Joan Tyson Report from Honduras

Yesterday was a wonderful day. I felt like I was sitting in heavenly places. My morning started at 5:30 a.m. when I tried to see if there was a curfew which would hinder my trip to Nicaragua to participate in the celebration of the 440th anniversary of translation of the Spanish Bible. Finding no curfew, we left at 7:15 for Palacaquina, Nicaragua where the Good Samaritan churches in Nicaragua were gathering for the Bible Day march.

The march started in front of the First Baptist Church in Palacaquina and ended at the plaza, the same plaza where the old, ragged tent was put up 39 years ago and the Gospel of Jesus Christ was preached for the first time. Thirty nine years ago, Bob was looking for a place to begin the ministry in northern Nicaragua where God had called him to go some five years before. After 3 ½ years of studying the Bible, three months of trying to raise support to go, and one year of language study in Costa Rica, at last we were in northern Nicaragua. He, another missionary, and a national preacher stopped on the Pan American highway and prayed that God would show them which way to go. They were at a gasoline station and could have gone in one of four directions. Bob said that he believe God wanted them to go to the right, which was Palacaquina, a town filled with cowboys with pistols, cantinas and all kind of open sin.

Yesterday, as I looked out over the MULTITUDE of people I could not hold back the tears…Just to see what God has done over the last 39 years. There were so many people they couldn’t even be counted. They had put a tent on the plaza where hundreds were seated but around the tent, on the road, sitting on the banks, there was a multitude. I just thought of Bob´s words years ago as he compared the Gospel to striking a match in a dry land and how the flames would spread. That is exactly what has happened in Nicaragua. The match was struck and God fanned the flames. Now the Gospel has gone out all over Nicaragua. Not even one half of our churches were able to participate because of the distance and expense. We should never, never think that what we do for the Lord is nothing. As one pastor said, Bob is in heaven but he left something with the people which is forever and that is the Word of God.

We hurried back from Nicaragua to get to another meeting back in the mountains of Duyusupo. The churches in our area have been meeting in different churches every Sunday night for a month and last night the meeting was scheduled for Duyusupo. The curfew was to start at 9:00 so the meeting was scheduled to start at 4 p.m. As you know, nothing starts on time here and it was about 5:30 before we got started and the service went for three hours. I have never seen anything like it. The place was full with almost as many standing as there were seated. People stood for three hours while people from the different churches sang specials, gave testimonies, and then a powerful message from the Word of God. Five came forward for salvation and rededications. The Holy Spirit was working. The people who came forward, three adults and two teenagers, were shaking and one man´s tears were falling on the altar from where he was kneeling.

It was after nine o´clock when we left Duyusupo. One of the buses bringing 80 people would not start and so everyone was putting as many people as possible on the back of the pickup trucks. When we got back to San Marcos, it was like a ghost town. The curfew had taken place and here all of us were loaded down with people. A couple of trucks were stopped but when they told the soldiers they had been in a service the soldiers just told them to get off the streets as soon as possible.

There is a lot of bad things going on here but in the midst of the bad, God is working. I truly felt like I sat in heavenly places yesterday. I thank the Lord that the freedom to worship here is just as powerful as it has ever been. Thank you for praying for us and for Honduras.

Joan Tyson – September 27, 2009