November 2012 Update

To the Saints that are holding us before the throne of our God. May His grace and love shower over you in ways that you never expect! “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his love endures forever.” Psalm 118:1 This Thursday is Thanksgiving and a day when friends and family gather together to celebrate the blessings of life! This will be only the 3rd Thanksgiving in our 44 years of knowing each other that we will not be gathering with the Rhodes’ family in Estill, SC. We have been so blessed to have been able to keep that tradition for so many years. We will miss our family as they gather there, but the Lord is good. Joe and I will be gathering with some new friends in Tegucigalpa, Honduras and sharing a meal. The Lord provides many new blessings each day to us here. We pray that your Thanksgiving is a most blessed one that is filled with God’s blessings, love, fellowship and lots of good food! It’s hard to realize that this time last month Abney was here with us. Now she is in Brisbane, Australia nannying for her sister, Stacey, with her two little ones; while Stacey and Simon attend the School of Redeeming Cultures. After Abney left, Jack Melvin who is also a SAMS (Society of Anglican Missionaries and Senders) missionary stayed with us for two weeks until he was able to find an apartment. It turns out that he’s next door to us, but four floors up. We continue to find ourselves facing new ways of life and change! Each day we see the Lord’s hand upon us as we go about our work here at St. Mary’s School and Church. We stay busy and time seems to fly by so quickly. We are so grateful for our apartment across from St. Mary’s and feel so at home now. We have enjoyed our Thursday night Bible Studies at St. Mary’s Church. There is always a little eating time afterwards. I have been able to make a caramel and chocolate cake for two birthdays we celebrated! The cakes turned out pretty good even with the high altitude here in Tegucigalpa. Our daily life at St. Mary’s School is so exciting, busy, challenging, and prayer filled!! Joe helps with the chapel service for the high school when Fr. Gerardo Alonzo, the Dean of St. Mary’s Co-Cathedral is absent. He also teaches Christian Education to the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. When I am not helping with my English Coordinator duties, I teach Christian Education to the Kinder, Preparatory, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders. Last week I went with the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders for a day Retreat at the El Hogar Institute which is located in the Amarateca valley. We had a blast!! Many of the children could not believe how fast this grey headed lady could run when we played “Duck, Duck, Goose.” Of course when I tripped, fell, and rolled in the grass all of them raced and stood over me silent until I rolled over laughing!! Praise God for thick uncut grass!! The very first Saturday in November, the Daughters of the King Chapters here in Honduras had their first Diocesan Assembly. I was able to attend. This time brought back many memories from the early years of the DOK in the Diocese of SC when we held our first Diocesan Assembly. Two DOKs from the United States were present. Missy Denny, the new National 1st Vice President from San Antonio, TX and a dear friend, Lana Valenta, from Dallas,TX. I had quite a surprise to see my friend there. She knew I was coming to the Assembly, but I had no idea she would be there. A sweet, special time was had by all!! A couple of weeks ago, St. Mary’s Church held a supper for married couples. There was candle light, special music for entertainment and good food. Joe and I were the speakers for this event, sharing about our life as a married couple. Thank you Lord for our 41 years of marriage: our children, their husbands, and our grandchildren! Speaking of grandchildren…our daughter Marie and her husband Paul are expecting #4 in May!! God is so good!!! Our Sundays here are special. Joe leads the English service for St. Mary’s. We are small in number but full of life!! Then we remain for the Spanish service where Joe helps Fr. Gerardo with distributing communion. It is a wonderful Spirit filled worship service! Recently we attended Fr. Gerardo’s 5th anniversary celebration to the priesthood. Fr. Gerardo and his family have been friends of ours for almost 18 years. God is so good!!! This past Friday, Joe went to the airport to meet a team from All Saint’s Episcopal Church in Lakeland, FL to deliver two translators for them from St. Mary’s School and to pick up 50 Bilingual Bibles that were purchased through a gift from the Church Periodical Club’s “Miles of Pennies Fund” of the Episcopal Church Women from the Diocese of South Carolina. It’s always good to know when teams are coming down, because they can always bring something to help the missionaries in the field. Last Saturday, we attended the 6th grade graduation of the children from the