Okay. I'm broken. I'm at the bottom. Can't take it anymore. I Have GOT To Get Back To Serving God Full Time In Honduras And I HAVE To HAVE YOUR HELP! Some of you know I have been back in the U.S. for some time now. Working to try to raise enough money, through working a secular job, to try to get back to serving as a missionary to Honduras. I just recently returned from five weeks in Honduras and it was So hard to leave. For only the second time in sixteen years, I drove to Honduras this time. Thanks to the help a great man that has made that same trip over fifty times to take supplies, vehicles, and other items to missionaries serving in Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras, Kevin Rasch. As I was leaving Honduras,I wanted so much to drive back to Texas, sell my Pickup, and go straight back to Honduras. But I know I can't/don't want to do it without support again. For most of my six years on the mission field, I made it on an average of only seven thousand dollars a year. That's not easy, even in Honduras. I don't know any missionaries there that have a budget of less than three thousand dollars A Month. And most have five to (one admitted to me) seven thousand dollars per month. And that's not money to use on ministering, it's what they say is required for lifestyle. Rent, food, transportation, insurance, health care, retirement, fund raising trips to the U.S.... And the list goes on and on. The ministry I first went to serve with said that as much as sixty thousand dollars was needed in hand for a missionary to begin to serve with them (at their school/orphanage). My belief is when God Calls, you go. You don't wait until you meet the requirements man/some organized ministry requires.
When I first went in 2008, with little more than a couple months expenses on hand, I took two weeks vacation from work and flew to Honduras with my children with the intent of staying ten days for an interview with a ministry. While I was there I knew God was telling me to stay. And I stayed. I never came back to the U.S. (except to visit). While most prospective missionaries stay in the U.S. for a year or more to raise monthly support. I went and stayed solely on faith that God Called me, and God would sustain me. For the first two years I served with that ministry. I believe that ministries should use most of their resources for ministry, and do as little business as needed to keep the ministry going. But as time went by, I saw that the ministry I was with, as well as the other ministries I saw, although probably started with good intentions, had turned into businesses that did just enough ministry to keep the big/thriving business going. That Is Not How God Called Me To Do. I served as an Independent missionary (I don't like that name because I was never independent, I was and am always with God). But I was not connected to any established ministry. While with the "established" ministry, I had had to pay monthly fees to them on average from $600. to over $800. per month. That was as they put it to "Answer your Call from God and come and plug into our turn key ministry". Meaning to answer your Call in their established ministry with all it's infrastructure in place. Missionary fees, school feels, transportation fees, eat a meal at the mission house fees, even drink a soda at the mission house and there were more fees. I was seeing so much money coming into that ministry, and seeing so little going out in actual ministry to the Honduran people.
So in 2010, I began serving independent of any other established ministry. By 2012 I was living in a typical Honduran community, in a typical one room home (although it did have brick for the walls instead of wood). With a concrete floor and tin for the roof. It had an outhouse for the bathroom, but it did have a toilet inside with a pipe that ran out to the outhouse, so we didn't have to go outside to use the bathroom. When we moved there I felt like I'd gotten a great promotion. Finally I was actually living among typical Hondurans.
GOD HAS PUT ON MY HEART THE NEED FOR ME TO RETURN TO HONDURAS TO SERVE HIM THERE FULL TIME. MY INTENTION IS TO POST EVERY DAY FOR THE NEXT THIRTY DAYS. I KNOW THAT GOD HAS CALLED ME TO SERVE HIM THERE FULL TIME, AND HE HAS ALSO CALLED OTHERS (POSSIBLY YOU?) TO SUPPORT THIS MINISTRY THERE . PLEASE ANSWER THE CALL!!!!!!!

Friday, November 1, 2013

I've been serving full time as a missionary to Honduras for almost five and a half years now. It's amazing to me how fast the time seems to have passed. In the past weeks I've been remembering how God first brought us here, and I wanted to re post the first couple of post we made when we first arrived in Honduras. Some of you may remember how we originally only planned to stay nine days for an interview, then go back home for as much as a year to raise support. But we ended up staying...

