For years, small coffee farmers in the La Botija Mountains of southern Honduras have faced the same problem. They could grow good coffee and work hard to care for their land, but when harvest came, they had very few options for selling it. The farms are small and scattered throughout the mountains, the roads are difficult, and many buyers simply didn’t find it worthwhile to make the trip.

Twenty-five years ago, in the late summer of 2001, Honduras was suffering through a devastating drought. Thousands of campesino farming families scattered throughout the remote mountains had lost their first harvest of the rainy season. They had planted their corn and beans with hope, only to watch the rains never come. They had no harvest, no food to eat, and no seed to plant again. I had only been living in Honduras for about seven months. I had never experienced anything like it.

In the remote community of Las Pitas, 88-year-old Doña Rafaela Cadenas was running out of options. By the time the Mission Lazarus mobile medical clinic reached her home, she was bedridden and weakened by illness. For people living in isolated communities in southern Honduras, the distance to medical care can mean an illness progresses long before help arrives.

When a family has the tools to make the most of what they’ve worked all year to produce, it can change the trajectory of that family for generations. Our commitment goes beyond improving a coffee harvest. We are committed to walking alongside families, building relationships and creating opportunities to share Jesus. This is what Mission Lazarus has always been about.

This fall, Ludwil Joseph will begin her sophomore year at Abilene Christian University, where she is studying engineering. We are inviting the Mission Lazarus family to help provide the remaining $20,000 needed for her sophomore year.

In a remote village in southern Honduras where access to healthcare is limited, there lives a 7-year-old girl named Britany Sofía Méndez. Her smile, though full of innocence, hid a reality faced by many children in her community. She had never learned how to brush her teeth, how to care for them, or even held a toothbrush or toothpaste in her hands.

Thank you for being part of the Mission Lazarus story over the past 25 years. Because of your faithful partnership, lives are being transformed through Christ-centered education, healthcare, orphan care, economic development, and spiritual outreach across Honduras and Haiti. As we celebrate all God has done, we are also looking ahead toward the next 25 years of ministry and transformation. We invite you to take a few moments to review our 2025 Stakeholder Report and see the impact your generosity and prayers continue to make possible.

Andrea stood in front of the mirror, hardly recognizing the little girl looking back at her.

Just months earlier, the reflection would have told a very different story.

When Andrea arrived at The Refuge children’s home at Mission Lazarus, she was six years old but carried burdens no child should. She came with her two-year-old brother, both of them weak from severe malnutrition and their bodies showing the effects of long neglect. Andrea had never set foot in a classroom and had never been given the simple, steady care every child needs to grow.

Grace is easiest to admire from a distance. It is harder—and holier—to recognize when it wears dust on its feet and hunger in its stomach.

In Fort-Liberté, Haiti, I saw despair and dignity standing side by side. Poverty that constricts opportunity. Hunger that lingers longer than it should. Uncertainty that presses on families daily. And yet, in the middle of it all, I witnessed something the world often misses: not mere endurance, but life being lived with intention and faith.

For months each year in southern Honduras, the river rises. What is often a bone-dry riverbed can become impassable during the rainy season, cutting off entire communities from school, medical care, and even basic supplies. Life, quite literally, is put on hold.

This was the reality for one remote community we serve in Honduras until a group from Churchill Mortgage decided to step in. They didn’t just send support, they showed up!

For nearly 18 years, Henry has been waking up before dawn, traveling a long distance each day to serve at Mission Lazarus in Honduras. He doesn’t do it for recognition. He does it because, as he says, he loves his work, and because he knows he is serving God. Henry works with service teams from North America, leading projects that may seem simple at first glance: building latrines in rural communities.

Mission Lazarus remains committed to investing in national leadership. At this year’s Leadership Conference, one powerful theme echoed through every session, testimony, and moment of prayer: Investing in the One.

This week marks the first day of school at Lazarus Academy. With the new school year comes fresh notebooks, new pencils, nervous smiles, and the kind of hope that only comes with a new beginning.

When people talk about Haiti, the headlines are heavy - violence, instability, uncertainty. But on the ground, another story is unfolding. One that is quiet, courageous, and deeply hopeful. In just a few weeks, something extraordinary will happen.

Every year, Heartland Dental Foundation partners with Mission Lazarus by serving alongside our medical and dental teams in the remote mountains of Honduras. Using Mission Lazarus facilities and working hand in hand with our local staff, Heartland volunteers provide specialized dental care through two focused clinical areas. One clinic delivers restorative and root canal treatment, while the other focuses on extractions.

As we close out 2025, my heart is full of gratitude for the ways God has worked through Mission Lazarus over nearly 25 years. What began as a simple desire to serve has grown into a ministry where students learn with dignity, families find hope, and communities encounter the Good News of Jesus.

Juan’s story captures the heart of Mission Lazarus. We don’t come to fix poverty - we come to walk alongside men and women as they discover their God-given potential. Seeing Juan grow from a local mason to a leader shaping others’ futures is living proof that transformation happens when faith, opportunity, and hard work come together.

When Lidia arrived at The Refuge Children's Home as a toddler, she had already endured unimaginable loss and hardship. Her early life was marked by instability and neglect, leaving her unsure of what it meant to feel safe, valued, or loved. But within the walls of The Refuge, something began to change.

I recently had the privilege of traveling to Honduras with a group from my church. One morning, we volunteered on the San Lázaro coffee farm. It was only three or four hours—hardly a full day—but those hours changed how I’ll look at my morning coffee forever.

In the quiet mountain town of San Marcos de Colón, Honduras, a small bootmaking shop once stood—humble in size, but rich in craftsmanship.