As missionaries in Honduras, Matt (Pastoral Ministries ’00) and Dallita (Nursing ’00) Goins have enjoyed a fruitful ministry at Iglesia Bautista El Faro, or Beacon Baptist Church, where they have been a pastoring family for 15 years. God used their time at PCC to bring them where He needed them to be, although they didn’t realize it at the time.
While Dallita had chosen PCC for its Christian values and to be with her older sister, Matt enrolled for less spiritual reasons as the oldest of six—the affordable cost. Matt met Dallita through her older sister, who happened to be his first chapel buddy, during his first week, although they didn’t begin dating until two years later.
Toward the end of his freshman year, Matt trusted Christ as his Savior, reconsidered his purpose in life, and changed his major, switching from accounting to pastoral ministries. “I wasn’t sure where God would lead for ministry—whether missions, pastorate, youth ministry, or evangelism—so I chose to study pastoral ministries because it had more Bible classes and less of a direct focus,” he said. “I trusted it would be better to get more specific training in an area after I felt God’s leading in a specific direction.”
Matt found his direction two years later, after surrendering to go to the mission field. As he sat in a Mission Prayer Band presentation showing the spiritual needs of Latin America, Matt became burdened for the people there. “Both Dallita and I surrendered to go to the mission field for ministry at separate Missions Conferences while attending Campus Church during our time as students,” he said. “Through prayer and circumstances the Lord directed us to Honduras after graduation.”
By 2004, he and Dallita married, attended language school for a year in Costa Rica, were accepted with Baptist International Missions, Inc. (BIMI), and began living outside the United States. Soon after, their ministry in the city of El Progreso of Yoro, Honduras began.
As the main preaching pastor at Iglesia Bautista El Faro, Matt cares for a congregation of over 300, while also teaching in the Bible institute and supervising the overall ministry of Team Honduras—outreach partnerships with Hope Children’s Home for socially at-risk children and Medical Missions Outreach (MMO). Dallita takes time working with the ladies discipleship and ministry, while also teaching piano lessons and serving as the principal pianist for church services.
“I interned at West Florida Baptist Church in Milton, Florida,” Matt recalled. “The opportunity that I had to intern in a local church as a ministerial student was life changing. The practical training that I received as an active participant in the local church was invaluable for future ministry. After graduation and marriage, I continued to work at West Florida Baptist Church, and they became our sending church.”
As a student, Dallita had initially started her journey in pre-med, but decided that a nursing degree would open doors toward the mission field more quickly. Currently, her attention is needed at home with her three sons, who are all taking high school video courses with Abeka, but she maintains her licensing in the U.S. by taking nursing continuing education units (CEUs).
“It has been a tremendous blessing to lean on her medical knowledge because of the deficiency of medical care in this developing country,” Matt said. “This year, we are inaugurating a surgical center on our ministry campus in partnership with Medical Missions Outreach. Our boys will all be finishing their high school education within the next 3 years, so it will be very likely that Dallita will transition into a role where she will use nursing skills on a weekly basis.”
Matt and Dallita Goins both believe their experiences and training at PCC prepared them for their current lives as a pastoring family in Honduras. “We were influenced by the excellence in everything at Campus Church and PCC. The spiritual emphasis, the high expectations, the disciplined environment, the quality of the campus, the spirit that was encouraged—all were factors in our preparation. We have tried to emulate that excellence in serving the Lord on the mission field,” Matt said.
“The most valuable takeaway from my time at PCC was the well-rounded educational experience which provided a foundation for future growth and development,” Matt said. “We were exposed to the arts, literature, history. We made life-long relationships. Our closest friends are the people we met as students at PCC. We were able to develop socially by living in the dorms, participating in student organizations and sports teams, managing our schedules, working on campus.”
Over their 15 years in Honduras, the Goins have been thrilled to see God work through their ministry outreach and are excited to see how they will continue to reach the community for Christ. “Our favorite part of working in ministry is seeing God transform lives and perform absolute miracles in the process. The longer we are here, the more evident God’s influence through our family as His instrument has been,” Matt said.
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