Newsletter Update December 2017 Family Outreach PO Box 22, Independence, MO 64051 USA familyoutreach@earthlink.net T: 001-(816)-492-0038 Dear Brothers and Sisters, Family Outreach operates primarily off of the donations that you have felt led to give. If you have given in the past we thank you. If you would like to continue to give donations or would like to be a first time donor please make checks payable to Family Outreach and mail them to the above PO Box address. News Corner Our middle daughter, Tikva (Christina) was married this past May. We would like to present to you Mr. and Mrs. Chris Watson. They attend the Odessa Restoration branch. No matter how much, every bit counts. May God s blessings be on you and yours. In Gospel Bonds, Family Outreach Broken and Spilled Out by Regina Sperry Dear Brothers and Sisters, We greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus. We are excited to share with you the news that Christ is good and that His works are endless. We are living in a time where the prophets of old wanted to live. As we look around, some might say, how in the world is this an exciting time? We pray that the veil will be taken from our eyes and that we can see the wondrous works happening before us. Let us be broken and spilled out for Christ. Alabaster is a white, marble-like mineral that people used to store ointments in. While the alabaster vial remains sealed and unbroken, the contents are completely hidden, closed off from the Timothy, our middle son will be graduating from College of the Ozarks in May of 2018. He will have completed a degree in Criminal Justice and Spanish. Chuck, Regina and Hanah have returned to Honduras. They are excited to get back and help in the work. Newsletter Update Dec-2017 Page 1 of 5
world. When Mary broke her alabaster vial, we are told that "the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume." If we want our environment to be filled with the fragrance of Christ, then we too must be broken vessels. This breaking does not seem joyous at the time, but sorrowful. It involves pain, yet those who humble themselves before God and make themselves pliable in His hands will find that the breaking is more easily attained than if they had resisted and were hardened in pride. "I am the foundation upon which all other things must be built," the Lord said. "My people are broken. When they bring the broken pieces of their hearts and lives to Me and begin to build upon Me, I will put the brokenness back together and raise up a glorious and victorious Church. My Church shall stand triumphant when it is built upon Me. I will have a people called by My Name. The Mission Continues by Chuck Sperry Hello to all of our brothers and sisters. We have now returned to Honduras once again. We had planned on being in the United States for just a few months to get Joshua settled in at college and for Chris and Tikva s wedding. It ended up being a longer stay than we had anticipated due to several doctor appointments for Regina and myself that lasted over the course of approximately seven months. During this time, I was blessed to be able once again to travel to French Polynesia and spend some time with the members over there. An Interesting Mission In Siguatepeque, we have some new young priesthood members. I have been training them on how to do priesthood visiting within the congregation and also taking them with me on different missionary trips. On one of our missionary trips to San Pedro Sula, I took a young man named Gustavo Zepeda with me. During this trip, we also visited a church member who lives in Chamelecón and some families in Choloma who are interested in being baptized. When we got off the bus in San Pedro, we went to find a taxi to take us to the sister s house in Chamelecón. When the taxi drivers saw me, a gringo, they immediately surrounded us and started talking at once, each one trying to convince us to take his taxi. We had about 20 taxi drivers all talking with us. When I asked them how much they would charge to take us to Chamelecón, there was dead silence, and they disappeared like ice in a 100 degree heat. We then went to another group about 30 yards away who hadn t seen what had just happened. At first, they were all excited, but when we mentioned Chamelecón, the same thing happened, except this time 3 of them stayed around. Two of them tried to persuade us not to go there because it was too dangerous. One of them told us that he hadn t had any rides all day and that he needed the money, but that he would only take us within 4 blocks of the house, because if he were to enter much deeper into the barrio, the gangs would kill him. He also told us that he would charge us double because of the danger. We agreed and then called the sister to let her know that we were leaving the bus station. She told us that when we got out of the taxi we should immediately get off the street and wait for her in a bamboo shack that was in front of the grade school there. When we entered the shack, which turned out to be a bar, we noticed a man seated at a table with Newsletter Update Dec-2017 Page 2 of 5
5 or 6 guys standing and sitting around him. He had probably 20 or 30 thousand lempiras on the table in front of him, and he was paying each of the young men anywhere from 5 to 10 thousand lempiras. He was the owner of the shack, and because of the large size of the bills being handled and the quantity of money involved, we figured that they were probably negotiating drug transactions. When they saw us come in, I went over to the man and explained that we were waiting for a sister from our church. I asked him if it would be okay if we stayed there until she arrived to pick us up. I figured that if the drug lord gave us permission to stay in his bar, then none of the gang members on the street would be willing to touch us as long as we were under his protection. When the sister arrived, I went over to the man and thanked him for letting us wait there. About 5 minutes after arriving at the sister s house, people started throwing rocks on the roof of the house. They continued to do this until we left about an hour later, when we saw a taxi driver who lived in the barrio and asked him if we could pay him to take us to another barrio called La Pradera, where the Huete family lives. They have been visiting about 4 or 5 families in Choloma who want to be baptized. Please be praying that these families will be able to accept the gospel in full and be baptized. The Islands Once Again by Chuck Sperry The mission trip to French Polynesia was a necessary and good trip. The Lord blessed us in many ways. We saw several members and nonmembers alike be healed instantaneously through their faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. It was refreshing to see how God works with those that have faith in him. The following are some excerpts from my journal of the missionary trip that I made while in French Polynesia: Sun- Oct 22-...In the evening we drove to the hospital in Papeete to do a laying on of hands for sister Christina and sister Jocelyn. After we did the laying on of hands, Sister Christina testified that immediately when we began to pray, she felt heat starting at the base of her spinal cord. As we prayed, it moved up her back until in the final prayer, when we said amen, it was at the top of her head. Mon- Oct 23- We tried to find plane tickets to the islands for Wednesday. We couldn t, but we were able to get tickets for Friday to Huahine, Prayer Requests: Health for Chuck, Regina, and Hanah. Mission work in French Polynesia. The three young men who have been ordained in Honduras. Carlos, Gustavo, and Melvin. That the congregation in Siguatepeque, Honduras, will grow by leaps and bounds. Our daughter Elizabeth as she works full time in Special Education and is completing her Master s degree. It is very stressful. Mission work in our homes, work, school, and abroad. Keep reaching out. The Saints all over the world. Those that know not God. That those who are called of God to spread the gospel will be valiant in their testimony and not be afraid. Newsletter Update Dec-2017 Page 3 of 5
