Feliz Navidad

Here's our internet Christmas card. We are standing at the edge of Lake Yojoa.

One of our big highlights so far in this Christmas Season was our school play. Avalon played one of the angels.

Micah and Zachary were shepherds.

The girls from my second grade class were angels. Don't they have the most angelic little faces?

This look of indecision on Michael's face is pricless. Actually, this is the way we feel most of the time. WHAT DO I DO? Michael and I did all the music for the school Christmas program.

Here's Avalon and angel friend, Stephanie.

We played at Sister Maria's Soup Kitchen for kids. Pastor Chris was asked to be Santa Clause. He pulled off the coolest evangelistic tactic ever. He had the kids totally mesmorized because he was Santa. Then he got up to the mic and told the kids that Jesus, not Santa, was the most important person and then shared a mini gospel message.

Here is a video of Micah and Avalon's musical debut. Wow, what an exciting time in our lives. I can't think of anything cooler than ministering together as a family in a third world country. We had no idea what God had in store for us when he gave us the name "Together Ministries" for our ministry. But now I can see why God choose that name for us.

Some of the kids from Sister Maria's share their music.

One night we went caroling from house to house. The song Feliz Navidad seems to be a hit everywhere.

Here's Jayden and Mommy having their morning coffee and milk together.

I made this video for our Christmas program so all the parents could see their kids in action during a school day.

Our visas are expiring so on Thursday our whole family is going to Beliz for the day to get our passports stamped. On Friday my parents are coming to visit us.

May God richly bless you as we serve Him together!

In His Grip,
Michael, Golden, Avalon, Micah, Zachary and Jayden

Can We Build it? YES WE CAN!

Calvary Chapel Peña Blanca is close to being finished. Pastor Chris officialy ran out of money and had to send all the workers home. Fortunately, we had a group from Calvary Chapel East Albuquerque here who took over the building when the workers left. Here is a little video I made of the mission team hard at work building Calvary Chapel Peña Blanca.

Please pray with us for the completion of our little Calvary Chapel. We have been meeting in a home and have not been able to open it up to the public yet since there is little space in our current meeting place.

If you would like to make a donation to Calvary Chapel Peña Blanca please contact Pastor Chris Rivera at cmrivera007@msn.com .

May God richly bless you as we serve Him together!

In His Grip,
Michael, Golden, Avalon, Micah, Zachary and Jayden

A Day At Lake Yojoa School - Honduras Flooded

The following is a video we put together of an average day at Lake Yojoa Bilingual school. We are excited to see the work God is doing here and feel privileged to be apart of it. Enjoy!

Please pray for the country of Honduras. We have had so much rain that Honduras has been declared in a state of emergency.

The flooding is overwhelming. Houses are under water. Bridges are washed out. There doesn’t seem to be an end to the rain.

A major dam has become so full that water is being released into the already flooded villages.

We live at a high altitude so we haven’t experienced the same devastation from the downpours. We are thankful God has kept us safe.

It remains to be seen how Honduras will be affected in the near future as so many of the country’s crops have been destroyed. Please be in prayer.

In His Grip,
Michael, Golden, Avalon, Micah and Zachary

Honduras Highlights 9/14/08 - 10/10/08

Here is Michael teaching Bible to my second grade class. He's going story by story through the Bible with first through fourth grade.

We get up at 5:30a every morning. We arrive at the school at 7 to receive the children. School starts at 7:30 and goes until 1:40p. The school minivan is stuffed with teachers and students going to and from school. It's considered a privilege to have a car in Honduras.

When there's no more room inside, there's always the bumper. There doesn't appear to me to be seat belt laws.

Here is Micah and Zachary and one of their school friends.

Micah and Zachary are a real hit with all the girls. The little Honduran niña's love to tease, talk and play with them.

Here is Avalon with her 3rd grade class making a human pyramid. This was one of their P.E. activities.

This school has been an excellent experience for our children. They are learning how to behave in a classroom environment and they are learning that life isn't just about winning (my kids are competitive). They love to play with their Honduran friends.

One Sunday we went to one of the local churches. Today is "Día de la Biblia" or Day of the Bible. We marched around the community with the church, stopped on different street corners and had open air mini Bible studies. In this town is a whole group of Mennonite families. There are several ladies who are raising Honduran children whose parents gave them up because of the extreme poverty. These Mennonite Honduran children speak perfect English.

Here's our little Calvary Chapel Peña Blanca lead by Pastor Chris Rivera. His wife Maria works at the school with us.

Our Bible Study is quite intimate at this point. We meet on Sunday's and Wednesday's.

Here is the building of Calvary Chapel Peña Blanca under construction. The church hasn't been advertised yet because our meeting place so limited on space. The building of the church is a huge answer to prayer. God is going to huge things with this Calvary Chapel.

Calvary Chapel Peña Blanca is $5000 short in funds from being completed. Please pray with us for a miracle.

