It's June!

By the time you read this it will be June and we are down to about 50 days until our departure. I am amazed at the speed of the past year.....wow.
Are you ready?
Here is a summary of some of the information you will recieve over the next few weeks.

• You are going to get an email or snail mail invoice letting you know how much your balance due is. We really need to get all balances cleared by July 1. Thay means that July 1 is when I need to have your check.
  
• You will be notified of your departure time, date, city, and your locater number. All tickets are e-tickets amd most everybody travelling from the same location will have the same locater number.
  
• Please note that there are some departures on July 23 and some on July 24. This is just American Airlines working to accomidate as many as possible on a given date. We just ran them out of space. For those of you not coming until the 24th - don't worry, we won't build all the houses, pack all the food, or get too much done without you.
  
• I am planning a conference call with several of the group leaders and will notify you by email of the time, date, and dial in number.

All of you can help me plan the work by letting me know an estimate of your benevolent funds,.
Please feel free to call or eamil this information.
We will pre-purchase the wood and food so it will be waiting on us when we get to Honduras.
I love all of you and can't wait to say -
Another great day in Honduras.
Marc

Memorial Day

This weekend is one that is set aside to remember the fallen soldiers that gave their lives for the freedom that we in the USA enjoy. I am blessed because others died for me.
I am especially blessed because Jesus willingly carried the cross up the hill at Calvary to die so that I might live. Let's remember our soldiers this weekend and Jesus every day. Let's also remember the living sacrifices of Jesus' soldiers that are on the ground around the world fighting for the cause. This weekend, drop to your knees and pray a special prayer for the following - Tim, Gena, Dylan, & Dalton Hines - Joe Merillat, Nate Reeves, Mark & Lori Connell - all of these brothers and sisters are working full time to make our work in Honduras - work. Pray for missionaries around the world, for the team at Los Pinos that will be going to Mexico later this year. Pray for my friends that have gone as a team to Costa Rica. Pray for the villages of Santa Anna and Ojojona where a new church will be planted this summer. Pray for God to supply the financial tools that we will need to build and fund a new children's home in the Santa Anna community. Pray for the mission teams from Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, Louisiana, & Georgia that will be traveling and working in Honduras in the weeks before we leave. Pray that the fields will be ready for the harvest when we arrive. Pray that God will pour out his love on the people of Honduras through our hands, our words, and our action. Pray that God will deliver the resources for the work that he has planned for our team.
I love all of you and I am praying for you as we prepare for our mission. If any of you have prayer needs, please post them so that we can all pray together.
Marc

This week was the beginning of the summer TORCH Mission season. My friend Terry Reeves and a group of about 40 are in Honduras and are busy working in the Valley of Angels. You may have read about the Hurricane that went through Central America over the past couple of days but, that wasn't enough to stop the work. The team was able to build 2 houses in the pouring rain.
Terry's team will leave in about a week and will be immediately followed by a group led by my friend Mark Connell. Mark's team will be about 80 strong and is mostly from Birmingham, Alabama. As soon as the Alabama team is gone, a mixed team from Florida - Louisiana - & North Carolina arrives - followed by Tennessee - then Florida and Georgia - and finally OUR TEAM!
Our little group of 160 will be blessed to work in many of the same areas that the 350 or so before us have been working. A lot of seeds will be sown before we gwt to Honduras and we need to be praying for a big harvest. For those of you that have never been on a TORCH Mission, get ready - you are going to have a life changing experience. For those of you that are going back a second time and area wondering if the second time can be anywhere as good as the first - you will be amazed!
Please pray for every team that we will be following. Pray for our work and that God will continue to bless us with the tools that we need to serve him. We need to work for our benevolent and building fund unitl the day we leave. Be bold in asking people to provide for food and building funds.
If you are interested in reading mission reports from other teams, you can get a link in the TORCH section of irccorp.org. You can also get direct links at Tim Hines site at waywalkers.blogspot.com
Get Ready For
Another Great Day In Honduras