 

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

"ANSWERING GOD'S CALL"

I believe that every Christian is called to a mission field, the place and the people with whom he or she regularly interacts, but I also now know that God is calling me to full-time missionary work in Honduras. “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10). God has called and commissioned us to share his love and to proclaim the Gospel message of Jesus Christ.

Over the years, and especially the past several months, God has been making very clear to me that He has called me into serving full time as a missionary to Honduras.

JULY 11 UPDATE

On June 12th., I, along with Jesus my fourteen year old son, and Jennifer my ten year old daughter, came to Honduras for our final interview for a volunteer position with an established ministry. We planned to stay for nine days, then go back home. Today is day twenty nine and we are still in Honduras. Jesus still travels on his Honduras passport. It had expired, but we had been told it would be easy for him to get a new one in two or three hours once we got to Honduras. Two to three hours has turned into a month. I know God had it all planned out, but it sure took the rest of us by surprise. Taking two weeks off work, going to Honduras for our final interview, then going back home to work and raise support for coming back as full-time missionaries was my plan. Gods plan obviously was that we come to Honduras to stay.
These last few days I have been thinking of when Jesus said "Come follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him. Once I answered Gods call and took my first step in faith towards coming to Honduras as a missionary, every fear or cause for concern that had kept me from trying before, was taken care of by God. Everything to make it so that we could come fell into place so perfectly that I felt as though God was telling me "Roy I have waited for you for years to commit to serving me full-time, now come on let's go!" And now, twenty nine days after starting what was to be our nine day journey, I felt God asking, "Roy did you really leave your nets and come to serve me, or are you more concerned with getting back to where you were before?"
Working here with has been the most amazing time of my life. Every day I wake up excited about what God will show me next. In the last three weeks alone, medical missionaries (medical, dental, optical, and children's ministries) have seen and helped a total of 5,106 people. That's right, FIVE THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND SIX ! We have also put concrete floors in nine homes that had only dirt for a floor before we got there.
Jesus likes to work with me on concrete floors on the days we do them. Other days he moves around to all the other areas, but his favorites seem to be optical and dental.
Jennifer loves working with the kids. The first day we were here they had planned for her to stay have a babysitter. But Jennifer wanted to go out to the church and work along with everybody else. The first four days, Jennifer stood and washed kid’s hair all day long. One thing they do in kids ministry is check for lice, treat as needed, then wash, comb, and style the kids hair. All the little girls love the pretty hair bows. And the boys seem to like styling gel. Jennifer also works in other areas, but working with the kids is her favorite.

The life of a missionary is not a solo venture. As a full-time missionary we are required to raise our own support. We need people to partner with us in prayer and financial support. Your prayers and financial support are absolutely essential in this effort to proclaim Jesus Christ and to demonstrate his love in Honduras.

Please prayerfully consider partnering with us as we go out to "Answer God's Call" by;
-becoming a prayer partner_________
-with a one time gift of $__________
-with a monthly pledge of $__________
-with an annual pledge of $__________

Financial support can be sent to;

Holly Springs Baptist Church
Attn. Honduras Missions/Morton Fund
P.O. Box 366
Holly Springs, N.C. 27540

Thank You for being a part of our lives and for your love, friendship, encouragement, and support.

