Inauguration Weekend – Renovation & Hope Centre

We had 4 events packed into 3 days. Celebrations for kids, youth, and adults. It was not only our celebration weekend for the grand opening of the Renovation & Hope Centre (CER in Spanish), but also the 5^th Anniversary of Renovation Church. Victor and his wife, Iris, are not only my pastors and coworkers but close, dear friends. We wanted the weekend to encompass all that we believe in for both our ministries – Jesus, kids, and youth. Which is why we had so many events.

First, I want to say how grateful I am for my amazing staff. Easter week (Holy week) was the week before our event. Typically, we are off for the entire week, as it’s basically summer/spring vacation for us. All my full-time staff came and helped for part of that week, as we had many details to pull together for our events. Decorations. Crafts for the kids. Sewing runners and chair covers. You know, typical things you do for a BIG wedding type celebration! It was way more work than we all anticipated, and it was great to have my parents here to help as well. They came down early to help 🙂

Renovation Church had their 5^th Anniversary celebration on Friday night, with close to 350 people in attendance. Pastor Victor invited 5 local churches from the area, to come be a part of the celebrations. It was our first official service in the new sanctuary, so we had a few ‘kinks’ to work out. It was LOUD but the worship was incredible. The church dance team was up front leading and the energy in the room was so great.

Saturday morning we had a kid’s celebration with over 200 children from our ChildCARE Plus sponsorship program and Renovation Sunday School. The theme was gratitude and they used watermelons to decorate. Representing the love of Jesus (red), eternal life (green), sin (black seeds), white rind for cleansing of our sins. Iris found this lesson somewhere and the kids loved the fun healthy snacks! We had bouncy castles for young and old. Games, crafts, and a memory verse. During the teaching and worship time it was so beautiful to see the sincere hearts of the children, as they worshiped with hands raised to God. The kingdom of God belongs to them and I can’t wait to see what God does through their lives.

Saturday afternoon we held a youth event for our ChildCARE Plus high school students and invited the local youth groups to attend as well. We had around 200 youth in the sanctuary for a special service focused on them. Pastor Victor preached and we had fabulous worship, with 3 church dance teams leading us in worship, and a few of our youth on the worship team. My heart was full.

Near the end of Victor’s message, I felt led to go to the back of the room and start praying over the youth. I walked back and forth with my hands outstretched over them. I kept repeating, ‘Pour out your Spirit O God’. As I prayed, God gave me a word for the youth, but Victor was still preaching, so I just kept praying. When he finished, he prayed and then called me forward. I had no plans to share with the youth, but the Word God gave me was too great to keep to myself.

I shared with them how I felt that God has more for their lives. Yes, he has a purpose for them (which Victor preached about), but they couldn’t do it themselves. They needed the power of God to help them. They needed boldness and power from God to stand up for Him in their schools and to believe in the dreams God has placed in their hearts. I shared a part of my story, of how God called me to Honduras. I shared how I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for God’s power in my life. A single female living in one of the most dangerous countries in the world. I shared with them the reason that I am here in Honduras. It is because of them! I truly do love and care for these kids. My heart and passion is that they too will know their calling and passion and do it!

I called the students forward for prayer, so that God could fill them with power and for Him to help them be brave and bold. At first, no one moved. I wasn’t actually surprised. You see, my biggest frustration about Honduran culture is that it’s hard to believe in your dreams because it’s so hard to make them happen. The country, the culture, the lies many believe, is that you can not do it. It’s impossible. I told them this and then said, but that’s the whole point! YOU CAN NOT but God CAN! So, I called them forward again. One girl, Cesia, came forward. She’s shy but also a part of the Renovation Church dance team. As soon as she moved, others started to move as well.

Whew… folks, my heart soared. More than 20 youth came forward and we prayed over them. I called our Canadian guests/pastors forward and some of our SOH and church leadership to come pray over the youth. I don’t know exactly what happened in each heart, but I do know this, God is going to use these students to be world changers. It may only be in their homes, or community, or it may quite literally be somewhere in the world. I can not wait to see how God moves.

(Side note: It’s so crazy to me how God is using me to speak into the lives of our youth. As a children’s pastor in Canada, I was very happy to send the Jr. High kids up to youth ministry. Very happy. But God has changed my heart and given me a passion for the youth of Honduras. I know that it’s God!!)

