Joshua Archives - 61 Isaiah

April 11, 2022 by Joshua Dykes 1 Comment

Big Misson, Bigger God, Small World

Some of you know him and some of you don’t, but I want to tell you about my friend Paul Chandler. I never knew growing up that we would both end up in another country. Paul used to come over to my house to jump on the trampoline with my brother Brandon. As we both grew, we both also matured in our faith. We were part of the same youth group, taught by the same youth minister (shout out to Ron K. Brack), and mentored by some of the same people (I specifically think of both of our parents, the Tosh’s and Ms. Sandy).

We both served others together until I left to study in Brownwood in 2015. A year after I started attending Howard Payne University, Paul also moved to Brownwood to study there! It was surprising to have someone I knew from childhood also at the same university, and there we also served together and shared the Gospel. I graduated in 2018 and moved to Honduras shortly after to work with 61 Isaiah Ministries. In 2021, guess who else moved it to Honduras! You got it, Paul and his wife Taylor!

Paul has been a breath of fresh air for me (and also for all of our ministry team). Having someone to talk to that I already know on a deep level has been stupendous. I don’t have to explain the back story to my stories or experiential perspectives because Paul was there for much of them! Paul has an unmoving commitment to God and God’s Word that challenges me to be better. His presence has brought hope and peace to our team after the hard years of Covid and hurricane relief efforts.

Who would have thought that two of those boys jumping on the trampoline would one day be two of the men serving in Honduras with 61 Isaiah Ministries? I am proud of Paul and honored to work alongside him, learn from him, and advance the Kingdom.

This is just another example of how God connects people and carries out relational ministry. If you had asked Paul and me 10 years ago where we would be in 10 years, neither of us would have told you precisely that we would be serving with a ministry in Honduras together, but we were willing to do as God led us and now we get to serve together with an awesome ministry team.

As a ministry, we are sharing the gospel continuously with our youth group and with the people we encounter. We are encouraging two pastors to start discipleship with others, we are teaching how to do marriages and baptisms, and we are doing our best to be closer to God in each step of it.

December 6, 2021 by Joshua Dykes 1 Comment

Our Response to Politics

On Sunday, November 28th of this year, Honduras had its presidential elections. This is not unlike elections in the US. Everyone is picking their sides, arguing their political views, or hiding from all who ask them who they are voting for.

In a church service a few weeks ago, I was preaching a sermon on loving God and loving your neighbor. As we talked about loving everyone, even the politicians, a man in the congregation got my attention and asked me a question about politics. In my loose translation, he said, “Since we believe in God who is the King, we don’t have to even pay attention to the politicians and government, right?” I paused to think to make sure I responded well, and said, “We are called to be light in the dark world. This means we enter the darkness to show the Light and we take part in elections to try and be light and find light, but we also submit to authority. In submission to authorities, we prove to even the authorities that we are different from the rest of the world.”

I spoke what I know is true from Scripture. Romans 13:1-7 and 1 Peter 2:11-17 tells us to submit to governing authorities and that doing so honors God. For the book of Romans, Paul was not writing this at a time when there was peace in the government. Paul wrote this while he was thrown into prison and held on trial for years at length because he taught the Good News of Jesus.

Paul understands if you think, “But Paul, do you know who is governing right now? Do you know what they are doing?” He has seen empires do worse; in fact, it was the government who put Jesus to death (after the religious turned Him over to them). Yet, Jesus’s death has freed us to love all – even politicians. Jesus has promised to provide what we need, so we can submit to authorities and governments and trust in Jesus. We can serve and humble ourselves so that the world (even the politicians) sees us and can’t help but ask why we have done what we do without complaining.

Romans 13:7 says, “Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

1 Peter 2:17 says, “Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.”
I am still learning this, but I have come to see more and more that the mark of a follower of Jesus is not the “great things” they create, but it is the humility and willingness to serve others. Humility is a characteristic that distinguishes followers of Jesus from the rest of the world.

We are stable in faith because our God is stable, so that means we can serve others often instead of only serving ourselves. God also gives us wisdom and creativity to still accomplish our mission while following the rules put in place (as long as they are not against what the Bible teaches us of course). So may God change all of our hearts to serve, even serving under politicians and policies.

