Leader Connect S2E11: Omar Alvarado

This week on Leader Connect, we talk to Omar Alvarado, Director of Crosspoint International Ministries. 

www.crosspointinternational.org

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:20

So we hope you enjoy this episode. Well, hello, welcome to another episode of Leader Connect. We're blessed today to have special guest Omar Alvarado. And we're here in Honduras on a vision trip with Jacob McFadden. Omar, welcome to Leader Connect. Thank you, Brother John. It's good to be it's good to be with you again. Well, it's always good to get together and especially good to be in Honduras, finding out about the mission work that's going on here and the involvement of Cross Point International in that process, meeting Pastor Omar and Pastor Johnny and others as we've been touring around this week. Tell us a little bit about the area that we see behind us.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Okay, well, we where we're standing, this is a community of Las Parisas. This is one of the youngest mission churches that we have in the association. And we're excited to see what God is doing here. It's really exciting when you see a young church plant that already has a passion and a vision to reach the surrounding communities here in the mountains of Jorito. Behind us, way off in the distance, we have the community of Pajiles. And already this young mission church, under the leadership of Pastor Omar Palma, is leading a small group in that village with the intention of seeing a new church planted. Now, in that general direction, we have the community of Subirana, which is a community of about 5,000 people. We were there yesterday. Our goal and vision is uh working with Pastor Omar, the association, is to continue to lead the work and connect this corridor from here in Las Parisas all the way to Subirana and Lasperanza. So, you know, we've been blessed with a team house that you know we can accommodate teams and we're just uh you know following the Lord's leads. Well, that's great.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

Well, Omar, we're gonna continue our journey today and we'll pick this up in just a little bit. All right, awesome. All right, folks, welcome back to Leader Connect. Omar and our troop have uh moved to the other side of the mountain. It took us about uh 30 minutes to get over here. You can see right over our shoulder back there is where we started, uh the retreat center and church over there. So, Omar, tell us about this community that we're in now.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Okay, this is uh the community of Pawilis. Uh obviously it's across the, I don't know what you call that, a gorge or yeah, you know, we are on the uh other cliff of the mountain. Um this is a uh community of about 30 homes. Okay. So you know, most homes you average six or seven people. Uh there is no church. There was a work that was started here some years ago. The folks that started it just uh we're not able to continue. Uh Pastor Omar's uh brother lives in this community and it has been his passion and desire to see a new work started here. So about a year ago, we were able to provide a motorcycle uh to Pastor Omar so he can uh uh come and attend the activities in the association, pastors' conferences, come to Johto, but also because he has a heart to reach these other communities. And so he's been coming here, he started coming once a week and doing a weekly Bible study in his brother's home. Now they're doing two services a week, and the community seems willing to turn this building where we're standing next to that what's going to be a church. It seems like they're gonna uh turn this over to the Baptist Mission Church uh uh tabernacle so they can actually get the work started here.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

That'd be awesome. So that's a prayer request for you guys that the community would uh give the building over to the Baptist work that they want to start here. Uh be a great opportunity for the people here in Honduras in this small village. Uh there'd be a it'd be a blessing to those hundred or so folks uh that might live in the area that would be able to have a church to go to and worship the Lord. So thank y'all for tuning in today. We'll catch you again in a little bit. Well, welcome back to the uh conclusion of Leader Connect for this episode. Uh, we have Brother Omar back with us and have some other special guests that we've been uh hanging with today. We have Pastor Omar. He is the pastor of this church where we are today. Glad to have you with us.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

Thank you for buying un saludo.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

Thank you for the invitation and the opportunity to get to know you a little bit better.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

And seeing your passion for the villages all around. And then we have Pastor Johnny.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

He's been traveling with us a couple of days this week, and certainly uh gotten to know and love him and appreciate him, and several of the guys in our association have met Pastor Johnny and know him, and uh they'll be glad to see his smiling face on this video. We haven't had too much trouble out of him this week. He's been pretty good. His wife will be pretty pleased with him. And then we have, of course, Jacob McFadden, the student pastor at Selma Baptist Church, who's been on this vision trip along with us this week. Uh so Jacob, take it away.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

Yes, it's been a really humbling and uh incredible opportunity to see the needs uh to pray and network with several pastors such as Omar and Johnny. Uh they've been a great blessing to me, an encouragement to me. Of course, Omar, uh the faithful work that he does for the gospel has been a great encouragement. And uh even uh as John and I have had several conversations, it's just a blessing to be able to do this, to be able to talk to you guys uh 5,000 miles away. And so uh it's just an incredible opportunity to continue to pray uh for the uh the country of Honduras. Uh we have several brothers and sisters who uh are uh doing their best to disciple, be discipled, and uh to give the gospel out uh to folks who uh have no uh church, no uh no gospel presence. And so we appreciate your prayers uh as we are continuing uh to be here and uh as they continue to serve their country.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

