Family Picnic

We're excited because this Saturday will be Word of Life's first annual Family Picnic here in Nicaragua. The purpose of the Family Picnic is to share the gospel with those who don't know Christ. Bible Club youth and church members from the 8 churches we are currently working with, invite their family, friends, and neighbors. The day is full of activites and fun competitions between the different churches. Each church brings a representative banner and wears a specific color to idenify themselves and the winning church brings home a trophy. There are competitions for babies up to the elderly. There will be a winner for the person who has the longest nose, the biggest head, and for the oldest and youngest person present. Midway through the activity we stop and share the gospel whole group and then we also have several leaders who evangelize one on one as well. :) It will be a very fun day and we are trusting that God will touch many lives through the sharing of His Word.

Recent happenings

I've been disconnected from the blogosphere lately for various reasons. We've had computer problems. Serious problems. The screen doesn't work at all. We found out the solution but the computer part wouldn't get here for another 2 to 3 weeks and by that time we'll be in the U.S. so we bought the part on ebay instead. :) Right now we have the computer hooked up to a large old computer screen that a friend let us use. We're just so glad it's functional!

Yes, I mentioned the U.S. We are excited because in less than a week we'll be in the states. It's been over a year since we've been to the states and we're definitely looking forward to this time! We've been incredibly busy preparing a ministry video, display, prayer card, etc. It's amazing how God provides people in the Body of Christ to fulfill needs. One of our Bible Club leaders is studying graphic design and another leader is studying photography. They have been a big help with putting together these ministry tools that help us communicate what God is doing here in Nicaragua. Also, another leader speaks English really well and knows how to make videos so she's helping with our video which has a narration done in English. It's great because the Nicaraguan youth are taking part in things we bring to the U.S. to share about their country and the spiritual need here. I feel so thankful because God is such a great Provider!

I haven't written much about my pregnancy. It has flown by. I'm right at 21 weeks. Also we found out in a recent ultrasound that it's a girl! We're pretty sure we have the name picked out but are going to wait a little bit before making it public. :)

I haven't had many different cravings or much of an increased appetite. For awhile I was craving potatoes cooked in any form or fashion. We were eating potatoes like crazy! Potatoes were substituting our rice which is a serious thing here in Nicaragua. You don't mess with a Nicaraguan's rice. :) Jader was a great sport about it though. There were times he wanted to serve me by making a special meal and without fail, it had potatoes. I believe my craving for this starchy vegetable has waned though. We're back to rice again. Although, just writing about this makes me want to whip up some mashed potatoes! Hmmm.....I think I might go do that!

I'll be posting again soon about an interesting experience that I had in a public health clinic today. :)

Born Again to a Living Hope Photos!!

Sorry for the delay! Here are the photos from Born Again to a Living Hope presentation. We presented this theatrical work in a total of 10 days with 26 presentations in all. We were in Managua for half of the time and then went to a neighboring region of the country and presented it there in various towns. It's based on a true story of a young couple who were living addicted to drugs, yet they ended up in a Word of Life camp in Argentina and accepted Christ as their Savior. Later they realized they had AIDS as a result of their previous lifestyle yet they continued faithful to God until their death. Before passing away, they wrote their story and that's what we presented.

We were able to present to a total of 6,822 people and 1,915 accepted Christ through individual and small group sharing of the gospel. We praise God for the priviledge He gives us to participate in His work and thank Him for the transformation He has brought about in the souls of many!

Retreat for Teachers

Last week we had a retreat for high school teachers. We had 45 teachers participate and they had time for games, time to relax in a nice pool and three different biblical teaching sessions. It was a blast watching the teachers get into the games. I think they were more competitive than the youth! At one time a woman was basically suspended horizonal in the air because she is determinted to not back down! :) It was a wonderful day. Also through sharing the gospel one-no-one four teachers decided to put their faith in Christ.

