To manage recurring gifts set up before 2020
Login Here.

Reach Out Honduras

Educating Students. Changing Futures.

Knowing God’s Love

Leave a Comment

Do you know how MUCH God loves YOU? Do you know the DEPTH of His MERCY that covers YOU? Our prayer is that you KNOW HIM… deeply,  completely with the soul-satisfying PEACE that comes from only Him, your Creator.

Consider these verses from God’s Word, His special love letter, to YOU:

“For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they (all) are without excuse.”  Romans 1:20

Every aspect of the natural world draws our attention to the Creator, the One who spoke the heavens and earth into existence. Every piece of His world shows His power and beauty. We were created to enjoy the work of His hands, we were created to enjoy and love Him. And yet…

“… for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  Romans 3:23

All have sinned… all. Sin is a word that seems to be ‘out of favor’ these days. To make Christianity more palatable or attractive, we often water down the idea of sin. Sin is, in its simplest form, separation from the One who created us. Sin can manifest itself in so many ways… subtle and not-so-subtle.    God, being holy and just, hates sin. And yet…

“God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

While humanity was/is still wallowing in itself, God still sent Christ to die for our very own souls. It is mind-boggling to consider such love.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 6:23

A righteous, just God has every right to judge fairly. Because of our sin, He has every right to call us condemned. However, because of His magnificent mercy, God has chosen to offer us a free gift… forgiveness and eternal life with Him for those who are in Christ. How does one accept such a gift?

“If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;  for with the heart a person believes resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”  Romans 10: 9-10

“For Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:13

It really is that simple. God wants His people in a relationship to Him. It is NOT about religion. It is NOT about the list of To-Dos. It is about our HEARTS. He wants it ALL… and He stands to offer something so beautiful in return: Forgiveness from the weight of sin, Mercy, Grace, and true Peace. It is His to give… and He wants to give it to YOU.

What We Believe

Leave a Comment

The ministry of Reach Out Honduras is an interdenominational Christian mission. We pray that all who serve beside us do so in Christian unity, focusing on the essentials of biblical Christianity and leaving the non-essentials aside.

Propelled and motivated by our faith in Jesus Christ, we live and work alongside the Miskito people as a demonstration of God’s unconditional love for all people. We have no intentions of imposing our Americanism on Hondurans.  Instead, we pray for real friendships and recognition of equality and value in every single person. Some of our work includes assistance in providing for daily needs, working to encourage literacy and quality education, and partnering with churches and individuals to encourage spiritual rebirth and transformation. Wherever we work, our prayer is that our efforts will be used by God to heal and strengthen people’s relationships with Him and with one another; not from a position of superiority, but one of equality.

Some of the verses from God’s Word that speak to His mission through His people:

GENESIS 12:1-3

The Lord said to Abram: Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who treat you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

I CHRONICLES 16:24

Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among All the peoples.

ISAIAH 6:8

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying:
Who should I send?
Who will go for Us?
I said:
Here I am. Send me.

MATTHEW 9: 36-38

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest”

MATTHEW 24:14

This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the world as a testimony to all nations.

MATTHEW 28:18-20

Then Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

MARK 16:15

Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.

LUKE 10:27

He answered: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’.

LUKE 24:46-48

“This is what is written: the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead the third day, and repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And look, I am sending you what My Father promised. As for you, stay in the city until you are empowered from on high.”

JOHN 20:21

Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”

ACTS 1:8

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

2 CORINTHIANS 5:18 – 20

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

1 PETER 2:9-10

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.  Once you were not a people,  but now you are God’s people;  you had not received mercy,  but now you have received mercy.

2010 – Adios a Los Estados Unidos

Leave a Comment

It is here… the week we’ve been dreaming of for 18 months. There are so many people to thank for their help in bringing God’s work to reality. You know who you are… your time, talents and treasure have been shared so freely. Your prayers have kept our feet moving on, sometimes from second-to-second. A highlight of our last days was a potluck/prayer time at our own church.

What a sweet time of prayer from the mouths of those we love… those who know us like few others and those who pray us to our destination and back. Peace.

On another note, Reach Out Honduras officially has a Board of Directors – 14 people with a variety of backgrounds and gifts coming together to add minds, hearts, hands, and feet to the work God has prepared for gringos in Puerto Lempira, Honduras. We will be posting pictures and bios of the Board so that you will know the people who hold us accountable and support us with their commitment. There is an absolute sense of relief that these people can be the voice for Honduras when we aren’t physically present in the States. We love each of them and their families who allow them to participate.

