First week in Honduras!

 We have been in Honduras for just over a week! So far we have spent time in the city of Tegucigalpa and also at Rancho Ebenezer (where we will be serving). This Saturday we will leave the Ranch for the city of Siguatepeque, where we will take language courses for about 6 months. We are all healthy and happy, and things are moving along!

Please pray with us for all the children of Rancho Ebenezer. They have experienced much change over the last couple of years, and COVID has been particularly challenging for these precious kiddos. We are grateful for their kind and welcoming reception to all of us. 

More to come with our next newsletter, but here are some pictures covering some of the highlights of our first week in Honduras. 

Bye Florida!

Today our adventure begins! Praise God for expanding our mission field! We are ready for you, Honduras! ❤️

August Update - We're ready for you, Honduras!

It's a little bittersweet to say this, but here goes… 

Hasta Luego amigos y familiares!  

In other words, it's time to say "See You Later" to our friends and family here in the U.S.

God has answered our every prayer – in His perfect timing, including securing a wonderful new home for our dog! – and we are officially scheduled to fly to Honduras on Tuesday, Aug. 9 to start our 4-year commitment with World Gospel Outreach. 🙌 

Once we are in Honduras, we’ll start language school, begin home-schooling the boys, and spend time immersing ourselves in the culture to prepare for the start of our service at Rancho Ebenezer children’s ministry. We won’t officially be at the Ranch full-time until early 2023, but we will be able to help with planning Serve Team dates for late Fall and beyond - please let us know if you are interested in coming down! 

We will not have cell service, but will be accessible via email, Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp … Please keep in touch!  

Our emails are: 

Steve.Nelson@wgomission.org 

Kris.Nelson@wgomission.org

If you would like to support our ministry financially, please visit wgoreach.org/nelson to make a secure online contribution. Or contributions can be mailed to World Gospel Outreach, Preference Nelson Family, PMB 250, 6068 US Highway 98, Suite 1, Hattiesburg, MS 39402

We thank God for all our family and friends who have prayed for us or partnered with us in some way to help us get to this point! We are looking forward to having stories to share with you soon of how God is working in and through us to increase our faith and showcase His greatness!  

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We were amazingly blessed with the opportunity to spend much of July traveling and seeing our friends and family in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. Here are some of the pictures and special moments from our "See Ya Later" travels... 

Seeing dear friends Meaghan and Stephan, new baby Griffin, and pal Emmett in Port Orange, FL:

Visiting Grandmomma Jane (Kris's Aunt Jane) in Daytona/Ormond Beach:

Enjoying a day on the St. Johns River with friends Robert and Angela in Palatka, FL:

 

Visiting Aunt Cindy, Uncle Earl and cousin Dylan and family in Sumter, SC. Cousins make the best friends! 

 

Hanging out with cousin Amy and family, Aunt Lynn, and cousin Kimberly and family in Winder, GA. Even more cousins to make memories with! 

 

Visiting the Georgia Aquarium with Kris's Aunt Pat and Uncle Don: 

Lunch and visit with cousins Eddie and Martha in Fayetteville, GA: 

One of our farewell meals with local family - Steve's parents Maureen and Danny, and Aunt Kathryn: 

The final stretch!!

Hello friends! 

After a whirlwind couple of months of raising support and making preparations, we are overjoyed to report that we are now in the home stretch of our journey to starting our commitment at Rancho Ebenezer... Our flight to Honduras is officially booked for Tuesday, Aug. 9! 

The absolutely best part about the last few months has been seeing God go before us. We anticipated that He would do the heavy lifting, and He did not disappoint! We are thankful for everyone who has lifted us up in prayer and/or become a financial supporter of our ministry. Aug. 9 will mark the start of our 4-year-commitment. Thank you all for partnering with us and our amazing God as we seek to follow His leading in our lives.  

This weekend we will be speaking at First City Church, our church in Pensacola. The lead pastor Taran and his wife Jessie are good friends and played a big role in inspiring us to follow God's calling in our lives and become foster parents. Taran will be interviewing us during their 10 am service, which will also be available online at their YouTube page. Please pray that the Holy Spirit will speak through us as we share our story. 

With just a few weeks left before we leave, we hope to take advantage of any and every opportunity to see our friends and family. From 7/17 to 7/27 we'll be traveling and seeing family and friends in East Florida, South Carolina and George. From 7/27 to 8/9 we'll be in the Pensacola/Pace area, and on 7/29 and 8/6-7 we will be in Panama City. We have two official "send-offs" scheduled - at our church in Pensacola (First City Church) on 7/31 and our church in Panama City (Lynn Haven United Methodist) on 8/7.

If you are in any of the areas where we'll be and would like to see us before we take off, please let us know and we'll see if we can make schedules work. Email me at kris.nelson@wgomission.org or Steve at steve.nelson@wgomission.org.

All glory to God... and a recent picture. 😃 God bless you all! 

July 2022 update - we are getting closer!

