Honduras Missionary Jayson Mena is pictured with his wife, Fanny and their daughter. The family is currently in the local area talking about his mission. Submitted photo

A missionary from Honduras, Jayson Mena, who is supported by multiple churches in the local area is set to be speaking at said churches during the holiday season and into early January.

Mena through his work focuses on bringing hope to the struggling country of Honduras, specifically through working with children and providing medical help. Earlier this year he also helped work to re-settle deportees from the United States, and has appeared on Honduran television several times.

Mena is in the area throughout the next few weeks with his wife, Fanny and their daughter, with their United States Liaison Dale Ann Krahn and her husband, Wolf-Dier Krahn. Mena has already spoken at Zion Lutheran Church in Frewsburg on Dec. 14, and is scheduled next to be at St. Timothy Lutheran Church, in Bemus Point on Dec. 21 at 11 a.m., following the worship service, which Wolf-Dier Krahn noted has been supporting him and known him since he was six. Mena will also be speaking at Living Hope Fellowship Church in Forksville, Pennsylvania on Dec. 28 at 10 a.m. and Zion Covenant Church in Jamestown at 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 4, 2026.

Krahn said Mena grew up with his grandmother in extreme poverty, and at the age of six his grandmother had to make the decision to put him in an orphanage in order for him to be able to receive an education.

“Jayson’s grandmother decided he needed an education, but in Honduras to be able to get an education they needed to be able to pay for their own supplies and she was unable to do that,” Krahn said. “So, she had to make the decision to put him in an orphanage to be able to ensure he would be able to get an education.”

Mena graduated from high school and went on to receive a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work. In September 2023, Jayson also received his Master’s Degree in Public Management.

At 21 years old in 2014, Mena felt the calling to help people in Honduras and founded his mission organization, Ninos de Montana, or Children of the Mountain. Krahn said this mission began when Mena was with his pastor and asked who lived in the mountains in Honduras one day when they were there and his pastor told him to go and find out. Mena visited and began to learn about the remote villages of Honduras, such as the people living in the mountains. Mena heard God telling him to “go into the mountains and help My people,” and to follow that calling, Mena was able to inspire and organize a team of volunteers who were willing to go with him into the remote villages in the mountains of Honduras. The name Children of the Mountain was chosen because Mena has such a great love for children living in poverty, and he feels a great desire to help these children. The goal of his mission is to improve the living conditions of the children and their families in the remote villages in the mountains of Honduras and bring them the Word of God. His mission also allows people to sponsor a child in these villages for $25 a month to allow them the ability to go to school and have enough food to sustain them for a month, though the support comes with the condition if the child stops going to school the support will stop, emphasizing the importance of getting an education.

Through his mission, Mena has helped get running water to these homes, as before in most houses the women were bringing water back and forth multiple times a day. He has also introduced the importance of water filters and has helped them decrease their water-born diseases by getting rid of contaminates and parasites.

The mission has also found that houses do not have toilets or latrine systems, and Wolf-Dier Krahn noted that when offered to build latrine systems in their homes many have refused because they have always been without, so the mission is also building a school with a toilet so the new generation can get used to it. Mena has been working in the community for five years, building things such as farms and gardens and the latrines and giving them clean water is the current work moving forward. The Krahns noted that the latrines are outhouse type systems, and that most people in the village will go outside and find a spot to go.

Another factor when it comes to helping this village get an education is the isolation of the village in the mountains, with the road out being six miles long but constantly washed out in the weather and becoming so rutted that only specific types of vehicles can get through, with most people in the village not having a vehicle.

“Their school only goes to sixth grade, so in order to continue school after that they have to walk on this road for two hours to get to the school where they can continue to ninth grade,” Wolf-Dier Krahn said. “That’s four hours walking each day.”

Mena currently has nine kids he is supporting through his mission making this walk. The mission has also built a medical center for the village with a volunteer nurse and a doctor that comes two days a week.

His second project is having two medical brigades about three times a year. These brigades bring supplies from both Honduras and an organization called Focus on Central America, along with volunteer doctors and dentists to go into the very remote villages for one or two days to provide medical treatment to anyone who can walk there for free. They also provide food and clothing and tell people about Jesus. Children are given the ability to play while also being told Bible stories, and counseling is available for the adults as well. Police will also come with Mena and his mission on those brigades to provide and drive the bus and play with the children to give the villagers a better image of the police.

Zion Covenant Church provided the seed money for the dentistry part of these brigades and everything needed for that. Local churches have also helped Mena get a new truck, as the Krahns noted when they went on their first brigade with Mena the truck he had was always breaking down and unable to handle the village’s roads. Living Hope Fellowship Church is an Amish church in Pennsylvania that has built Mena a barn to help store equipment for the brigades and has traveled with him on three, helping to build houses for the needy people of Honduras.

This is Mena’s first trip to the local area where he has come with his wife and two-year old daughter. His wife before the trip had only experienced temperatures as cold as 62 degrees and wanted to see snow. Mena said talking to local churches is important.

“It’s important for people to know about the mission and that we want and need prayers for both us and the country, because it is a difficult situation,” Mena said. “We want people to know more about our mission and to be able to share more information on it.”

Wolf-Dier Krahn said Mena is also a “very charismatic” speaker that keeps people listening. Krahn added to that, saying that it is important for Mena’s American sponsors to have a missionary with his feet on the ground keeping them informed and so they know what he has been doing and what is happening so they can continue to support him.

To learn more about Mena and his mission, contact him at Guitymena@gmail.com or Dale Ann Krahn at dollydal2002@yahoo.com.