Our prayer is that all of you will have a blessed Christmas with your families and a Happy New Year.
2013 has been a special year for our ministry here in Las Brisas with 20 baptisms and church attendance increasing so much we had to enlarge our sanctuary so that there would be room for all the people attending. We had the dedication of the renovated building on August 17th at which time Madonna was surprised with a certificate telling of the appreciation of her ministry in Honduras.
Madonna was also honored in April by the Honduran ministers with a service at the Buenos Aires church in San Pedro Sula. She was especially blessed to see many ministers now serving in Honduras who were in her Sunday School classes when she served in the mountains.
John has kept busy fighting termites and rebuilding cabinets in the bathroom and kitchen and some bookshelves in the area Madonna uses for an office.
We had visits from Daniel Stec, a male nurse from Martinesville, Indiana who spent two nights with us and a one day visit from many members of the Chester Christian Church, Chester, Virginia along with Tom Schneller of Disciplemakers Ministry and two ministers from the Buenos Aires congregation, San Pedro Sula.
Madonna, her nurse Gilma and her clinic helper, Eva, continued to go to 6 de Mayo for a clinic the last Friday of each month until September when Dina Hernandez started working there two days a week.
Madonna had good news in May when she visited her cardiologist and had a normal electrocardiagram. She is now on only one medicine for her heart and feels great. Again, thanks for all of you who prayed.
We rejoiced in September when Edil Brandon Velasquez and Ada Patricia Ramirez were united in marriage in the newly renovated church building. Edil is one of the new Christians and is growing in the Lord and Ada is Madonna’s “granddaughter” since Madonna delivered her in the mountains in 1989. They have lived together several years and have two daughters, but wanted to be married legally to sent an example to other young people in the congregation.
Madonna and John celebrated their 26th wedding anniversary in October and John celebrated his 90th birthday also in October and Madonna celebrated her 80th birthday in December.
Thank you again for your prayers and letters. In His Love, John and Madonna