To Those Who Interceded + Pictures

This is a note from Nita New to our intercessors. Prior to the crusade week, Nita sends out 21 days of prayer emails to our prayer warriors. They help us bathe the week in prayer. This is her quick report to them now that we are home.

Hello everyone,

I wanted to let you know that the team is back safely and the trip went really well. We saw God do many wonderful things throughout the week. Many people were touched by our loving God in many ways - there were healings, deliverances and many salvations throughout the week.

I always have a favorite moment and this trip it was on Friday night being on the stage and watching the people flood the front as Stephen gave the salvation altar call. I was moved deeply as I watched them come forward. I watched 3 young men come forward and it touched my heart to see them come to the front and stay there the rest of the evening crying out to God. Two of them seemed very humble and one of them seemed to be struggling with pride as they came. It was obvious that God was moving on their hearts. There were hundreds that came forward that night. I will never forget those precious moments of seeing Jesus draw them in.

Thank you so much for praying and interceding! The harvest that we saw and the miracles that took place are the fruit of you investing in this ministry through prayer.

May the Lord richly bless you,

Nita

The prayer of the upright is His delight. Prov 15:8

Final Report on Rivera Hernandez

Dear Family and Friends,

So the police arrest the political mob boss in Rivera Hernandez the morning of our parade, the anticipated mayor of San Pedro Sula invites us in for a private meeting, thousands and thousands of people turn out for the weekend crusade meetings, the team watches our national television broadcast in a hotel room Saturday morning – and that only begins the story to a remarkable week in Honduras! For you who prayed, gave, and followed us throughout the week at www.livingLOLI.blogspot.com – thank you!

Here are some of the highlights from Rivera Hernandez:
· We gave out 4,500 pounds of food in five days. We also gave away flip flops, stuffed animals and soccer balls.

· We held 7 conferences:
Children – ministered to over 2,000 kids
Youth Rally – 100+ teenagers said YES to Jesus
Pastors – unity in Rivera Hernandez among evangelical leaders
– formed 2 brand-new pastor alliances in neighboring communities
Intercessors, Worship, Evangelism, and Women Conferences also went well

· We opened and dedicated Eagles Christian Bi-Lingual School in San Pedro Sula. More about this and our partnership with them in reaching and educating children later.

· Over 25,000 people (for 2 nights) gathered in one of the most dangerous gang-neighborhoods in the country to hear the Gospel and worship Jesus. The presence of God was so thick and amazing that people just spread their arms wide and cried openly – lost in the love of Jesus. The call for salvation touched my heart as people kept coming forward and filled up the large opening in front of the stage – as Alisa sang over them in Spanish. Because of the amazing presence of the Lord, people were surrendering their lives to Jesus before, during and after the altar call. In fact, as I walked off the stage on Saturday night, one lady asked me to pray for the girl standing next to her. She had been fighting all night with the Lord – but she had just yielded her heart to Jesus as we were leaving and was overwhelmed by the love of God.

It is so amazing living for Jesus! He is the one who saves, heals, delivers, and releases people into a destiny beyond anything they could ever imagined!

Thank you for being apart of this – we love you all!

Every Blessing,
Stephen and Alisa

Friday and Saturday Crusade Pics

Parade Pics

Hello family and friends! We just returned from the first crusade night. God is our hero! He is so awesome, but we are too tired to tell you about it now. We are off to bed! But here are a few pics from the parade last night! Enjoy!

Please Pray

I just wanted to ask you to continue to pray for us as we head into the weekend. Tonight we have a city wide parade, that we really see as a prayer march through the city. After this, the teams will be sent in different directions one last time to minister in churches. I will be doing a mini worship conference tonight with the worship team, band members and choir. Then, tomorrow is our last day for distribution as we head into the first night of the crusade.

As powerful as the week has been, we are really heading into the "crescendo" of the week. This is the time when the entire city comes together in one place and in one accord to take their city for Jesus! The battle is the Lord's! Please stand with us in prayer believing that the Lord is bringing salvation, deliverance and revival to Rivera Hernandez at this time!

The Lord Bless You Today!
Alisa Evans

Youth Conference

Last night, we split the team up and sent them to several churches across Rivera Hernandez to minister. Perhaps, the highlight of the evening was the youth conference. Brad Ball painted during worship and then used the painting in his message to share the love of Jesus with the youth. Over 100 youth responded to the call for salvation and Jeremy Campbell led them in prayer to receive Jesus. Apparently, it was an amazing time from beginning to end. I'm going to let them share more later, but thought you all would be interested in seeing some pics. Bless you all! -Alisa