Airline Tickets

We are in the process of matching names with all of the airline reservations that we have. In November we made several blocks of reservations to lock in a fairly decent price. You'd be amazed to know that our team is now an exact match for the number of tickets that American Airlines offered us in November. To me, this means that God has had this team planned out for a long time. It shouldn't surprise any of us that the number of seats from every location is an exact match to the number of people that are needing seats from those locations. If this happened in just one place, we could call it a coincidence but, we are using 7 departure cities and they are all an exact match.
WOW!
I will be emailing your info within the next couple of weeks. We are all e-ticketed and everybody except the Hot Springs group will be on American Airlines.
Won't be long now!
Marc

Let's Build Some Houses

I am hearing a lot of good things about planning and raising the money for our mission to Honduras. Good things are happening every week and as usual, everyone that has comitted to go on this mission will find that God will provide the way. Pray and be confident in that.
We can't forget that just getting to Honduras is all that we need to be doing. Our team will clearly have the greatest potential of any TORCH Team - EVER! However, potential can only be realized if we are all working toward the same goal. That goal is not just getting to Honduras, it must include a plan to raise working funds for the houses that we plan to build, the food for the hungry, the medicine for the sick.
I'd like to hear form any and all of you about how your group is doing in this area. Are there any challenges out there? Post some news and let's build some houses!
(if you don't want to post, send me an email and I'll post it)

Things You Should Know

In a couple of months we are going to be in the final preperation stages of our mission and I am hoping that everything will be in place, all the bills paid, and all the planning done. I've done this for several years so, I am not too confident that this year will be any less hectic than all the others.
Oh well! I do know that every year that I have taken a group to serve God and the people of Honduras is better than the year before. It is always hard to believe that it can get better, but it does.
I do have some info that you need to have so you won't be surprised.

• The first news is that the airlines have changed the checked luggage rule to a maximum of 50 pounds per checked bag. There is a 2 bag per person limit too. You can still take a carry-on and I strongly recommend that you make that a back pack.
• Other airline news - the airlines have implemented a rule that requires that your passport is valid for more than 90 days whenever you board the flight to Honduras. I'd recommend that you get your passport renewed if it is due to expire this year.
• In some years we have been able to pay your exit tax out of the registration fee. Our budget this year is very tight (airfares are higher and bus fuel will be more expensive) and you will need to bring $30 to pay your departure tax. We will collect this whenever you open your bank account.
• When you bring cash, please remember that our bankers will be selling limpera in packets that are worth $20. That means that big bills are very difficult to work with. Please bring your cash in $10 or $20 denominations.

I am also getting request from many of you asking "what should I bring?". Well, now you have the answer. Here is your list of TORCH 2005 supplies.

List of Stuff

July 23 – August 6, 2004

Following are a few of the things that everyone needs to bring.

• MAKE SURE THAT YOU HAVE YOUR PASSPORT! We will check everyone before we leave. (Do not pack your passport in luggage to be checked)
  
• Make a photocopy of your passport and keep it separate from the original.
• Bring a minimum of $150 to $200. Also, you’ll need to budget $30 for departure tax from Honduras.
  BRING YOUR MONEY IN $20 INCREMENTS!
• Church clothes - guys need slacks and a collared shirt, gals need a dress.
• Work gloves, hammer, hat(s), sunscreen, & shoes or boots for work.
• Snacks for lunches. Peanut butter, granola bars, & power bars all work well. Think portable & think about sharing.
• Be sure to bring your Bible & a notebook to keep a daily journal
• Canteen, backpack, and knee length shorts, (no tank tops)
• Tylenol, Pepto Bismol, Imedoium, & small first aid kit. Insect repellant , & (personal hygiene – ladies)
• Pillow, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, soap, & toiletries.
• Bags of hard candy to give to kids
• Camera & Film – digital is at your own risk!
• Maximum of 2 checked bags (50 pounds each) and 1 carry-on.
• NO WALKMAN/ CD PLAYERS / MP3/ I-Pod/ etc.
• No expensive jewelry & no hoop earrings.

MAY DAY

One week from now we are going to flip the pages of the calendar to MAY 1.
Now, you may be wondering "what's the big deal, that day comes along every year?"
If that is your thought, you may need to look back at your TORCH deadlines. If you do, you will discover that your airfare is due on May 1.
If you are thinking, " What's the big deal, Marc has always taken care of me before? A few days (weeks) won't make any difference." If these are your thoughts - THINK AGAIN!

