Nicaragua
Dates: July 8 - 20
Ministry Partner: Evangelical Spanish Mission
Ministry Focus: Outreach, VBS, medical campaign, construction, leadership training
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!