A World Of Thanks We Give You…
For Supporting The Becks through YFC World Outreach

Last month a pastor friend and I shared a meal, as he visited Honduras with a construction team from his church. Knowing that I worked with YFC in urban Memphis, he turned the conversation to the movie, “The Blindside”. Having watched the movie numerous times he had often wondered if I worked in “Hurt Village”, the housing projects in Urban Memphis that was the setting for part of the movie. Having permission to reminisce for a while I shared that I not only graduated from the same high school as “Big Mike”, but I had a few Hurt Village experiences, as well. One awkward situation happened one night just before a Christmas event when I found myself surrounded at gunpoint by a group of 5 young men. I was beginning to get that “there is no way out” feeling when the mother of the kids to whom I had been ministering came running into the circle pleading on my behalf. No harm was done… praise the Lord. But, another story spans from Hurt Village to very Honduran Mt. that my pastor friend came to work construction –a building where a new Tolupan Indian church will meet. One of the YFC youth from Hurt Village -of ~15 years ago- recently came to Honduras as a grown man to serve the Tolupan Indians. What a reward for me to have hosted this young man on a short-term mission trip here in Honduras long after our first meeting in the Hurt Village “projects” of Memphis.

You know… there is something else that spans the decades from our “Memphis years” to our present Honduras mission, and that is the faithful support from those who pray for us and from those who support us financially. It’s funny… when we are in a dangerous, potentially a life-threatening situation, it’s not your recent gift that crosses my mind at that moment. I’m strengthened that there are supporters praying for me. On the other hand, when our car “played-out” like it did last month… it’s nice to be prayed for, but I’m especially encouraged by those who gave financially to help us get our next car for our missionary work. Truly, we need both and are encouraged by both: prayer and giving. For nearly 25 years, now, a circle of supporters have kept us going strong on the mission field. It is to you that we owe a world of thanks. Thank you for praying for us and thank you for giving financially.

Our `91 Missionary Car
On Her Last Cylinder

Have you ever found yourself utterly helpless, when God demonstrated His strength in your weakness? That’s where we are, and that’s what we need God to do regarding the purchase of our next missionary car.

Youth To Youth Ministry
“Us” Training “Them” To Reach “Them”

The words, “us” and “them”, are quite interesting, especially in the context of missions. Throughout church history Christians within one culture group have sent missionaries to other cultures. Probably the 1st New Testament model of this was Paul the Jewish believer in Jesus Christ being sent to various gentile groups. In like fashion you have sent us, Rick & Kim (USA citizens), to them (Hondurans) to be missionaries. More specifically, you have sent us to the Honduran youth culture.

Our modern times have given rise to a phenomenon called youth culture. Many say that it started in the USA in the 1950’s with the “baby boomers” exploding into adolescence and having there own music, “lingo”, hang-outs, and for the first time their own economic market catering to what they wanted. Every generation of youth in the USA since then had its own unique “twist” of youth culture. Now, our electronic age (with cable television and the internet) has contributed to this youth culture phenomenon sweeping the globe. Countries where teen-agers had been just another age bracket to the main-stream culture are now forming their own music, fashion, “lingo”, etc… their own youth culture. The kids in Honduras, like the kids in the USA, have their own “hang-outs”, their own dress styles, their own vocabulary, their own music, and their own set of values. And, just like in the USA, the youth culture can be very segregated from the main-stream culture. It is to them -this Honduran youth culture- that you have sent us.

The goal of every missionary should be to raise-up those from the host culture to carry-on the ministry. The 1^st century missionary, Paul, invested his life into Timothy, the young man. Paul’s 2^nd letter to Timothy reads, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.” Here we see the Christian faith passed along 4 generations of believers starting with the “missionary to the young man” relationship. Following this model… Kim and I are investing our lives through discipleship into Honduras youth who are reaching others, who in turn will reach even more.