 

God Bless You (Dios te Bendiga), Roy, Jesus, and Jennifer

July 12, 2008

Jennifer In Honduras

I’ve always loved this small country, (about the size of Virginia or Tennessee) because my mom is from here, and I was born here, coming to the U.S.A. at only three days old. In school I’ve always “bragged” about being half from Honduras. I can’t carry a conversation in Spanish, but I do know a little over the basics.
These past few weeks would best be described as, amazing. Daddy, Jesus, and I have been working the brigades with the teams. At first people thought I would have to be babysat by somebody, but I didn’t want to sit around doing nothing all day (or should I say days). I ended up finding the perfect job for me. I was sitting around when I asked if I could check out “Children’s”, so one of the translators took me over to the house they were doing it at across the road from the church. I asked Doris, another translator who was in charge, what I could do. She answered, and told me I could either wash or comb the children’s hair.
I was surprised at how willing she was to let a 10 year-old girl help out. I decided to wash the children’s hair, because I’m not so great at styling. Victoria (a 14 year-old girl on the team) helped me out when I needed it, and taught me to say “close your eyes” in Spanish. Over the three brigade weeks I’ve not only tried combing and done pretty well, but told the story of the bracelet we give them, with a translator of course. On each bracelet are five beads, and very color stands for something different. I’ll give you a summary of the story, Green=Creation, Black=Sin, Red=Jesus’ Blood, White=Our Sins being Washed Away, and last, but definitely not least, Yellow= The Streets of Gold in Heaven.
99.9% of the children (I say children instead of kids, because a kid is a baby goat) are so sweet and adorable. One little girl followed me around all day long, because her mom was volunteer. Another girl did my hair. At least three (there were more but I didn’t count) of the little boys liked me, and a lot of little girls gave me a hug and kiss on the cheek before they left (it’s a way of saying hello or good-bye to a friend) and even more children tried to communicate with me.
So many people in Honduras are really poor and needy, yet so grateful for what little they do have. So many Americans take for granted the things they have and just want more and more, never satisfied. This has been a life changing experience for me, and I know Honduras is going to be a huge part of me future.

Jesus In Honduras

Describing my time in Honduras is hard to describe in words, but I’ll try my best for you to understand what I’ve been doing down here. I have truly enjoyed spending time here. You get to help out so much, and you can affect someone’s life by doing so little. I love working here, it’s fun and rewarding. I mostly participate in helping the team put in concrete floors. When there isn’t a floor to put in I like helping out on the Brigades.
Putting in a concrete floor is hard work and energy consuming but it’s all worth it in the end. To see how the house had a dirt floor, then going to having a concrete floor is simply amazing to watch and participate in. The families we put the floor in for, truly appreciates it. They are so grateful and happy. I remember one family that prayed for a concrete floor for nine years! The neat thing is that when we finished they said they were going to hold bible studies in their home. The families are the reason I love helping put the concrete floors in.
Some days we don’t have a floor to put in, but that doesn’t mean I don’t do anything for that day. I like to work all the stations at the Brigade back at the church. So far I worked in the optical station, dental station, and the pharmaceutical station. You get to come in contact with many of the Hondurans that show up at the church to receive medical attention. You can see it in their eyes and faces that they really are grateful to you for doing this for them.
You get to do some fun things at the Brigade. In optical you get to help pick a pair of glasses and sunglasses for the person who came through. In this station you see immediate results. It so great to see a person who couldn’t really see in the first place, then when you give them the glasses they can read and see, it’s so amazing! In dental I have been a dentist’s assistant. I went and got them their tools, and their supplies. The neat thing is that you get to comfort the person sitting in the dental chair. In pharmacy you go and get the right medicines for the person. It always so fun when the Brigades are going on, and boring when there isn’t one.
The thing that makes the Brigades so interesting and cool is that at the end of the day you realize that you received more than you gave. The Hondurans are so humble, and so nice. You find yourself looking over them and thinking, this is how they live and they are happy and content with that. Even though you’re giving the concrete floor, or the glasses, or the medicines, there giving you something greater. I haven’t really grasped the whole concept yet, but I feel as they have given me a sense of humility, peace, and happiness. It’s so cool having that feeling at the end of every day.
It’s such a blessing to be down here in Honduras. I had to admit at first I wasn’t as excited as my Dad, and Jennifer but now I love being here. I made lots of new friends, and enjoy working for God every day. I can definitely see Honduras in my future.

