wants us to see him as such is something that beckons us to reach out and truly get to know him. Tala Torres Castro was baptized on the final day. It made me feel good knowing she has been studying with different ones of us all year long.On August thirteenth our house retook it's original shape, being the simpler stew recipe, consisting simply of four Trujillanos (natives of Trujillo), a Panamanian, and the gringo (myself). An expression of love that touched me very deep and I feel compelled to share with you all. In the devotional that Friday night with the town we took a brief moment to share our names. It was announced that the North Americans would say their names in the first pass. When my turn arrived I joking volunteered my name and I was not greeted with the passive laugh I expected, but rather an applause that put me up straight on my bench. I smiled and waited for the red to leave my face. The Amacaupanians then went around saying their names and Norberto freely volunteered my name to acknowledge that I was one of them as he was passing around the circle. Again the applause came out and it literally jerked the tear from my eye. It is an awesome blessing to be part of a community and so eagerly included. We all feel very accepted, loved, and wanted in our home. The departure of the groups left us looking at those ideas and thoughts of June with an honest eye. There was still this need for new spiritual challenge, leadership development, and evolution of our evangelistic vision. We had come to this small town because of two brothers who obviously love the Lord and need encouragement and guidance. Yet, the vision that was shared and improved upon while in the States last Christmas focused on how to use this starting point to reach out to an entire valley that doesn't know their Father.The last two weeks of August have been some of the most exciting moments of our time here. Norberto, with his mission experience was able to start a more advanced method of using us as a team and coordinated tool for sharing who is our father. We have each taken on a more challenging role that we first will challenge us further spiritually and secondly, be more effective in sharing about the good news. Norberto is going to be more involved with the ministry efforts in Juticalpa (the biggest city in our region, about 1 1/2 hours from Amacuapa). He will be working with the preacher of the Juticalpa Church of Christ, Victor Flores, and aid his prison and hospital ministry. He will also be working to start a radio program broadcasted from Juticalpa, something that we have wanted to get started all year. He will be greatly encouraging the work of Victor Flores who is only twenty-five, but very enthusiastic and vision minded. Eberto, one companion from Trujillo, will be reaching out to minister to the community of San Francisco. There have been requests to visit from Christians there. San Francisco is located at the mouth of our valley and is the biggest town in the valley. It is about halfway in the trip from Juticalpa to Amacuapa. Norberto will be helping him with this new outreach. Angel is taking on the task of reaching out to a town farther up the valley named Salitre. This is a village we have been visiting and intently studying with two men. We feel that this can be another starting point to reach out to surrounding villages. Angel will be spending 3 1/2 days there every week. He will also be helping out with the Church activities in Amacuapa. My role will be the circle of communities that are in close proximity to Amacuapa and of course, the community of Amacuapa itself. Within this area, I will be continuing on going Bible studies that we have and starting new ones when invited. I am challenged and called to the ministry of conducting more small Bible studies with two to three people. This role will also include visitation to church visitors and to brothers and sisters in the church. I will continue to teach the Sunday morning class and my english class. September will be the transition month to get these in place, but the challenge has already begun. Eleven one-on-one Bible Studies took place last week within the four of us. We have been preparing ourselves for these studies with sessions of preparation guided by Norberto. We also visited four communities to share the movie about the Life of Christ from Luke. This is an easy crowd getter and has allowed us to introduce ourselves and more importantly, the Life of Jesus to some new communities. We have followed these movies with the distribution of the gospel John. One very exciting thing about the work is the better coordinated link we have with the brothers and sisters of Gualaco and Juticalpa. I am convinced that the work in the valley will be greatly strengthened by a strong network of connections that will bring visits from the areas of Juticalpa and Gualaco. There are lots of willing hearts here in this team that we are forming. We pray for wisdom and courage to take the risks knowing there is nothing to lose with God pulling the strings. Amacuapa will still be our home. We will and have met every Monday at five a.m. to include Chanito and Anael for a morning devotional. We then will have a planning session and a class for preparing another set of studies. It will be a day of encouragement and updating to keep our prayer life on focus. For now, we are all planning on being in Amacuapa for the Sunday activities. Of course we leave this open to change in the fact that we hope to be establishing other bodies of believers in Salitre and San Francisco. It is the next step. I feel that all that has passed was necessary and has been beneficial. We are now growing out of Amacuapa and this is a good thing. Something I share from my own studies and realizations. While we all say reading the Bible is a good thing and will all freely volunteer that it is necessary for spiritual growth, do we give it the value of explaining healthy life. How many times have we said upon hearing about some horrible act that was reported on the news: "How could somebody do that?" This is a question I frequently asked myself in the first days of my stay here. The stories invade our minds in whatever location we reside. I have become more and more convicted that the answer is a simple, yet unpopular one: "They haven't read their manual." Here is the story I begin my studies with: You've just bought this new tractor. What a wonderful machine John Deere has made here. It has so many abilities and power. Yet, how are you going to run this thing. There are so many buttons and levers that you are scared to touch anything worried it will be a mistake. Thank goodness, there is a MANUAL that tells you what all these things do and the way to use it. The Bible is a manual. God created this wonderful being that has so many abilities and powerful tools. Like the tractor, if we don't read the manual, we are going to make lots of mistakes, while pushing the wrong buttons. Only John Deere could write the manual for the John Deere tractor. Only God could write the manual to explain his creation also. God gave us this manual to understand ourselves as he knows us better than we know ourselves. We don't want the plow down as we back down the rows of planted corn. Let's find out what our manual says! The strange thing about this manual is that it never seems to be fully read. When there are unlimited abilities, there is unlimited instruction to guide. I pray that today is a spiritual challenge for you. Thank you for your encouragement, support, and trust in us. God is going to find a way to use all of us in spite of our weaknesses. In Christian Love, Your brother, Kyle