El Hogar Orphanage. Truly a day of celebration for these young girls and boys. They definitely know how good God is and how His love endures forever! In closing we have a few prayer requests and invitations for you! First, we will be returning to the states on the 11th of December to Sumter, SC for Christmas break and will be returning to Honduras on January 8, 2013. Our prayer request is for safe travel, good connections, good weather, easy entrance through immigration and customs going both ways! Also, wise use of our time while we are home. We have many people to see and things to accomplish in our short time there. Second, pray about attending the New Wineskins Conference -- April 4-7, 2013 at Ridgecrest Conference Center, Ridgecrest, NC. This is a wonderful gathering of brothers and sisters from all over the world sharing about the Kingdom work they are doing. It is a time for worshipping together, attending workshops, networking, fellowshipping, and praying together as a Church. There are so many wonderful speakers and teachers! Check out their web site at www.newwineskins.org. Third, it is that time of year to issue our Team invitation to come and help at St. Mary’s Episcopal School with their VBS/Youth Retreat and service project. The dates are from June 4-15, 2013. Please let us know by December 21, 2012 if you would like to be a part of this Team, then we’ll contact you with further details. And Fourth, our VISA process. Upon our return to Honduras in January we will be able to finalize our VISA process. We would love to have it all completed by April before we attend the New Wineskins Conference. Pray for quick approval!! Thank you again for your love, support and prayers….and continuing on in Psalm 118… “The Lord’s right hand has done mighty things! The Lord’s right hand is lifted high. The Lord’s right hand has done mighty things!” vs. 15-16 And, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Vs 24 Be Blessed to be a Blessing, Tina and Joe The Reverend Canon Joe & Tina Rhodes 2280 Clematis Trail Sumter, SC 29150 USA 803-469-0720 HN 011-504-977-1531

The Rhodes Girls

Thoughts Along The Way

Some thoughts along the way….. I was reading an article the other day and it was talking about various obstacles in sharing the good news of God in Jesus, the Christ. At once I thought about Cursillo and Kairos, both ministries have talks dealing with various obstacles to Grace or in my words “a relationship with God through Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit.” The article named three obstacles: language, culture and one’s beliefs or non-beliefs. Then I read an article talking about the Church in Nigeria with the title, “Will I lose my life at church today?” Not an everyday thought for most of us living in the states. Some of us are checking our watches to see if we can make it the golf course in time or miss one of the sports events that might be coming on. But in getting ready to go to church and asking the question, “will I lose my life at church today?” is not on our list. However, as a priest who loves to preach, I pray that all of us will indeed loose our lives in Jesus so that we can truly live for Him. But I don’t even ask the question or have a fear of someone coming through the doors of the church to kill you or me. However, that is a way of life in parts of Nigeria these days. Please pray for our brothers and sisters throughout the world who can literally lose their lives by going to church or by being a Christian. At the moment, I am living in Tegucigalpa, Honduras; a place where I don’t speak the language, I don’t know the culture, and there are many who do believe in Jesus and many that believe in things contrary to the good news of Jesus, the Christ. So, how do you advance the gospel in these conditions? There is no clear path. The road is narrow with a lot of challenges along the way. Several years ago, I did a spiritual gifts inventory to find out what my spiritual gifts were. I found out that my top three gifts were: faith, giving and helps. But out of 28 possible gifts, mercy was one of the bottom three! Not Good!!!! I mean as a priest I’m sure that one of the expectations of us is to be merciful and full of compassion. Talk about an obstacle to the gospel, a priest with no compassion!!!! God Forbid!!! So, I had to go before the Lord and ask if He would give me the ability to have compassion and mercy. I think He did it in a strange way really. It was a three step process as I look back on it. The first step is that He needed me to go to Cursillo. Cursillo is a three day event designed in a way that one will experience corporate worship, basic teachings of the Christian Faith, too much food, and some time for reflection (though not much). Cursillo is not a retreat because you can talk and in fact encouraged to talk after each teaching is presented. There is some time for silence, but don’t think of Cursillo as a three day retreat, because it’s not. Yes, you will retreat