Our last event was held Sunday morning and it really was the culmination of everything. Our BIG celebration was held in the sanctuary, all decorated like a wedding reception, with our Schools of Hope team, Renovation Church, as well as many special guests. Guests from Canada. Principals and teachers from the schools where we serve. Community leaders from the four communities where we are working. The Engineer/Architect, Contractor, and many of the workers who helped build the Renovation & Hope Centre. Close to 250 were in attendance.

From the moment worship started you could feel the energy and excitement in the room. We had a wonderful time of worship, celebrating the goodness and greatness of our God. I shared about how God made this dream become reality and thanked the many people involved. Pastor Victor and Iris shared the gospel and gave praise and glory to God for how he made their prayers and dreams come true as well. Our founders, Randy & Judy Lundrigan, were also in attendance and shared their history of how Schools of Hope came to be in this neighbourhood. Pastor Mark Hazzard ended the service with a message and prayer of dedication. As we closed the service in prayer with these words, ‘In the name of Jesus, Amen.’  Confetti shooters went off and balloons dropped from the ceiling. It wasn’t quite the same as our Parkwood pyrotechnics in Windsor but it was super special and a surprise for people.

At that moment, while Victor, Iris and I stood with Pastor Mark on the platform I felt such satisfaction and joy. We did it!!! We were standing in our ‘dream’ and celebrating the completion of a 3 year project.

This project was not easy, as I’ve shared before in previous posts, I did not want to build. I was scared and had never done anything like this before. But when God told me, ‘Kathy, it’s time to dream bigger’ I knew this was HIS dream and not mine. Iris had been praying for 2 years about this property in front of their house. Before this moment I had not felt a peace about building, but after God’s spoke I knew this was the direction we were headed. I had no idea how we’d get it done but today I can say this, we did it because God made it happen!

We had to raise more money than I’ve ever raised before. We had to break ground and bust through literally tons of rocks, volcanic rocks, and more rocks. We had workers, lost workers, and found more workers. We had rising costs that made us increase our original budget by $250,000… that was a huge setback for me personally, as I had tried so hard to set an accurate budget. Through all the challenges and setbacks, God provided and showed himself to be faithful and true. Again and again. My faith was stretched, even more than it had been before. I saw God do miraculous things and answer crazy prayers. It was not an easy journey, but one thing remained – God was faithful!

At our first meeting – Victor, myself, and Melissa (our lawyer) – I said to them, we will have lots of challenges ahead but my greatest desire is that we are still coworkers and friends at the end of this. I also did not want our ministry to suffer or cut back while we were focused on this project. Thank you Lord, we grew and continue to keep our focus. What an amazing gift! We did it!!!!

Now, let’s keep dreaming! God has so much more ahead and I can’t wait. But first we rest…

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Are you worthy? – Communion

My staff and I were having an interesting discussion over lunch recently. Many of us were at a recent service where communion was served. I asked the staff various questions, because communion (Santa Cena) is not common here in Honduras. The Catholic church does it often, but most Evangelical churches do not, usually once or twice a year, so I was asking them why to learn more.
(Note: Honduras would be considered a Christian nation with over 46% considered Catholics and 43% Evangelical Christians.)

There were various answers: churches cannot afford to buy what is needed to do this often. Evangelical churches are trying to separate themselves from the Catholic practices. And the last one was interesting, people do not feel worthy to participate in this. Wow, that one surprised me. The whole point of communion is because we are not worthy. It’s through the blood of Jesus that we can come before God and be cleansed, set free and restored to relationship with God. None of us are worthy.

Now, I know that I grew up in Canada, in evangelical churches my entire life, so my worldview and perspective were shaped differently. But this conversation made me realized how important theology and the study of the Bible is for pastors in Honduras and the people in their churches. Beliefs and thoughts are good, but not always biblical. Customs and traditions are good, but again, not always biblical.

To some degree, I think communion has become so common in some churches that people do take it for granted, lose interest and/or have a lack understanding. Not having it regularly over the past 10 years has made me appreciate it, and it means more, if I’m really honest. But why do we celebrate communion in the church anyways?