August 30, 2021 by Joshua Dykes Leave a Comment

Love Endures the Mess

As is often ventured, I was riding along with some other missionaries on the way to the airport. This particular trip, there were four of us in the vehicle. To protect these missionaries, I will refer to them in codenames. Missionary A was driving, Missionary B was riding shotgun, and Missionary C was in the back seat behind the driver. This leaves me in the back seat on the right side of the vehicle.

Now, as the trip went on, we uncovered some important facts from Missionary C.

Missionary C did not sleep at all the night before.
Missionary C ate some ice-cream and chicken alfredo throughout the night.
Missionary C refused to take Dramamine to help avoid motion sickness.

We were just outside of Santa Rosa; we were just getting to the nice stretch of road leading up to La Entrada; we were moments away from smooth sailing; but then something happened that vastly decreased the quality of the trip.

Missionary C was battling sleep, and woke up suddenly. He held a quizzical but uneasy look on his face. As I watched from my side of the car, it appeared that Missionary C leaned forward between the two front seats as if he were going to tell the others a secret. And to everyone’s surprise, without warning, Missionary C projectile vomited into the front of the vehicle, mainly all over the back of Missionary A who was driving. The entire vehicle was in shock for a good 10 seconds. Then Missionary B, also doused by the vomit spray, questioned, “C, are you okay?” Missionary C had not moved, and responded by upchucking a second and third time on the floor of the vehicle. We drove for a few moments not knowing what to do. After we all had a moment to take in what had happened, Missionary A pulled over and we all disembarked the truck. Missionary A promptly found his suitcase to change shirts, Missionary B was the hero that cleaned up most of the vomit, and Missionary C helped as well but was still recovering from the shock of throwing up. I provided the paper towels and alcohol spray that I randomly decided to pack that morning, but was lucky enough to only help remove the seat covers from the vehicle.

We piled back into the vehicle and sat on edge, as far away from the vomit stains as possible. We rode the remaining 3 and-a-half hours with the windows down because, as you can imagine, the smell was putrid. Fast forward into the city of San Pedro Sula, we dropped off Missionary A and Missionary C at the airport and then it was just Missionary B and I. We hunted in unfamiliar territory until we found a car wash and when we got there we explained to the approaching worker, “Look man, someone threw up in here and it smells BAD. Can you shampoo the carpet for us?” They said, yes, but that it would be a bit. This means, it would be an hour or so. We tried to keep ourselves occupied. We went to a store nearby and came back. But all in all, we waited in the San Pedro heat for about an hour and a half so that the car would be cleaned. As the worker (may God bless him) finished cleaning the interior, I noticed that they didn’t have carpet shampoo and only used spray cleaner. After the hour and-a-half wait, the truck now smelled like Febreze on top of vomit, which did not mix kindly. We went to a new Wal-Mart that has just been installed (Yes, there is a Wal-Mart here!) and bought some carpet shampoo. That helped more than anything else, but the smell still lingered just enough to creep into your nostrils the rest of the 5-hour trip back.

Now here is the point of this story I shared with you.

Our ministries motto is “Come Walk With Us”. Sometimes when you choose to “Walk With” someone then you also have to walk with them through the sin, mess, and darkness. Sometimes you walk with someone even when they metaphorically throw up all over the car. When those we walk with sin, sometimes it affects all of us. You walk with them even though the smell is putrid, but you keep going forward. Sometimes you even clean up the mess for them because they are unable. But because of the importance of the call, you clean and don’t let it stop you from pressing on toward the goal that is Jesus Christ. You may be the one who gets thrown up on, or you may be the one doing the throwing up, but what is most important is that you keep helping each other and bringing people with you. We are not called to live in this world alone. We are called to live through the wretchedness, fear, and beauty of the journey. We are also called to bring more people to the family to celebrate the Father with us! So no matter how crazy and sick life may be, may your motto also be “Come Walk With Us.”