from the norm of your everyday life, but that’s about it. The intention of the 3-days is to give one an experience of the Body of Christ. And that is what happened to me. I encountered the living Christ during those three days. I was born and bred a Baptist. I began going to church before I was born. I was baptized at 10 years old just like everyone else in my little town of Estill, SC. I came into the Episcopal Church when I was in college. After Tina and I were married, we went back to Estill to live and I was the lay reader for our little Episcopal Church that sat on 50 acres of a piney wood forest. For those Episcopalians reading this, you might want to know that we had 3 wardens and not 2. We had a Senior Warden (one who looks after the spiritual well-being of the congregation when the priest is not available), a Junior Warden (one who takes care of the physical property) and a Game Warden (most congregations don’t have this one but we needed someone to make sure that the deer stands were available during deer season). Don’t ya just love country living??? Let me back up a couple of years. When I was 16 years old (well, a little more than a couple of years), right after my junior year of high school, I was run over by a tractor and trailer. The doctors gave me 4 days to live and when I passed the 4 day mark, I remember hearing a doctor tell my mother that I would never be able to play football again or any other type of contact sport. At 16, football was my god!!! This was around the end of June and football practice was only a few weeks away. I said to myself, “that will never happen!!” I was out of the hospital in 2 weeks. I had had 5 broken ribs in three places (15 breaks) and a punctured right lung. But, by mid-season, I was playing football. Not only that, I played a year of college ball as well. I had to quit playing college ball because of my knees, but still enjoyed playing flag ball and running. Somewhere right after the tractor and trailer ran over me, I had what is commonly referred to now as an outer body experience. What I experienced was a visit to a festival in Heaven!! It was more like a huge picnic with this massive table that contained every food that you can imagine. The table was surrounded by people dressed in white robes. Though I did not recognize anyone around the table, I did noticed that they were all laughing and having a great time; and I had a tremendous sense of wholeness and peace. Then out of nowhere, I remember hearing myself finishing the Lord’s Prayer. I looked up but couldn’t see anything because my eyes were packed with dirt. Then someone asked me how I felt. I’m sure they didn’t expect what they heard from me, because I told them that I felt like dying. And I did for I had just had a small taste of Heaven. But I was not about to tell anyone about this experience for years, because I didn’t want to end up on Bull Street in Columbia where the mental institution was at the time. You would think that that would have made a deep impression on me in a spiritual fashion, but it really didn’t because you see, football was my god. What I did come away with was no fear of dying. To this day, I have no fear of death, I just don’t like it! Back to Tina and me living in Estill, where my family had lived for generations. My mother had given us the old home place to live. That was my dream home and I was so thankful that we had the opportunity to live there. And so life was good, but during our third year of marriage I just didn’t feel satisfied with life. So, I went to the community cemetery which our farm surrounded to seek help from God. I went to the cemetery because that’s where my daddy was buried. He died when I was 4 years old of a massive heart attack and the community always told me what a godly man my dad was. So, I figured if God was to be found, He would be at the cemetery with my daddy. I left the house on a dark night. No moon. No stars. Just dark. Very dark. I didn’t need a flash light, because I had spent a lot of time in the cemetery growing up to hang out with my dad. I stood on his grave looking up to the heavens and told God all the good things that I was doing for Him and asking why I was so miserable. Then I yelled at Him and asked, “What do You want of me!!!???” When I was a small boy, maybe 10 or so, I remember riding home from church one day with my family. And I was wondering why God didn’t speak to people any more like He did in the Bible. The sermon must have been on Moses and the burning bush. I can see that time like it was yesterday. Amazing how our minds can work sometimes like that. Well on that dark, dark night some years ago as I stood on my daddy’s grave looking into the heavens; a light appeared and from the light, I heard the Lord say, “I want you to go to seminary.” My only response to Him was, “If you want me to go to seminary, then You are going to have to open some doors because you know that I’m not a good student.” His only response to me was