You are receiving an exciting report of a new group of Honduran youth who are being discipled in the Christian life of faith. Last spring, our Honduran foster daughter (Michell-age 18), lead 2 of our new neighbors to faith in Christ. (Remember: we moved into a new rental house last March) These 2 new believers, Jaime and Jairo, began to go with us to the city-dump throughout the summer to hand-out food and water. After several weeks of going with us I challenged these new believers to share their testimony of their new relationship with Christ, or to pray publically giving thanks for the food. They respectfully declined asking me to teach them how to do so. Their request lead to the formal organization of a new disciple group for them, but also includes my 2 Honduras foster sons (Kevin & Jimmy), and 5 other new disciples who come with a fellow missionary friend. We have been taking them to church and we have been teaching them the basics of the Bible, but more than this we are working a plan to teaching them through “on-the-field” experiences how to pray, how to share their personal testimony, how to present the Gospel story, how to lead someone else to faith in Christ, and ultimately they will know how to lead a discipleship group of their own. Already others want to join the group, but we’re not interested in growing this group right now, but, rather in training this group of youth to reproduce (or multiply) their faith in the lives of others with a long-term goal of growing the Kingdom of God. This is youth to youth ministry that is the goal of our missionary work; this is the vision of YFC, “… to communicate the life-changing message of Jesus Christ to every young person.”

2 Groups Hosted This Summer

During our furlough (June 2009-Feb. 2010), we were asked not to spend our “state-side” time & energy recruiting the next summer’s interns and short-term missionary teams. So, we haven’t had the usual super-busy hosting schedule that we’ve had before. However, it was as if the Lord “pulled-together” 2 special small groups for us to host this summer of 2010.

On July 9 I welcomed 2 young interns, Cole and Aaron, from the Memphis-area. They were a first for us… they were high school interns. Previously, Kim and I have only hosted college and seminary students, or young adults. Cole and Aaron did great during their 3 weeks in Honduras. Much of what I usually teach interns formally with paper and pen in a class-room setting was disguised as casual dialog. The plan with them was that more would be “caught” than formally “taught”. Whether we were driving Honduras’ back roads, walking a Mt. trail between villages, resting in hammocks, or sharing a meal, they learned of “missiology”, “cross-culture living”, “language acquisition”, and just before their return we “debriefed” and discussed “re-entry”. Furthermore, the beauty of an internship is that the intern experiences in real-life that which no book, sermon, or lecture can provide.

A few days after the interns arrived, and for the next 10 days, I was able to experience another “first of its kind”… a “father/son” short-term missionary trip. 3 fathers and their 4 sons arrived from Germantown Baptist, from TN. Leading the team was Jason Fisher who ministered with me on staff with Mid-South YFC in Memphis. That was back in the 1990’s, so it was especially good to again “bend knees” and “lock arms” with Jason to pray and work together. Our mission was to travel to the remote Mt. de la Flor region to share the Gospel with the mostly unevangelized Tolupan tribe; specifically the village, Hierba Buena. This village has a few believers that are requesting a church be planted there. I anticipated the record rainfall this year in Honduras to impede us crossing the 4 rivers between us and the Tolupan. Remote and primitive mission trips have their challenges. But, the irony of the trip was that our rustic travel through the rivers went fine, but the modern airlines (for some unknown reason) split the group and didn’t let one of the “father/son” teams travel with the group. This delayed the arrival of 2 of them by one day. Once again we had to practice the golden rule of missions, “blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.” In his mission trip report Jason Fisher wrote, “Overall, we were blessed to have the opportunity to be used by God to share the Gospel with all of the villagers, many of them accepted Christ, and we left 280 Bibles in homes and schools in the mountains. In the end it is God that works in the hearts and uses His Word and His Spirit to teach the people.”

State-side Time Ends

How Nice To Have Been Home

We have just finished our 1^st furlough. It was 9 months. This “state-side assignment” was very much needed and enjoyed. Our time in the states ended as we returned to Honduras the 4^th of Feb. We saw family, friends and supporters from Atlanta to Denver, but most of our time we spent in Memphis. Having never taken a furlough, I feel that we had a good balance between work and rest. We were able to:

• visit with many supporters speak to 9 different churches
• present our 1^st dinner banquet
• lead 2 mission trips (Kingston & Mexico)
• receive training at the YFC national office.

Regarding “rest” we saw many of our family & friends over Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year. One of the highlights was taking our Honduran friend, Karla, with us to Denver for her to see snow for the first time.