Blog - 61 Isaiah

The Upward Calling

January 13, 2023 by Jeff Holloway 1 Comment

Samuel, Jeff, Michelle, and Caroline Holloway

Our Family has been here just over two years serving with 61 Isaiah Ministry. It has been a wonderful two years full of struggles, blessings, failures, and successes. I could spend my time sharing about the difficulties of moving to a third world country during a pandemic between two hurricanes, leaving all my family has known as a church family and home to join in what God is doing to reach a beautiful and wonderful people in Honduras with the gospel. I could talk about the blessing it has been to have a team that took care of us and prepared for us to be here and so many supporters who made it possible for us to be here. I could tell of many failures including all the trial-and-error mistakes with my poor Spanish, making cultural mistakes, and probably offending more than my share of people who have been so gracious to forgive. At the same time God has blessed us with so many successes: churches and individuals growing in faith, sharing the gospel, discipling believers, and so many more amazing things.

As I was thinking of the new year and what I wanted to share one scripture kept coming to mind, Philippians 3:14, “Press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” This is a life verse for me. One that I have been returning to over and over since my pastor, Herb Thompson, shared it with our football team my freshman year just before we stepped on the field the for the first game of the playoffs.

His message was inspiring, and I clung to it for all these many years returning to it repeatedly to remind myself to press on. Just like many scriptures, it has grown in depth and width and inspiration as I have grown. That night I took it as a rally cry that God wanted me to do my best and that even though we were in the playoffs, we couldn’t rely on what we had done in our past, good or bad, to get us to the future and win these games that were before us. Yes, I was fully convinced that I would do my best and bring God glory through performing well.

As I grew in my faith and understanding God has used this verse time and time again to remind me to press on. Also, as I grew, I learned to look at his Word in greater context. I need to see why this was being said, what was Paul writing about to understand it with greater depth, width, and application. This is not a complete interpretation; I have much more to learn, but I would like to humbly share what God has shown me so far. With that in mind, I would like to take just a few more verses before and share a little more.

Philippians 3:10-14, “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.¹²Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

In verses 10 and 11 we see a deep expression of love, worship, and hope in Jesus, a deep and abiding desire to live like Him, to die like Him, and to join Him in heaven. In verse 12 Paul confesses he has not arrived at this but that he will press on no matter the struggle, no matter the suffering to join Christ because Christ has taken hold of him. In verse 13 he repeats that he has not yet arrived, but he explains one thing he does.

Wow, when Paul says the one thing he does, we might need to listen closely to what he is about to say.

“Forgetting what is behind”– This has come to mean so much more than it did in high school. Not different but more. We can forget all the sins, problems, and mistakes that could entrap us and keep us imprisoned in the past, keep us from living the life of fullness, freedom, and kingdom impact that Christ desires for us to have. I can press on because I have been forgiven and set free to join in His wonderful ministry of redemption and restoration. Looking back and focusing on the life I have been set free from can lead me into a life that is empty and never full, entrapped in a world of condemnation and pain and one of impact but not for the kingdom of Christ but my own kingdom.

We also must forget all those amazing accomplishments and achievements included in “forgetting what is behind.” We tend to look back and see what God has accomplished in our lives and drift into a place of pride thinking we have accomplished these things. We tend to look back and say, “look what I have done!” And then we get caught in resting on our laurels. Like the farmer who puts his hand to the plow and looks back at what he has done instead of focusing on what is ahead. Our life gets off track and we find ourselves trapped in the past. When we look back at our past “accomplishments” and claim these accomplishments as our own, we get caught in our own kingdom instead of pressing on for His kingdom.

I am not saying that we don’t learn and grow from the good and the bad in our past, but when it is our focus, we become stagnant and trapped.

Then Paul says, “straining for what is ahead”– I look forward to Christ and what He has in store. Not just looking forward but using all my energy straining through whatever comes my way to see Him glorified, to see His kingdom increased, to join with Him.