Our group is big and we owe American Airlines a lot of money. READ CAREFULLY- If you are late paying your airfare, you will lose your reservation. That means that the cost of a ticket will be at the new HIGHER price. There is no guarentee that you will even be able to get a ticket.
If you cannot pay the airfare in full by May 1, you must notify me by phone or email. I will need to know when the airfare will be paid. Even then, I can't promise that I will be able to keep your ticket.
Thanks for your help.

More Plans

Today you can start the 100 day count-down. I have just returned from a great 5 days of planning in Honduras and I’d like to share some of the specifics.

Work Locations –

Los Pinos is a community that is familiar to many of us. We have worked there for the past couple of years and we will have an opportunity to visit there however, our major project work will take place in several new areas. There is a team of Baxter students working in Los Pinos that is doing a wonderful work and we will have an opportunity to meet them and hear about their work.

La Paz is about 2 hours outside of Tegucigalpa and we are planning to send a team of 30 to 40 on a “TORCH Road Trip”. This team will be working on a church building project. The church in La Paz has been building a new facility for several years and we are going to help them “Get ‘er done”. We will complete the floor, the roof, and build a simple classroom on the back of the building. When we leave, they will be able to begin meeting in their new building. We also plan to help the church with evangelism and a food distribution. The team will be out for one or two nights.

Santa Anna is a beautiful community about 18 miles outside of Tegucigalpa. Last week TORCH, Mi Esperanza, and the IRC was blessed with a beautiful piece of property that will be the center piece of many ministries in Honduras. Our team will be building a new church building for a group of Christians that is currently meeting in a park. Our evangelistic teams will be working in both Santa Anna and another close-by community called Ojojona. We will be building houses, distributing food, working with kids, and providing health care through medical and dental clinics.

There is a house on the property that will be converted into a medical clinic. By the end of the summer we will have build about 20 block houses on our property. In the next year we will build a children’s home for about 20 kids and we will be well on the way to constructing a training center for Mi Esperanza. God is good…….all the time.

Nuevo Oriental is one of the poorest communities that I have ever seen. There are currently about 200 families living there in houses that are made with anything that they could find. If you have been to Honduras, you know that building materials are in short supply – especially scraps. We will be building houses and feeding people in Nuevo Oriental. The community needs Jesus because He is hope. We will be sharing Jesus by our work and our words. We will have more plans for this community.

Of course we will have many more ministry opportunities than ever. We are planning to work with some very special kids that live in a great children’s home that is managed by a guy named Jimmy Hughes. These kids are all victims of terrible things like having seen their parents murdered or rape or any number of events that can cause mental trauma. We are going to be blessed by working with these kids.

I’ll be sharing even more work plans over the next few weeks. Please keep on watching for more news.

We are going to have great days in Honduras

Marc

Work In Honduras

I am in Honduras this weekend looking at where we will be working and planning our ministries. Being in Honduras has given me mixed emotions. I am very happy to be with my friends Tim & Gena & Joe. Then, when we are out in the communities surveying the potential work - the needs seem so overwhelming. There are so very many hungry people, so many stories of need, 1000's of people that need shelter. Where can we start? If you have never been here, you will see.
We all need to remember the "starfish story"
Remember......the morning after a great storm there were millions of starfish washed up on the beach. One lone young boy saw the peril of the starfish and began to pick them up - one at a time and throw them back into the sea. An old man happened upon this sceen and asked the boy what he ws doing. The boy said that he was saving the starfish. The old man said that there were so many starfish on the beach that he couldn't make a difference. The boy looked at the starfish in his hand and then back at the old man and said, "it makes a difference to this one!"
We can't possibly help everyone here with their needs but, we will definately make a difference.
Yesterday we went into one of the poorest areas that I have ever seen and passed out food bags to about 60 families. The village is called - Nuevo Oriental and we will be building houses and working there this summer.
One new ministry that we will work in this summer will involve sending a few brave missionaries to the city dump. Some of the poorest of the poor in Honduras survive by going through the loads of waste that are delivered all day. They are looking for something to eat and we are going to go there and distribute food to them.
"whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine....."
Stay tuned to the blog for more plans. You are going to be a part of something that will change your life.
As always,
Looking forward to great days in Honduras.........

