Nicaragua 2012

Nicaragua

We are excited to offer a mission trip to Nicaragua under the leadership of our Spanish Pastor, David Cea. Nicaragua is a country ripe for the harvest and churches are growing fast in Central America. Depending on the skills and gifts of the team members, ministry could include outreach ministries, VBS, a medical campaign, construction and leadership training. Knowledge of Spanish is helpful but not required, as translation will be available.

Updated Thursday, July 19

The Nicaragua team has posted lots of great pictures on the Facebook page of the Grace Spanish Ministry.  The text is in Spanish, but the pictures are worth a thousand words, in any language.  You can get to them by clicking on the following link:



http://www.facebook.com/GBC.Ministerio.Hispano



Thanks for you prayers as our team winds up its ministry in Nicaragua and heads home.



Updated Tuesday, July 17

Several updates came in one day - listed here in backwards chronological order



Sunday: Pastor Mike preached at Emmanuel Baptist church where there were about 850 people. He preached about how sometimes  we feel small when God gives a big task that we think is too big for us.  We often times forget that with God anything can be done if we put our trust in Him. He talked about two men in the Bible: Saul and Gideon. Saul, who was a man that was given a big task but felt too small and unworthy of following through with the task God gave him that he ended up failing; and Gideon was a man that went to battle with only 300 men and when they won the battle, they gave praise to God for being with them. Pastor Mike gave us an illustration of how he felt small when there was a series of deaths in his family, which was ironic because he is a very tall man and it showed the people that if he feels small being the man that he is, imagine us who are smaller than him. He was really impressed by how many people were there to hear him speak, and six young people came foward to accept Christ as their Savior.



In the afternoon we went to La Esposa del Cordero where about 450 people came from 8 different churches to hear Pastor Mike preach. Pastor David Cea was the interpreter in both services.  It was wonderful having all these churches gather together as one. The adults stayed with Pastor Mike and the children moved to a small room with Sister Carolina and the rest of us. As a result of the gospel presentation 23 people came foward. As a prize for the kids the same icecream man show up again and we bought all of the cart which usually takes him a month to sell, so he was very grateful because we did it twice. The turn out was incredible and I hope that we were able to help plant that seed in many people's lives, so that they can be more consistent in their faith and can someday tell others about how their lives are better with Christ.



Later that night we all shared what we thought about having Mike be with us and what he thought of us. That night he said something that spoke to us, "God works in you and He works through you."  We are so glad for both!



Friday & Saturday: On Friday, Mike Gaston arrived at night and joined us for dinner. It was a pleasure having him and an honor to have a pastor be a part of our team, especially someone like Pastor Mike. He blended in well with us and he seemed really impressed with the fact that everybody gets along. He put a smile on each one of our faces and encouraged us with his words.



We held VBS at Los Cocos where we had 175 on the first day and on the second day they were 225 kids, and about 300 total responded to the invitation. Brother Ceasar started out by playing games with them while the rest of us set up for VBS, then we sang songs and after we each separated the kids by their different age groups. There was no rain so everything turned out as planned. Usually, in the other places we went it rained and we had to change our plans and improvise. We ended up our activitity with piñatas and candies, and as a surprise for everybody an ice cream man showed up.  We bought all of the cart (which usually takes him a month to sell) and gave ice cream to all the kids.



Wednesday and Thursday: Thankfully today, July 10th Susy was able to join us again at Las Pilas Occidentales to help us prepare the materials, set up the church, and invite more families that have stopped coming to the church and non-believers to come and join us for this wonderful VBS experience. There were140 kids the first day and the second day they were 200 kids. 150 of them responded to the invitation to follow Christ. At the end of our activitiy with our kids we gave away 25 grocey bags.



Updated Monday, July 9

Our Nicaragua Team was prayed off the campus last night, and should be arriving in Nicaragua today.  Thanks for praying for a great week of outreach for these folks!