Our last weeks in the US have been full of emotion and challenges. By the time you read this though, that part of the journey will be over and we will be flying south to begin language school. Praise God for carrying us through many, many moments of faith-testing.

Hopefully, we will post often and share the specifics of our journey with you, our friends and family.

For the cause of Christ alone we go,
The Waits Family

Alex’s Story

Leave a Comment

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, and go to the grave with the song still in them.”  Henry David Thoreau

“My work will be here tomorrow but my friends may not” – A common Miskito phrase

As long as I can remember, I have been touched by the stories in books and on TV about the plight of orphans and starving, vulnerable children. I recall when I was young telling God and myself, “When I get older, I’m going to help those children!” My childhood was happy, filled with sports and friends in Plano, Texas, a wealthy suburb of Dallas. I’m not sure where the time has gone… and as for helping ‘those children,’ well, my part has been minimal.

I certainly have many excuses for not following through on my promise.  First, there was college at the University of Texas and then a very brief stop in the NFL. Next came a career, my wife and my own children. I rationalized with myself that God must want me here in America, nice and comfortable, raising my own children and supporting missions and orphan work financially. As our family expanded through childbirth and adoption, I became more and more dependent upon the trappings of comfort.

Then it happened! In 2008, our pastor and his family, dear friends of ours, decided to pick up, attend language school and become missionaries in Brazil. My thought was, “Wow, that is so great to hear, we are so glad God is calling you and we will pray for your family’s safety and success.” I still remember his parting words to us… “I can see you guys doing this one day.” “OK,” I reasoned,”but right now my job is to support missions, we can’t all be missionaries.” I was thankful to God for a great and easy life. My happiness grew for our pastor and his family and I was confident that they would serve with all of their hearts. But then, as I really thought about it, I asked myself, “What if everyone felt that their job was just to financially support missions? What if there truly weren’t enough people to actually serve?”

Fast forward to January of 2009. On one of my many flights, I read the book Same Kind of Different As Me, by Ron Hall & Denver Moore. This book is a moving true story of two men, polar opposites. They are brought together by one man’s loving, Christian wife. The book inspired me to question my own life and ask what I was doing to further the kingdom of God. As I read through the book, I felt God speaking to me. I am not accustomed to hearing God’s voice audibly, but He gently whispered, “I need more from you” and I felt His probing “What are you willing to do for Me?” I called Laura and asked her to pray about taking our heart for orphans anywhere God called us.

It was during this period of time that I really started to feel God telling me that He wanted my family and me to serve Him! My eyes were further opened by the book The Hole in Our Gospel written by Richard Sterns, the CEO of World Vision. He accurately describes our job as Christians… taking care of orphans.

If you had asked me a year ago where Honduras was, I would have had a hard time pointing it out on a map without the country in red bold letters.  Honduras is only a two hour plane trip from Dallas, but it was a world away in my mind. My lack of knowledge of Latin America was vast. Despite Honduras’ close proximity to the wealth of the United States, Honduras is the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, behind only Haiti.

What a difference a year can make! I’m so grateful to God and the people He put in my path to open my eyes to Honduras, its people and its beauty.   As I listened to the stories about the orphans and vulnerable children in Honduras, I found my heart falling out of my chest for this country. However, I still had reservations. We researched many of the cities of Honduras and dismissed the most needy area, La Mosquitia, as being too remote for my family to relocate.

We planned an exploration trip to Honduras in the fall of 2009. Our itinerary included La Mosquitia, only because Laura had done a video and was working on a newsletter for Mama Tara’s orphanage and we wanted to see the place she had written about. And because a friends of ours, Dr. Tom Brian, had founded a home for disabled children in the region. Our reservations continued right up until we stepped off of the plane and onto the sand runway of Puerto Lempira, the largest city in the La Mosquitia region.

Our trip further unveiled the underbelly of Honduras that is only visible in person. It is tough to imagine living with so little after being spoiled by our American lifestyle. Yet, there was an overwhelming feeling of peace and comfort in doing it. There was a sense of peace that this was where we would make our home. We lived out of our backpacks for a week and found out we did not really need much more than that with God’s guidance. I’m sure I learned this lesson much earlier in my life and somehow forgot it in the midst of chasing the American Dream. Although our family looks very different than the people of Puerto Lempira, we have formed deep relationships. The people have great needs such as clean water, health care, gospel materials, education, and many more issues. Our desire is to serve the people of Puerto Lempira long-term just as we want to love the Lord… with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.

And as for me, I do not plan to be a statistic like those men referenced in the above quote by Thoreau. Instead, I will go to my grave with my song completely sung. May my God get all of the glory, even if I sing out of tune.