Ontario and Honduras churches forge partnership

An enthusiastic team from Gateway Christian Fellowship, St. Catharines, Ont., recently returned from a week-long missions trip to Honduras. Pastor Ed and Karin Willms and Vic and Sally Froese from Gateway, together with Ed and Cheryl Heinrichs of Cornerstone Community Church, Virgil, Ont., and J.C. and Lyn Peters and Dave Balzer from Winnipeg had been invited to help at a retreat organized by Ernesto Pinto, Spanish radio producer with Family Life Network, based in Winnipeg.

The retreat was an opportunity for local Honduran pastors from many denominations to experience a weekend of spiritual renewal, reflection and relaxation, so they could return to their places of ministry energized. One pastor commented that it “dignified us as pastors and couples.”

For Gateway, it was another step in an on-going partnership with Pastor Jorge and Sonia Trejo of Las Aguilas (The Eagles) Ministries in El Progresso, Honduras, that began during a “scouting trip” to Honduras by Gateway in November 2002. Reciprocal ministries began with sponsoring several children at the church-based school in El Progresso, a project Gateway children have eagerly embraced by bringing their gifts of money Sunday mornings.

That trip was followed by a visit from Pastor Jorge and Sonja to St. Catharines this June, where they blessed Gateway with their enthusiasm and vision for Central America.

After Gateway’s team returned from this latest trip, Ernesto Pinto summed up what is at the heart of the congregation’s desire to build bridges and grow into a deeper understanding of what sharing God’s love means locally and globally. “It is wonderful to know that you see us [Hondurans] not just as a mission field,” he said, “but as brothers and sisters in the Lord.”

—from report by Annita Thiessen