I am a missionary that uses a trumpet as a tool for ministry. I am married with three children and 9 grandchildren. My first visit to Roatan was in 1989 as a trumpeter on an evangelistic team. We were holding our meetings in Coxen Hole. I remember many people accepting Christ as savior as hundreds of crabs scrambled across the meeting area.

When I heard that there were some people that wanted to start a children’s home on the island I offered to help. Each year I take people on short-term ministry trips. We build orphanages, churches, schools, etc. As my teams were very involved in the construction of the children’s home, I found myself desiring to be involved on a long term basis. Soon I was asked to become a member of the Board of Directors. In 2011 I accepted the position of president. I am honored to be an ambassador for Christ to the island of Roatan! James 1:27 commands us to look after the needs of orphans and widows. We are doing just that! We are blessed with individuals on our board that are committed to making certain your investment is carefully used to benefit the children. While this has not been an easy road, it has certainly been very rewarding as we see children brought to us with no hope or future with their lives being changed forever!

My name is Jon Rehfeld and I have worked in the consumer packaged goods industry for Post Consumer Brands, General Mills and Nielsen for over 20 years.  I live in St. Paul, MN with my wife Kandy and daughter Anna.  Kandy is a first grade teacher’s aide at a local grade school and Anna is attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

I became involved with Sandy Bay Lighthouse Ministries 13 years ago when I visited the Children’s Home as part of a short term mission trip with my church, Shepherd of the Valley in Afton, MN.  The first trip involved several modified travel plans as a result of bad weather, but I was fortunate enough to make it work.  That trip was life changing for me.  Seeing God at work at the home and the island lit a fire in me and strengthened my faith.  Since that trip, I have made annual visits to the Children’s Home.

Over the years, my involvement has progressed from participant, to trip leader to eventually being invited to join the board in March 2020.  I accepted the position of Vice President in January 2023.

I’m humbled and gracious for the opportunity to serve and look forward to the coming years and what God has in store!

My name is Orsy Cruz. I am the newest member of the Board of Directors, and I am honored to have been named to the Board in 2013. I have been the acting Director of Sandy Bay Lighthouse Ministries’ Greenfield Children’s Home since October of 2008. Before that, my wife Banesa and I knew that the ministry was looking for a Honduran couple to come be “house parents” to the children there. We prayed hard for many weeks before we heard God’s call for us to go there. We still feel His call to be a part of this ministry, and it has been good to watch it grow and flourish. We are very close to the children. They even call us mommy and pappy.

I grew up on the Island of Roatan, not far down the road from the children’s home in Sandy Bay. I was raised, from the age of three, by my grandparents. At one time we had over twenty people living in our little house. My father was a superintendent of education in Sandy Bay before he relocated to the United States. So education has been a priority in my life. I graduated with a degree in tourism and went to work for Taca Airlines.

I moved to the United States for a short time and worked in the New York area. After learning about seamanship working on the ferries, I joined the crew of Oceana Cruise lines and saw the world. But I didn’t see much of my wife and son, Orsito. On one return trip, I noticed a big change in Banesa – she had become a Christian. Realizing my lifestyle aboard the cruise ships no longer fit my families, I moved home and became Christian myself. I found whatever work I could on the Island, but they were tough times. Real tough. We started a tour business and things got better over time. It was through the tour business that I learned of the wonderful, Christian things that were being done by visitors to Roatan; and I became aware of the programs that the children’s home was providing our people. The rest is history. Now we have a big family that shares laughs and tears, prayers and work.

I feel privileged to participate with the Board in making policy and coordinating how to best use the resources that our God provides through his people. It is a good work.

God is good! My name is Janice Chan and I have been blessed to have been asked to serve on the board of Sandy Bay Lighthouse Ministries. I am a graduate of the University of West Florida and am a retired teacher of children from preschool to high school.

My heart has always been for children and serving them wherever and however I can. As a believer in Jesus, my Lord and Savior, I have felt called to serve Him as well and He has led me in this desire many times to be involved with young people.  I volunteer weekly at a pregnancy crisis center and in our community as well.  I have served in the Baltimore area in many ministries, in our children’s school and our church and as a mission team leader at Sandy Bay Children’s Home.

