In 1964 a remarkable woman and her three children came to live in Oak Ridge, Roatan Island off the north coast of Honduras. Abandoned by her husband, Jean Isbell struggled to provide for their children. With a deep sense of God’s call to missions, the invitation to establish a Gospel work at Roatan sparked the slumbering coals of
her imagination. With little promise of help or support, Jean packed their few possessions and arrived to take up the challenge.There were many years of heartache and joy, failures and triumphs, tears and laughter to follow. Now, forty-seven years later, Cruzadas del Evangelio de Honduras (Gospel Crusades of Honduras, the result of Jean’s work and others’, there are in excess of 200 national churches and beyond that the “campos blancos” (white fields), a term we use for preaching points which as yet do not have a pastor.
Developing national leadership: pastors, teachers, evangelists, those in primary care for the churches, that is, the people in the churches, has been of utmost concern from the inception of the mission. This is done via seminars, conferences, at both national and regional levels.
God’s concern is not alone for man’s spiritual welfare, but for the quality of His children’s life. “I am come”, Jesus said, “that they might have life and that they might have life more abundantly.” Cruzadas mission concerns itself with the health, education, and well being of those within its outreach. Clinics and medical brigades help the sick; arranging schooling for children and adults who have no resources to be able to study raise the educational level for many. Feeding programs for children in several especially poverty stricken areas provides nutritional food for growing bodies. The contribution of short-term mission teams for special projects such as building churches, clinics, schools and even homes for people in difficult circumstances has amplified our ability to serve God, by serving His Honduran peoples.
About John Taylor
A former teacher, I came to Honduras 38 years ago at the invitation of Jean Isbell for what was to be two weeks. I am still here.
Square one in all our callings is to make disciples for Christ. In my work in Honduras that takes on a number of forms, but this is the pattern:
Bring a person to know Christ as Savior, then grow him up to do the same.
I focus on developing national leadership for indigenous Honduras ministries through mentoring, seminars, and counseling. My modus operandi through the years has been to bring pastors and other church leaders together for a seminar, then to do a walking (or riding a mule or in a canoe, or bouncing along on the back of a pickup) tour of the given area, visiting each pastor in him home and church.
On these tours, I will take one to three pastors with me from a different area. This affords me 24/7 time with those men, and I can see them in action as they minister publicly and privately.
In the seminars, I have people at all levels of experience, eduction and spiritual maturity. This makes it difficult to speak to all at one level. I am in the beginning stages of building a Ministerial Education Center to which I can bring smaller groups of those already in the ministry for in-depth and focused study at their common level of education and experience.
I am as of Feb 5, 2011, 68 years old, and my physical ability for days of walking over mountains and through rivers and swamps will someday begin to wane. The Ministerial Education Center will enable me to continue the important job of commending unto other capable leaders what I have learned in 50 years of this work.