Mission UpReach Newsletter - December 2015

December 2015 Volume 8, Issue 12
Mission UpReach Newsletter
Great News! We Raised Almost $900,000
Toward Our Year End Goal
This year, we set out to raise twice as much as we have
in years past. The incredible outpouring of support
we received in this campaign blew us away. Thanks to
the generosity of people like you, we raised almost 90
percent of our $1,000,000 goal!
Thanks to the funds we were able to raise, we are going
into 2016 strong, ready for another year of:
• Working with kids through our values education
program, DESEO.
• Raising up a generation of church planters and
community leaders through The Moses Project.
• Planting and strengthening local churches in
surrounding villages through CREO and CRESCO.
• Offering a place of safety and empowerment to
girls in dangerous situations through our safe
house, Dulce Refugio.
While we have fallen just short of our goal for pledges
by Dec. 31, 2015, we will continue the fundraising
efforts into the new year in order to meet our goals.
The ministries that need these funds are indispensable
to our overall goal of bringing more people into the
Kingdom and helping them form new congregations in
their respective communities.

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New Property Purchase
at The Moses Project
Even before we finished our fundraising for the 2015
Annual Fund Campaign we were offered the opportunity
to purchase additional acreage for The Moses Project.
While we were not quite sure of where these additional
funds would come from, our board of directors felt that
it was an opportunity that was too good to pass up. They
approved the purchase of the property, and we closed
on the first of two parcels that total 60 additional acres.
The seller has agreed to owner finance the property and
we have four years to pay it off at 0 percent interest. The
total cost of the 60+acres is $275,000. Here is a satellite
photo of the entire property that is now included
in the project. The areas marked 1, 2, and 3 are the
original Moses Project property with area 4 belonging
to someone else. The dark shaded area (inside the blue
lines) is the new property that we have contracted to
purchase.
This year about half of the new property and almost
all of the original property will be planted with coffee in
order to create an income stream that will help sustain
the operations of the project. This means that more
young men will be educated (graduating from high
school with a small percentage of them graduating from
University) and trained as vocational ministers all from
the proceeds generated from coffee and tilapia sales.
We are excited about how this project is not only raising
up a generation of Christian leaders among the rural
communities, but also being supported by income from
farm sales.
Galloway Holds Basketball Camp for DESEO
Scott Galloway, a professional
trainer and full time sports
minister from Atlanta, Georgia,
has been an integral part of our
children’s sports ministry. As we
have shared time and time again
in our newsletters, our program
is one where we bus children
after school to the converted
warehouse where our local church
meets. It has space enough for a
basketball court that serves as our
worship center on Sundays. While
participating in the children’s basketball league, the
children receive instruction in basketball as well as in
the Bible. This particular aspect of the DESEO ministry
has been very helpful in converting entire families to
Christ and His church.
Scott was here in December to hold a basketball
camp with sessions that were focused on “training the
trainer” as well
as helping the
trainers run the
afternoon camp
with the kids. This
training that Scott
provides twice a
year is invaluable
in assuring that
the quality of the
program doesn’t
diminish and that
the focus stays
on bringing these
children to faith
in Jesus.

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Fourteen Graduate from CRESCO
Every Saturday for the past two years, we have been
holding four-hour long classes at the local church
congregation that meets in Barrio Belén, in a program
that we call CRESCO. CRESCO is a Bible program
that has, as its base, the 12 correspondence courses
offered by the Baxter Institute in Tegucigalpa. We
have expanded the Baxter curriculum to include a total
of 16 courses, and we teach these courses in a “live”
classroom setting verses the self-study method.
This month, we had 14 men and women graduate
from our CRESCO program. We offer no
financial assistance to those that study in the
program; however, when a student completes
the requirements of the 16 courses, we pay the
expenses for them to participate in the Baxter
Graduation that is held every December. This
is a very exciting reward for participants.
Many of them have never left the western
highlands to visit the capital, so the trip alone
is exciting. However, the most exciting part
for them is that they get to participate in a
formal graduation in front of an audience of
300 to 400 people.
We believe this program is the key to
raising up churches that will transform their
communities, and we have made plans to
expand the offering of the two-year program to a larger
region, including areas outside of Santa Rosa. This
year we have selected a site in La Paz, which is three
hours south of Santa Rosa. We are training six men in
an intensive program that compresses all 16 courses
into one year with the goal of opening six new satellite
schools across the region in 2017. These six men, who
are being trained this year, will serve as the directors of
these six new satellite schools. Please keep these plans
in your prayers.

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Gang Member Converted
During a boot camp training session
in December, one of the new men
attending the session talked with
our team leader, Arístides Sánchez,
about the difficulty he was having
in accepting God’s forgiveness. As
the two of them talked, the young
man revealed that prior to his having
become a Christian he had been in
a gang and had done things that he
knew were very wrong. He was having
difficulty believing that God could
forgive these things.
Arístides, a very wise and effective
church planter, listened to the young
man’s story and gave him good
counsel. Please keep this young man
in your prayers. He has turned his
life over to Jesus as Lord and very
much wants to do what is right. For us
here at Mission UpReach, this young
man’s story speaks volumes about the
opportunities that exist to turn others
to Jesus. Imagine this young man,
with such a dramatic story, armed
with the knowledge of the Word and
the skills to live out the Lordship
A note from Donna
Our family continues to travel a tough
road, but thanks be to God we have
had some encouragement along the
way. As many of you know, Harrison
has fully emerged and is making
progress in his physical recovery,
albeit very slowly. He is scheduled
to be released from inpatient
rehabilitation to home, where he
will continue to receive therapy and
eventually in an outpatient therapy
facility as well. He and Hayley will
be living with Hayley’s parents, Tim
and Lisa Smith, in Nashville, TN.
We are so thankful that the Smith
family loves Harrison as if he’s their
own son and are willing to make the
necessary accommodations for his
of Jesus in his life as a vocational
minister. Just think about what an
effective evangelist he could be.
The Boot Camp Leadership
Training program is one of our most
effective ways of building up churches
here in Western Honduras. Men
like this young man, who have been
converted to Christ and then trained
in our program, cannot keep the
Good News to themselves. They are
“born again” church planters with
a new DNA that compels them to
share the Good News with friends and
neighbors.
present care. We have days in which
we feel so grateful that Harrison is
alive and progressing coupled with
days of great sadness as we patiently
wait for God to do what He’s going to
do in Harrison and Hayley’s lives. We
know our God is a great healer and He
can restore Harrison, yet we soberly
accept that often God has other plans
besides full restoration. Whatever
His plans are, we desire to accept
them and rejoice in them, knowing
He is all knowing and wise. Please
continue to pray for us as we navigate
the transition to home, our own lifes’
demands, Harrison’s full restoration
and for our faith as we continue to
depend on God.
Planned Giving
Available
Remember that with
Mission UpReach now
having official IRS 501(c)
(3) status you can leave a
bequest in your will that
will bless future generations
with new church plants in
western Honduras. All you
need to do is include Mission
UpReach, Inc. in your will
stating what size of bequest
you would like to make.
Change of
Address
As of January 2015 we have
changed our mailing
address to the following:
Mission UpReach, Inc.
1809 W Loop 281
Ste. 100, PMB 107
Longview, TX 75604
Please send all checks,
donations and correspondence
to this new address in
Longview, Texas.
You can still correspond directly
with us at:
Phil and Donna Waldron
Apartado Postal #255
Santa Rosa de Copán, Copán
Honduras, Central America
waldronfam@me.com
Phone: 706-534-7060
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