letting me experience “the peace that passes all understanding.” Never in my life have I ever experience the depth of peace as I did that night. And so, I knew that if I ever wanted any sense of peace in my life that I would have to go to seminary. So, once again at Cursillo, I encountered the living God and now there is no denial to what I experienced, only acceptance of His mercy and grace that He offers to all who would come to Him. The encounter I had with Jesus that week-end was life changing for me, because it was the first time that I had ever felt loved by God. Here I was, a priest in His Church, and it was the very first time that I had felt the love of God in and through His son, Jesus!!! I felt like a limp wash rag. Step two began the very next day after the Cursillo week-end. Tina and I went to a conference at St. Paul’s, Darien, Connecticut. It was a 4 day event on the Holy Spirit. You know, number 3 in the Trinity that we don’t talk too much about in most traditional churches. Well on the last night that we were at the conference, our host family wanted to pray for us to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He went through a short explanation of the Holy Spirit, but the phrase that caught my attention was that He was the one who helps us to be Christ-like in the world and I needed that big time. So, there in their living room, Tina and I were baptized in the Holy Spirit. (An aside, I know that when we are baptized that we receive the Holy Spirit; the issue is not whether the Holy Spirit is in me or not; the issue is whether or not the Holy Spirit has permission to work in my life. Remember, God will never ever take our free will from us.) So, Tina and I both gave the Holy Spirit permission to work in our lives to the glory of God. Life has never been the same for either of us. Three years later, the final step: Kairos, an ecumenical prison ministry using the Cursillo format, a very big obstacle for me here. When I was in the seventh grade, our field trip was to the state penitentiary. The first place they took us was to the electric chair. One of the guards (security officer now days, but still a guard to me) told us, “If you are bad this is where you are going to be!” Shucks most of us kids from that time on feared the “chair” more than we feared God!!! So I had no inclination to do prison ministry at all. The few times that I “had” to go to check on someone made my skin crawl. So I was much relieved when one of my parishioners asked me if I knew of a prison ministry that SHE could be involved. I told her no, but that I would let her know if something came up. Well, several weeks later, I get a phone call from a friend of mine through Cursillo asking me if I would be on the task force to get Kairos into SC. I can see it like it was just this morning. I was standing up and I put the phone down by my side and looked up and said, “You sure do have a sense of humor!!!” I then told my friend that I would be glad to help out in any way that I could. It was by the power of the Holy Spirit that enabled me to respond in such a manner. But Kairos has taught me what God’s Grace is all about. I’ve overcome more obstacles in my life through the Kairos ministry than I can count. I’ve learned how to Listen, Listen, Love, Love. I’ve learned not to take offense and I’ve learned to be compassionate, because of the One who showed compassion to me. The main obstacle to proclaiming the good news of God in Jesus Christ is fear. In John’s first letter to the Church, he stays, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” (1 John 4.18) Therefore, I need to give way to the fears that I have about others in order that I can love them enough to tell them that they are loved by God; the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we don’t have a love for the people who need to hear this good news that is available to them, then we have nothing to offer. The very thing that they need to experience and receive is the love of God that is offered through His son, Jesus. If we don’t love the person, why should they even want to listen to what we have to say? Don’t get me wrong, loving someone and approving what they do are two different things. Loving the sinner and not the sin is easier said than done, but that’s what we have to try and do. So, what are the obstacles, the fears, in your life that keep you from loving people? First of all, you can’t love anyone properly on your own, you need help. And that’s the work of the Holy Spirit. To turn you into a lover of souls for Jesus!! That’s why I’m sitting here in a country where I don’t know their language. I don’t know their culture. But the Lord has called Tina and I here to minister to those who believe and those who don’t believe. We’ve been called here to demonstrate the Love of God in and through Jesus, the Christ. Our call is to be in those places where the Lord needs us to be for Him and to show forth His love to all people no matter what!!! Our ministry purpose statement is Wherever I’m Needed – Go Serve, therefore, WIN-GS. I was thinking what it would look like if I inserted “you are” in the place of I’m: Wherever You Are Needed – Go Serve. It would read WYAN-GS. Sounds like I talk, but I think it is best just to stick to WI-NGS. Bottom line is this: you need to be where the Lord needs you to be for Him and do the things that He needs you to do for Him and Him alone. Be Blessed to be a Blessing, Fr. Joe

