An Open Letter

This is an open letter to everyone and anyone that has an interest in TORCH and the ongoing work that we all love.
Dear TORCH’ers,
I have been involved in TORCH for more than 5 years now and am more excited than ever about the work that God has planned for us. TORCH 2006 will be here before we know and we will be able to continue our work.
As we end 2005 and look ahead to 2006, I would ask all of you to examine where we have been and what we can personally do to make our work better. One area where I am convinced that we all need to apply more focus is really answered with a question – What happens in the communities where we work – after we leave?
Our whole team and our supporters focus hard to make our 2 weeks in Honduras one of the most incredibly productive 14 days of the year. Our productivity is blessed with an amazing harvest and we leave feeling great about what we were able to be a part of. Here is the dilemma that being so productive creates. We plant churches and we find preachers to work in those areas. We need missionaries on the ground in Honduras and we get wonderful people like Tim & Gena Hines and Joe Merrilat to devote their lives to this ministry. We build clinics and church buildings, we build children’s homes and all sorts of other great works – and all of this is wonderful and we are blessed to have been a part of it. We come home and we give reports to our sponsors and our home churches and we start planning for the next years work. On the surface all of this is great however, we need to think about what it takes to keep all of the work that we do in our 14 days – working for the other 351 that we are not in Honduras.
Quite frankly, we need your financial help every month.
We planted a church in Los Pinos 2 years ago and there are 4 men that are Baxter graduates working full time in that community. The Los Pinos church is now one of the strongest in all of Central America and we are not helping any of these men with their living expenses.
We planted a church in Santa Ana this summer and asked Noel from the Los Pinos team to move out to the community to work there and so far, we have only 50% of his needs covered. We still need another $200 per month for Noel.
Joe Merrilat needs a raise and we are short by about $300 per month on his support.
Tim & Gena could probably use a raise.
We are still not 100% funded for the construction of the children’s home and we are going to need monthly support for the kids that will live there.
We need you and your support.
Here is what I am asking everyone that reads this to do – pray & sacrifice.
Thanks & Love
marc