 Thursday, July 17, 2008

"STILL IN HONDURAS"

Now here we are. 36 days into our 9 day trip to Honduras for our final interview. God had kept us here so much longer than we had planned. It is as if He didn’t want us to go back to our “normal life”.
1 John 3 14; If we love our Christian brothers and sisters, it proves that we have passed from death to eternal life. 16; We know what real love is because Christ gave up his life for us. 18; Dear children, let us stop just saying we love each other, let us really show it by our actions. 19; It is by our actions that we know we are living in the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before the Lord, 20; even if our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

I have known for years that God was calling me into full time service as a missionary to Honduras. Even though I knew He was calling, I kept concentrating on three main questions that I thought I needed answers to.
1- What can I do as a missionary?
I’m not a doctor, a dentist, a teacher (skills that are in high demand in the mission field). Most of my work experience has been in construction and home improvements. Some time in the Army, law enforcement, driving trucks, and twenty three years being a father.

2-How could I make sure that Jesus and Jennifer would get a quality education? Public school was out of the question. Neither Jesus nor Jennifer speaks Spanish. And private schools that teach in English are very expensive.

3-How would we have money to pay our expenses?

Since getting to Honduras, I have seen God so clearly at work. Almost daily he reveals himself in ways that could only be explained as his works. In the extra time that we have been here, God answered my concerns for not serving full time.
1-I thank God for all that has happened in my life. All of my experiences are what got me to the point of submitting to his will. I don’t know words to describe how I feel when I am putting a concrete floor in a home where there was only dirt before. Or seeing the hundreds of people that come into the churches where we hold medical clinics. There are many times when there are tears in my eyes, and I thank God for everything in my life that got me to being right here, right now, with God working through me to share his love.

2- Jesus and Jennifer will be getting a better education here than I expect I could ever have afforded at home. They will go to a school where they will be studying a U.S. home school curriculum where they can advance at their own pace. And there is an average of 4-7 students in each class. That is 4-7 students per teacher. Jennifer is excited because she found out yesterday that she will already be in some classes with 6th graders, instead of just 5th grade.

3-And finally, how would we have money to pay our expenses? Ever since I took the “first step” (I will write later to explain the amazing details of what God did after that step) God has told me to talk with people about my calling. To ask them to pray and listen to hear what God puts on their heart. And that I should not worry, God has it covered.

Below is one in a list I saw on excuses some people use for not going into missions.
“I fear that when I get there it might turn out I made a mistake and will come home with shame.”

The answer is;
Which is worse, shame for having endeavored to follow Christ in missions, or fear to venture? Shame before others for making a mistake will not hurt you; it will humble you and can make you more useful in a new situation. But fear will make you useless everywhere. Consider Ecclesiastes 11:4 and what it says about risk: “He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap.” Meaning: without taking the risk of sowing when the seed might be blown away and reaping when the rain might ruin the harvest, you will starve.
Oh, how precious is the freeing word of God!

Our decision to stay here came only after a whole lot of prayer and deep thought. As I sit here with Jesus and Jennifer, I think of;
Isaiah 50 vs. 7; Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be dismayed. Therefore, I have set my face like a stone, determined to do his will. And I know that I will triumph.
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The life of a missionary is not a solo venture. As a full-time missionary we are required to raise our own support. Your prayers and financial support are absolutely essential in this effort to proclaim Jesus Christ and to demonstrate his love in Honduras. Please prayerfully consider partnering with us as we go out to "Answer God's Call" by;

-becoming a prayer partner_____________________________________
-with a one time gift of $__________
-with a monthly pledge of $__________
-with an annual pledge of $__________

Financial support can be sent to;

Holly Springs Baptist Church Attn. Honduras Missions/Morton Fund
P.O. Box 366
Holly Springs, N.C. 27540

Thank You for being a part of our lives and for your love, friendship, encouragement, and support.
God Bless You (Dios te Bendiga), Roy, Jesus, and Jennifer  

