God Calls, God Leads & God Provides

God has transformed the lives of Oscar and Yaritza as they have followed Him! Today we get to share with you part of their story!

THEIR MISSIONARY CALL
Oscar studied and obtained his degree in psychology and also studied business. As a young man, he gave his life to the Lord and has a great passion for evangelism. He and Yaritza were part of a Baptist Church in the capital of Honduras, Tegucigalpa which was involved in church planting. While living there, Oscar discovered his gifts in ministry, shared the gospel in prisons and even with young men caught up in gangs.

This young couple began to sense God’s call upon their lives to plant churches in unreached area in their own country. About fourteen years ago, with the help and a small stipend from their home church, Oscar and Yaritza moved to La Esperanza, not far from a group of indigenous Lenca Indians who live in the mountainous areas. As Yaritza and Oscar set up a sales business there, they began to be even more burdened for the sad state of the people, especially the families, as such a large percentage of the men who are alcoholics. They began to visit families in the regions around, but experienced difficulty in travel and often were met with a hostile reception. To God’s glory, three years later, they planted a church in Zapote: Triumphant in Christ Baptist Church.

This was a great accomplishment as the process was not without opposition from religious leaders and those practicing witchcraft. Even the water supply was shut off to the believers in the area, making it necessary to find an alternate solution.

THEIR SEARCH FOR SENDING AGENCY
Oscar and Yaritza felt discouraged, very alone and overwhelmed, not getting much moral support from their sending church. They began to pray about going under a sending agency. During this process we began to mentor them, God continued to open doors for them to be full time missionaries. After only about three sessions in the material focused on bi-vocational missionaries, Oscar shared: “Before we started this mentoring with you, we were in a dilemma: Should we pursue going full-time as missionaries, or continue our business and ministering? We decided it is possible to do both!”

THEIR AMAZING ANSWERS TO PRAYERS:
During our months together via video streaming, together we went before the Lord for specific requests. While some are ongoing, we experienced some exciting movement from His hand.

1. Ministering to kids as they visited neighborhoods, they prayed for a way to reach the parents with the gospel message. The Lord granted them entrance to the main public school in the area, where they were able to hold a 12-week course using the study “The Great Adventure” to teach the gospel. The graduation was celebrated with diplomas and New Testaments for the children to take home.

2. After years of praying for road construction to be done (as their trek up the mountains was often affected by the rains and deep ruts in the road), God answered right before them church’s 11th anniversary celebration by having the rain stop enough and machines began working on the road!

3. Prayers for a few more key Lenca men to be reached. Francisco Dominguez’ father was rather ill, but when Oscar went to their home and prayed for him- God chose to heal him miraculously. For a culture that hides emotion, this time it couldn’t be contained! Francisco and his family have warmed up to these missionaries and is now open to the gospel. Oscar recently led another, Prudencio Rodriguez, to Christ. He accepted Oscar’s offer to meet with him for discipleship.

However, because of his radical change, the greater family has been in opposition to their times together, indicating they’d rather have him continue as an alcoholic than be a Bible believing Christian! Pray for this family.

Yaritza, a musician, teacher and supportive wife and mother, recently wrote to our Guatemala office staff: (translated) “The Working Through Your Call to the Nations study has been a great blessing and a very good help for my husband and me to be studying and sharing with missionaries Bill and Linda Parker. Let me tell you that by being in this mentoring process, God has revealed things to us that were not known to us previously.

Having already had some experience in the field has been very helpful in understanding how God works in missions…Our longing is to do even greater work now for the glory of the Lord.”

Praise the Lord for how He is using Oscar and Yaritza to bring honor and glory to Himself!

• Please pray for encouragement and community for Oscar and Yaritza as they continue in planting another church, while dividing their time with the first one.
• Also pray for discernment as they seek to follow however or wherever God leads them