Greetings to each of you in the Name of the Lord Jesus! We trust all is well with each of you, your families & ministries you serve!

It goes without saying that this has been the longest we have not written in almost 15 years of service on the mission field. It goes also without saying I am sure that some may be wandering why we have not written sooner; and though we cannot control or determine what you think or don’t think, we can definitely ask you in Jesus Name not to think that it because we don’t want to. If I have ever needed you to, I need you to prayerfully understand and remember two things: Number one is that we still have 8 children on the field and I’d be a fool to risk our support over not writing for no reason. Number two, is I need you to trust me that we have been doing the Lord’s work and not slacking off as I am sure I could give you that impression by not writing in a long time.

I will give you our report and beg you to prayerfully consider EVERYTHING that is being said in it. First let me thank each of you for your unwavering support for our ministry here. I want you to know that through every challenging, wonderful and trying experience we have had since we last wrote, we have known that God people are praying for us….sooooo here’s our report:

To begin with, the church is doing well and ever thankful to the Lord for sending us to minister to them under the conditions that we minister. Part of this means that living 5,000 feet up on the mountain limits how fast the church can grow in size but Praise God it doesn’t limit how strong it can grow. At the moment we are discipling one of our ladies Tiffany, who will soon be baptized and is such a blessing to watch grow. She has become like a daughter to us and we’re excited to see the Lord work in her life, she’s growing so much that next year she’ll be working full time with us.

In other great news, we got invited to preach at our old Honduran house church of two years ago that went on their own (Iglesia Bautista “El Hatillo”); It was such a blessing to see how much they have grown since. They have their own choir and full S.S. for the whole church and are running almost 100. It made us one more time realize how very patiently, prayerfully and in a submissive way, we’re waiting for the Lord to allow us to start the next church.

As for the “Living in the King’s Palace Ministry”. This is a huge reason why you haven’t heard from me as much. God has been really, but really good to us and has added 108 additional young people to our ministry; this brings the total to just over 1,600 youth; from those numbers, He has given me a group of 274 young men and women ranging from the ages of 13 to 19 that we’re giving up our lives to see that they get the very best of Bible teaching, preaching, discipleship and best… the Gospel. Here the catch!

We’re doing this with only my family and two helpers working 14-16 hours a day / seven days a week with almost no breaks.

Here is the best part of it all! Jesus believed that to influence a people you reached those that can influence. Well, get a hold of this year’s latest figure: There are 3.7 Million registered students in Honduras, and this is only the registered ones, there are hundreds of thousands that are not. From these 3.7 million students, 10,000 of them get to attend a private school here in Tegucigalpa. From those 10,000 only about 5,000 get to attend a Private Bilingual School, and from those 5,000 only a little over 2,000 get to attend a private, Bilingual and International School like the ones we have an open door to! Here’s the part that only God can do, the Laparra Family Team gets the honor and privilege to minister to just a little over 1,600 out of those 2,000+. God is good! At the time I am discipling 6 of the finest in Honduras and I got to win four of them to the Lord.

In other but related news: Our marriage has never been stronger and in more unison. AlsoI finally figured out that if I am to last long term working with young people that I needed to loose the extra physical weight and exchange it for eternal weight (Hebrews 12:1 x II Cor. 4:17), so I have lost 52 lbs of fat and put on 22 of muscle mass with a goal of 70lbs lost and 40lbs of muscle replaced. I am down from a 47 waist size to a 42. Thank you to all my friends that so subtly and lovingly SUGGESTED IT! You got it! This came in real handy when in December; I almost burned out and was sick for 5 weeks without strength. Being lighter really helped in recuperating.

Also thank you to the two wonderful families that sent the very generous offerings for the ministry and us. Many thanks to the three preachers from the USA for coming to help preach while I was sick in December.
Many thanks to each Pastor that has taken their time to come see what we’re doing here and for staying with us at our home. Thank you to our beloved FBBC for helping us with our water woes that put us without water for three weeks. Thank you to each of you for your cards, calendars, gifts, and special “Care Packages”.

I want to thank you again for your great patience in waiting for our prayer letter. I would like to issue an invitation: If you love young people, and work with young people, and are effective with young people… call me at 1-585-672-3815. It’s a NY number but it rings here in Honduras. I love pastors coming to see what God is doing around here.

The Laparras