 

 

 

This is my first attempt at making a video to show some of what I have been doing in Honduras in 2013. We first went there on June 12th.,  2008. June 12th., 2013 marked the five year anniversary of serving as a missionary to Honduras. Right now I am visiting my family in North Carolina, trying to raise enough support to go back and finish out the year. Please consider becoming a partner in this ministry. Don't feel like your contribution wouldn't make a difference. As you can see, as little as $1.50 can buy enough water to last a family a few days. Where I live, many families exist on less than $2.00 a day.
When I first began volunteering in Honduras in 2008, here on BlogSpot was the first place I began to post about what we were doing. If you go back to some of our first posts, you can see how God literally sent us to Honduras and has kept me there ever since.
Please prayerfully consider partnering with us in this ministry. If you would like to hear more please contact me; Roy Morton at (919)552-2670, email at rmortonjr@iwon.com, and I am on Facebook; Roy Morton.
All contributions are tax deductible and can be sent to;
HSBC (Morton Missions)
P.O. Box 366
Holly Springs, N.C. 27540

Online contributions are accepted through Paypal:
My account name there is the same as my email address; rmortonjr@iwon.com
Thank You and "Dios Te Bendiga!"

As I Wait To See Where God Will Put Me...

When I was with a large ministry for the first two years, I had a base of supporters. Groups of people came to serve on Medical Brigades almost every week so I had contact with a constant stream of people that saw and participated in what I did.

After I left that ministry and went out to follow what God put on my heart and not be restricted to only doing certain things (only concrete floors, nothing else), the support dropped off. What people don't seem to realize is that most ministries charge missionaries to be a part of their ministry. When my children were here, the ministry I was with charged me over $600. a month to "be a part of their turn key ministry". All that included was allowing me to participate in their ministry, and for my two children to attend their school. For a year or so they did let me use a ministry vehicle for which any personal use was billed at fourty cents per mile. Housing, food, every other expense was the responsibility of the missionary. They required a planned out budget, which included everything you'd expect to have if you lived and worked in the U.S.. For me their budget came out to about $2,700. per month. They constantly put pressure on me to raise that level of support.

The first week I was there, I had one of their missionaries tell me it would cost about $6,000. per month for me to be here. He and his wife lived in an exclusive area, had a nice four wheel drive truck, a new car, a full time maid, a full time gardner/guard, etc...

After that I had other missionaries here with families admit to me they had five or more thousand dollars a month in support. The most I ever had anyone admit to was $7,000. a month. And the ministry she was with required her to be at that level. I really got turned off to the business of ministry. The more I saw how they operated, the less I liked even being associated with it. They do amazing things. They help so many people. But, with the amounts of money they go through, I feel so much more could be done.

For one person to come from the U.S. and participate in a Medical Brigade from Saturday to Saturday, the ministry I was with charged airfare plus $700.. Then anything extra you wanted from a bottle of water/soda, a telephone call, to do an extra concrete floor, anything extra, they charged each person more for that. During the time I was there they built a million plus dollar  new building and paid cash as they went. I mention that because before that,  they were pretty much limited to bringing in groups of thirty or so North Americans per week for their Brigades. Now they have the capacity for more than double that amount.

So take an average of thirty people and multiply that by their base fee per person of $700.. That alone is $21,000.. the ministry takes in per week (and that's if only thirty people come). Add to that all the extra fees they come up with, the fees they charge their missionaries, donations they receive (They have a man that works full time raising funds. Of the few North Americans that are paid employees, he is the highest paid person in the ministry.) Those amounts of money boggle my mind when I think of all the needs that could be met with a budget like that. I live where paying to fill a barrell with clean water for a person (approx $1.50) is a huge blessing for them. They don't have the $1.50 to pay for a barrell of water.

