Each new year brings new needs and expenses and this year has been no exception for us.
Transportation: in terms of transportation security, our “Life in Action” outreaches have multiplied over the last couple of years, to the degree that we do not have the necessary vehicles to safely transport staff and selected students, along with supplies to the different locations.Not to mention during the season that church groups visit.Currently, we are looking at buying a new director’s truck and passing down the current one into the ministry fleet, to provide four reliable mountain vehicles, also giving us the fifth one when it is needed.Presently, the older trucks are beginning to show signs of age, also and in need of maintenance and repairs.This is, more than anything is the dynamics of growth.The needs continue to abound, and our desire is to be able to provide as many of our staff and students the opportunity to be a part of these strategic ministry ventures.We need fifteen thousand dollars to finalize the purchase of the new truck.
PASTORS CONFERENCE: It is that time of year again, time for Tree of Life Ministries annual
Pastor’s conference,“Life Abundant 2010.As many of you know, every year our mission reaches out to the jungle pastors of the remote Honduran Mosquito Coast by providing quality leadership training opportunities in two key locations that are more easily accessible: Wampusirpi and Brus Laguna.
This is vitally important to the health of the church of Honduras due to the fact that the majority of these pastors and leaders have very little training from their prospective denominations and rely on the strong leaders that we bring in to this conference to help them continue to grow and mature.It is encouraging to see how many of these pastors return home to their villages and teach other local pastors and leaders what they have learned.
This year we would like to offer our team members the opportunity to help sponsor some of these pastors.Each pastor will be responsible for his own transportation to the event and in this is investing a portion of the expenses.However, we would like to cover the room and board for those who, due to lack of funds, would not otherwise be able to attend.We have many of the May sponsorships in Wampusirpi already covered, but still have a long way to go with the July conference in Brus Laguna.
If you, or someone you know, would like to help sponsor some of these pastors from the Mosquito Coast for this year’s Life Abundant conference please contact me directly at tolm@tolm.org. Or our office in Fenton MI. 2084 W. Thompson Rd., Fenton, MI, 48430 ____________
Wampusirpi Room and Board Sponsorship: $35 per pastor.We need sponsor 25 more pastors.
Brus Laguna Room and Board Sponsorship: $50 per pastor.We need to sponsor 250 pastors.
UPGRADE LIBRARY Another necessity that we would like to present to you is that of the need to upgrade our Library with computers and books. Those of you that frequent your local library often and/or appreciate the value of having had one while in school, can certainly understand the need of a decent library. In the United States many take their school libraries or local library for granted, quality libraries are few and far between here in Honduras, and as an institution for learning it is our desire to bring up the mentality of our students to the level of valuing the information available to them via the internet and through easily attainable learning resources. A well rounded library opens up a whole new world to any child.
CHAIRS FOR CHURCH SERVICES and RALLIES This year we are opening up our Sunday evening church services to the public and in so doing have caused a shortage in available seating. Currently, we are short 300 chairs to provide the extra seating needed to accommodate for this increase.
ELECTRICAL FOR WELDING BUSINESS We are also expanding in the area of new businesses, which serve as an avenue for Tree of Life to become more and more self supported. We recently bought an empty shipping container to convert into a welding shop. Our welding crew has become quite efficient and this has opened up opportunities to construct many different metal fixtures from furniture, security window covers, decorative railings, etc outside of our facility. This shop is located outside the gate and across the street from Escalon, thus creating the need to run electricity over to it. Currently, the funding is not available to do this, finishing the project.
SHORT TERM MISSIONS OPPORTUNITIES And lastly, we are in need of someone interested in serving on the mission field in a mid to long term capacity. Someone that could come in for 3 months to a year and serve as our Web Master and aid us in our media department. Our web page needs weekly to monthly updates, uploads, etc and we are in our second year of organizing an actual media department responsible for everything from weekly video updates of our outreaches to Plan Escalon activities, and we would also like to design and print our own "yearbook". If you have any interest and questions about this please contact us via the ministry's email address at tolm@tolm.org.
Also, along the lines of "short term missions" opportunities, we are in need of someone willing to serve as a "missionary dentist" with us this year, for our trip to the Mosquito Coast at the beginning of August. If you know of a dentist (or you are the dentist) that may be willing to rough it for a week, to be of service to these remote regions where very little dental care is received, please contact us through the ministry email address at tolm@tolm.org
Thank you for your interest in helping with any of these needs. We appreciate and value each and every means of support that we receive.
