John & madonna spratt - chats with the spratts newsletter, 3rd quarter 2014

galpa. Gender, her husband, is in the States at the present time.

Blasina Licona de Jimeniz, pictured with the blue blouse, is what we call our “Lois.” She has had ten children and most of them are Christians, along with many of her grandchildren, who are also Christians and even some great-grandchildren. Pictured with her are Yenia, Edwin, Darwin, grand-

children; Marlen, a granddaughter-in-law; Omar, a nephew; and Martha, a daughter-in-law.

Marlon is Blasina’s oldest son and another faithful member of the congregation. Next to him is Mateo, a cousin; Adela,

Chatswith the

SprattsJohn and Madonna

Forwarding Agent:Normanda Christian Churchc/o Mrs. Larry AlderferP.O. Box 8Tipton, IN 47072

Phone: 765-947-5237

Field Address:John & Madonna Spratt

P.O. Box 89Puerto Cortes

Honduras, Central America

Cell Phone: 011-504-98596475E-mail: [email protected]

Third Quarter, 2014

Members of the Congregation at Las BrisasWhile we have been on furlough we have used a power

point presentation to share with some of our supporting con-gregations about the members of our congregation in Las Brisas and so we are sharing with you as well in this newsletter.

The Avilez, Sandoval and Romero families: Santos and Eva Deras de Avilez have three children, two of whom are married. Their

only son, Erick, is still single. Their daughter, Gilma Avilez de Sandoval, is Madonna’s nurse and she had two sons, Kevin and Adonai. Wilmer, her husband, at-

tends the Pentecostal Church. Bessie Avilez de Romero is married to Oscar Romero who is not yet a Christian and they

have a daughter, Emily.Rigoberto and Maria Santos de

Hernandez are very faithful mem-bers of the congregation. Maria had a brain tumor a few years ago and had a successful operation to

have it removed. Rigoberto had not been attending church, but promised God that if He spared his wife, he would return to the Lord and now he has remained very faithful since that time.

Lourdes Sandoval and her two children recently moved back to Las Brisas after living in the mountains near Teguci-

Dinora Guierrez (far left) is one of our faith-ful women, as is Gladys Romero (left).

Genero, his wife, and two sons, come to church from Ba-jamar, about 2 1/2 miles away on bi-cycles.

Digna Amaya (lower, right) with her granddaugh-ter, nephew, and daughter.

Pablo Alva-renga and Maria Alvarenga (below) have ten children -- pictured are a grandson, Dennis (the last baby Ma-donna delivered)

and their two youngest daughters, Nolvia and Evelin.

Jose Mario and Hernan Figuero are brothers who are faithful. Jose Mario plays the keyboard. Their parents live in the Boston area in the U.S.A.

We have a very faithful group of women who attend the ladies’ meeting every Thursday af-ternoon.

his wife; Dilver, a son; Keiri, a granddaughter; Idania, a daughter, holding her son, Ju-nior; Idania’s mother-in-law; and a sister-in-law. In front, Kenia, Idania’s daughter; and Cintia, a granddaughter of Marlon.

Renan (above, left) is an-other son of Blasina. He is married to our minister’s old-est daughter, Quelin, and they have a daughter, Yasterin.

Edil is a son of Marlon and a grandson of Blasina. He is married to Ada Ramirez, who is Madonna’s granddaugh-ter since she delivered her in the mountains in 1989. In Honduras when you deliver a baby, you are considered their grandmother. They have two daughters, Seovani and Brinji.

Also pictured is Ada’s niece, Danisi.Tomas Hernandez and his wife, Miriam, have seven chil-

dren and many grandchildren. Tomas works for us by cutting

the grass around the house and also watches our property when we are on furlough. Maribel, their daughter (holding the little boy) recently died of AIDS. She left four children.

Orlando Ramirez and his wife, Edit, have four children. Their three daughters are pic-tured at right -- the twins, Chris-tina and Samai, and Yarleni, their older sister.

At right: Maria and her daughter, along with Pol-lo and his wife, Camila, walk about 1 1/2 miles to Church from Cerro Cardona.

whom Madonna worked at Mashoko in 1983.One week we drove to the home of Vera Mushrush who

took us to Andrson where we enjoyed a meal with Emrys and Usha Rees, missionaries in South India, and Roy and Linda Norville, of Pendleton, IN. John and his first wife, Louise, many years ago took Linda, her mother, and David, her broth-

er, to Church when they lived in Maryville, TN. (That is,

David Eubanks, retired pres-ident of Johnson University and now serving at Johnson University, Florida.)