As I look forward to the coming year, I need my focus on Him. I need my heart, my mind, and my soul stiving forward to His upward call. No matter what has happened, good or bad, I will continue to see his kingdom increased.

I am reminded of the story of Desmond Doss who won the Congressional Medal of Honor but never carried a gun. He kept going back and retrieving wounded from both sides while praying for God to give him strength to go get just one more. His focus was clear he wanted to save as many lives as possible.

The game is not over, the time has not come to rest and relax, but to press on to the upward calling.

Walking with Carlos

December 9, 2022 by Paul Chandler 1 Comment

Hello to everyone reading this blog post! My name is Paul and I am one of the missionaries over here in Honduras with 61 Isaiah Ministries. I am married to Taylor Chandler, and we have been here for a little over a year. Here at 61 we love to build relationships by walking with people, as many of you have heard one of our sayings, “Come walk with us!” The end goal of walking with someone is to share the Gospel and help spiritually deepen whoever it is we’re walking with. For me and Taylor, that has been Carlos.

When Carlos first started coming over to our house he really wasn’t super interested in studying the Bible or learning about how to grow. We had established with him early on that he did believe in Jesus but there was a catch. While he believed in Jesus, he did not believe in the Trinity. He did not believe in God the Father or the Holy Spirit. This belief came from an apostolic church background which neither Taylor nor I had ever encountered before. We kept loving Carlos and having him over, and after about one month he agreed to a more focused discipleship study. He had seen our love for each other and for God, and this created a desire in him to grow deeper in his faith. We started to study the book of John together because John clearly describes the story of Jesus in a very Trinitarian way.

Our first night I asked Carlos a simple question, “Do you believe that the Holy Bible is God’s divinely inspired word?” Without hesitation he said, “Yes! Of course!” Without knowing this was music to my ears. From there I began to show him some scriptures referencing the Trinity to which he responded by saying, “Paul I may not fully understand how the Trinity works, but I do know that the Bible very clearly discusses the Father, Son, and Spirit. If the Bible says it, then it must be true!” After picking my jaw up off the floor I asked him some more questions to make sure he understood.

Surely it couldn’t be this easy… right!?

He believed in the truth of the Bible so much that despite what his church taught, he was able to see the truth. Taylor and I were elated and honestly were touched by how much trust he put in the Word of God. If only everyone accepted the truth so readily! It was such a beautiful moment and in the last year he has continued to affirm the existence of the Trinity.

Another cool victory with Carlos is that after about seven months or so he came to me and said he felt convicted about something. He told me that for the last eight years he has been living with a woman he never married. They have two kids together and from the outside looking in you could never tell they weren’t married. After spending so much time in the Bible he felt the need to get married. The Holy Spirit was convicting Carlos, and during the month of December Carlos is getting married to his soon to be wife!

This is a huge victory, especially considering how difficult it is to get married here in Honduras. I’d like to say that all the growth Carlos has experienced is because of me, but I had nothing to do with it. You can’t force anyone to trust the Bible like Carlos does and you certainly can’t convict someone of sin. God has been growing Carlos and sanctifying him through His power

alone and for some reason God has allowed Taylor and I a front row seat. Please continue to pray for Carlos and his family as God continues to work in them.

I challenge you to have the same kind of trust in the Word of God, and the same trust in the conviction of the Holy Spirit, that Carlos displayed. Imagine just taking God at His word and trusting Him without hesitation.

That is faith right there.

It Matters

November 26, 2022 by Lindsey Moreno Leave a Comment

Do you ever find yourself asking the question, “does it really matter?”

“Do my daily choices matter? Do the habits I make matter? Does my work matter? Does my life matter?”

I ask myself those questions a lot. I ask God those questions a lot too. In the monotony of day to day life, I often wonder quite frankly if any of “this”– life, work, struggles, responsibilities– matters. Deep down, I want to know “What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?” (Ecclesiastes 1:3). Is everything really just vanity? Does everything just crumble to dust?