Nita New: Salvation & Outpouring of God’s Spirit

Yesterday was an awesome day of distribution as we saw people saved at almost every house we went to! The third house was my favorite experience of the day. A mother and daughter were making tortillas when we arrived. The Pastor with us talked to them for a few minutes but they were very hard and unreceptive. We gave them shoes and food then we started to leave. I noticed a young man (about 15 yrs. old) behind them by the house and when I made eye contact with him, I felt the Lord tell me not to leave without reaching out to him. The team was leaving but I brought Lindsay with me to translate and went over to the chair he was sitting in. I began to tell him that God had a plan for his life, that it was not an accident that we were there today, and that the Lord told me to talk to him and tell him about Jesus. I shared the Gospel with him and told him that Jesus loved him very much. Then I asked him if he wanted to pray and receive Jesus as his Lord and Savior and he said yes! He repeated a very sincere prayer asking for salvation and afterward his expression was so joyful! As we were getting ready to leave his sister (who had been so hard at the beginning) told us that she wanted to receive Jesus too! I led her in prayer and she also had so much joy! To say the least, it was an awesome and fruitful day for us. I was telling everyone afterward what has become my personal motto, “There’s nothing like life with Jesus!!”

And if that wasn’t enough blessing for one day, when we arrived back at the pastor’s church to meet with the other team we walked into an outpouring of God’s Spirit! Cindy was outside calling out to us to hurry and come into the building because the Holy Spirit was moving. As we went in, the presence of the Lord was really strong in the church. The pastor and his family were being powerfully ministered to by the Holy Spirit. I went up to the Pastor to ask him a question, and when I did he reached out and grabbed my arm. As soon as he touched my arm I felt the power God so strongly that it literally shook my whole body - it completely took me by surprise! As we spent time praying in that little church the Lord touched all of us with His wonderful presence. It was a glorious day with our Jesus!!!
Nita New

Skoshi Howard Blog Post

Buenos Dias! How to begin to describe what the Lord is doing here. …. There are no words but I will do my best. The presence of the Lord is so strong! Wherever we go whatever we do we are seeing lives changed and people being healed. The love of God being poured out.

Last night, in one of the services, there were approximately 70 people who had gathered together for a prayer meeting. Joe shared from Isaiah 6 and invited anyone to come up to the front wanting to give their heart to Jesus. So many things happened last night that I’m not even sure that I’m aware of them all. But the two things that stand out are of two people being saved and delivered. The Lord truly gave joy for mourning and a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

One of the women who came up for prayer was obviously being tormented by demons. She would not even look at me (not even open her eyes). Several of us gathered around her and started praying in the spirit and I encouraged her to say out-loud: “I am free because of the blood of Jesus.” The more she said it the more the demonic hold on her became less and less. I said open your eyes and look at me in the name of Jesus – the more she said it, the more she was able to open her eyes and focus. I could see the stuff being broken off of her! By the end of the night, she was set completely free and was raising her hands, praising the Lord.

Then there was the young boy with the yellow shirt. He had come up front for salvation along with 3 other teenage boys (and two women). They were all worshiping God but this boy in the yellow shirt was radically delivered. Without anyone touching him, he began to break down before the Lord. He fell to his knees and started vomiting – being delivered totally of whatever bound him inside. Pastor and Joe laid him on his side and started praying over him. This teenage boy was just sobbing. After awhile, I looked at him and on his back he had his hands raised to heaven, praising the Lord.

I will never forget the hug that young boy gave me as we were leaving. I’m still in total awe of what Jesus did last night.

Dios le bendiga,
Skoshi Howard

Extreme Team Pics

Little Tin Houses on the Mt. Side

Living Conditions

A New Friend

Lynsey's Post

Buenos dias everyone. This is Lynsey Lyons and I just finished a wonderful dinner with the Evans family and Dennis at Power Chicken.

Today’s distribution was especially exciting for me. I got the pleasure of being on the “Extreme Team” with Wilmer as our translator! He is such an awesome guy. He can always put a smile on my face. Anyways, we went to one of the poorest areas of Rivera Hernandez and the road to the location was crazy bumpy (like I almost became sick because the road was so rough). And goodness, Bruce had to sit in the bed of the truck the whole time with 2 other pastors. Once we arrived at the church, we grabbed food bags and headed up this massive hill to visit a family of 6. While the others prayed and talked with the mother of the family, I kept locking eyes with the daughter-in-law and I could feel the tension and frustration with her just by looking at her. So I prayed with this girl just hoping for something, anything really. And once I started praying for her she just started weeping. It broke my heart. I continued to pray for her and I truly believe that she was somehow changed. Something stirred in her heart and it was all she needed. That was an awesome experience for me.

The day finished with at least 82 people accepting God into their lives. And that was just with our group!! How amazingly awesome is that! Wow. That’s been like the word of the week here people, wow.

Well anyways, this is just a small itty bitty tiny portion of what has been happening here in Honduras. It’s truly amazing and I am sooo excited to be here. Goodnight!

