He is Faithful

Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. Psalm 36:5


With an insurmountable amount of joy and gratitude, I am thankful to report that with a few more checks that I know are coming, my trip is fully funded. 


This is only possible because God's people were willing to be used by Him. 

Going into this process, raising money was the part I dreaded the most, but it was through this part that God displayed his faithfulness.


Thanks to each of you have partnered with me in this journey. This experience has proven that God has surrounded me with so many great people. Your generosity and kindness have lifted my spirits on many occasions. 


If you are looking for a place to support, please check out Mountain Top Ministries (http://www.mtmhonduras.org). They are in the middle of preparing for Christmas. Making Christmas special for eleven boys (and the adults that live there, too!) isn't exactly cheap. 


God is faithful. 


P.S.--Two months from today, I will be heading to Honduras! 

Fundraising Letter

Friends and Family:

Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. —Psalm 82:3-4

Almost ten years ago, God opened a door for me to work in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. On my first trip, our team built houses for the homeless, brought smiles and laughter to children’s homes, provided food to the hungry, and introduced those without hope to the One who is the source of lasting hope. Through all of this, God fostered in me a love for His Honduran children and a passion to be used in whatever way possible to be light to the people there. 

After several short-term trips, I had faith that God would utilize me in larger capacity. Recently, Mountain Top Ministries, a mission organization in Honduras, asked me to move to Honduras and volunteer with the ministry. Mountain Top Ministries (mtmhonduras.org) provides a Christ-centered home and education for eleven boys, ages 10-22, and works with short term mission teams building houses for the needy, feeding the hungry, and clothing the impoverished, and partners with various ministries throughout Honduras. The boys that live in the children’s home come from a variety of despairing backgrounds. All have come from homes where alcoholism and abuse were key players; some have had to beg on the streets to survive, while others were forced into homelessness. It is the goal of Mountain Top Ministry that through a Christ-centered environment, quality bilingual education, and effective discipline, the boys that live in the home will be able to be a light wherever they go.

In January, I will be joining the staff of Mountain Top Ministries. I am excited to join a ministry that will allow me to use the skills that God has developed in me to make a lasting impact for His Kingdom. Some of my duties on this six-month trip will be

·       to support the boys’ studies

·       to assist in the daily goals and tasks of the children’s home

·       to help with the short-term mission teams

·       to be a positive, Christ-like example to the boys

Additionally, it is my plan to provide Bible-centered English lessons to the people that live in the community where I will be staying. This method of evangelism lets me create authentic relationships with my students while also telling people about the transformative power of Christ.  

Below, I have described how much money I will need to raise to make this six-month trip possible:

Transportation, housing, and food	$7200
Airline ticket	$800
Spanish language school	$500
Total	$8500

Consider making a donation to this mission that God has called me to. Checks can be made payable to Grand Central Church of Christ; please put “J.T. Spivy—Honduras” in the memo line. Please send donations to J.T. Spivy 4614 8^th Avenue, Vienna, WV 26105. More importantly, I implore you to pray for my time in Honduras.  

Because of His mission,

J.T. Spivy

P.S.--If you do not want to spend money on postage, there is a PayPal button to the right. 

Watch Me Work

When I (who am I kidding...when God) first decided that I would be going to Honduras in January, I prayed about the length of time and what my life would look like after my trip. I decided to approach the administration at the school where I teach about a leave of absence. With this leave of absence, I would be able to return to my current job next August. Teaching has a few perk and this type of deal is one of them.

I was assured by many people that if I got my leave of absence request in quickly, it would be approved without any issue. So that is what I did: I filled out the necessary paperwork, attained the appropriate signatures, and turned in my application in a timely manner. Then I waited for three weeks.

At the end of this three weeks of waiting, I thought it might be prudent to send an e-mail to the central office HR department to see where things stood for the leave of absence. Then I waited for three weeks.

At the end of THIS three weeks, I picked up the phone and made a phone call to the HR office. I was informed by the extremely cordial disembodied voice on the phone that it was her understanding that my leave of absence was not approved by the superintendent. After weeks of being told that leaves of absence were always approved and that surely mine would be approved since I would be going to do humanitarian work, I was informed that my reason for going did not merit a leave of absence.

I would love to tell you that I did not become frustrated but instead calmly went to the Lord in prayer--would love to be able to say that. However, my first reaction was a lot of frustration. There were some terse text messages sent that I thought would make me feel better, but per usual, just exacerbated my frustration. There were some unkind (okay... downright hateful) words that escaped my lips about the central office. I was mad. I was upset. I was confused.

Then came my nightly Bible study. I have no idea what I was reading at the time (I think it was II Chronicles), and a sense of peace came over me. With this peace came the message "Watch me work." For almost two months I had been taking the process of getting a leave of absence for granted. I did not pray about it often; I did not surrender it to God. I assumed that what I  had done would be enough. God needed to show me that He was still the one crafting this journey--that He would decide how things would be done because His way is perfect.

