Tree of Life Ministries

Hi Everyone! I'm sorry it has been so long. I have been super busy and when I do have free time I've been trying to soak up as much time as possible with friends. I only have 22 more days! It's really sad. I wanted to write a little more about Tree of Life Ministries:

"In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." -Revelations 22:2

Tree of Life's slogan is Find a Need, Meet the Need, Change a Nation. I want to break that down for you a little bit more.

Find a Need:

Honduras is one of the poorest nations in the western hemisphere. Many small villiages deal with deadly parasites, no electricity or potable water, and disregard all medical and dental needs. There are no churches, no leadership, and a sense of hopelessness. School past the 6th grade is expensive and hard to reach. Most just stop going. This sense of hopelessness is then passed down from generation to generation.

Meet the Need:

Tree of Life is working to correct this vicious cycle continuing in families. They do everything from bringing food and clothing to mountain villiages, to offering Bible School to new pastors, to planting churches, to supplying villiage elementary schools. They also hold leadership and pastoral conferences and lead American medical teams into remote villiages. Tree of Life's way of meeting needs is as diverse as the needs themself.

Of course they also have Plan Escalon. This is where I am staying and where most of my work has been. Plan Escalon is a school for kids from 7th grade to 12th. They come on scholarship which they fill by working at the school everyday. The boys cut grass and do different building projects while the girls cook and clean. It's a great way for them to earn their education.

Change a Nation:

Revelations 22:2 talks about how the very leaves of the tree were doing the healing. This is the heart of Tree of Life Ministries, to equip the people of Honduras to change their nation. Pastor Guy, the director of Tree of Life, has always said that if anything ever happened to him where he had to leave the country, he wanted Tree of Life to be able to run without him. And it can. They have raised up Honduran leaders that now basically run the ministry. By educating these young people, they are giving them hope and a chance to go back to their villiages and make a difference. By doing this, God willing, the next generation will have a different outlook on life and will be filled with the hope that only comes from Christ. It's a beautiful process.

So that's a little more about Tree of Life. On a personal note, I have a few prayer requests:

1. I have a head cold. It's not bad, but it makes speaking Spanish even more difficult.
2. English classes-some days are good, some days are terrible. So it goes, I suppose.
3. I will hopefully be traveling to the mountains either tomorrow or Thursday to deliver some food and clothing. It's always an adventure, but well worth it to talk and have fellowship with the mountain people.
4. As always, continued prayer for Tree of Life and what they are doing. They need energy, discernment, and patience. Tree of Life was not set up to have immediate rewards. It's a slow process of building relationships and showing God's love to a group of people who feel like the rest of the world does not care about them.

That's all for now. I'll try to update it a little sooner next time. I love you all.