Hetherington Happenings

Honduras Slideshow

I uploaded it to youtube. The awesome professional photos are taken by Tyler Gould of Portland and Bradley Burke of WV; other photos by Rick. I think you should see it here:

Nashville

My first trip to the southern hospitality of Nashville, Tennessee. Rick and I were able to get away while grandma & grandpa came to stay with the boys - - we were so thankful for them!!!

Nashville was gorgeous....the green rolling hills, the beautiful horsefarms, brick houses and southern mansions, Country Music Hall of Fame, Music Row...and the churches. Wow! Some amazing churches and no lack of them thats for sure.

Our destination was Nashville, our locale Union Station, and our friends were gathered from around the US to support MSI (the evangelism organization leading Rick's Honduras trip). It was a weekend of sweet friendship, needed encouragment, and heart-felt worship. And for those of you with kids, you'll understand how great it was to absorb all this without interruption from those precious little ones!

We loved getting to spend more time with Mike and Crystal Silva and their beautiful 4 daughters:

Altho Rick brought home much excitement about his Honduras trip, it was amazing to hear more reports of what took place: 327 pastors trained in San Pedro Sula (SPS) the past year; those 327 pastors trained 5,000 people to be prepared to counsel seekers at the Festival; good thing, because over 160,000 people from all over SPS came to the Festival to hear the good news of Gods gift of love and over 50,000 made a decision to become followers of Jesus Christ!

I'm still trying to upload a slideshow and can't seem to make the connection. Don't give up on my efforts!

It was also fun to reconnect with friends we hadn't seen in years...didn't realize there were so many in TN...here's the ones I did see:

Rhesa is just about the dearest friend from high school whom I've corresponded with the past 25 years (yes, I'm that old!!!) and we finally got to spend time together. It was definitly not long enough talk time!

And I'm disappointed I forgot to take a family photo with Ted & Robyn Randall who went to The Masters College with me...so I got to see them, but you don't. They took us to the Opryland Hotel ...wow, that was something you have to see, and not describe. (BTW, I'm assuming that you know if you click on an underline link it will take you to a website with more info, and if you click on a photo it should make it larger for you to view).

Another precious friend from long ago in California, Patsy Fleming, and her son Kenn, also a TMC friend, live nearby and they came to one of the MSI sessions. It was so good to see them too! (Lisa was with the kids & couldn't make it).

What a great trip we had! I think I could possibly live in Nashville...

Home at last

Rick made it home today. I hope to have photos to share with you later this week.

Honduras update

As I write to you on my Mac, I have my desktop PC watching the second night of the Honduras festival live via Enlace (the Latin American broadcasting station). Amazing! Absolutely Amazing!

Rick has been heading out to the surrounding areas, visiting churches and schools, handing out food, clothing and aid, inviting everyone to the childrens fiesta and festivals in the evenings. I still have no photos to link to here, but you HAVE to go the the Mike Silva International blog and see the photos yourself.

Last night (Friday) there were over 75,000 people attending the festival. A larger crowd was expected tonight.  Rick just keeps saying how amazing it is. I can't wait for him to get home to go into more detail.

Keep praying for him and the whole group in Honduras.

Thursday

Thanks to all of you who are praying for Rick and the team in Honduras. They have all arrived safely and had a few hours to catch up on sleep.  Last night (Wednesday) they all met for dinner and a time of getting to know each other.  Max Lucado challenged them to prepare to go out and minister to the people of SPS on Thursday.

Today (thursday) they are breaking into teams to visit schools in the morning, handing out wordless books, bracelets and soccer balls to the kids. How cool is that!  Everyone is given something and invited to come to the childrens festival.

The report I received was that the medical team was able to help approx. 1,500 people Wednesday. Here's something learned from one of the doctors. If a women needs or wants to have a mammogram she must pay out of pocket. Insurance will not cover it. Isn't it amazing that the MSI team has over 15 US docs working with over 20 local docs to provide all this care for free!!! God is good! The doctors continue to work again today.

Today Thursday, Mike and Max Lucado will be speaking at a VP Breakfast, a luncheon for the National Conference of the Business Council for Sustainable Business and an evening event, the Key to Success Business Conference. Business leaders and political leaders will be attending. Pray for these leaders in Honduras that their eyes will be opened and that the Spirit will draw them to the Savior.

I just keep praying that Rick (and everyones) will stay healthy and strong, and not pick up anything from the water. He survived Russia, hopefully this will be easy in comparison.

Wish I had photos to share, but haven't recieved any from Rick. The photos from my friends I'm not able (can't make it work) to link to this blog. I'll keep trying!

Honduras

Rick left on Tuesday to head to San Pedro Sula, Honduras with a group from MSI.  He took a red-eye flight from Portland to Houston with 35 other team members. They should be arriving in San Pedro Sula this morning, and getting a couple hours sleep before jumping into a busy long weekend of ministry.

There are about 200 volunteers coming from all over the US to put on an evangelistic festival this weekend. The Latin America staff has been working for the past year with the US staff who arrived last week or so.  One of the volunteers just wrote to say  "... we surveyed the festival grounds. The stage is under construction. Please pray for its completion and the lights and sound...always problematic! The medical tents are set up and some treatment is occuring. Our medical group arrives tomorrow (wednesday) and will get right to work. They will be working with the Honduran team and a Cuban team. Lots of cooperation needed here!"

Over 300,000 people are expected to attend the festival which includes compassion aide, medical care, womens conference, pastors conference, childrens fiesta and other outreach. Mike will be preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to huge crowds of people.

Click here for a blog for MSI which will give you more info. I'll try to update this as I hear from Rick and others on the trip.