Raiatea, Taha a, Rangiroa, Tiputa, Apataki, and maybe Arutua. We will be returning on the 11th for a national priesthood meeting on the 12th. There will be changes to this schedule because of time. We also bought boat tickets for Moorea, Tahiti s sister island. We will be going there to visit the Saints Tuesday morning. In the evening, we went to the hospital to do another laying on of hands for sister Christina and sister Jocelyn. Jocelyn was doing much better, and we were able to talk with her a bit. Christina was ecstatic when she saw us. She told us that this morning when the doctors did a CT scan, they were surprised to find that there was nothing wrong with her. They compared her original CT scan with the new one and stated that she had been completely healed, not only healed from her kidney disease, but also from her diabetes, and that her cataracts had become non-visible. Thurs- Nov 2- We went to Parea and visited David and Rahera. It was fantastic! He used to be an Adventist pastor, but we he heard us share about priesthood authority on Tuesday, he said that he knew in his heart that what we were sharing was true. We shared with them about the difference between the Kingdom of God and Paradise. We shared with them about how priesthood are to be called and ordained. He told us that years ago, when the Sanito (RLDS) missionaries would come into the village, everyone would gather around to hear them, because they preached the truth and everyone loved listening to them preach. When the CoC preachers come around now, everyone just kind of says, Oh, those guys again, and then just ignore them, because they don t tell the truth. He told us that as we were sharing with him, once again he could hear the old Sanito preachers. When we were finished, he was converted and now wants to be baptized along with his wife. He will need to have some more teaching, and he will need to resolve some bitterness that he has with his son s in-laws before he can be baptized. In the afternoon, we gave another class to Kapai and Amanda. We taught them about life after death. I used the Doctrinas Basicas slides on my phone, which they loved. Sat- Nov 4- We did the standard traditional "tour de l'isle". Every time you visit an island after being away for a while, by tradition you need to make a trip around the entire island before you leave. The people that we were supposed to visit have left for Tahiti, the main island, or are gone because of the outrigger canoe race. The owners of the house have also left. After doing the "tour de l'isle", I spent most of the day studying Tahitian. Rereao told us that there were lots of people on the next island over who were anxiously waiting for us to arrive. Because of this, we decided that since everyone Rereao had contacted had left, we should go to the next island, which is Taha'a. This evening, we had an excellent conversation with the owner of the house and his wife. They were very sad to hear that we would be leaving the next day. During our conversation, two of the legs of the plastic chair that the man was sitting on broke, and he fell to the floor. The breaking of the chair legs sounded like someone had shot a 9mm outside the house, and because he fell on the floor all sprawled out, I thought he had been shot. Instantly, without conscious thought, I was moving and getting ready to throw myself on him to protect him and drag him into a protected corner. I realized as I was lunging toward him that he had no wounds and that he was laughing. So I immediately returned to my seat. I think that maybe for the first time, Dan realized a little bit about what it has been like to live in Honduras. After a while, both the man and the woman asked for a laying on of hands. We did, and they were immediately healed of back pain, flu, and insomnia. Newsletter Update Dec-2017 Page 4 of 5
Sun- Nov 5- When we got up, the owners of the house told us that for the first time in months, both of them were able to sleep well. They told us that we would always have a place to stay whenever we visited Raiatea. Then they asked for another laying on of hands for a blessing. We did that, and then we drove to the docks, where we took a catamaran to the island of Taha'a. Financial Information by Jon Tandy, Treasurer As always, we are thankful to the saints who support Family Outreach through donations and prayers. The work of the Lord goes forward, and we remain committed to magnifying the calling that the Lord has given us in this portion of his work. We appreciate the faithful support of many of you who have given periodically or regularly over the years, which enables this ministry to continue. Family Outreach operates off of donations given by individuals. These donations provide around $800.00 per month to support the Sperry family and for helping with church needs and the poor. This does not cover any medical, transportation or other unseen needs the Sperry family that might have. As of November 2017, there were enough funds to support this ministry for 4 more months. We ask you to prayerfully consider this family s needs. If you wish to support this ongoing mission work, please see the address on page 1. Newly Elected Officers Family Outreach Mission Board Two months ago the Family Outreach Board met together and elected new officers for the board. The officer positions were filled by the following brothers and sisters: President Joshua Loyd Vice President Chris Watson Secretary Elizabeth Sperry Treasurer Jon Tandy Newsletter Editor Tikva Watson May God bless all of you with His richest blessings! A New Website: We have a new website for the church in Honduras that contains church doctrine in PowerPoint presentations in English and Spanish. This website also includes Restoration scriptures in Spanish, French, and English. Feel free to peruse the website and use the online scriptures. restauracion1830.wix.com/churchin-honduras Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion. Isaiah 52:8 IV Newsletter Update Dec-2017 Page 5 of 5
Family Outreach Box 22 Independence, MO 64051