Now I live on far less than the fee I used to pay. I have one monthly supporter and he sends me $25. per month. I have no other regular income. For everything else, I have faith that God will provide. That's how I've lived for the last two and a half years. I've learned to live completely on faith. I know that everything I have, right down to every piece of rice I eat, was supplied directly from God. God touched someones heart at a specific time for a specific need, they followed through on His direction, and here I still am.

Yesterday, the man that owns this house, was supposed to come back. A flight was delayed so he ended up all together spending two extra nights in the U.S.. He was frustrated but I encouraged him that God has a purpose for him to be there those extra days/nights. I also had to look closely at what more God had for me to do while I'm at this house. I knew he delayed Charley and kept me here extra time for a purpose, and I wanted to be sure I didn't miss it.

Charley has another house very close to this one. For this area, it is a relatively secure house. Charley told me I could probably move there when he gets back, but he hasen't given me a definite answer yet. He and I over the years have known of each other more than we have known one another. So I can understand that he might want to see how I've treated his home, and what the neighbors think of me before giving me his final decision. But, here I sit, knowing that in a few short hours I'll need to either move over to Charley's other house, or start looking for another place to stay. I've got everything I own in Honduras (except for a bed that's stored at a friends house and a motorcycle) packed into two duffle bags and a backpack. The backpack is loaded with what I'd need to make it through a few days in case I have to be looking for a place. And I could leave the duffle bags here untill I could find a place. I live completly on faith. Surrendered to God. Available to God. I know that all I need in this life is Christ. I've had people tell me "what about food and water? You need that." The truth is you don't. When you have Christ, you have all you need. With the Holy Spirit you are fully equipped to serve on earth for as long as God's Will keeps you here, and you are also fully prepared to go Home, to enter God's Kingdom at any time.

I'm not sure why I went off into all this this morning. But if you've read it you maybe understand a little more about my life.

God Bless You All,
Roy Morton

FOUR YEAR ANNIVERSARY as a MISSIONARY TO HONDURAS - June 12th, 2012

June 12th was my Four Year Anniversary serving as a Missionary to Honduras. I thank God for every moment that He has kept me there. Right now I am visiting my family in North Carolina and raising support to go back and continue serving in Honduras. I would love to meet with anyone that would like to know more about what I do, life on the mission field, or any other questions, interest, concerns...
Please prayerfully consider partnering with us fianacially to help make it possible for me to continue to serve on the foreign mission field. I know God has Called me to be there, but raising support, I've never been any good at that.
Below is a quote I read about raising funds for missions:
"If we simply work at fund raising for mission trips like we would at any other job, we lose the privilege of learning to depend on God for our needs.
We also run the risk of failing to realize that He is ultimately responsible for the results of our fund raising.
So as we plan our fund raising efforts, I believe it is very important to be sure that we do everything to His glory remembering that He can and will supply, if we are doing what He wants us to do."
At this time I have commitments for approximately 1/3 of the minimum amount I am trying to raise. My main expenses have been rent, electricity, water, and I have been having Internet service. I try to keep food and all other expenses at around $5. per day (after rent and house expenses are paid, every $5. donated keeps me going another day).
Thank You and God Bless You!

(For the last year and a half I have lived in a small town where I could walk most anywhere I needed to go. A typical day for me was from two to six miles of walking to get to the people/places where I serve. When I go back, I want to be able to purchase a 200-250cc motorcycle so I'll be able get into areas that are much more isolated than where I have been able to get to before. $1,200. to $2,400. is the price range for a motorcycle that size.)

Years Ago I Would Have Said I Am Desperate...