"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, and the new has come!" 2 Corinthians 5:17

Examples of faith

This past Sunday we had the joy of seeing four of the Nicaraguan youth that have been part of the ministry here head off to study at the Word of Life Bible Institute in Argentina. They will be there for three years studying the Bible and serving in various ministry areas. They desire to return to Nicaragua and continue serving God here hopefully as Word of Life missionaries, being part of our team, or serving in their local church. Of course God is in control of where He will lead them. Some of them may end up in other countries serving in other ways. Whatever the outcome may be we are super excited for them!!!

Their decision to study in the Bible Institute was not made hastily. Each one of them went through a process of prayer, seeking guidance from their authorities, families, etc., and raising the funds necessary to pay for the flight to Argentina and the classes at the Bible Institute. We saw God provide in an incredible way for each one of them!

As we were headed to the airport this past Sunday to see them off I couldn't help but be encouraged by their lives and their decisions. They are living by faith. It doesn't make a lot of sense to leave your family, your country, pay a great deal of money to study the Bible and all this without really knowing what lies ahead in the future for each one of them. In their decision making processes they confronted opposition, people who thought they were crazy, who thought they should be doing better things with their lives, but God made the way and they are walking by faith.

The following verses came to my mind:

Romans 4:20-25 NLV

Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises. And because of Abraham’s faith, God counted him as righteous. And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn’t just for Abraham’s benefit. It was recorded for our benefit, too, assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God.

Hebrews 11:1

Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

Hebrews 11:6

And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.

Born Again to a Living Hope

We are excited because tomorrow we'll be presenting Born Again to a Living Hope for the first time here in Nicaragua. It's a theatrical work based on the life of a young married couple from Argentina. They were addicted to drugs, living in desperation, and both diagnosed with AIDS. They went to a Word of Life camp in Argentina where they accepted Christ and their lives were transformed. They began to study in the Word of Life Bible Institute in Argentina, and both died before finishing their studies. Before dying they wrote their life story that turned into this drama, "Born Again to a Living Hope."

We have a group of 15 from Mexico who created and brought the set and wardrobe and they have been training 15 Nicaraguan youth in how to present the drama. The idea is to train the Nicaraguans and leave us with the set and wardrobe to be able to continue presenting this work here in Nicaragua for years to come.

We'll be holding presentations in high schools, universities, churches, and out in the streets. We'll present one week here in Managua and the second week in a nearby region of the country.

Please pray for this work and that the people would be moved by the story and encouraged to put their faith in Christ just as this young couple, Pablo and Adriana did. I'll be posting pictures shortly! :)

Retreats and more

It's been awhile since I last posted. I had previously mentioned a high school retreat that we held one Friday and it went really well. We had 71 students attend and 24 made decisions for Christ. It was our first retreat with this high school and we'll be having 4 or 5 more with this school in the upcoming months.

Also this past weekend we held a leadership retreat for all the leaders of the Bible Clubs that we work with. We had 46 attend and it was a wonderful time of preparing for the year of ministry ahead of us and we received some wonderful teachings on what the Bible says about the fear of God.

Today the Bible Clubs will be hosting their annual Kick-Off to begin the new ministry year. The youth get really creative and hold a dynamic Club meeting where lots of youth attend who never step foot in a church. The activity is evangelistic so please pray that the youth would be open to gospel of Christ.

Also, this upcoming Monday we will receive a group of 15 people from Mexico. They will be with us for two weeks and we'll be hosting an activity called Born Again to a Living Hope. I'll write another whole post about this presentation because it is really exciting!!! We'll be in Managua presenting this theatrical work for a week and then we'll be traveling outside of Managua for the other week.

Apart from this, Jader and I were able to travel outside of Managua for a few days because we were making arragnements for the Born Again to a Living Hope presentation. We traveled to four different cities and towns in the region that Jader is from. It was neat to also be able to visit with Jader's family and friends. Well, thanks for reading about what we've been up to. I'll be writing more about the presentation we'll be hosting!