I hope all is well and that the Lord is richly blessing! We just got back from Honduras and had a wonderful experience. God blessed tremendously. We went for two weeks and stayed at an orphanage. The first week we focused on the kids. We also did a concert one night, followed by an eight-night meeting series and did a week of prayer at the local Adventist academy. They advertised a lot, and used the concert as a drawing card, then showed a few slides and invited them back for the meetings. We had a huge crowd and ended up with 185 baptisms. We had 200-300 children each night also. Praise God and all glory to Him!

Blessings,

Merlin

-----Original Message-----

From: Joedy Melashenko

Sent: Sunday, April 1, 2007

Subject: Work and blessings

Dear Quiet Hour family and friends,

Wow! You would not believe all the work we got done today. This early shift is a winner. We got a lot done in the coolness of the day. The trusses for both sides of the church are stacked upstairs and ready to install. Mr. Nystrom has a crew that hung the first eight trusses today. Pastor Randy Speyer is heading a truss crew to build the trusses for the pastor’s home. They got the jig in place and built 3 trusses this afternoon.

The eye clinic started today. They have been advertising on the local cable station about the free eye clinic. They were “slammed” with people. The eye clinic saw about 80 patients and the medical team saw about 40. Great PR for the church!

A small prayer chapel hosted by the Baptists has been so encouraging to us. They have been praying for our group’s safety and protection every day since we have been here. They gathered around Judy and me the second day we arrived and had special prayer for us. It was a very spiritual experience. Wonderful missionaries!

Tonight, at worship, Heidi, one of the young ladies in the group said, “I know why we are here. It would be really easy to get tired and grouchy and complain, but I keep telling myself ‘It’s OK. I’m not going to complain!’ and it really helps my attitude. Keep telling yourselves positive thoughts!”

The truss crew has been really making lots of progress upstairs. Our goal is to have the roof on both sides of the church before we leave. We also want to have the trusses and roof sheeting done on the pastor’s home.

Things are moving quite slowly at the pastor’s home since they insist on pouring a concrete “bond beam” on the top of the walls. It takes 5 times as long to do that than putting the “Maranatha-type” cement block bond beam. But, in this part of the world, there is so much of the “this is the way we have always done it” thinking. We do not want to be the “ugly Americans” in insisting on doing it “our way,” but it is so tempting.

After lunch the group headed out for another snorkel and dive excursion. This time they anchored off a small reef and the snorkelers didn’t have to lie on the beach and get attacked by sand fleas (they call them ‘sand mites’ here). They had the luxury of using the boat for their ‘base.’

The evangelistic meetings started tonight. Pastor Marquez is a very dynamic speaker. He has the ability to switch his preaching style into the “Latino mode.” There were a number of visitors and interests there. The Spanish Bibles and Children’s Bible Adventure books were finally located and delivered, so they will get a lot of use out of them.

The VBS program is clicking along nicely! This group is very energetic and eager to share Jesus with the children that are attending. There are about 60 – 75 kids each night.

Monday, April 2, 2007

The roofing crews are finding their stride. All of the kids have a job to do. They never complain. One young man said at worship this morning, “I know that I am spoiled and don’t like hard work, but once I get out there on the job site, it is a whole lot more fun than sitting around. Being part of a team is a real character-building experience. It’s good for me. It’s good for us!”

Danny Garcia is leading the other truss crew. They are telling everyone that all 30 of their trusses will be up by noon tomorrow. We will see.

Monte Nystrom’s team has a little tougher time in that their trusses are longer and require a lot more effort in getting into place.

The truss crew for the pastor’s house will be done tomorrow.

The eye clinic saw about 100 people today. The medical clinic saw about 55. They are really busy!

The kitchen crew is awesome. The fresh fruits and veggies are wonderful. Even though mangos are not in season, they are getting lots of them from the southern part of the country. The pineapple is sweet as honey. And the papayas taste like cantaloupe. I usually don’t like the flavor of papayas, but these are awesome.

Nine people responded to Pastor Milton’s appeal tonight. One of the local young ladies, Alice Hyde, has a beautiful voice and is going to be Milton’s official vocalist to do the appeal song each night.

The kids displayed a very positive attitude at our worship tonight. We are so grateful for God’s protective hand as we have been climbing scaffolding, and working in areas that have potential danger. The group prayed for each other’s protection and the energy to stay alert!

God bless all of you for your thoughts and prayers.

Our love,

Joedy & Judy

Read April 3-6 e-mail