But now I fully trust in God and I know no matter what happens, He is in control. I am at the point where I have no funds. I have sold most of my tools, and the only thing left to sell of any value is my computer. Years ago I would have said I am desperate. But now I fully understand that God is in control. Whatever happens is His Will. You can always serve and praise God, no matter what your circumstances.
Please pray for me and give a financial gift if possible,
They can be made Online through PayPal. My account there is rmortonjr@iwon.com
Or mailed to:
Holly Springs Baptist Church
Roy Morton Ministry
P.O. Box 366
Holly Springs,N.C.  27540

Thank You and Bendiciones

Opportunity To Minister

DETAILS about the Hammocks are in the update below this one:

I had a very interesting morning. I normally walk around town some most days, just seeing who/what God will put in my path. Today I walked out on the beach (I do most days) to take some photos of how it has returned to normal (almost no people) after Semana Santa. I heard my name called. It was a man I try to talk to/check on most days. I ended up spending the next 4 1/2 hours talking with a group... of as many as ten alcoholics/drug users who were starting out the day getting/staying high. Some of them I truly believe are Christians. I'm still trying to process the many things I heard and saw this morning. But it gave me a new outlook on how we are all struggling, don't judge people unless you have walked in their shoes, we are all sinners and sin is sin, none of us is perfect nor can we ever be. Many times I go into areas where Hondurans tell me they would never go, it's too dangerous. But that was a surprise to find an opportunity on the beach to witness like that. I hope to write more soon...

I posted the above on Facebook a couple of weeks ago. Since then I have continued to speak to them and others almost daily. Normally there are about ten but there has been as many as twenty together at one time. A young woman was with them for a few days but I am thankful that she straightened up and is no longer with them. Of the ten that are together most every day, two have been sober for a few days now and are making an effort to change their lifestyle, if only for a time. Honduras can be a very hard place to be. It has recently been named as the murder capital of the world. You here about all the murders in Mexico, but Honduras has a much higher percentage of people murdered than any other country in the world. I live in a city on the only road that connects the two cities that have the highest murder rates of all the cities in Honduras. It's about an hour and a half east to one and the same amount of time west to the other one.

I have learned that one of the I had a very interesting morning. I normally walk around town some most days, just seeing who/what God will put in my path. Today I walked out on the beach (I do most days) to take some photos of how it has returned to normal (almost no people) after Semana Santa. I heard my name called. It was a man I try to talk to/check on most days. I ended up spending the next 4 1/2 hours talking with a group... of as many as ten alcoholics/drug users who were starting out the day getting/staying high. Some of them I truly believe are Christians. I'm still trying to process the many things I heard and saw this morning. But it gave me a new outlook on how we are all struggling, don't judge people unless you have walked in their shoes, we are all sinners and sin is sin, none of us is perfect nor can we ever be. Many times I go into areas where Hondurans tell me they would never go, it's too dangerous. But that was a surprise to find an opportunity on the beach to witness like that. I hope to write more soon...

I posted the above on Facebook a couple of weeks ago. Since then I have continued to speak to them and others almost daily. Normally there are about ten but there has been as many as twenty together at one time. A young woman was with them for a few days but I am thankful that she straightened up and is no longer with them. Of the ten that are together most every day, two have been sober for a few days now and are making an effort to change their lifestyle, if only for a time. Honduras can be a very hard place to be. It has recently been named as the murder capital of the world. You here about all the murders in Mexico, but Honduras has a much higher percentage of people murdered than any other country in the world. I live in a city on the only road that connects the two cities that have the highest murder rates of all the cities in Honduras. It's about an hour and a half east to one and the same young men I mentioned above has a reputation for hurting people for money. I was talking with him one day when a person tried to hire him to beat some one. The person stressed "just hurt him, don't kill him". There was a few seconds between the question and the young man's response. He said, "I can't do it." I said "That's a great answer" and I held my fist up for him to bump it with his (something they do) and he did. He began to talk more to me about his life and how he wants to change. He doesn't hang around with the others now, but I talked with him on the street again today. He is making a real effort to change. I ask that you all pray for him and everyone else. I thank God for the great blessing of being raised in a Christian home. So much of the time people get started off the wrong way in life because of what they were born and raised into.

If anyone has experience in working with/witnessing to people who let addictions take over their lives, and you would like to visit Honduras, please get in touch with me. I'd love for you to come.

rmortonjr@iwon.com

(919) 521-8051