As Mission Team Coordinator, I provide information and support to mission teams going to serve at the Home in Roatan. I am passionate about these children and this mission. I see God’s light shining there and throughout the island through the House parents, the staff that serves the young ones, and the board who desire nothing less than to see Jesus glorified in raising the children to be His children.

As a child of God, it is my heartfelt desire for all children to know whose they are and that He is a loving Father who has an individual plan for their lives. I am Beverly Kitchin from New Smyrna Beach, Florida. My beloved husband William and I have three grown daughters living in Maryland, Florida and North Carolina. As a young child, I knew that God had put a great and constant desire in my heart to serve Him by serving others. In the past, I have been involved in working with the unemployed, sometimes homeless, depressed and desperate individuals who receive Temporary Cash Assistance (Welfare) from the state. What a privilege to be in a position to offer people HOPE of a better life and future just as our Father offers us Hope now in this life and also throughout eternity.

Several years ago, William and I went on a scouting trip for Bridge-Connection Ministries to identify a Central American mission site with the expressed intent of serving “orphans and/or widows”. Through William’s cousin who has lived in Roatan for the last twenty years, we learned about and visited the Greenfield Children’s Home and Nurse Peggy’s Clinica Esperanza. We returned the following year on our first mission trip. We were encouraged to find a well-run children’s home, caring house parents and staff, and children who are well cared for and being brought up in God’s Word to be caring, loving and respectful. We have gone on many mission trips to the Children’s Home with groups from our home church, other churches and students from Loyola University in Baltimore. 

Recently, I was honored by being asked to be a part of the Board of Directors for Sandy Bay Lighthouse Ministries, an invitation I readily accepted. God calls us to be “available” and He will supply the “ability” so I am leaning on His direction. One passion I have is seeing that the children who “age-out” are equipped to navigate the adult world successfully and find meaningful work which will provide sufficient income for them to start their own families and to live independently.

Knowing the other board members, I am encouraged at their God-driven commitment and willingness to serve the children at the Children’s Home. I am thankful for and humbled by the opportunity to be on the board and look forward to many years of serving the children and neighbors of the Greenfield Children’s Home in Roatan.

Since 2000, my wife, Janette, and I, have owned and managed Jevic Construction, a sewage treatment servicing business in Tara, Ontario in Canada. We have two teenage sons, Billy & Jonathon.

Our first visit to Sandy Bay Lighthouse Ministries was in 2011 while on a cruise. When Mr. Orsy found out what my occupation was, he said, “Mr. John, I have a problem to show you.” The septic bed was in desperate need of repair. I vowed to help them out, and with God, nothing is impossible, despite me being 3000 km away. God’s physical provision for the project far exceeded my expectations. We were attending a small church with big hearts – Light and Life Chapel in Tobermory. They were excited to come alongside and assist with fundraising for the project. Eight months later, my son, Billy, and I, returned to the home for two weeks and helped replace the septic bed. It was incredible to see God’s hand at work. Since then, I have returned a couple times to actively participate in the children’s’ daily lives, and to offer my hands for maintenance projects. With each visit, my heart is touched a bit more as I spend more time with the children and the staff, and see more of the Island of Roatan.

I look forward to participating as a Canadian member of the SBLM board, and serving them with integrity, reliability, and consistency. It is a privilege and blessing to be part of this team. I am very aware that the Honduran and Canadian cultures are different, but firmly believe that children everywhere need to be loved and cared for. It is with excitement that I look forward to weaving international lives together and supporting this ministry to keep it relevant in furthering God’s kingdom.

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27 NIV

My name is Mark Thompson. I was invited to become a trustee in September 2019. My wife Christine and I own a plumbing business in Owen Sound Ontario Canada. Our first experience with Sandy Bay Lighthouse was on a mission team to work on the boy’s new dormitory. We could feel the call almost right away to become more involved. That first year we spent a total of six weeks on three different trips working at the home!

We have three grown boys and are members of Southend Baptist Church in Owen Sound. Getting to know many of the children living at the home has been our greatest joy and reward. We are humbled to be part of the journey the Lord has set for them. They have the necessary food, shelter, healthcare and Christian education to equip them for a godly life once they go out on their own. Pray the Lord ‘s continued protection and blessing for this little island lighthouse.

