Rancho Oasis for Youth

This is Ena (A-nah). She is nineteen years old and the youngest of nine siblings. She lives with her mother and seven of her adult brothers and sisters. Dad’s gone, left the home seven years ago for a younger woman. Most days she cares for her nieces. She is at a crossroads in her life. Jesus stands one avenue while Satan and all of his deceptions of the World on the other. Ena is interested in God, she attends youth group, has a natural talent for guitar and volunteers with the kids on Sundays. However, the pull of the world is strong. Please pray for Ena and all the teens attending RO4Y.

Six weeks ago, I placed a goal before my guitar students –they were going to learn a worship song and then play it in front of the whole church body on Sunday afternoon. THEY DID IT!!!

It was beautiful (maybe to some a beautiful mess), but they did it! I want to thank each of you who has donated instruments to RO4Y and the future worship leaders of Honduras! Please continue to pray for our guitar classes. We meet Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, study a Psalm and then rock out for Jesus.

Oscar, our local groundskeeper, has been a huge blessing for The Ranch. He hunted down some guinea hens (tick eating and snake killing fowl) for us, traveled to his hometown of Comayagua (three hours from Ojojona) to pick them up and brought them back on the bus for us. Pray for God to strengthen his marriage (his wife is ironically named Marilyn) and bless his four month old daughter, Genesis. Also pray for his unsaved mother-in-law who is very ill. Oscar is very passionate for the Lord and I can see him being used mightily for the Kingdom.

This weekend we held our first clothes sale at The Ranch. It was a great success, much more than I thought it would be. Not only did we offer good quality clothing at a super discounted price (most at 80% off the valued price in Honduras – a normal kids shirt is about $2 and we sold it for 25 cents) to the people who attend our Bible studies, but it also brought some new faces to the property.

We were introduced to some neighbors and also some parents that simply send their children on Sundays. Pray that we would be able to hold more sales in the future and that we can be a blessing to the people of Ojojona. Please contact me if you’re interested in sending us used clothes.

Our lone horse, Gozo, is getting frisky. The weather is getting cooler (50’s in the wee morn’in) and Gozo runs around like a crazed horse with our dogs. (I’m not sure if he thinks he’s a dog, or the Danes think they are horses). Over the last several weeks he has welcomed human touch and even approached me from behind looking for attention. Continue to pray for Gozo and our desire to work with him and other horses at the Ranch.

Sunday afternoon study with the adults and teens through the life of Jesus has continued to improve. The Lord has helped me refine the studies (shorter and simpler) and the people are s-l-o-w-l-y coming out of their shell (or should I say, “out of the woods” in Honduras, land of the pine trees). However, recruiting help for the two Sunday school classes has been challenging. Every week I ask volunteers from the adult/teen class to teach the same lesson the following weekend with either the four to seven-year-old class or the eight to eleven-year-old. They lack experience, confidence and training. The curriculum I’m using helps guide through homework, coloring pages and a word search, but the games/crafts and creativity are lacking. Please pray for these adults to be passionate about the Word of God in their own lives, as well as teaching it to the kids on Sunday. Pray that God would give me wisdom in how to train these adults and that God would raise up more short and long term staff for the Ranch.


The Ranch desires to be a spiritual oasis for the tired and lost. One of the signs of a good oasis is water. After our visit with the team of engineers last month, we realized we needed to improve our source of water, physically speaking.

Before and After

When we began to pray and investigate how to improve our well, we met Jose de la Paz – uncle of our helper Oscar. Jose has experience restoring wells (his father actually dug the wells on our property).

Inside wall: unprotected/surface water leach-able & cemented water proof coating
This protective coat runs 3 meters from the wells top.


Protecting run off water from leaching in / Jose slopping mud out of well

Jose is also a believer who has been out of a steady job for months. It has been a blessing to provide for Jose and his sons, Ariel and Jonathan, who have worked along side him this week. Praise the Lord for his provision; continue to pray for God to direct us as we improve the Ranch property and buildings.

L to R: Veronica, Crisna, Sulema, Yulisa, Alba

Do you remember fifth grade? Hormonal changes, girls, junior high looming on the horizon. Wednesday afternoons I’ve been going through a New Believers study with the eight to eleven-year-old students at RO4Y. We most recently discussed what faith is according to the scriptures.

L to R: Cesar, Nexer, Geovani, Leandro

We have a wonderful time of games, laughter, Bible study and prayer using a prayer journal. Please pray for these kids – I know their home life is rough and I want them to learn who God is, how much He loves them and how much they need Him.

Other Prayer Requests:

Marillyn and I are about five weeks out from being parents to a third child. Pray for a wonderful birth and strength for Mare this last month!

I reschuled my meeting with Padre Francis, director of the local private hospital, to November 16th. Pray that we can finalize some details as we discuss a medical brigade for February 2011.

The Honduran Immigration office requested three more documents to complete our one-year visa application. Pray that all will be finished this month!

Please continue to pray for the importation of the Ranch’s bus.

A missionary friend put us into contact with a satellite internet provider that will work for the Ranch. We can cover the new monthly expense (praise the Lord for some new monthly financial supporters) but are praying for one of two options: $1200 to cover installation AND the purchase of the equipment OR $375 to cover installation and we “rent-to-own” the equipment which then adds another $35 to the monthly - cost for the service. (The equipment costs roughly the same to purchase it up front or over the two year contract. Purchasing all of the equipment up front would lower the monthly fee.) Please pray that God will provide. This will save us hours of travel (and frustration) to get on-line and allow Marillyn to have contact with the outside world (She’s deaf, can’t use the phone and communicating in Spanish is difficult, making it hard for her to make friends here).

Pray for Wayne, my father-in-law, as he will be teaching Inductive Bible Study Seminars in Nicaragua over the next two weeks. They, including my mother-in-law Brooke, are currently renewing their tourist visas and visiting old friends in Costa Rica. Brooke arrives back at the Ranch this Thursday – November 11th.

We have recently met several State-side ministries that are very interested in partnering with Rancho Oasis for Youth to help with construction projects and supplies for the ministry, including short-term missionaries. Please pray that God will work out the details and we can began a great relationship with several of these brothers and sisters in Christ.

I, Jon, will be heading to a Honduran missionary conference just north of Tegucigalpa this weekend. We recently made contact with a Honduran ministry that focuses on bringing missionaries together to pull resources and be a general blessing to one another. Pray that God orchestrates some divine appointment!

This is the girls expression when they discovered our PO Box was empty.

Write and add us to your upcoming annual Christmas letter. We’d love to hear from you! (Don’t send money or large gifts – they will “disappear”).


Jonathan Beard
Apartado Postal #30350
Toncontin, Honduras
Centro America