Honduras Update..July 15, 2012

July 15, 2012 To the Saints that support our WIN-GS and SAMS ministry with prayers and financial offerings: Well, I got sidelined the other day so I pray that this will be more informative in what is going on here in Honduras and Tina will be adding her part from Australia where she is being Mom, Nana, and teacher. I had a skype date with Tina the other day (5 PM here is 9 AM there on the next day). I speak into the future and she speaks into the past and we are speaking to each other in the present. Don’t you just love modern communications???? I know I do and I love skype even when it’s not working too good as in the other day. Anyway, Tina asked me what I was going to be doing tomorrow (whenever that was) and I told her I didn’t know yet because it hadn’t gotten here yet!!! Well, folks, that seems to be life for me these days. I really don’t know from one day to the next what the Lord is going to have me doing or going. I’m helping with the English speaking congregation now on Sundays in the morning, but the afternoons are free for me to go to different congregations with the lay pastors. I enjoy doing that and it really does encourage the lay pastors as well as the congregations that I attend. I’m sure I’ve told you before the importance of just “showing up.” And that’s what I feel is so important here, just to show up. You see, each of us is a gift to the world. We are all uniquely packaged for the world. And you know, everybody loves to receive gifts!!!! But don’t get a big head or all puffed up! You my friend are a gift given by God for the glory of God!! And so, we just show up and let God do the work through us and in us for His glory. I still back in amazement at what the Lord is doing. He is giving me eyes to see. Eyes to see how some of you can help with the work that needs to be done down here. Some of you responded to my call for books for the science teacher and boy did that make her day! You see, I believe the Lord sent Tina and I here to be an encouragement to the teachers and staff to be all that God has called them to be. And I also believe that you are to help in this process, which you have already with your prayers and financial gifts. But your prayers are what is needed the most. St. Mary’s has lost many students over the past several years for one reason or another and she really does need at least 200 students to make things work out financially. I would like to help the clergy to have their children or grandchildren to receive grants to be able to attend St. Mary’s, but that will only be accomplished through the generosity of people like you asking your prayer group or study group to sponsor a child. I’m asking you to be advocates of children in Honduras to have a bilingual education for the betterment of the child, the Church, and the community. Just think, a group of 10 people giving $20.00 a month, can support a child for the year. Pray about it. See if you can get 9 other people to join you in supporting a child at St. Mary’s. You can do the math anyway you want to do it, but the more people involved the better because I know that when you give the money the prayers will be coming with it. Let me know what the Lord tells you on this. Ok, so that’s one. Here’s another opportunity to pray about. The school needs a massive paint job with some repairs and additions. You can bring a team down to paint the school which I would prefer, but if you want to just pay for it or chip in just let me know. I don’t have a price tag on that yet, but I will be bringing that to you shortly. At the moment, we are having the outlines being painted from monies given by a church in Maryland. The addition would be a roof over an area that is open now for the children to eat their lunches. We would need to add tables with benches as well. I’m hoping that we can get the boys from St. Mary’s Institute (part of the El Hogar Projects) to do that job since it is in their area of expertise and it would help to fund the Institute at the same time. We’ll see how that works out and I’ll let you know the price tag for it. The area as is now Architect’s rendition of Painting the outline at the school the area with a roof Another addition that needs to be done is to extend the roof line on our gym. It needs to be extended out about 3 feet on one side so that when it rains it won’t come into the gym and into the supply room that’s for the equipment. The Reverend Canon D. Joseph and Tina Rhodes 2280 Clematis Trail Sumter, SC 29150 joetina71@aol.com www.sams-usa.org www.win-gs.org www.smestegus.com 803-469-0720 011-504-977-15-431 SAMS-USA PO Box 399 Ambridge, PA 15003 You can also give to SAMS-USA using the following link:

