A beautiful new partnership

Greetings to everyone! Mindi here! We hope this finds you all well and healthy and happy and looking forward to a beautiful summer! Things have been so busy with Teach Them to Fish that the time really got away from us between blogs this time, but we now have several important and truly motivating updates.

First and foremost, we are so happy to announce a new partnership between Trinity Episcopal Church in Natchez and Teach Them To Fish. After their enthusiastic response to our workshop at Council in January, we have been working and planning with several members of the vestry at Trinity, and I had the opportunity to visit and give a short presentation to them during their Wednesday night dinner last month. Trinity is holding their annual fundraiser, Claws for a Cause, on May 21. This is a fun event with live music, lobster dinners, and a street party atmosphere. 75% of the funds raised during this event will go toward funding Trinity’s Honduras mission with Teach Them to Fish, and we can’t wait! They are in the process of assembling a mission team to come to Roatan to launch a sister relationship with a church here, as well as to start new, and support existing microindustries. John and I will be traveling back to Natchez to attend the fundraiser, and we would love to see all of you there! Please see the flyer attached for details. I have it on good authority that, even though the initial deadline for lobster dinner orders was May 7, if you contact them soon, they will be able to accommodate some extra orders. We would love to have you come by and introduce yourselves to us if you’re in attendance! We cannot wait to see what God does with this amazing new relationship we have with Trinity Natchez!

Closer to home here in Honduras, we are continuing to work closely with the Diocese of Honduras to compile a “menu of missions” with a list of the most pressing needs within the churches in Honduras. We are working toward getting this translated and organized as soon as possible so we can offer different service experiences here on Roatan and on mainland Honduras to interested mission groups. We are investigating the logistics required to form some small optical shops affiliated with individual Honduran churches to provide low-cost prescription and reading glasses while also providing an income opportunity for the churches. If you are an ophthalmologist, optometrist, optician, or know someone in this field who would like to become involved with this mission, please reach out to us!

Things with Microindustry Missions Market and our core microindustries on the island continue to flourish. As of the first quarter of 2023, sales across all microindustries were up roughly 40% compared with the previous year. Our ladies on university scholarship continue to learn and grow and are using their newfound knowledge in the bookkeeping and management of the store and their microindustry. We are also excited to announce that we have a new microindustry from a church in Tegucigalpa, Resine Art, which produces beautiful keychains and larger items made with resin. We are in the process of bringing at least 2 additional mainland microindustries into the store to help improve the economic stability and the lives of even more Honduran people.

As always, I will close with a few words of gratitude and a couple specific prayer requests. We are so grateful for the enthusiasm and support of Bishop Seage in Mississippi and Bishop Allen in Honduras, and for the love and warmth shown to us by Father Ken Ritter and the folks at Trinity in Natchez. We are incredibly grateful to the folks who regularly support our mission through our scholarship program.

We ask for your specific prayers over the fundraising effort at Trinity on May 21. Even if you cannot attend, please cover the event and the organizers in prayer for a safe, fun, and productive environment for everyone. Please continue to pray for the pastors of the churches in Honduras, who are struggling daily to find the funds to keep their churches open to their parishioners and communities. Please also pray specifically for the daughter of one of our priests in La Ceiba who recently underwent surgery to remove her leg below the knee due to a cancerous lesion in her bone. She is recovering now, but we are researching options to try and help her be fitted for an adequate prosthesis so she can continue walking without crutches. If anyone has a contact within an organization that could help this young girl, please reach out to use!

We love serving God, the people of Honduras, and the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi. Your prayers, love, and support are what make that possible!

Wishing you God’s greatest blessings,
Mindi and John