We also enjoyed a meal with Vera and Marianne Un-derwood. Mari-anne is one of our faithful supporters. We had a surprise visit with Larry and Ada Johnson with whom Madonna studied at Johnson and who have also visited Honduras. We visited Bev Cameron and her son, Bruce, long-time friends who were in Rhodesia with Madonna. And we had a meal with Charles and Louise Gearhardt in Greenwood, IN. Madonna had last seen them in 1976. We also had a meal with Ziden and Helen Nutt when they surprised us by driving up from Missouri. We had a visit from Larry Kinneman who is a missionary in Eng-land. Madonna’s mother and sister, Marilyn, used to babysit Larry and his brother and sisters when his dad, Lanis, served at Normanda Christian Church.

FurloughWe have been blessed during our fur-

lough, again staying in the house where Madonna was born with her sister, Mari-lyn and her husband, Danny. Marilyn has spoiled us by doing all of the cooking and washing and ironing -- not even letting John wash dishes. She is one busy lady as Danny

is not in good health and she has a lot of work in caring for him. We have enjoyed seeing Mari-lyn’s granddaughter, Madison, and her daugh-ter, Raylee, as well and once a week have gone to Autumn Wood, an assist-

ed living facility, to visit Madonna’s older sister, Marianna.

We have enjoyed eating out with many different friends. One week we met Ed McKinney and John and Polly Mullen at a restaurant in Rossville, Indiana. Ed and his wife, Becky, live most of the year in Hawaii, but are in Indiana for part of the summer. Becky had returned to Hawaii, so we missed seeing her.

We drove to Bloomington, IN to eat at an Indian restau-rant with Lynn and Sally Johnson, Jim Frasure, and Mike and Vonora Bishop. Madonna has known Lynn since he was a boy at Mashoko in the 60s, the second son of Doug and Frances Johnson. Lynn and Sally and their two daughters visited us in Honduras. Jim was one of six doctors with

Marilyn Nash

Marianna Gray

Marilyn with granddaugh-ter, Madison, and great-granddaughter, Raylee.

Ed McKinney, Polly and John Mullen, John and Madonna.

John, Sally and Lynn Johnson, Jim Frasure,Mike Bishop, Madonna, and Vonora Bishop.

Madonna, John, Usha Rees, Linda and RoyNorville and Vera Mushrush.

Marianne Underwood, VeraMushrush and Madonna.

John, Madonna, Ada and Larry Johnson

Bruce and Bev Cameron

Charles Gearhardt, Madonna, John, and Louise Gearhardt

I never lived on a farm in the South, but after marrying Madon-na, who grew up on a farm in Indi-ana, our furloughs are spent at the old home place.

The pictures you are seeing are a very large field of soy beans. They are using a 40 foot head. Since the

head is so long, they can harvest 13 1/2 acres in an hour. A few years ago, they let me ride in the cab of the corn picker.

It has been an easy furlough as all the congregations we have visited have been in driving distance from where we stay with Madonna’s sister and husband.

By the time you receive this, we will be back home at Las Brisas in Honduras.

Thanksgiving1. For having such a good furlough and safety

in travel as we have had such good visits with friends.

2. For Danny and Marilyn Nash sharing their home with us during furlough.

3. For Madonna’s nurse and her mother, Eva, taking care of the clinic while we have been on furlough.

4. For our minister, Reyno Hernandez, taking care of the Church work while we were on furlough.

5. For the baptism of David Jimenez just before we left for furlough.

6. For Steve Brown getting the DVD ready for our use in presenting our faithful Christians to our supporting congregations.

7. For our faithful forwarding agent, Norma Alderfer, who has served us for just over 30 years.

Mission Services2004 E. Magnolia Ave.Knoxville, TN 37917

Return Service Requested

Non Profit Org.U.S. Postage Paid

Knoxville, TNPermit #374

John observing the big truck being loaded with soy beans.

Prayer Requests1. Please continue to pray for the salvation of

Marco Alejandro, Fredi, Ismael, Azucena, Japhet, Marilyn, Eliphat, Fani, Dilcia, Jose Angel and Reynaldo.

2. Please pray for those who need to return to the Lord: Gustavo, Antonio, Anibal, Leslie, Dayana, Eric and Yolani.

3. Please continue to pray for Omar Diaz and his release from jail.

4. Please pray for Tomas and Miriam Hernan-dez as they mourn the loss of their daughter, Mari, to AIDS. She had been very faithful to the Lord and we are sure she is with Him now.

5. Anibal Limas did not get to the States and is back in Las Brisas. Pray that he will recon-cile with the Lord and his wife, Leslie.

6. Pray for Danny as he suffers from a stroke and other medical problems.

7. Pray for Michael Alderfer, our forwarding agent’s son, who suffers from a lung disease and needs a lung transplant when he grows strong enough to have one.

Corn, Corn and More Cornand a Lot of Soy Beans

Doug Atchley, Marilyn’s son, is driving the combine. They are dumping from the

combine to the grain cart while they are still moving and combining.

The dump wagon.