Smoke Rise Residents Honored for Mission Work in Honduras

Penny Stovall with some of the children of El Ocotal in Honduras.

OUR TOWN DEKALB STAFF

Smoke Rise residents Graham and Penny Stovall were recently honored by Smoke Rise Baptist Church with a resolution noting their thirty years of service to the church’s Honduras Outreach International mission. The Stovalls’ contributions during their years with HOI include many trips to the Agalta Valley and the community of El Ocotal, where they created lifelong friendships with hundreds of families there. The Stovalls supported education by bringing the children books with color pictures and globes of the world, encouraged play with balloons and puppets, and helped stage Christmas pageants and Vacation Bible School. Since 2009, the couple also have organized and managed the HOI Golf Tournament, an annual event that not only raises funds to support the mission programs, but introduces new supporters to the mission. Graham Stovall has served on the HOI Board of Directors for fourteen years, and Penny Stovall has served on the board for eight years.

While many people support the HOI at Smoke Rise Baptist Church, Penny and Graham Stovall provide leadership by example, and over the years have encouraged and recruited many people to join their mission trips to Honduras. “The Stovalls’ selfless leadership as followers of Jesus have made a difference in the lives of hundreds of people in Honduras and in Smoke Rise,” said Paige Fulgham, interim minister of missions, Smoke Rise Baptist Church.