October 30, 2019 by Joshua Dykes 4 Comments

Conquering Mountains

Since returning in July, this year has been a challenge. This has been the start of my 2^nd year in Honduras and statistics show that the second year of any career is one of the hardest years, if not the hardest. The fresh winds of first-year excitement have faded away and the endless possibilities of the first taste now seem to have limits. Upon my return to Gracias, I knew this year would be a hard one. I would be challenged more and I would suffer more, but I would also experience more and grow more. It seems like the enemy has gotten some bigger guns. I am being attacked from different angles by his lies. But, in light of all of the struggles that have come and will come, we know who wins in the end!

Last year Shannon, his son Tyler, and I hiked to the peak of Mt. Celaque. It is the highest mountain in Honduras with an elevation of 9,416 feet (2,870 m) at its highest point. I signed up for the hike without thinking much of it, but my anticipation of hiking was much different than the physical toll of actually making it to the top and back. The hike started at 10am Saturday morning and ended at around 1pm the next day. Of the 27 hours of the trip, we spent 17 of it hiking (the rest of the time was meals, breaks and sleeping). On paper, this doesn’t sound too daunting, but man I was hurting. By the end of the journey my strength was gone, my knees flimsy, my back tired and my desire to continue broken (did I mention I was sick also?). As we pressed on through the final stage of our trek, Shannon came beside me and asked me a question I will never forget.

“If this is what you had to do everyday to share the Gospel, would you do it?”

My answer, mainly comprised of the painful groan at the beginning, was “Uggggggghhhhhhhh. If I had to, then yes.”

I commonly think back to that question and how tired I was. I think of how much I ached and how broken I felt. But all in all, if it were to share the Gospel then it would be totally worth it. I would rather hurt and fight and climb any day if that is what is necessary to share in the beauty of Christ’s hope.

After Jesus resurrected and was going to ascend into heaven, I imagine that the disciples were questioning, “What do we do now? We have followed Jesus around for the last few years, what is our purpose now?” As an answer Jesus gave the Great Commission. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20) Our purpose also is to share the Gospel, and He will be with us the whole way. On the hard days where you wake up and question why you are getting out of bed, remember that God has a purpose in each day and maybe you will be presented with the opportunity to share Hope with someone around you. No matter what our suffering may be: big or small, seen or unseen, we have a hope that is bigger than the mountains before us. We are able to climb them anticipating that we can help others climb their mountains with the same eternal purpose.

February 11, 2019 by Joshua Dykes Leave a Comment

Come Walk With Us: A True Story

It all started with an invitation. We invited one of my tenth-grade students, Rolando, to come to church with us one Sunday night at a church called Rio de Dios. After the service he asked when we would be back and said he wanted to go where we go. A short time later we returned to Rio de Dios and Rolando was there waiting for us. Since then, he has gone with us to some other church services and has decided he wants to know God more and share God with others.

More recently, Rolando consistently attends Rio do Dios and helps us with the Church Identity study we are doing with them on Tuesday nights. The first night we started this study, we quickly realized a few of the people attending could not read. Rolando decided that he is going to make sure they learn how to read because he wants them to be able to read the Bible for themselves, so he goes to a man named Manuel’s house every weekend to help him learn and practice reading.

This is a cool story about a teenager who is willing to be used by God, but wait, it gets even better! Now, Manuel is a guy that has been on our radar for a while. The last time we did baptisms with Rio de Dios Manuel was asking good questions and expressed interest in being a Christian. Rolando has invited other classmates to walk with him in helping teach Manuel how to read and they practice by reading the Bible together. Rolando’s willingness to go to Manuel’s house every weekend shows Manuel the importance of reading the Bible, but it also shows Manuel the Christ’s love expands outside the walls of the church. Not only is Manuel learning to read, he is asking more good questions.

We have seen a significant change in Manuel, both in his demeanor and his reading ability. It is awesome how God collides stories like this if we are willing to be used by Him. Our motto “Come Walk With Us” is not just a catchy phrase we say here at 61 Isaiah, this is how we live. We walk with Rolando, who walks with his friends, who all walk with Manuel, who walks with his girlfriend and two sons. It all starts with an invitation, then a challenge, and then God does amazing things when we submit to doing His work. So who is walking with you? Watch what happens when you and your church invite others to “Come Walk With Us”.

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