Newsletter - June, 2011
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June, 2011 Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me." Matt. 25:40 Published by the Society of the Good Shepherd, P. O. Box 122, Amberson, PA 17210. (717) 349-7033 |
by David Bercot
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One of the reasons why the ministry of the Society of the Good Shepherd has been so successful is because the Lord has provided us with such excellent local directors. Over the next few months, I want to acquaint you with our three directors in Honduras, who keep this ministry going. They meet the prospective candidates for loans, talk with their pastors, and decide who does and doesn’t qualify for a loan. They provide financial training for loan recipients, interact with them on a regular basis, and meet with them once a month for prayer.
In many of the monthly newsletters, you’ve heard us talk about Luis Vega, who was our very first director. Luis was born in Comayagua, which was the first capital of Honduras. Comayagua is a very religious town, but relatively few of the inhabitants there have a living relationship with Christ. This was even more the case when Luis grew up there in the 1960s. Although he was born into a nominally Catholic family, Luis turned to the world as a youth. As a teenager, Luis got involved with drugs and alcohol and lived an ungodly life.
However, when he was 18, Luis heard the gospel message and surrendered his life to Christ. Soon after that, Luis was inspired by the example of Paul, who made the decision to serve Christ even more zealously than he had previously fought against Christ. Luis made a similar commitment to serve God with even greater zeal than he had served evil. So he traveled to Guatemala, where he studied the New Testament at a Bible college and received the necessary training to become a pastor. After he graduated from the Bible college, he returned to Comayagua to pastor a local church.
Some years later, Luis moved to Siguatepeque, about 30 miles away, where he still lives with his family. Sometime after moving to Siguatepeque, God led Luis to work with a missionary organization called Siloam International, and he has been serving with them ever since. Through this ministry, Luis and others have been able to help thousands of people in many ways and to plant churches all throughout Latin America.
In 1999, Luis was involved in relief work after Hurricane Mitch devastated much of Honduras. Through this work, he met a number of Mennonites who had come down to Honduras with Christian Aid Ministries in order to help rebuild houses and other buildings destroyed by the hurricane and its accompanying floods. Some of these Mennonites were interested in starting a children’s home in Siguatepeque, and they enlisted Luis to help them get started. He has had an ongoing working relationship with the children’s home and the local Mennonite mission ever since.
Meanwhile, back in the States, in 1999 I was dreaming about starting a ministry in Honduras that would make interest-free loans to committed Christians to help them start or grow small businesses to support their families. I had chosen the town of Siguatepeque as the place to carry on this ministry, as I had lived there for six months when I was 19 years old. In January of 2000, my youngest son and I flew to Honduras to get the ministry started. At the time, I had no current contacts at Siguatepeque, but I prayed that God would lead me to the right person in Siguatepeque to help get the ministry off the ground. The night before my son and I flew down, a Mennonite friend gave me the name of Luis Vega as the person who had been of so much help to them. When we reached Siguatepeque, a person at the motel where we were staying volunteered to drive me to Luis’ house. I shared my vision with Luis, and he immediately took it from there and got the ministry off the ground. He put together the initial board of directors, but explained that he didn’t have the time himself to serve on the board. Well, he served anyway, and eleven years later he is still serving on the board as one of the directors!
Each time I go to Honduras, being with Luis is like spending a semester in the school of Christ on what it means to “seek first the kingdom of God” in one’s life. From early in the morning to late at night, Luis’ day is filled with blessing people and furthering Christ’s kingdom. One day, he’ll be taking someone’s child to the emergency room at 3:00 a.m. Another day, he’ll be bringing needed provisions to a widow or driving someone half way across the country. Still another day, he’s helping a pastor launch an outreach in his area or hosting a church group from the United States who’ve come down to build a school. The wonderful thing is that his wife, Etelia, and his three children are just as committed to Christ.
I can’t tell you what a privilege it is to work alongside such a brother who truly loves God with all of his heart and loves his neighbor as himself.
Click on the following link if you would care to make a donation to the work in Honduras: Donations
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