Long story short, my amazing administration went and fought for my leave of absence and the superintendent approved it. At this point, I am just waiting on the Board of Education to vote on it. I know that regardless of the outcome, God has had this plan for me since the beginning. He has not allowed me to rush through this, making careless mistakes. He has slowed me down, and I have come to more fully appreciate His hand in this process.

There is still a lot to be done before I go, but I am realizing that God's plans are far better than my own.

Pray for the preparations. Pray for those who are thinking about donating (PayPal button to right...wink, wink). Pray for the work that is awaiting me. Pray that we can all slow down and appreciate the providential work of our Master.

J.T.

P.S.-- You need to go check out the work that God is doing through Mountain Top Ministries. Their most recent update had my brain doing backflips with all of the possibilities that I can be involved with in just a few short months. Consider partnering with this ministry.

Finally Happening

I had spent only a week in a country that I had just learned about the year prior; and yet, there I was, on an airplane from Honduras to Miami, bawling like a child. This dramatic display of tears could have been caused by (a) an extreme lack of sleep, causing me to be emotionally volatile; (b) the extreme aridness of the aircraft;  or (c) I had made some unexplainably deep connections with some kids that I was certain I would not see again. I was a bit dramatic--hard to believe.

The next summer, I returned to spend my summer at Casa de Esperanza, a Christian children's home outside the capital city, Tegucigalpa. For ten weeks, I became a part-time dad (okay, really, I was just a goofy gringo who had to use charades to get my point across). For ten weeks, I spent many hours a day wrangling children, working on homework, organizing meals, leading morning devotionals, and doing my best to keep all 18 children alive.  For ten weeks, I butchered a language and successfully communicated about 43.7% of the time; and for ten weeks, I learned many new qualities about God--lessons that have continued to shape my adulthood. Side note: It was also at this time that parasites infested my gut, and I lost 30 pounds in three weeks. Not the healthiest weight-loss program, but it was effective.

After that summer, I begged my parents to let me drop out of college no less than three times a semester. I just did not understand why I needed a college education if I was going to work in Honduras. Thankfully, my parents prevailed, and I attained my teaching degree, visiting Honduras each summer. It was during my college years that I knew that one day I would be able to combine my education with my passion for the work in Honduras.

Through my work in the public school system, volunteerism, and my trips abroad, I have come to the conclusion that education is one of the few ways to end poverty. The problem is that in the places that are plagued with profound penury, education opportunities are only available to those who have the financial means to acquire it; there is a reason poverty is described as a cycle.

Though I knew that I wanted to use education as a way to help those in Honduras (and, really, wherever I went), I was concerned that if I moved to Honduras, I would just be another missionary doing redundant work in a nation that was already replete with missionaries. After graduation, I began teaching in the States with the faith and knowledge that one day the right opportunity would open to me.

Last January, my friend, David Logue, contacted me and asked me to consider joining his ministry, Mountain Top Ministries. Mountain Top Ministries provides to eight boys a loving home, effective education, a Chirst-centered family, and opportunities to leave a life of poverty. These boys are able to attend bilingual schools, go to church weekly, and work alongside mission groups from the United States. Mountain Top Ministries also works with a homeless ministry in the center of Tegucigalpa (providing food, shelter, and a way to learn more about Christ through the congregation there), a thriving women's ministry, and short term mission teams.

At the end of last year, one of the full-time volunteers unexpectedly left the ministry, leaving David to raise the boys by himself. Knowing my desire to move to Honduras, David invited me to join the ministry. After a lot of prayer and conversations with those I love, I determined it was not the right time to move to Honduras because of prior commitments and lack of funds; I knew, though, that the door was not closed and, in God's timing, I would join the staff of Mountain Top Ministries.

And, finally, the time has come for me to make plans to move to Honduras. After almost ten years of talking about it, I am still shocked that it is actually happening. In January, I will be moving to Honduras for, as of now, an undetermined amount of time (between 6-10 months, though God may have other plans). Because the Honduran school year begins in February, moving in January allows me to help David as he prepares for a new school year and the introduction of two younger boys to the ministry. While I will be helping David with the daily tasks of the ministry, I will be focusing much of my time on helping the boys with their studies. The boys have been highly successful with their studies thus far, and I hope to enrich this experience for them. This education, coupled with a love of Christ, will allow these boys to be powerful lights in a dark world.

Until the move, I will continue to teach at Edison Middle School (a place I hope to return to after my time in Honduras). Between now and January, I will be saving my money and raising funds to not only cover my costs, but also to benefit Mountain Top Ministries. If you would be willing to help fund my trip, you can either contact me at jtspivy3@yahoo.com or donate using the PayPal button to the right. More importantly, if you would like to begin partnering with Mountain Top Ministries, check out their website, http://www.mtmhonduras.org. Above all, be in prayer for Mountain Top Ministries as they (can I say "we," yet?) enter into a time of transition.