Tyrrell County residents have an opportunity to assist needy children in Honduras this coming school year.

Participants of the back to classes with Jesus program can help rescue Honduran children from street gangs by providing a backpack filled with school supplies, which is required for children to attend school in Honduras. For only $7 a person a participant can provide a child with a backpack filled with school supplies helping them get off the streets and back into school.

School starts in February so the events are held in January. The program needs funds by Nov. 15 to purchase supplies in bulk.

The program started in 2012 with 300 children who live along the rivers and could not afford school supplies to go to school.

Back to classes with Jesus program has grown each year and this January the program reached more than 17,000 children in 90 cities throughout Honduras.

The program has a goal of reaching 20,000 children in 100 cities across Honduras by January 2017.

Ken Harrell is the founder of Children’s Gift Ministry at Harrell Family Missions.
Harrell said the program has a unique connection to Tyrrell County.
“I believe Pastor Joe Pierce has brought two mission teams down here with another scheduled for January. We have also had several teams from Askewville Assembly of God down here as well,” said Harrell.
Harrell Family Missions has over the years had 15 mission teams a year from different states around the country.
The origin of Harrell Family Missions goes back to Jan. 5, 1992, when Ken accepted Jesus Christ as the lord of his life in Greenville, South Carolina. Shortly thereafter he was called to preach and began Bible College while ministering in nursing homes, prisons, street preaching and on the radio.

After obtaining ministerial credentials he sensed the call to Evangelism and began preaching revivals.

In the summer of 1999, upon returning from an educational tour of Israel, Ken began a Spanish Ministry in the fellowship hall of the church. Because Ken spoke no Spanish he prayed and found a Spanish pastor to translate his preaching on the street and on the radio. It was during this process of evangelizing the Spanish community that Ken met his wife Gricelda, a native of Honduras.

They were married Jan. 20, 2001, and continued the work of Evangelism until their call to move to the capital city of Columbia, South Carolina to Pastor Airport Assembly where they pastored for more than five years.

On March 5, 2007, they began their adventure as an international ministry.

Since then they have worked in La Ceiba, Honduras, attended language school in San Jose, Costa Rica, and are presently in San Pedro Sula, Honduras preaching, teaching and building the kingdom of God.

All gifts to the Children’s Gift Ministry are 100 percent tax-deductible.
More information about how to help can be found at www.childrensgiftministry.com.