Click here to read the previous letter
Dear friends in Christ, June 2, 2008
Greetings from Honduras
The hot, sultry days of April and May are past. We welcomed the rainy season with Hurricane Alma, which left Honduras soaked and cool. A few days ago (during the hurricane, but winds are not a factor in the mountains) a TACA Airlines flight landing at the airport in Tegucigalpa crashed. The runway is short, so that planes must land right at the beginning on the runway and brake hard to be able to stop before the end of the runway. There is no room for error--if a plane cannot stop in time it will crash through a fence, and fall onto the road or houses that are beyond and below the runway. Over the years this has happened to a number of planes.
Church News
Attendance at church has been good. Two weeks ago we had the Lord's Supper, and the church was full. Only half of the people participate, since many have not yet made profession of faith. The reason they have not made their vows is in part because of the influence of other Evangelical churches which tend not to have membership requirements--if you attend church, then you are a member; it is also because, once people understand what making vows for membership entails, they are reluctant to make them. But we believe that our task is to faithfully preach and teach, seeking to draw the people into communion through the means of grace that God has granted to us.
The whole discussion of what membership means to many became clear on our Friday night study of the Belgic Confession. I had been teaching about the holy congregation of true Christian believers. The lesson seemed to be going along smoothly until a queston was asked. Obviously what I had been calmly explaining had caused an inward storm in the questioner, for his question was really a statement that he was sure he had been a member of Christ's church ever since he had accepted the Lord as His Saviour, and that he didn't need to belong to the Reformed church, or to any church for the matter, to be a member of Christ's body. What is usually at the heart of this statement is pride--"why do I need to submit to the laws of this church, when I am already a member of Christ's body?" Another way of stating this would be--"no church is going to tell me what to do, and I will serve God as I think I should." But I insisted that our faith is not just private, but is very public. Church membership in Christ's body entails vows, just as citizenship in a country, or becoming married. And it is not our laws that one submits to, but to the law of Jesus Christ as we find in the Bible. It is Jesus Christ who is the head of the Church.
Of course, in this lawless age it is necessary to stress the law, much as a policeman will make a fuss about the law about not speeding when he nabs one who is speeding. But only by grace in Christ, through the inworking of his Spirit, can we even hope to understand this law and seek to live by it. And this of course involves communion and union with Christ and with his people. Please pray for increased understanding in the church, and that more would desire to become members.
Outreach
Not so long ago our little church decided that half of the offerings that we collect will go to the poor. With greater attendance, the offering plate has also seen an increase, and we are in a country where there are many poor. We decided to adopt two projects--one was to put in a floor and repair the house of one of the lay workers in southern Honduas. The other was to help a sick person to pay for their medical costs. These are expenses that our church can absorb--greater needs such as food relief which we have done in the past have been supplied by the supporting churches in North America. And with the great increase in food costs, this may again be a pressing need in the future.
Orlando Sierra and I visited southern Honduras again. On the way we picked up Faustino Flores and his wife and baby. Faustino is the lay worker in the church of Ojo de Agua. He led the service and I preached. After the service we visited an elderly member of the church, 71 years old, who was grieving the recent death of her 93 year old mother. On the way back we passed through Nueva Union and visited with Antolin and Francisca Mendoza. Antolin is the lay worker in Nueva Union.
We continue to air our weekly radio program every Saturday morning from 11:30 to 12:00 a.m. The radio has been an effective means of getting the message out of who we are. I generally tape the program in my office on a home recorder, and drop the tape off at the radio station every two weeks. Every time I go to the station to drop off a tape I am invited to sit down and we spend the next hour or so discussing various matters to do with the church and the Bible.
In the month of June I will be teaching a MINTS course in Tegucigalpa. The course will be on the book of Galatians. I have not taught there for a couple of years, so it will be good to do it again.
Our family continues to keep busy. Jonathan, Peter and Davina continue to go to the small bi-lingual schoool down the street. Eva continues to be homeschooled. Betsy has some ladies that live in the mountains that come down and visit her from time to time. These are ladies that Betsy has gotten to know and has been helping with small things like clothes, school supplies or medicine.
We ask for your prayers; that as we seek to preach and teach, that people may not only hear the words of the Bible, the Word of God, but that they may truly turn their lives over to Jesus Christ, living out thankful lives of obedience to that Word. We do thank you for your prayers, and we are thankful for those letters that we receive from our supporters. May God bless you and grant you strength as you seek to serve Him.
Yours in Christ,
Ernie Langendoen