Good Stuff is Happening

Every day I am hearing about all the good things that are happening that will support our work this summer. One of the team members from Borger, Texas (there are 6 from there) has secured enough support from the church where she grew up to build a house and may be able to get another church to build another one! The team from Tupelo, Mississippi built a storage building for their church and the elders are going to give the cost savings to benevolence in Honduras. The elders in Fairview Heights, Illinois (my home church) are going to have a special contribution on May 10th and then they have agreed to match the offering from the mission budget.
Please let all of us know what is happening in your group by posting it in the comments or sending me an email so that I can include it in the next newsletter.
Please remember to pray about our upcoming work.
Pray that we will be effective in the work that our God has planned for us. Pray that we will open our eyes to the needs of the people that we are going to serve. Pray that our lives will be changed and that we will be bold in taking the gospel to the people of Honduras and to the people in our own communities.
In Him,
Marc

March News Letter

Spring is here!

Today is March 21, 2005 and that means that we will be in Honduras in a very short 4 months. Planning for this years mission is in full process and I can assure you that you will be busy. We are in for an amazing experience in 2005. Many people have assured me that they will be sponsoring houses – (we still need more so don’t stop asking for house sponsors) Right now we have about 10 house sponsors and our goal will be at least 25. We are also still looking for financial sponsors for the church building. I am going to travel to Tegucigalpa on April 7^th to survey locations for the building but, as of right now it looks like we will be planting the church in an area called Santa Anna. This is an area similar to Valley of Angels. There is a paid minister in the area and we are looking to build the church building in an area where we also plan to build a Mi Esperanza Training Center and a medical clinic. Please pray that all of these things can happen in 2005. Our part will be the church building and other TORCH Teams will be working on the training center and the clinic.

In earlier news letters, I have mentioned that we will be sending people out of Tegucigalpa to work in an area called La Paz. I will be visiting La Paz in April to identify needs and to build our work plan for that area. The Gulfport, MS church sponsors the church in La Paz and we want to travel to the area to build a few homes, host a medical clinic, work with a food ministry, and send out evangelistic teams to teach. I will be writing the details of my visit in the April news letter.

Our Team

There is strength in numbers and our team will be about 150 strong. At first I was a little concerned about our size. I have since become convinced that God has put this team together for a reason. He has supplied a large number of workers because he has a lot of work planned for us to do. I’m excited that we will probably be the largest single short term mission team among Churches of Christ. I haven verified this but, I can’t find any evidence of anything bigger. Our work together will be incredible and our devotionals will be unforgettable. I can’t wait!

Benevolence News

Our team has big, big plans for this summer. These plans are not free and we all need to pray and to work together to make sure that we have the resources that we will need to support the work that we would like to do. It takes about $300 per person to make this happen. Please do not be bashful in telling people about our work and asking them to join in by sponsoring a house, part of the church, the purchase of food, or a day of a medical clinic.

Here is the cost of each of these:

Houses - $800
Church Building (including land) $12,500

Food for a family for a month - $15

Medical Clinic a day that will treat about 500 - $1,000

Please feel free to comment on what you or your group is doing in the area of benevolence.

FYI, you can view my personal web log at marclt.blogspot.com

I am looking forward to Another Great Day in Honduras

Marc

Shipping Container

Great news!

Our team will be partnering with one from Birmingham, Alabama to ship a container full of the goods that we will need to be effective in our mission. Our plan is to ship from New Orleans and our target ship date will be in late April or early May….stay tuned for more on the ship date.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will use this web site to notify you of the targeted items for the container. Right now I can tell you that our desire will probably not include large quantities of clothing. Our warehouse in Tegucigalpa is already fairly full of many clothing items so, we will utilize our container space for other items. The clothing exception would be NEW or near NEW Shoes. We would like to have really nice shoes for the children on the mountain (socks too!). The TORCH shoe store is a great day and fun ministry – we’ll use the shoes for this.