Thank you, Jacob, and thank you guys for being part of it today. And Omar, you and I will continue the conversation here as we uh move forward with this. Omar, we've we've seen a lot and experienced a lot this week as we have in the trips that I've been down on. Uh one of the most humbling for me this trip has been the community that we were in yesterday where they didn't have a school, and the majority of the people couldn't read or write, and they there's no church presence there, but they want a church. Yes. It's a smaller community. So tell the folks how they might could pray for and maybe even be involved in helping that come about.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

Well, you know, uh our presence there yesterday is is uh it's not by accident. Uh Pastor Antonio who went with us, yeah. Uh he is the pastor of Pantinov Life uh Baptist Church in the in the village of Lasperanza Church we've been working with, uh encouraging uh and challenging, you know, to to ask themselves where do we go next? And and that's how uh we ended up in Quebrada Larga. Um you know, even though with all the challenges, you know, yes, they don't have a school, they don't have a a church building, a place of worship, uh, you know, most of the community, including the children, uh have now learned to read and write. Right. We are encouraged because when we first visited that community back in August of last year, uh they knew we were coming. And uh they have such a hunger for God's word, the whole community came out and received the mission team. How about that? And that day, as the team shared the gospel, many of them perhaps heard it for the first time. You know, we had 11 people pray to see the word. How about that?

SPEAKER_02 8:04

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

So now they're they're they're meeting in homes. There's not much uh room in those homes. You saw that. Uh and and it is a is a is a I guess it's a good problem, you know. They can't fit in those homes anymore. There's yeah, when they come together, there's close to 20 people now. So uh we need folks back home to pray, uh, pray for the community of Quebrada Larga. They ask that we pray that they get a teacher. Yeah, you know, that the government desperately that the government will send a teacher, pray that the guy that the the guy will make provision. We're trying to buy a property uh where we can build a house of worship. Uh and it will be in stages. You know, one of the things we want to do initially is just build the awning.

SPEAKER_02 8:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:45

That way that when when the rains come, they have a place where they can still meet. Yeah, where the children can have their Sunday school program and uh and pray for the Lord to raise the uh mission pastor. Yeah. That uh Pastor Antonio needs to go out there. Absolutely. That those are three uh very specific things that I've been praying for.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

Well, and the needs are great in Honduras as they are in many places uh across the country, uh, but we've we've seen them here firsthand and experienced it this week especially. Uh but that community there uh that they're not able to read and write, so getting them a Bible isn't gonna help. But we're working on getting them some electronic Bibles that are solar charged or hand crank charged where it will read it to them. Yes, and they'll be able to share it in a group, so that's one step that we're making towards trying to help them be able to have good, effective Bible studies there, continue the work that God's doing. We walked the property yesterday that's for sale not far from uh where the house was as a pastor we were with, and uh $3,800 will buy the property, and then we'll need to raise funds also for putting in a concrete slab and getting the roof up, uh, the the uh awning as they call it here uh to be able to have an undercover, and then in stages add walls and windows and doors. Uh but that'd be the start, getting the property bought, then putting in the concrete foundation, and then getting a roof on that so that they can be sheltered from the rainy weather because they do have rainy seasons. Yes, and when it comes, it comes in. And so yep, and then even if it's not raining, if it's like we're here in the kind of the dry season, uh it's hot, and you need to be under some shelter. And so uh it's been a great week. Are there other needs that uh things that you'd like to say to the folks, Omar, before we close out?

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Well, uh just pray, pray uh uh and ask the Lord how you can get involved. You know, there's there's many ways coming and serving with us and partnering with the with our brothers and sisters here in Honduras and uh through the Baptist Convention and our partnership we have with them. Uh you know, you can get involved in and and giving and and and and helping others come and and and and and as well as praying. You know, we need a lot of prayer. My family and I, our staff. Uh uh there's other needs. We one of the needs there in that community is water filters. That's right. You know, and uh with uh $40, uh we can provide a water filter for each family, and that is something we want to see happen because they're getting water straight from a creek, not filter, not clean, and that creates a lot of challenges as well. So that's those are little ways you can get them get involved with them.

SPEAKER_02 11:23

Absolutely. Well, we've done a lot of uh traveling around, touring around the area this week, and uh my wife Cindy has been uh back at three different churches doing women's Bible study and teaching them how to study God's Word and having fellowship together and enjoying a meal together and just some fun times. And it's been fun watching them interact and get to know one another. A lot of opportunities in Honduras to come do ministry, be involved in a long-term relationship with a church here that you can help prosper and help them to grow and uh reach others for Jesus and make disciples, which is what we're all about. So, as churches helping churches, as we say in uh Southeast Alabama Baptist, so we can help churches in uh Honduras as well. We have an opportunity to really help transform a country by getting involved here and sharing the gospel and enabling and helping coming alongside the churches that are doing a really good job. Uh interesting thing is that we've you've known it, but we've maybe discovered it. They have mission churches already planting mission churches before they fully constituted as a church. What a deal. What a they're they're excited about God and reaching people and planting churches. There's so many villages that have no evangelical work, and so we have an opportunity to maybe facilitate some of that and come alongside the Baptist Convention of Honduras and the folks, the association here, as they continue to work. So, Mark, thanks for being with us. Thank you, brother John. It's always a blessing, and we look forward to continuing the relationship. Thank you. See you on the next episode.