I know in my head, of course I matter, I was thought up in the mind of God, and of course what I do matters, I am where he called me to be. But doubt is my best friend, and to borrow the Spanish terms what I saber (know by facts) in my head is not always what I conocer (know by experience) in my heart.

I used to have this idea that if anyone in life had work that really mattered, it would be a missionary. I mean, you can’t get more purposeful as a Christian than leaving everything to serve God in a different country, right? If anyone had meaningful work it would be the ones who are actively leading people to God, right? There was almost this golden haze of meaning surrounding the life of a missionary.

But the truth is, missionary, or working in the states, the doubts are still there and the question of meaning and purpose is always lurking in the background. Surprise! The question of “does this really matter?” doesn’t change and it doesn’t go away.

I think people are always looking for meaning and reassurance in the work they do in life. Is the thing that we pour our every drop of life and every ounce of passion making a difference? We all want what we do to “matter,” but meaning, value, and success is defined a little differently by each person, country, and culture.

Does it really matter? For me, I like to be able to answer that question with results: facts, numbers, and figures. I like success to be easy to measure and easy to see. I want something to show for my work. I like tangible results to assure me of the fact that I really matter.

Recently, I have taken a pivot in the ministry work I have been doing in Honduras. I decided to step away from the school and explore other facets of ministry. That has led me to helping Micah on the farm, going out to villages, doing office work, visiting the pregnancy center, and even getting involved with a local deaf ministry. Every day is a little different and I get to experience a different part of the goodness of God. And while it may sound romantic on paper in the day to day aspect the romanticism is easily wiped away.

Feeding chickens, stumbling through half cohesive Spanish conversations, answering emails, serving arroz con leche to pregnant women, and cleaning up after kids hardly seems like kingdom work or work that really “matters.”

A few weeks ago I got a message from a high school friend. I have seen her maybe once since high school, aside from the occasional photos and comments on instagram. She told me her and her husband had been talking about how they had met and realized it was because I had invited her to come to church. She shared, “Thanks to a small gesture and church invite my life is on a completely new and Godly path.”

To tell you the truth, I don’t remember exactly when we met or that I invited her to church. Those memories have faded into the mundane day-to-day moments of my life. But she remembers. To me I never imagined that something as small as an invitation could truly matter to someone.

But I think that is God’s secret. He works more in the day-to-day motions than the mountain top highs. Sometimes the things that seem small to us or the work that seems in vain is actually where God works to change lives. And we don’t always get to see the results.

So to answer the question does it really matter? The facts and figures I want to use to measure the value of my work and my success are meaningless– they are vanity. Your work doesn’t need to matter for you to matter. God knows what matters, even if you don’t always understand, and that is enough. God works in the daily motions and movements in ways that we can’t even begin to imagine. All he asks is that we remain faithful to him.

“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going…These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth… But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city” (Hebrews 11:8-16).

The Lord Has Saved Me from Worse

November 11, 2022 by Edith Ayala Bonilla 2 Comments

Around a month ago, we visited a community called San Lucas where we stayed for church service. At the end, when the pastor was giving the announcement, he asked the church to join him in prayer for a lady that was probably in her last days of life. We all left and went to Doña Francisca house. She was in bed, she could barely open her eyes, and she could barely talk.

I sat on the side of her bed and held her hand while the pastor was giving her words of encouragement and praying for her. She had diabetes, and had been taking medicine, but she wasn’t getting any better. We truly thought she was not going to make it; she looked bad. After we prayed for her, I told her that we would keep praying for her and she turned to see me and said, “Sister, the Lord has saved me from worse.”

The words, “God has saved me from worse”, got stuck in my mind. How could this lady, who was surrounded by worried loved ones and in an awful condition, say such a thing? Doña Francisca had so much faith that God was going to get her out of bed walking that a week later we got to see what she believed become real.