April 28, 2012

WOW…..time really flies!!! It’s hard to believe that on June 5th we will be taking a team down to St. Mary’s Episcopal School in Tegucigalpa, Honduras to do a Vacation Bible School and Retreat. Not only that, Joe will stay behind when the team returns on the 14th of June to begin the process of transition of the Co-Rector position that both of us will have at the school. Yes, that means that we are moving to Tegucigalpa…….for how long? Only the Lord knows……….Yes, we are keeping our home in Sumter. Anyway, Tina returns with the team because our granddaughters; Sarah Catherine and Avery Jones need to have an adult to travel with them because of the age factor. What a privilege it is to be able to have our grandchildren being part of our mission work. Tina will then head to Sydney, Australia the 1st of July to be with Stacey and her family for a few weeks to help Stacey and Simon with their second child who is due on our anniversary, June 18. Also, Tina will be teaching at the Discipleship Training School (DTS) on Spiritual Warfare while at the Youth With a Mission-Island Breeze base where Stacey and Simon are on Staff. Abney, who is at the School of Acting for the Screen (SAS) with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) at the University of Nations main campus in Kona, Hawaii; is due to return home on the 28th of June. However, she may be able to stay for an internship. She will not know about that until later on in the school. So please keep her in your prayers as she continues to seek the Lord’s direction for her life and what next steps she is to take. We were able to talk to her, via Skype, the other day and she said to let y’all know that she will try and get a note out soon. This time last week, we were on the road to Baton Rouge, Louisiana from Calhoun, Louisiana. We had just finished our team meeting with those from Louisiana and Texas that will be going on our team in June to St. Mary’s School. However, on our way to Louisiana we met with one of our team members in Athens, Georgia who is a student at the University of Georgia. It was good to be able to put faces with names and to get to know our team members a little bit better. We have learned that Team Unity is a must going into any type of ministry. That is why time has to be invested into Team Training. Jesus tells us in John’s Gospel that the world will know that He has come because of our being one with the Father, Him and each other (John 17.21). So, on to Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Bogalusa, and Slidell to touch base with some of our supporters and friends that we have not seen in a long time. It was so good to be able to share with some of the Holy Spirit Church members on Saturday night and to worship with them on Sunday morning. Holy Spirit Church remains a strong presence of Jesus to the world in which she lives. Well, we’re back now and pulling together that final materials needed for the mission trip from June 5-14. And this is where you can be a tremendous help!! We need around $5,000.00 for the materials needed for the VBS, Retreat, visit to El Hogar (an orphanage), and for a service project at St. Mary’s School. It takes $15.00 per child for us to provide: snacks, VBS/Retreat materials, a T-Shirt, and a pizza lunch at St. Mary’s. This year we will only have a few hours at El Hogar, so we will provide only a pizza lunch for the children which will be around $500.00. The service project at St. Mary’s School is around $2,000.00. So, there are many different ways in which you can help us financially with this mission trip; you can write a BIG CHECK and cover the whole thing ($5,000.00). You can write a Big Check and cover the VBS/Retreat /El Hogar ($3,000.00) or the service project ($2,000.00). Maybe a smaller check to cover the meal at El Hogar ($500.00). Or you could write a check to cover the cost of a child ($15.00) at the VBS/Retreat at St. Mary’s. But before you do anything, PRAY……… Ask the Lord what you are to do!!! And if the Lord tells you to give towards this mission trip, write the check out to Good Shepherd Episcopal Church and send it to us at our address below. On the check, please state that it is for “Honduras 2012 Mission”. On a note, state what your desires are for the gift. More than anything else, we desire your prayers for our team: Lisa, Haley, James, John, Molly, Avery, Sarah Catherine, Karla, Waylan, Sarah, Ron, Tina, & Fr. Joe. Please join us in praying daily Psalm 23 which is the scripture that this mission trip is centered around. Thank you and may the Blessings of our Lord Jesus Christ be upon you both this day and forevermore. Fr. Joe & Tina The Rev'd Canon Joe & Tina Rhodes 2280 Clematis Trail Sumter, SC 29150 www.win-gs.org www.smestegus.com www.sams-usa.org 803-469-0720