Emmanuel Church in Roatàn: Church Planting in Bay Islands


Emmanuel Church


Above is  a sketch for the new church of Emmanuel, which will be located in Coxen Hole, Roatán. It will seat 250 people on Sunday, have a multi-use room, a garden-patio and a sewing workshop for developing micro-enterprises among the women of the island.  Also, it also will be strong enough to withstand hurricanes  and provide an emergency shelter for the local people.
  
Although the new church is located on Roatán, the Bay Islands,   known for  their luxury cruise ships, extravagant beach vacations  and  wealthy Americans retirees,  it will serve the poor, the Spanish-speaking service employees, who work in hotels and restaurants.

The  building site for the future church.
The parish is currently meeting for services
under the canopy.
Fr. Nelson Mejia, the dynamic parish priest, who started  this congregation from scratch several years ago,  had been holding Sunday services in an office building. Now they meet  in the open air under a canopy on the the new property. 
He serves with his wife, Kara, who also is a priest and SAMS-Canada missionary.  She is the pastor of  another church on the island.  They have two great kids, Kelly and Stephen.

Rev. Nelson Mejia preaching  under the temporary canopy.

We hope to start the construction of the new church in the late spring of 2014. 
For more information and pictures, click here for Nelson and Kara's blog. 

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