My brother, Donathan, and his wife Kim and their friends came out and visited us in September. They built us a screen door for our place to keep the mosquitoes out.

As you can see, Jayden is quite the happy camper. He just goes with the flow. As far as he's concerned there was never a cultural adjustment. Jayden has had a pretty serious diaper rash since we've been here. The climate is so humid that it never has a chance to heal. I'm faced with the reality that I may need to start potty training now if we want this diaper rash to heal.

Avalon and Blackie. Blackie is our neighbor's dog. Avalon and Blackie are best buds.

Jayden loves to be swung in the hammock. "Ahhhh, this is the life."

We are in the rainy season right now. It is a magnificent sight when a storm front moves in.

A local herd of horse takes a stroll in our backyard while our clothes are hanging out to dry. Only in Honduras!

This is the view from our back yard. The terrain in Honduras is absolutely breath-taking. I love to sit on our porch with my coffee (the local coffee is absolutely awesome) and drink in this view.

I must say, I'm falling in love with the children in my second grade class. They are all so precious. Michael and I feel privileged to have this opportunity to teach and pour into the lives of these children. Please pray that God will give us insight and wisdom on how to best teach these kids.

Neither of us has had had training in teaching English as a second language. We're kinda wingin' it. We are becoming experts at charades. Michael does an excellent job drawing his Bible stories on the board. 2 days after the last Bible class my kids are still drawing pictures of the Tower of Babel for me.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support. May God richly bless you as we serve Him together!

In His Grip,
Michael, Golden, Avalon, Micah, Zachary and Jayden

Live Like A Honduran

We had to jump through a few more hurdles at the airport but we made. Yipee!

Lake Yajoa Bilingual School started 4 days later. I’m teaching 2nd grade and Michael is teaching Bible. We’ve been given almost no instruction on how and what to teach.

The downside of that is, we were at a total loss when school first started. We had to develop our own lesson plans and strategy AND QUICK. The upside is we have the freedom to teach how we want.

Michael is teaching straight through the Bible for grades 1 through 4. How wonderful to have the freedom to teach the Bible.

I have been teaching academics all in English, which I have found to be quite a challenge since most of these kids hardly speak English. Needless to say I have been learning Spanish very quickly.

School has been a challenge for our children because they’ve never been in a classroom setting before. This has been really good for them. Half of their classes are in Spanish. They really have to pay close attention to keep up with the rest of the class.

This is our helper, Bani. She helps care for Jayden while we’re teaching.

Meanwhile, while school is in session, Calvary Chapel Peña Blanca is being built down the road completely by hand. Right now we are meeting in the home of one of the locals.

Living here hasn’t been so easy for us because we are so accustomed to the American way of life. We have no air conditioning. It’s sweltering hot and humid. Our family is covered in mosquito bites. Every bit of plumming in our place leaks. The toilet doesn’t flush. When it rains, which is pretty much everyday at 4p, our house floods. We don’t have our own car out here which makes it very difficult to get around. It’s been very difficult to find working internet. I could go on and on, but when I look around we are still living better than most of the Hondurans around us. I have to remember that we didn’t come to Honduras to live in the lap of luxury.

We feel like God wants to accomplish a tremendous work here in Honduras but we are realizing that more importantly He wants to accomplish a work in us personally.

Our biggest prayer request right now is that we would adjust to this culture. I think I’ll write a song to the tune of “Walk Like An Egyptian” and call it “Live like a Honduran.”

Tom this picture is for you.

In His Grip,
Michael, Golden, Avalon, Micah, Zachary and Jayden

We Got 'Em

Praise the Lord! We got our passports. They were waiting for us in the Delta Cargo Bay when we landed in Ft. Lauderdale. I'm overwhelmed at how God took care of all this. Michael did get a 10 year passport, but I (for whatever reason) only got a one year. But that's OK. I have one. We are waiting at the gate for our international flight and reflecting on God's faithfulness. Thank you all for praying. Our request got passed around to several prayer chains. We felt your prayers. This is totally amazing. We are relieved.

Ooops! Lost Passports!

PLEASE be praying for us. We discovered as we were moving out of our house that we accidently threw away our new passports and kept our old ones. We discovered this 5 days before we are supposed to leave for Honduras.

An agency in New York that specializes in emergency passport issues is helping us to resolve this. It's concievable that our new passports could arrive at and be waiting for us at the Ft. Lauderdale International Airport on the day we are supposed to catch our plane to Honduras. But, there are many variables.

By faith our family will fly to Ft. Lauderdale as planned and hope for the best when we get there. My parents will be travelling with us.

A worse case scenario is that our passports are not at the airport waiting for us in which case my parents would take the kids on into Honduras and we would wait in Ft. Lauderdale until our passports arrive.

We feel absolutely horrible about our careless mistake. We will most likely be penalized by the government and only be issued a one-year passport.

If you are on or part of a prayer chain, can you please circulate this prayer request through the chain?

