I flew home November 17th and back to San Pedro Sula on November 20th so that I could go to Jacob and Audrey Lidh’s wedding, and it was so amazing. I loved getting to come home for enough time to see some friends and family, visit my church, and touch base with people while not being away for more than one day of school. God is good, and it was so cool getting to see how people have grown and changed in the 3 months I had spent here. Jacob and Audrey are two awesome people and great friends who are always putting others first and serving with sincere love in a way that I want to emulate. I also had the same flight attendant as my flight in August, which was pretty neat. I love being used to flying between San Pedro and Atlanta. I kept having to change how I referred to both places because I would explain how I will “fly home on November 20th, then come back home again on December 16th “. In all honesty, both are home, but neither are home. I love both and I can be comfortable in both, but in the long run, this world isn’t our home, and I can see that in different aspects of my life. It’s just cool to think about. I love how much God has grown me.
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Since being here 2 people have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and have been reborn. Both of their stories are loaded with different circumstances showing how it was all God. For Annie, we went to her house to speak to her about her friend who committed suicide and counsel her. While we love Annie we wouldn’t have been there for her that night if that had not happened and if no one asked why her sister was sad. While this is tragic, it reminds me that God is in control and He works all things for good for those who love Him. Please don’t forget that condition tagged on the end there. Marian was looking sad one night while Justin was walking to Darling’s house to congratulate Darling because she had been saved one year before on that day and she had not been at school that day. Also, Justin randomly walked the way we usually don’t because it is always muddy, and if he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have seen Marian hurting or shared with her that night. If you think this stuff is crazy, that’s ok, but I know we serve an amazing God who does things in a way so that we can only say “That was God” because it is all for His glory. Please praise God for these new Christians, and pray that they are satisfied in Christ and chase Him with all they’ve got. Pray that they are raised up in Christ. (Annie oldest on the left, Marian on the right) Starting this Wednesday (October 24), we have been out of school due to flooding in our department from the tropical storm. We are very thankful for all the prayers for our area, and we are very thankful for all of the fun we got to have driving around backroads trying to find the driest routes and playing around in the flooded streets when there were no cars to be pushed out of the “Rio del Doradito”. Please be praying for the houses that did get flooded, thankfully our village was muddy but unaffected. Also, please pray for all of our older students that will have to take government tests for Math, Spanish, and Honduran Social Studies next week. For one of the first weeks in October we had a week long break from school which we got to spend with the Fernandez family who always love on us and take care of us as if we were family. We got to play basketball, sit in the AC, practice some Spanish and help them practice some English, and go to the beach. I love this family and I am always thankful for the way they love us. So far our AWANA program is going great! We have had two days of AWANA in the midst of our hectic schedule over Honduras’ Independence Day and the kids are excited to learn, mainly because they get rewarded with merits in their class but they are being exposed to God’s Word and enjoying it. We have the same amount of people working AWANA as we did last year but there are more kids, so we have split our responsibilities a little differently from last year to accommodate all of our students so I do handbook time with the boys from every grade the entire time. I work with the TNT boys, then two groups of SPARKS boys, and Michael works with the girls one classroom over. In the TNT Handbook time we have gone over Psalms 25:4 and how we need to think about God and Psalms 119:11 and how we need to read the Bible. In our SPARKS time we have gone over John 3:16 and 1 John 4:14 and how God sent Jesus to be the savior of the world. Please pray that our kids are raised up in God’s Word and develop a true love for it.
We currently have a new school building being built by a local charity organization called Cepudo to add a little more space for our 160 students. The school is going to provide 2 new classrooms which is going to be awesome! This school building has been in our prayers since the first semester of our last school year and it is just amazing to see God provide for this place again. We have a lot of needs and sometimes it looks like we aren’t going to have enough of something but every time, God comes through, just like He promises. If we put His kingdom first then He will provide for all of our needs, and He is so faithful. God has a big plan for this school and this place, and He is going to have His will be done here. God is good. (They have made a ton of progress since this picture)
We have started to have a time on Tuesday nights set aside for some of the men in the village and the men in our group to sit down, fellowship, and discuss different questions and the responses we should have based off of God’s Word. We invite 5 or 6 men to come so it would be a small, personal discussion where everyone would speak up. The first night we bought Lil Caesar’s Pizza and got up to the church at 4:50 so we could be there when we planned to start at 5, and we sat there until 5:35 when the first man showed up then we started going through our questions. Out of 6 men who said that they would be there, 3 came so please be praying for revival here and across Christ’s church especially with our men here. Please pray that they become spiritually mature in Christ and stand firm for Him as godly men in their families, jobs, and communities.
Last year we spent a few weeks in September speaking one on one with our students about their lives and their relationship with Christ, which was when 33 of our students asked Christ to come into their lives as their savior. This year, we have started going through the same process, which is awesome because now some of our students get to hear about Jesus for the first time, and some of them share about how their lives have been different since they got saved. One of the biggest things we have noticed through this is that our students don’t know the Gospel inside and out, which is ok for now because they’re young but we pray that they learn it so they can fully understand their salvation and share Christ with others. Please pray for more of God’s will to be done while we are here and that we simply obey.
We had our Independence Day Parade on September 14th and it was a ton of fun. Here are some pictures from practicing and the parade. Please pray for both men I am pictured with, they are both named Fernando and both claim to be saved but pray that they are sincere and bold for Christ. Also, here is Raul in the band, he definitely loves his drums. One of the best parts of teaching at Cornerstone Christian Academy is that we get to focus on God’s Word above Math, English, Science, and Social Studies. We do teach those subjects and we want our students to excel in all of them, but the purpose of this school is to shine Christ to these kids and through them to their parents and the surrounding community. We have a lot of different opportunities to disciple them throughout the week and one of my favorites is definitely our Bible Lessons during class. So far we have learned about the Gospel, the story of Jericho, the Good Samaritan (Josh is pictured teaching it) the Fruit of the Spirit, Korah and Israel going against Moses and Aaron, Creation and more of the Gospel. Please pray that our kids are excited about God’s Word and that they learn to abide in it. Also, please pray that the ones who have been saved learn the Gospel through and through so that they can fully understand their salvation and be able to disciple others with boldness.
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AuthorEthan Smith. I'm 19, I graduated from Roswell HS, I love Jesus, I love my friends and family, I love band. This is my second year teaching at Cornerstone Christian Academy. Archives
September 2017
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