When we returned to San Lucas the next week, we saw a lady cleaning beans in front of her house. For a moment I thought it was Doña Francisca, but I told myself that it couldn’t be her because she was really sick last time I saw her. There was no way she was already back in the kitchen working. We walked to her house, and to my surprise it was her. She was already working. As soon as she saw us, she ran to the house to get chairs and coffee for us.

Doña Francisca is a huge example of what it means to have faith in God. She knew that to her God, sickness and diabetes was not a problem. What seemed to be the end for us was just the beginning of another testimony.

Faith is a small word that can change our lives and make it better. Walking by faith is something so hard to do but so powerful. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

Most of the time we like to see things happening, but what about those times that we can’t? What about when the people surrounding you think that you’re about to pass away? What about the times that the only thing we have is our faith in the One that makes all things possible?

Faith is focusing on God and not on the storm that is happening around you. Faith is putting your eyes and mind on Him and not on the circumstances. Yes, diabetes can be treated and it might be a matter of taking enough insulin, but it is not as easy in a community where people don’t have the knowledge to treat it or the medicine to heal it. This lady might not have access to many things but she has access to God and truly puts her faith in Him.

We would all be better people, better Christians, if we had faith like Doña Francisca. If we would change our minds and trust Him; trust Him in everything. Trusting in Him even if we don’t receive what we want. Trusting that whatever happens is his way of saving us from worse.

My prayer is that our faith gets strengthened and we learn to live it.

Patiently Waiting

October 28, 2022 by Michelle Holloway 3 Comments

I am not known for my patience. I usually see a problem and attack full force to solve it. The quicker you solve the issue, the better, right? Well sometimes that is the case, but oftentimes I have to wait, and like I said I am not usually patient in that waiting. The Lord has been working with me recently in this facet of my life. A couple of verses that the Lord has given me are Romans 8:25, “But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently,” and Psalm 37:7, “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.” That “p” word is tough, but it is also life.

My head is often swimming with different thoughts and ideas. I try to figure out solutions to problems I see; I try to make things happen. The problem with that sentence is there are a lot of “I’s.” I feel like the Lord is using this season to teach me to wait, but not only to wait, but to do so with a patient expectation of the work He is doing. Just because I am ready, doesn’t mean that everyone else affected by the situation is. I often take for granted that God sees the big picture. Only He knows how the puzzle works, I only see my little piece of that puzzle.

One such example of this that stands out is a recent trip to Mongual. I love the village of Mongual and the sweet fellowship that congregates there. Jeff, Javi, and I have the pleasure of serving there every Thursday evening. It is a wonderful time of fellowship and study of God’s Word, but it is late in the evening at the end of what is almost always a long week. This particular Thursday, we also had Paul and Taylor with us. We are in rainy season, so we sometimes face issues such as people having difficulty getting to church in the rain and the distracting noise of the rain hitting the metal roof (great for napping, not so great for Bible study). When we arrived, there were very few people at the church. There had been a funeral that day, and with all the rain not many had made it to Bible study.

We were thinking we would pray and then leave early. Yay for getting to bed early! But, that wasn’t God’s plan. We began with a time of prayer and then Jeff was sharing a word. I noticed a man sitting outside the church door. He seemed a little out of sorts, so I walked back to ask him if he wanted to come inside. This sparked a conversation that my Spanish skills were not up for, so I motioned for the Pastor to help. Little did I know that Pastor Hugo had been praying for this man and looking for opportunities to speak with him.

The man, Roger, has been struggling with alcoholism and was seeking refuge at the church. We saw him pray and call out to God, and as a congregation we prayed for his healing. Had we gone home early we would have missed this opportunity to minister to Roger, to encourage him, and to point him to Jesus. We left the service excited about what we had just seen the Lord do. But, as I look back on that night, I am once again humbled by God’s grace.

