What in the world are we doing in Nicaragua? Sometimes I ask myself, is
it just something that we chose to do on the spur of the moment and then packed up and moved on a whim? After leaving the field of Spain
years ago, Norma and I both felt that God would someday place us back in
cross-cultural mission work, somewhere, sometime. We waited upon Him
and asked for His leadership. Now, fast-forwarding several years, we find
ourselves walking alongside Nicaraguan church leadership in the Kingdom
work that He began with them many years ago here in Nicaragua. Being a
part of this God-story is both humbling and a privilege for us. We are
working within a plan and a vision that God previously set in motion in the
hearts of the Nicaraguan pastors. The following are a few things that
give insight to the bigger picture--one that is much bigger than we are.
The most important part of this is building relationships to
facilitate maximum ministry effectiveness. Building relationships takes
the down-to-earth, day-by-day walking, living, laughing, crying, planning,
praying and enjoying God’s people and His creation. Maybe we can be a
little more specific with the part we play in this walk. First, we have
to commit on a daily basis to not just be doing "busy" work.
This is a challenge because there's so much to do and we as North
Americans are mentalisized to be busy and accomplish things. We
often end up becoming paternalistic over nationals.
Our job really is to prayerfully discover where God is working and join in
with Him, aligning ourselves with His will. There is no better place to be than to
be partnered with God and His people. We must be servants, not lords over another people. His desire is to send us out on His behalf. We are
fellow strugglers on a joint mission. We must join His mission, which is
much bigger than our own agenda. We must pray for vision and wisdom to execute God's plan, not our own. It must be that way so all
will know it is God who has done the work, not us. We must stop
involving ourselves with mediocre projects and
instead, ask Him where He is working and then join in with
Him. Too often we are fighting battles that have already been won. We must go
where God is gathering like-minded, willing servants. That is
what we are attempting to do. We believe God is at work in Nicaragua far
greater than we can imagine. The magnitude of the work and need can sometimes become overwhelming, but we believe this is the place where He has called us to be at this
time. Our prayer is that we will not remain in our comfort zone, but
instead join Him in what we believe He is already doing.
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| Henry Cruz, top left |
Director of the Nehemiah Center, Daniel Boniche and Henry Cruz are both on the Ezra Team. They hammered out some leadership training programs with estimated costs for Maria, four
pastors in her constituency and 30 of their church leaders. Henry actually lives in Acahualinca, a village bordering Maria's neighborhood, Villa Guadalupe. Henry also just finished an eight-month
course to eleven Pochocuape church leaders. Roberto Armas from the Ezra Team Community Development program went with us to Pochocuape to meet Pastor Jorge and
Monica a few weeks ago. He is putting together a proposal of what they might be
able to do to help the ministry and community there. Director Boniche recently met with Maria and Josefina Brecenos, the new director of the New Jerusalem elementary school. The discussion was about ACECEN, the Association of Christian Schools of Nicaragua, in hopes that a partnership can be fleshed out for equipping and training the teachers. Josefina was raised in La Chureca city dump. She came to faith and has spent the last several years working with Maria's ministry. This year Maria appointed her as the full-time director of the school.
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| Josefina with her staff |
Maria, Josefina and the staff of teachers are working hard to advance the
school program in every way possible. Because of the number of secondary schools already available to children after graduating grade school, Maria has committed to having only six grades at the New Jerusalem school. She currently has five grades and will add one more class level, beginning next year. She is hoping to have the last stage of
the school building completed in time to begin next school year.
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| New class rooms under construction |
With no
outside help, she and her church have managed to begin construction on the next
phase of the school expansion. When the construction is complete, the older children will no longer have to wait until the afternoon to attend class. They will begin in the morning along with the other children. When we arrived in June, there were a few poles, with a tin
roof. As of August 31, the building had walls half way up. Maria says construction will stop temporarily now until their tithes and offerings build up enough to buy more materials to finish the construction. She firmly believes the walls will be up in time to start the new
year.
On Tuesday, August 6, Freddy Menedez, Nehemiah Center Ezra Team member and director of Businesses for the Kingdom program, met with us about possibilities of micro-business training in the two ministry areas. Luz Largaespadas, Ezra Team marriage counselor, hopes to offer a couples workshop for pastoral and church leadership couples in the New Jerusalem and Pochocuape churches.
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| First grade English class |
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I am teaching English at the New Jerusalem
school and on Saturdays, I teach Biblical Worldview in the Bible Institute.
Norma began a Level IV Spanish course and is still working part-time with
Big Idea/VeggieTales Customer Service while also translating materials into Spanish for the churches to host movie outreach events to the community. She continues to enjoy lending emotional and spiritual support to the women leaders of the churches. We feel these are
ways that we can come alongside the pastors and leadership, joining them in the Kingdom walk and fulfilling our roles as willing servants.
Satan daily tosses out his fiery darts and tries to trip up God's soldiers. Please pray with us for protection, safety, health, guidance and wisdom.
Would you
prayerfully consider a donation for the support of these ministries? If God is speaking to you about partnering financially, you may do so by sending a check to:
Partners in Christ International
PO Box 237
Tempe, Arizona 85280-0237
(Attach a note to your check with the following
text: Nicaragua account - Caton expenses.)
