Mississippi – Here we come!

Happy New Year from Roatan! We are excited about how 2023 is going to unfold for this mission, for Mississippi, and for the people of Honduras.

The most pressing and exciting news we can share with you today is that we are headed back to Mississippi next week to attend the 196^th Annual Council of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi. (For our non-Episcopalian friends, this is the annual meeting of leaders from every single Episcopalian Church in the state.) In November and then again in December, we met with Bishop Brian Seage and shared with him how much our mission had grown in the 4 years since John was awarded the United Thank Offering Grant in 2019. Bishop Seage was so gracious to invite us to address the Council briefly on Saturday morning and to lead a workshop on Saturday afternoon for anyone interested in learning about our mission and how they can become involved.

We are preparing diligently, and praying constantly that God will use this opportunity to connect in a way that will further His Will for both Mississippi AND Honduras. We look forward to meeting delegates, pastors, and members from mission-oriented congregations around the state who are looking for a way to serve others internationally, whether it is by helping to form new microindustries, by sending mission teams to Honduras, and/or by partnering in any other ways God has in mind! Please be in prayer with us about this exciting opportunity. We cannot wait to share with our home state what a joy it has been to watch our adopted Honduran families become so much more self-sufficient through the education, vocational training, and most of all, by the love of Jesus Christ that we have been honored to be able to give them through this mission. We are praying to connect with others just as excited about these things as we are.  We can’t wait to see what’s going to happen next!

Right now, we are enjoying busy season with multiple cruise ships docked every week, which means busy times at the store that serves as the outlet for all of our microindustries. Our store manager, Carmen, is excited that she gets to be enrolled in a marketing class as part of her university studies this semester, and we are looking forward to the creative ideas that are born from her educational endeavors.  Rolando and his apprentices at Tropical Wood Works had a restful holiday vacation and have returned to the wood shop with a formidable list of orders to fulfill. All our other microindustry team members are busy producing their products for sale to the onslaught of tourists, and we are staying busy updating the business license at the municipal building, ordering supplies for Roatan Glass Art and Tropical Wood Works, and making sure everything is running smoothly with all 10 of our microindustries. We have a list a mile long of things to finish this week before we fly back to Mississippi, but we are anxious to see familiar faces who have been so supportive of Teach Them to Fish over the last 16 years. Mississippi – Here We Come!