US Baptist and Methodist Missionaries Killed in Honduras
Pastor Paul Ciniraj,
Salem Voice Ministries
Olancho (Honduras), SVM News, 7 February, 2007: Three US missionaries of Baptist and Methodist Churches were killed and ten others injured on a road accident in Honduras on 6th of February.
A truck the Georgia-based missionaries was riding went off the road in flipped over in rugged terrain near the village of Mal Pais in eastern Olancho province near the border with Nicaragua, said Honduran police spokesman Jose Andino. It is seven hours from the capital city of Tegucigalpa.
Those killed and injured were part of a group of 28 adults on a charity mission to Honduras sponsored by four churches, Tabernacle Baptist in Cartersville, First United Methodist, First Baptist, and Cornerstone United Methodist of Newnan. The short-term trip was organized by Decatur-Ga.-based Honduras Outreach Inc.
Perry Goad, 45 and Richard Mason Jr., 58, are from the Tabernacle Baptist in Cartersville, and Martha Fuller, 66, from First United Methodist in Newnan were the dead.
Honduras Outreach chairman Jerry Eickhoff said, "We are devastated that this tragic accident occurred with the heartbreaking loss of three members of this outreach effort. Our hearts go out to the families of these individuals". He also said that about 10 others on the mission team were injured, "ranging from head injuries to a broken femur as well as other non life-threatening injuries. They were airlifted by the U.S. Army to a Honduran hospital."
"Members of these mission teams are here because they are dedicated to serving others," he said. Honduras Outreach sends about 1,100 people a year on short-term trips to bring fresh water to villages, build chimneys and concrete floors in Honduran homes and construct latrines.
Honduras Outreach describes itself as a non-denominational, Christian organization "dedicated to building life-changing relationships between the people of the Olancho province of Honduras and caring North Americans."
Ledy Pacheco, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Honduras, told the Embassy would return the victim's bodies to Georgia as soon as possible, but she did not give an exact timeframe. The injured were rescued and taken to private hospitals by U.S. military helicopters stationed at the U.S.-owned base in Palmerola in central Honduras, she said.
"The men died doing what they loved to do. They epitomized the great mission of taking the good news of Jesus Christ around the world," said Dr. Don Hattaway, Pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church. "I believe that message of hope, peace, and salvation. So they in essence died the way they lived. So although we are grieving and we will miss these men, they were parts of our congregation and the ministry here, we know they are with the Lord and we will see them again." He also told, "The church is working with the funeral home and embassy in Honduras to bring the bodies back. Two other Tabernacle members, Carey Roth and David Apple, sustained minor injuries and are expected to return home in the next few days".
The flag at Tabernacle Baptist flew at half-staff Wednesday. The church, which has about 1,200 members, held a vigil Tuesday evening.
Wednesday, family and friends streamed into the Goads' ranch-style home in the rural woods of Barrow County.
"He was doing what he wanted to do," Sharon Goad said of her husband and the father of their three children. "There was no way you could stop him."
Perry Goad owned his own heating and air conditioning repair business and loved to work with his hands, family members said. "He was a fix-it person," said his brother, Danny Gibson, of Dalton. "That's why they liked to take him on mission trips. Perry has always been inspired by helping others." Gibson said Goad often described Honduras as "where my heart is."
This was Goad's third trip to Honduras. He paid for all the trips out of his own pocket.
His daughter, Kendra, a 20-year-old sophomore and basketball player at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in south Georgia, said her father had always been her coach. "It's going to be hard playing basketball and not having him there," Kendra Goad said.
Richard Mason was the executive director of The Etowah Foundation, a nonprofit that raises money for college scholarships for Bartow County students to stay in school and has awarded more than $2.3 million in scholarships.. This was his fifth trip to Honduras. DeeJay Jackson, program director at the foundation, said her boss often talked of his trips there. When he returned last year, he said some of the villagers had recognized him from previous trips.
LaDonna Jordan, chairwoman of the foundation, said Mason was involved in nearly every aspect of the Cartersville community, serving on boards and volunteering his time. Before coming to the foundation, he owned several restaurants in town. "You name it and he had either done it or was doing it currently," Jordan said. "That was his whole life: church, family and the community."
Mason's daughter, Joannah Mason Sadler, 27, said she accompanied her father on a 2004 mission trip to Honduras. He returned home a different man. "You can't go somewhere like that and it not give you perspective and change you," Sadler said.
Martha Fuller is a wife and mother of two grown children and five grandchildren, coordinated all mission trips for her church in Newnan. The trip was her seventh mission trip and her third to Honduras, but she had told the church she would retire from doing missions abroad after this trip.
Fuller was the only member of Newnan First United Methodist Church on the mission trip, according to church secretary Beth Zechiel.
"The church is in shock. The whole community's in shock," said the Rev. Med Roach, senior pastor of the 2,000-member congregation. He called Fuller "an inspiration to all of us." Roach told, "She believed in mission work and put her heart into it. Some people talk about faith, but she was living out her faith."
Read the news with pictures at the original site:
http://salemvoice.org/news137.html
Olancho (Honduras), SVM News, 7 February, 2007: Three US missionaries of Baptist and Methodist Churches were killed and ten others injured on a road accident in Honduras on 6th of February.
A truck the Georgia-based missionaries was riding went off the road in flipped over in rugged terrain near the village of Mal Pais in eastern Olancho province near the border with Nicaragua, said Honduran police spokesman Jose Andino. It is seven hours from the capital city of Tegucigalpa.