Press Conference & TV Interview

Hi Everyone,

I just got back from the Channel 39 Television Station. The Christian newscast interviewed me for 15 minutes (live) about the team and our work in the community this week. It was a lot of fun and went as well as we could have hoped.

Earlier this morning, Steve, Dennis and I had a typical Honduras breakfast with forty pastors, the chief of police and the local media. We stepped outside for a few minutes to be interviewed by reporters from 2 television stations, before returning inside for the at-large press conference. This was one of the nicest press sessions I’ve been apart of with the hardest question being: why do you keep coming back to Honduras? And that was easy! We love this place and so does the Lord as demonstrated by the outpouring of His power and compassion on the people!

On a sporting note, DC United is staying here at the hotel too. They have a soccer match tonight against one of the Honduras teams. You never know who you are going to meet here!

Blessings,
Stephen

Kimber & Natalie: First Impressions

Hey Guys! It’s Kimber and Natalie! We are having an AMAZING time here in Rivera Hernandez, Honduras. This is my (Natalie) first time out of the country, and all I keep saying to myself is “I am not in America, this is crazy!” Kimber on the other hand has been on four trips but says it still feels like her first. She keeps saying to me, “Natalie we are definitely not in Texas. There are mountains here!” Speaking of mountains…

My group (Kimber) just happened to be the “Extreme Team.” We literally traveled in the back of a pick-up truck up a mountain. Talk about an adrenaline rush! Because of the incline, we all got out and trekked up the rest of the way. The first house we came across consisted of a family of six. We handed the mother two bags of food (thinking that would be sufficient) and briefly explained to her that even though these bags would only last and provide her for a week or so that God would provide for her forever. Then, (get this!) she said that it was absolutely crazy that God sent us all the way from the USA to bring her food today because she had no idea where her family's next meal would come from! Praise the Lord! That is so cool!

The people here are absolutely beautiful, not only physically, but spiritually as well. I (Natalie) realized this the moment I stepped off the bus at my distribution site. Tears filled my eyes as I told Machelle, “I hope they don’t think I’m upset because I’m crying, but I’m so overcome with compassion for these people.” Skoshi and the team gathered everyone together to hand out food and share a short message. After Skoshi shared a salvation message, 20 people accepted Christ!! Oh! And I witnessed my first miracle today: two partially blind women were healed!

As we got back to the hotel, reports kept coming in about things that happened in the third group. One of our favorites was a 77-year old man, accepting the Lord. I guess that goes to show that whether you accept Christ when you’re 4 or the day before you die, its all the same to Jesus! On a side note today was not even supposed to happen. As many of you know LOLI trips usually fly out at 6am on Mondays (which would’ve been today) but God had a greater plan for us to fly out on Sunday. Also, the first day that we're here, we usually put together food bags all day for distribution that week. However, because two ladies at the home church here felt led to serve us, they put together 500 bags on their own, allowing us to distribute 200 of them today! How crazy is it to think that God orchestrated all this to happen so that there would be over 30 salvations today! He’s mind boggling!! :)

Keep us in your prayers! We are getting up at 6am tomorrow… we need energy! Haha :)

Dios le Bendiga! (God Bless!)

-Kimber and Natalie

P.S. The picture is of Pastor Vic and Kimber ministering to a woman we met today. She was about five months pregnant and her husband was murdered 3 months ago. Lord, draw near to her!

We Have Arrived!!

We made it! We surprised Lynsey,the youngest teenager on the team, with a birthday cake and a couple of bracelets for her 17th birthday when we arrived at the hotel last night. It was fantastic seeing Dennis, Tammy, William, Erin, Wilmer and other members of our Honduras team!

We had team devotions this morning. Ray led us in worship and Stephen spoke from I Peter 5:5+ on God resisting us when our hearts are proud. He hates pride because of what it produces in the human heart. Stephen became very vulnerable with the team by telling of the time when the Lord dealt severely with the pride in his life. Our loving Father knew this had to be dealt with before He could release the fullness of His purposes and plans for Stephen. Lord, help us to live lowly!

The teams just left for a mini-day of distribution of food, stuffed animals and flip-flops. More on that later today when they return.

Love you all!

Alisa

P.S. This picture is in honor of the first day of distribution. It was taken on another trip and very typical of the places we go.

Welcome Friends & Family!

On Sunday, a team of 25 LOLI recruits will travel from DFW to share the love and compassion of Jesus with the people of Rivera Hernandez, Honduras. We are inviting you to join with us on our journey as we discover what God has in store for these precious people!

The Lord always amazes us with His demonstrations of compassion and power! We are hoping to share with you our stories and testimonies throughout the ministry week. It is going to be awesome! Please take a moment to subscribe to this blog so that you may receive our updates as soon as we post.

We are so excited to go on this adventure with you!

Every blessing,
Stephen & Alisa