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Langendoen News

The year is quickly coming to an end, and this will probably be the last prayer letter I will send this year. In December we are planning to spend vacation on Lookout Mt. GA and in Fenwick ON. This has been a good year. Attendance at church has been steady, and while there are always those visitors that come and go, the group itself has been faithful. We are also thankful that pastor Orlando Sierra has been helping out with the preaching.

We continue to meet in the small church building that we had constructed a number of years ago. This building has served us well, and slowly the area around the church has seen more construction, plus all the roads have been paved. We now have a Chinese restaurant right in front of the church, or to be more precise, we have the kitchen right in front of us, and we are downwind of it. This means that as we close our service on Sunday mornings at 11:00, our church is filled, well, with a pleasing aroma. This also means that if our study on Tuesdays with pastors extends for any length of time we usually end up there for lunch.

The children are not so excited about Chinese restaurants--the exciting addition to Comayagua has been a Pizza Hut, and a soon to be opened Church's Chicken. As well there is a new mall being constructed three blocks down the street from our house, which will include a Wal-Mart. 13 years ago Comayagua was a small, sleepy, dusty town with hardly any paved roads outside the central downtown area. Paved roads have more than tripled, and the fast growth predicted back then has indeed taken place. And we have finally had our road paved after two and half years of too many meetings where the neighbours would plan how to get around to raising the money and doing it.

I have been busy with church work. Lately I have been preaching through the book of Judges. We have a prayer meeting on Wednesdays, and pastor Orlando gives a meditation. Right now he is going through the Beatitudes. I teach Catechism class on Sunday mornings after the morning service, and the Canons of Dordt on Fridays. I also have a weekly program on a radio station. The station has plans to expand its signal into the Caribbean and to be accessed via the internet.

Pastor Orlando and I have visited southern Honduras a number of times this past year. The two churches there have small groups, which are not that stable, mainly because of poverty, but the regular members faithfully attend. We made a couple of visits to a small town called Tepic, far from the beaten track. And we visited a couple of weeks ago a small city, La Esperanza, up in the mountains North/West of Comayagua, where I was asked to preach. Finally, I had a teaching session in a town called Lajas two hours North of Comayagua.

Our three older children have been going to the bi-lingual school down the street. They are doing well, for which we are thankful. Eva is still being homeschooled by Betsy.

We do pray that the Lord may bless you in the year to come. The world scene can seem depressing, with terrorist and nuclear threats, and the ongoing wars in the middle East and elsewhere. In Latin America many countries have moved left politically, and are looking to Cuba as the model for the 21st Century. Honduras' president has made it clear that this is also the model he desires for Honduras. Through it all we pray the Lord may protect His Church, which He has promised that He will preserve till the end of the ages. May this be your comfort in this year to come as you seek to faithfully serve Him.

Yours in Christ,
Ernie Langendoen