Hi friends! Well, summer is flying by... We are continuing to try to soak up as much family and friend time as possible since we know it will soon be a year or longer before we are back in the States again. In June we were finally able to take the family vacation we had originally planned for 2020. In addition to all of us, Kris’s sister (Hollye) and her husband (Joey), and Steve’s mom (Maureen), joined us. We all had a great time! Additionally, we were able to take some family pictures (aren’t we cute?), participate in Vacation Bible School, celebrate Bryeten’s 8th bday (pictured below with our awesome friend Shelby) and enjoy a couple more soccer and flag football games. We are thankful for all the fun memories we have been able to make this summer so far! At this time, we are anticipating a mission start date of around August 9 (our arrival in Honduras). This date is contingent on our support-raising status as we are required to raise/fund 100 percent of our own expenses. We are praising God and so thankful to report that we are very close to having exactly what is needed for our start-up and year 1 expenses. To say we have seen an outpouring of love and support is an understatement! We are grateful for our church families at Lynn Haven UMC (Panama City) and First City Church (Pensacola), our family, and numerous friends and friends of friends who have become partners in the ministry with us through financial blessings and prayers. As we make our final preparations, we have one major prayer request to ask of you. We have a dog, Nellie, that we cannot bring with us. We have been praying and searching for a new home for her. She's not great with other dogs (other females primarily), so it's not as simple as it might be otherwise. Please pray that we will soon find the right person/family who will love her and give her a great home for the remainder of her life. She's 8 so we know this is possibly forever. Having to leave her behind is probably the hardest thing about leaving! If you or someone you know would be interested in meeting her and opening your home to her, please reach out to us! If you have any questions or if you would like to know more about coming to serve with us (short-term or long-term) at Rancho Ebenezer or with another ministry of World Gospel Outreach, please contact us! From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU for your past and future love and support! With Love, Steve and Kris Nelson Steve.Nelson@wgomission.org Kris.Nelson@wgomission.org

Telling Our Story!

Our "mission in the making" story is full of God being present in both the small and large details. 

This Sunday we have the opportunity to tell that story to the entire congregation of Lynn Haven United Methodist Church, where Kris has worked since 2018. We are SOOO thankful for the support of Lynn Haven UMC. We joined as members in 2019 and maintain a close connection there even though we are now living in Pensacola again. To our amazement, they suggested doing a congregation offering with a goal of significantly funding our first year in Honduras. (That's God being involved in the large details!) 

If you'd like to watch online, the links to the livestream can be found at mylhumc.net/worship. The services are scheduled to be live at 8 and 9:30 am on Sunday, June 5 or you can watch anytime thereafter. :) 

These three kiddos are super excited that we'll be back in Lynn Haven this Sunday and all of next week - we'll be attending Vacation Bible School, Chance and Bryeten will go to soccer camp, and we'll be spending time with our daughter Yese and some dear friends (including Mac's BFF Tucker and his family). Also, Bryeten will celebrate his 8th birthday! 🎂

We are looking forward to a wonderful week! Please pray for us, especially the morning of June 5, as we ask God to speak through us, for His glory and honor. 

 

June 2022 Update!

Dear Family and Friends,

Hello! It is officially summer break for the kiddos. Time is moving fast. Our days lately have been filled with soccer, flag football, soaking up as much time as possible with dear friends and family in Pensacola and around the U.S., and preparing for our move to Honduras. God has been working some miracles! We are scheduled to share our story on June 5 at Lynn Haven United Methodist Church for both services. We are also scheduled to share for about 10 minutes at Northridge Church on July 10. Please be in prayer for us on those days as we are asking God to speak through us. We will post links on our blog for the livestreams of these services if you would like to watch online. :)

 
We believe we are on track to be in Honduras in August. Thank you for all of the prayers, well wishes and financial blessings! We cannot wait to get back to Rancho Ebenezer to live with, learn from and serve the amazing kids who live there (pictured left). We know that God will do some amazing things there to grow our faith and expand His Kingdom. Please continue to pray for our children (Yese, Bryeten, Chance and Mac) and for God to continue preparing our hearts for His service in Honduras.

Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. (Luke 9:23-24 NLT)

This verse has been on our hearts. This is a daily task to lay down our own way and pick up a difficult but more rewarding way. We feel like we are giving up our life for His sake in the process of moving to Honduras. We are also praying that all of you reading this update will seek to give up your life daily for the sake of Jesus! It won’t look the same as our story, but ask God and He will tell you how you can lay down your life for Him.

If you have any questions about our needs or if you would like to know more about coming to Rancho Ebenezer to serve and see the ministry first-hand, please email us at Steve.Nelson@wgomission.org or Kris.Nelson@wgomission.org. From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU for your past and future love and support!


With Love,
Steve and Kris Nelson




At Skelton Family Reunion in Winder, GA (Kris’s Mom’s side of family)


Kris visiting with dear friend Holly, long overdue weekend together!



Enjoying games and dinner with our friends Sam and Harriet, some of our “mission mentors.”


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Contributions can be sent to:
World Gospel Outreach,
Preference Nelson Family,
PMB 250,
6068 US Highway 98, Suite 1,
Hattiesburg, MS 39402


or online at
WGOREACH.ORG/NELSON


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