If you have suggestions for container items, let me know. Keep in mind of one thing that we all need to preach on - everything we ship will be given in the name of Jesus and as Matthew 25 says it is just like personally giving to Jesus. We need to remind people of a simple rule – “NO JUNK FOR JESUS”.

Thanks

Marc

Our Team

Setting records is great & I love to be a part of a team that excels. With TORCH however, setting records isn’t what we are all about. Our only purpose is to follow the Great Commission and to do the works of service that our God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10). Then at the end of the day, we will give our great and awesome God all the glory.

The good news about numbers is that our God likes them. There are a lot of occasions in his written word that show us that numbers are important to God. For instance, we know how many people were fed out of a small basket of fish and loaves, we know how many people became followers in Acts, and we are blessed with many other number references throughout the Bible.

With this in mind, I think that it is important that I share a few numbers about our 2005 mission to Honduras. You are about to be a part of TORCH history. Our team will more than likely be the largest single TORCH team ever….we will likely be about 150 strong. I truly believe that we are going to be this big because God has planned it and he has a lot for us to do. I believe that our size means that we have assumed the responsibility to work harder than ever and that when we do, the accomplishments for our God will be incredible. Right now we plan to plant a new church and build a meeting place, we’ll build as many houses as possible – 25 to 30 would be great, we will pack and deliver food to as many hungry families as we can – hopefully over 1,000, our medical team will treat over 1,000 sick & hurting people, we will send more than 10 evangelistic teams into the mountains every day and the harvest will be amazing, hundreds of children will see Jesus in the daily teams that work at Hospital Esquala, and much, much more. Then…at the end of our 2 week mission we will all see Jesus more clearly than ever.

I hope that all of you are excited about what our God has planned for our mission. I am! I would encourage any of you to use the comment section to let us know about how you or your group are coming along with plans to raise working funds for building, feeding, etc. I look forward to hearing from you.

Marc

February Newsletter

February 15 has come & gone and most of you were right on time with your applications and I would like to thank you for that. This year’s team will be fairly large and that means that the paper work will be pretty complex – especially if you don’t send everything on time and all together. Please keep in mind that there will be over 120 of us and Terri & I will need your help to get us your stuff (and money) on time. Here are a few simple requests that will really help us out:

1) If you sent an application without a passport number, we still need it. Please email (or snail mail) your number as soon as you get it.

2) If you sent a deposit without an application, please go to
irccorp.org to download an application. Fill in the application and mail it as soon as possible. You will not be assigned an airline ticket if we do not have an application.

3) If you are under 18 and traveling without a parent, you MUST have a Spanish consent form completed, notarized, and in my file. You can download this from the site mentioned in #2.

4) The next due date will be May 1^st. All airfare is due and the payment per person will be $600. This is a HARD due date and means that I need to have the money ready to deposit on May 1. Money is due on this date so that we can pay the airlines before a late penalty is incurred.

Working Funds
Now is the time to build up our working funds. Here are several uses of these funds:

1) Houses - This summer we will be building both wooden & block houses – and every house we build will be built better than any we have built in the past. The cost per block house will be about $1100 and a better variety of wooden house will cost about $800. We will build about 15 wooden houses and 5 or 6 block houses.

2) Food – We plan to pack about 1000 bags of food for hungry families. Each bag will cost about $14.00

3) Medicine – We will have at least 4 days of clinics where we will treat over 500 people a day. The medicines for a one day clinic will cost about $1000.

4) Church Building – We plan to plant a new church and build a building. The cost of the building will be about $10,000 and the land will be another $2,500.

Our team has ambitious plans and we will all need to work together to make our plans come together. Please pray for the planning, the resources, and the work that God has planned for our team.

Our God is good…..All the time.

Get ready for another great day in Honduras,

Marc

New Communication Tool

Welcome to the MS TORCH team web log. The new communication tools that are available on the internet are amazing and I hope that you will welcome the introduction of a place that will give you the latest news & information about our mission. This site will replace the need to email monthly newsletters. Instead, I will post updates as they happen. Additionally, everyone and anyone can communicate through the comment section. This summer we will use this site to post daily updates for our friends and families back home. Please share this address with anyone that may be interested in our work.

I plan to post a new newsletter the week of February 20, 2005
Marc