He showed me that night His timing is perfect. That even when we are tired and overwhelmed when we wait on Him, the rewards are immeasurable. I don’t know what decisions Roger will make, but I do know that when I am patient and wait on the Lord He shows up in ways that are far greater than anything I can imagine. So I continue to wait patiently and expectantly on the Lord.

Hurting with the Hurt

October 14, 2022 by Taylor Chandler 1 Comment

61 Team Members on their first day of school

Each morning in my devotional class at ALCS we spend some time in prayer. On a normal day we pray for Honduran fútbol players, animals to be rescued and have homes, or something political. However, one particular day after the bell rang, a girl in class pulled me aside and asked for prayer. She did not feel comfortable sharing with the entire class but proceeded to tell me her request. We prayed together, and while we prayed streams of tears fell down her face.

There are many people I know and love who are hurting during this season. You might find yourself in a similar situation. Loss is hard. Heartbreak is hard. Not hearing from God is hard. Bad news is hard. Sickness is hard. (Fill in the blank) ________ is hard.

My heart hurts because people are hurting. If I’m being honest, my flesh wants to be the bandage to your heart. I want to have the right words, but I don’t have the words to put all the broken pieces together. But what I do have is something better. Someone better. Access to a Holy God who sits on the Throne and will not be moved. My God is a God of all comfort. He sees the pain and the tears that fall, and He knows and understands the parts of our lives that we don’t understand.

2 Corinthians 1:3 says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”

We find multiple times in the gospels that Jesus was moved with compassion for people that were hurting. He met them in their need, and the same is true today for you and for me. He not only meets us in our need, but gives us access to comfort those around us in need. Prayer is so important when we or our loved ones are facing unfortunate circumstances because God is the source of all hope and joy.

I need to remind myself of these truths quite often. I’m thankful for those in my life who constantly point me to the source of life. They comfort me, and remind me to call on His name in prayer because He hears us. I hope I may remind you to call on His name when you are in a similar season. God is faithful today and every tomorrow yet to come.

Psalm 145:18-19 “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them.”

Deuteronomy 31:8 “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

If you find yourself in a season of hurting, continue reading 2 Corinthians 1:3-11. God is faithful.

Wonderfully Made

September 23, 2022 by Nelsy Paz Leave a Comment

Psalm 139:13-14 says, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

These have been some of my favorite verses for a long time, but they took on a whole new meaning for me when I became a mom. When I look at my daughter, I cannot help but be in awe of God’s craftsmanship. I take great comfort knowing that God created her exactly how He wanted her to be. I look at her and see God’s beautiful, perfect creation. It is easy for me to see all of these things in her. It is much more difficult, however, for me to see myself in this light. If I make a mistake, thoughts can creep in that I am not good enough, or that I’m not worthy of God’s love. I begin to doubt that God could really love me. I surely don’t deserve it! But I do not love my daughter because of what she does or how she acts. Instead, I love her because of who she is– my daughter.

If I, as a human parent, can feel this much love for my child, how much more must my heavenly father love His children? He loves me because I am his child, not because of what I do. I am also God’s beautiful creation. Just like my daughter, God made me exactly how He wants me to be. I am a child of God. Nothing can change that. And because of this, nothing can separate me from his love.

Hearing Loss for the Hearing

June 10, 2022 by Jeff Holloway 3 Comments

Almost 2 years ago God called us to move to a new country to join with 61 Isaiah ministry in sharing the gospel with the Lenca. This meant we had to leave all our old friends and make new friends, leave some comfortable customs and learn some new ones. It meant that we needed to learn a new language so we could communicate the gospel we were called to communicate.

Our whole family began to take Spanish classes. I had known a little Spanish before but just enough to get by with a few basic things. Most of the Spanish I knew was picked up by listening to people and joining in on the conversation. Michelle is doing much better than I am as she listens and practices with her teacher.

One thing that has made it difficult is that we moved here during a pandemic, and everyone is wearing a mask. You can’t see their lips when they speak and their voice is muffled. Well, this made it hard for someone who learns by listening. Now we all had that problem, but I found out I had an even bigger problem.