Pray that our passports will be waiting for us at the Ft. Lauderdale airport and that we won't have to be separated from our kids. Pray that we will be issued regular 10 year passports.

Broken, but available to serve Jesus,
Golden, Michael and Family

My Feet Are Made For Walkin'

It has been so cute to watch Jayden take his first steps that I was inspired to make this music video to the tune of "These Boots are Made For Walkin.'" This music video is called "My Feet Are Made For Walkin.'"

Happy Birthday Jayden, Michael and Avalon!

All their Birthdays are really close together, Jayden 7/25, Michael 7/30, and Avalon 8/2. So, we just celebrated them altogether.

This also ended up being a family reunion. My Mom and Dad flew in from MO and my brother, Donathan, and his wife Kim, and their 3 kids, Brenden, MacKenzie and Kylie, frew in from Vero Beach, FL. Needless to say, we had a very very busy household. During their time here, Donathan officated his first wedding. He didn't even throw up or faint. Good job, Dono!

We all had a total blast. Enjoy the Birthday music video.

See the raw video footage on our YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/view_play_list?p=3FBF50478563CD70

Jayden's First Steps

Jayden gave us a present for his Birthday. He took his first steps. That made all our hearts so happy. He was excited that we were excited. Jayden turned one on July 25th.

We Are Moving To Honduras

Stepping Out In Faith

We never imagined that a short mission trip to Honduras last June would lead to such an extraordinary missionary journey.

While in Honduras, we were presented with the need for teachers at Lake Yajoa Bilingual School. We would never have considered it, except that the school was specifically looking for English-speaking teachers. God was challenging us to step out of our comfort zone to minister and teach these children.

While in Honduras, we were present for the ground-breaking of Calvary Chapel Peña Blanca. Missionaries, Chris and Maria Rivera, would need help getting this fellowship off the ground. Again, God was challenging us to step out of our comfort zone.

On August 26th our family will move to Honduras for the next year. We will teach at Lake Yajoa Bilingual School. Our children will attend the school and receive a bilingual education. We will assist Calvary Chapel Peña Blanca with worship, children’s ministry and whatever other needs they may have.

The challenge to serve God in Honduras is clear. What is not clear to us at this point is how God will provide for us as we leave for the mission field. But that’s what we love about ministry. The details are in God’s hand!

Adopt Michael, Golden and Family

We would be honored and blessed if you would prayerfully consider adopting us as missionaries.

First and foremost we covet your continual prayers.

Prayer Requests
· Cultural transition for our family
· Health and safety
· That we will learn Spanish quickly
· Our mission work at Lake Yajoa Bilingual School
· Our mission work at Calvary Chapel Peña Blanca
· That details will be taken care of state side before we leave

Second, we would like to extend to you the opportunity to support our mission financially. Monthly donations from individuals will be our primary source of income.

Our commitment to you is to work diligently to touch the lives of people for Christ and to keep you informed on the work that God is doing in our ministry through email, online videos and blogs.

How It Works

Should God lead you to help in this way, checks can be made payable to "Together Ministries." If you join our team it would be helpful to hear by you by August 1st.

Our Support Address is:

Together Ministries
Michael and Golden
26100 Newport Rd. A12, #401
Menifee, CA 92584

When you send a check, an envelope for the next month's check will be mailed back to you. Please send us your email address and physical mailing address with your first check. All our correspondence and end-of-the-year receipts are done through email.

As always your contributions are tax-deductible and 100% of your gift goes to our ministry.

If you choose you may donate online: http://togetherministries.com/inside/sponsorship.htm

Please feel free to contact us with an questions you may have. You can reach us by phone at 949-400-4339 until August 25th. We can be reached by email at anytime.

Please pray with us we embark on this incredible missionary journey!

In His Grip,
Michael, Golden, Avalon, Micah, Zachary and Jayden

This is a video of our mission trip to Honduras last June. This will give you an idea what we will be doing and area we will be working in.

Precious Moments From Honduras

We had 2 ministry outreaches everyday we were in Honduras. The opportunities to share God's love were endless.

Students from this local jr. high/high school respond to the Gospel.

We taught some new songs to the students of Lake Yahoja Bilingual School.

We travelled to a remote village with Calvary Chapel Jesus Film. We opened up with music to draw a crowd before showing the film.

I made some new friends from the little village where we showed the film.

The villagers response to the Gospel after the Jesus Film was overwhelming.

We did a praise and worship workshop. Here Michael is teaching on worship as a lifestyle.

Worship leaders from churches all over the region participated in the worship workshop.

A young boy comes forward for prayer.


This is precious little Gabriella from one of the local orphanages. I held and played with her for about 15 minutes. Whenever I tried to give her back she would cry.



Here we are with a group of children from the orphanage that we played at.

Here we are with our mission team at the ground breaking of Calvary Chapel Peña Blanca.

A little bit of culture.

The scenery was breathtaking.

This was kind of like a second honeymoon for us.