Luke 22:14-22 tells of how it all began, with Jesus eating a meal with his disciples. He has this moment with them, in part, to prepare them for what is about to happen to him. His death on the cross would change everything, but they did not know that yet. He says, ‘This is my body’, ‘this is my blood poured out for you’. The disciples were not fully understanding what this meant but Jesus was telling them that he will suffer, die and shed his blood – all to bring reconciliation with God. His death on the cross and his shed blood would allow us to come before God directly, to ask forgiveness of sins and be set free.

This was a foreign concept to the disciples because they had always had to go through a priest, who would then go before God on their behalf. The priest would make a sacrifice as a way to bring reconciliation and forgiveness of sins. Jesus was telling the disciples, I’m changing all of that. I am the new covenant between you and God.

The bread was a symbol of Jesus body. He would suffer greatly, and die. His blood would be shed, so the ‘cup of wine’ was also a symbol of Jesus blood. Why such a gruesome practice? Eating a body and drinking blood? That’s all a little out there, isn’t it? Jesus did this as a way for the disciples, and for us today, to remember the sacrifice that he made for us. It’s imagery, symbolism, as a way to remember. This was actually a very common practice written in the bible, a symbol of remembrance. Jacob (Genesis 28) did it after wrestling with God. Joshua did it as they crossed into the Promised land (Joshua 4). Samuel did it after winning a battle (1 Samuel 7).

We have an advantage that the disciples did not have. We know what happened and that Jesus didn’t stay dead. But, they had a first hand experience that we can never fully grasp. They were there when his body was ‘broken’ for us, beaten and abused. They saw his blood flowing. They just were not fully aware of what it all meant, until after.

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Are any of us worthy to come before God? No.
Are we worthy of participating in communion? No.
Are we worthy of God’s forgiveness? No.
Are we worthy of God’s love? No.
But God gives it to us anyway. He loves us and wants relationship with us.
He wants us to remember all he has done. That is what communion is all about.

None of us are perfect or worthy, but we are made perfect through the blood of Jesus.
It’s because of Jesus death and shedding of his blood that we can receive forgiveness of our sins and be set free. We can have a fresh start. We’ll never be perfect or worthy, on this earth, but we strive to be, as we strive to be like Christ every day.

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I didn’t mean to preach here, but I think sometimes we need a reminder of why we are Christians and why we do certain things. Religions practices should not just be customs, traditions or antiquated. They should have meaning and bring us closer to God. If they do not, then why do we do them?

Inspiring Others

During one of our recent lunches at our Schools of Hope office, we were discussing our various levels of education. I’m not really sure how we got on that topic but it was quite interesting, especially since one of our main focuses is education.

I shared how I had graduated from high school and then went to Bible college and received a Bachelor of Theology. The girls shared their various levels of schooling but when it came to Walter he said that he had never graduated from high school. It wasn’t a complete surprise, as I knew he grew up in a rural community but as an adult man in his 40’s it was a bit surprising in a way.

As soon as I heard this, I shared my Dad’s story with everyone. I told them that my dad and I graduated high school at the same time. Walter looked at me in complete surprise. You see, my dad left high school around 16 yrs old, left the farm and moved to the city with his older brother and friends, to work. I continued to share that when I started high school it inspired my dad to complete his schooling. I’ll admit as a teenager I didn’t find it that exciting or inspiring. I would often take his homework in to my math teacher, who was also his teacher for adult education. Between working shift work full time and being a leader in the church and a dad, I don’t know how he did it, but we graduated high school together in 1993. It really was a great achievement, and I’m pretty sure he had higher grades than me, at least in math!

I could see Walter’s face light up, although he almost always has a smile on his face. His daughter, Yareli, is currently in Grade 9. (Photo to right shows Walter with his family and my friend Margaret who was visiting)

Almost a month after having this conversation, Walter asked me for permission to take Thursdays off of work to pursue his high school education.

Folks, that right there is why I love what I do and why I’m here in Honduras. I LOVE inspiring others and seeing them pursue their dreams, goals, and make changes in their lives. I CANNOT wait to celebrate Walter’s graduation and I hope it works out that he and his daughter can graduate together as well. What an amazing story that will be!

THAT IS THE POWER OF A STORY!
We all have a story. A testimony to share. I love that my dad’s story could inspire Walter. What story do you need to share to inspire someone else?

Check out my friends new podcast and Youtube channel The Testimony Table to hear more great stories and be inspired.