For a few years, Michelle had joked about me having selective hearing, and then that grew to me just not getting every word that was said in a noisy room. I would begin to hear my family say things like “does the T.V. have to be so loud” or “remember I told you that” then we would be somewhere and I would hear some of the smallest quietest sounds and they would come to the conclusion that I had selective hearing.

Well in learning a new language, we began to find out that even though I was repeating what I heard I was not pronouncing the words correctly. We realized something was wrong with my hearing. I just didn’t hear the same things other people did. We decided to get my hearing tested.
We took a 5-hour drive to Tegucigalpa for an appointment with an audiologist. After about an hour of testing, he brought me into his office, and he said he had some bad news and some good news. He asked me if I had ear infections as a child – I did. He asked me if I was in a place regularly that caused me to be around loud music. I said I was a youth Pastor and went to many concerts and also helped backstage during concerts.

He knew my hearing history from these tests. He said the bad news was that I have a diagnosis of hearing loss for the hearing. This has three very noticeable symptoms. 1. When you are in a room where many people are talking you can’t hear clearly, everything just mushes together. 2. When you’re talking with people you need to look at them and see their lips. 3. When learning a new language, you can’t pick up all the words correctly and hear different things that other people hear.

The latter symptom is the one we need to deal with the most. It seems that I can’t hear certain sounds of letters. I can’t hear B, P, T, V, S, and a few more. It was fine when I was only around English words. When people would speak English to me, and my ears didn’t hear those sounds my brain would fill in the blanks with the right sounds, so I thought I was hearing those sounds. It was what I was used to and expected. I didn’t think I was missing anything I believed and knew I was hearing those sounds. Now when I began learning a new language there would be blanks and my brain would try to fill in the blanks with the English sounds. Now when the word was close to an English word, I did fine but when the words were not I struggled. Michelle and others would repeat the words and I would say what I just knew was being said and I was wrong.

Well, when the audiologist put in a demo set of hearing aids adjusted for this, things did not sound louder, but they sounded clearer. Then he began to speak to me in Spanish and say a few words that included those letters. I was wowed. I had to ask him if these words really sounded that way and on one word, I argued with him but when Michelle walked in and said the word it sounded just like him and I was hearing the wrong thing the whole time.

Romans 12:2 tells us “Do not be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” We need to be careful not to have hearing loss for the hearing spiritually. This is when we have a tradition or practice that we have done our whole life and even when we read a scripture that says something different, we have already decided and all we hear is what we want to. Or maybe we have an idea or thought that we believe and want to be true that when we hear teaching or see something that isn’t that way we refuse to see or hear the truth.

I have been a Christian for 44 years and for 30 of those years I was positively sure there were only 2 of each animal on Noah’s Ark. Then one day while reading the story to my kids in Genesis 7:2 I read the word seven. What?!!! 7 clean animals of each kind – Wow. You mean all those songs and all those movies, and all those bible stories were not right. Then a few years later I was reading it again for a project and how did I miss that it was 7 pairs of each clean animal – what ?!!! you mean 14 of each clean animal and bird. I had hearing loss for the hearing with Noah’s Ark. How many more things were clear in scripture that I was doing the same thing? How many times had I decided that since someone told me that is the way it is, and they put two or three scriptures together and it sounded so good and it was what I wanted to hear so I believed it to be that way?

I believe that the bible is the Word of God and that all of it is true. The problem is that many people want to give certain scriptures more weight than others. Any time we have a belief or a teaching that requires us to lessen or explain away another scripture, I think we may be experiencing a little hearing loss for the hearing spiritually. We need to be very careful when we decide that we want to hear what we want to hear and make one scripture less than another in importance. I have found throughout the years of studying God’s word I have had hearing loss for the hearing and needed to look at scripture for what it says and not what I want it to say. It is amazing what happens when we simply let God’s word be our hearing aid and correct us.

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