Heart of the King Ministries Newsletter - Heart of the King Ministries

… for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him! Matthew 6:8

Nothing surprises God! It is such a comfort to know God knows what we are going through and how to get us through it. Better than that, he has prepared us who know Him with the strength and wisdom it takes to get through victoriously as we rely on the Word of God. We may get some bumps and scars but nothing that will stop us.

As mentioned in our last letter, June was busy giving out lots of food and medicines. The restrictions are still tight here. We are only allowed to circulate one day every two weeks to go to the grocery stores, hardware stores and banks (based on the last digit of your ID number). Even when we can get out to go to the grocery store on our ‘day’, our temperature is checked at the door, we have to walk through Clorox water and wipe our hands down with hand sanitizer, then we get to shop for what we need. Praise God that there is water delivery and some food delivery if you have cash. Some stores have started to open and there are some street vendors selling their goods. But there are many people that are still not allowed to return to work. As restrictions may begin to ease in the coming weeks, there will still be a great need until people can return to some type of normal life. July started off slow for most of us missionaries here in La Esperanza. The government money had run out so food distribution with the mayor’s office was stopped. With restrictions still in place our hearts longed to be out helping others but God knew we needed the break for rest and reflection.

We are continuing to help those around us as we can by: taking them to the doctor/hospital as needed, helping our landlord take plants to his farm, assist fellow missionaries in moving, buying groceries for friends in need and when a door opens where we can help we try to be there.

Here is an overview of the past few months:

There is much need here. We have been working with the local municipality (Mayor’s office) to help those in need. Over the past few months, our ministry has purchased almost $5000 in food. Along with the tens of thousands of dollars in food provided by the municipality we have helped distribute 40 lb. bags of food to almost 4500 families as of the end of June. Since people are not working, many could not afford needed medicines so we were able to help purchase and distribute medicines also. One other thing is transportation. There are several people in our community that have cancer and must travel 3 hours to the capital city for treatments then return. The city usually helps with this by providing a car & driver but last month they did not have enough money to pay for gas, all glory to God we (you) were able to purchase gas for the six hour round trip. This month the city could not get a driver so our missionary friends drove the patient down for treatment. Whenever a need is presented, we try to listen and follow God’s direction in helping anyway we can. All of this is through your support! You are touching so many people here and we thank you for caring.

In July the municipality started a new program that we were able to help with. Buses (we call them mini vans and pickup trucks) have not been carrying passengers since March. Buses are the main means of transportation for most Hondurans (especially in the remote areas). Because there is no bus service due to the COVID virus, the municipality has decided to stock several remote villages in our area with a small pharmacy containing basic medications for coughs, aches and pains. Also, they are teaching the community leaders how to run it and maintain it as a local business. Our current involvement has been delivering the medical supplies and personnel to the remote villages to discuss with and train the leaders. This looks like a great program and opportunity to help the people living in remote areas. This project is in the experimental stages. We hope to get more involved as the program is established and grows. The people need access to these basic medicines and health items because it is actually a 1-2 hour walk to the nearest place where these supplies can be purchased. We are continuing to work with the opportunities that the Lord gives us.

We do have a special fund setup for community relief. We will continue purchasing food & medicines to distribute along with providing rides or gas for medical treatments. Over the past few weeks several of our fellow missionaries have become ill with the virus and we want to help them as needed with medicines and food. If you would like to help us continue with these services, you can designate contributions on our PayPal page to general support or community relief. If you want to send a check, you can designate contributions in the memo line and send to the address listed on our website. We appreciate you partnering with us.

The new school year for private schools starts on August 17. Gene will be teaching Bible to 7th through 11th grade students again this year. The week of August 10 is a teacher work week in preparation for classes to start. Plans are for the classes to be virtual probably until December or January. Please be in pray for us as we start school. Also, pray for the public school students, their school year runs from February until November. As of now there is no word on when public school will begin again. They are going to lose at least a full year of classes.

Below is the latest update on the Covid situation in Honduras as of the end of July. These charts show the statistics for Honduras and for our town of La Esperanza.

Population of Honduras is approximately 9.6 million people.
Population of La Esperanza is approximately 14,000 people.
Total cases in Honduras 43,794 with 1,384 deaths.
La Esperanza and Intibucá (sister cities side by side) total cases 240 with 5 deaths.
These numbers may not look bad when compared to the US numbers but you have to take into consideration that the medical capabilities in Honduras are much less and are already maxed out with these current numbers.