My name is Lee Tollefsrud, I am a crop farmer near Murdock Minnesota (west central MN). I grow corn, soybeans and wheat and along with my wife Stephanie we have three children, Kylee(17), Kody(15) and Kayla(9). We are members of Salem Covenant Church, Pennock MN. I have been on several mission trips to Haiti and Honduras and was struck by the lack of basic needs for the people living there. The American agriculture industry produces an overabundance of food, but unfortunately it doesn’t get to some areas of the world that could definitely use this surplus.

In talking with Don Shire while on a mission trip, Don expressed a desire to make several locations he is involved with more self-sustainable. It is my hope that the children get to see the process of growing their own food, and although it was a long process our first tilapia project was installed at SBLM in March of 2019. This is just one spoke in the wheel of self-sustainability at Greenfield children’s home and besides the fish produced, the exchange water aids to fertilize the gardens to produce vegetables for the site as well. Recently I was asked to consider serving on the board for SBLM and in seeing the wonderful things happening at the children’s home I was honored to accept this nomination and look forward to the many things God has in his plans for this ministry moving forward .

My name is Lanny Kilgore. I recently retired as the founding and senior pastor of New Covenant Community Church, located in Delta, Pa. You can visit our church website at Nccchurch.com. I pastored New Covenant since its beginning in August of 1989. My wife, Jocelyn and I have four grown sons, also living in Pa. Though now retired from full-time pastoral work, I continue to serve God’s Kingdom in various ways. I enjoy woodworking and landscaping. My wife and I also enjoy traveling.

I joined the Sandy Bay Lighthouse Ministries board of trustees after taking a team from our church to Roatan in March of 2010. Our team was impressed with how the ministry was organized, with the quality of administration and gifted leadership of the house parents. This led to a developing relationship with other board members and the house parents of the home and an invitation to join the board.

Since that time I served as the vice-president until January 2023, when I stepped back to a trustee.  I work closely with our president, Don Shire, and the other trustees to ensure the ministry is operated with the highest standards of accountability. I continue to lead mission teams to visit our children’s home in Honduras every year.

My personal passion for this ministry stems from a love for Christ and biblical mandate to minister to the orphans, widows and oppressed in the world.  Poverty, injustice and oppression is an affront to the Kingdom of God and must be addressed.  I am convinced that the efforts of SBLM is making a difference in Honduras and in the lives of the children God’s loves.

God is using Sandy Bay Lighthouse Ministries to raise a generation of believers that will impact Roatan, Honduras, and the world!

Hello!  My name is Susan McReynolds, and I am honored to be a part of God’s work by serving as the newly appointed Treasurer for Sandy Bay Lighthouse Ministries.  As a native Floridian, I attended college at Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana.  There I met and married my college sweetheart, Bryan.  I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Information Processing with a minor in Business Administration and a Master of Science Teaching, General Science degree.  At my first Work-Study job stuffing envelopes, I learned about the importance of contacting the University’s donors, so even in that meager job, God was preparing me to serve on this Board.

We lived in Zachary, Louisiana, for twenty-six years while we began to home educate our children to love God and to love learning.  Our focus on education was to marvel in how God permeates everything because He created it all.  We have six wonderful and extraordinary children and five exceptional children-in-law who all love and serve God, and we are blessed with six grandchildren (so far).  We currently reside in DeRidder, Louisiana.  Our youngest is a senior this year!

I first visited Sandy Bay Lighthouse Ministries in August of 2013 as part of a short-term mission team to bring the Gospel to the Garifuna in Punta Gorda, Roatan.  We stayed in the team apartments and were able to play games, soccer, and visit with the children and occasionally help with their English homework.  I’ve had the privilege of returning almost every year since then. Each mission trip included a project at the children’s home:  painting part of the boys’ dorm, tying rebar for the first level of the school, repainting in the main building, and many others. It has been delightful to watch the ministry grow to meet the needs of the children and the community and to watch the children at Sandy Bay Lighthouse Ministries grow in love for each other and for God.  I love these children, each and every one!  Through these trips we have also made connections with Christians in Punta Gorda and the schools in that community. We are thankful that God has used us in this way, and I look forward to many years serving with the Board to continue His good work.

“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” I Corinthians 1:18