Those killed and injured were part of a group of 28 adults on a charity mission to Honduras sponsored by four churches, Tabernacle Baptist in Cartersville, First United Methodist, First Baptist, and Cornerstone United Methodist of Newnan. The short-term trip was organized by Decatur-Ga.-based Honduras Outreach Inc.
Perry Goad, 45 and Richard Mason Jr., 58, are from the Tabernacle Baptist in Cartersville, and Martha Fuller, 66, from First United Methodist in Newnan were the dead.
Honduras Outreach chairman Jerry Eickhoff said, "We are devastated that this tragic accident occurred with the heartbreaking loss of three members of this outreach effort. Our hearts go out to the families of these individuals". He also said that about 10 others on the mission team were injured, "ranging from head injuries to a broken femur as well as other non life-threatening injuries. They were airlifted by the U.S. Army to a Honduran hospital."
"Members of these mission teams are here because they are dedicated to serving others," he said. Honduras Outreach sends about 1,100 people a year on short-term trips to bring fresh water to villages, build chimneys and concrete floors in Honduran homes and construct latrines.
Honduras Outreach describes itself as a non-denominational, Christian organization "dedicated to building life-changing relationships between the people of the Olancho province of Honduras and caring North Americans."
Ledy Pacheco, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Honduras, told the Embassy would return the victim's bodies to Georgia as soon as possible, but she did not give an exact timeframe. The injured were rescued and taken to private hospitals by U.S. military helicopters stationed at the U.S.-owned base in Palmerola in central Honduras, she said.
"The men died doing what they loved to do. They epitomized the great mission of taking the good news of Jesus Christ around the world," said Dr. Don Hattaway, Pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church. "I believe that message of hope, peace, and salvation. So they in essence died the way they lived. So although we are grieving and we will miss these men, they were parts of our congregation and the ministry here, we know they are with the Lord and we will see them again." He also told, "The church is working with the funeral home and embassy in Honduras to bring the bodies back. Two other Tabernacle members, Carey Roth and David Apple, sustained minor injuries and are expected to return home in the next few days".
The flag at Tabernacle Baptist flew at half-staff Wednesday. The church, which has about 1,200 members, held a vigil Tuesday evening.
Wednesday, family and friends streamed into the Goads' ranch-style home in the rural woods of Barrow County.
"He was doing what he wanted to do," Sharon Goad said of her husband and the father of their three children. "There was no way you could stop him."
Perry Goad owned his own heating and air conditioning repair business and loved to work with his hands, family members said. "He was a fix-it person," said his brother, Danny Gibson, of Dalton. "That's why they liked to take him on mission trips. Perry has always been inspired by helping others." Gibson said Goad often described Honduras as "where my heart is."
This was Goad's third trip to Honduras. He paid for all the trips out of his own pocket.
His daughter, Kendra, a 20-year-old sophomore and basketball player at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in south Georgia, said her father had always been her coach. "It's going to be hard playing basketball and not having him there," Kendra Goad said.
Richard Mason was the executive director of The Etowah Foundation, a nonprofit that raises money for college scholarships for Bartow County students to stay in school and has awarded more than $2.3 million in scholarships.. This was his fifth trip to Honduras. DeeJay Jackson, program director at the foundation, said her boss often talked of his trips there. When he returned last year, he said some of the villagers had recognized him from previous trips.
LaDonna Jordan, chairwoman of the foundation, said Mason was involved in nearly every aspect of the Cartersville community, serving on boards and volunteering his time. Before coming to the foundation, he owned several restaurants in town. "You name it and he had either done it or was doing it currently," Jordan said. "That was his whole life: church, family and the community."
Mason's daughter, Joannah Mason Sadler, 27, said she accompanied her father on a 2004 mission trip to Honduras. He returned home a different man. "You can't go somewhere like that and it not give you perspective and change you," Sadler said.
Martha Fuller is a wife and mother of two grown children and five grandchildren, coordinated all mission trips for her church in Newnan. The trip was her seventh mission trip and her third to Honduras, but she had told the church she would retire from doing missions abroad after this trip.
Fuller was the only member of Newnan First United Methodist Church on the mission trip, according to church secretary Beth Zechiel.
"The church is in shock. The whole community's in shock," said the Rev. Med Roach, senior pastor of the 2,000-member congregation. He called Fuller "an inspiration to all of us." Roach told, "She believed in mission work and put her heart into it. Some people talk about faith, but she was living out her faith."
Read the news with pictures at the original site:
http://salemvoice.org/news137.html
----------------------------------------------------
Pastor Paul Ciniraj is the founder-director of the Salem Voice Ministries. He is the Chairman of the Christian Ministers of the Churches in India (CMCI) and also one of the Co-ordinators of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC). He was a muslim by birth, accepted Lord Jesus Christ as his Personal Saviour and called for His ministry about 32 years ago. He is a well known Gospel Preacher and the author of many Christian books, literature and Gospel tracts. Several times he and his family were attempted to death and still facing persecutions. Around 500 missionaries of the Salem Voice Ministries spreading Gospel to the Muslim populated countries of Africa, Asia and Middle East.
Salem Voice Ministries,
Devalokam (P.O), Kottayam,
Kerala-686038, India.
http://salemvoice.org
posted by Salem Voice @ 10:51 PM
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