Nicaragua – October 2009

Sunday, October 18

Tonight we worshipped with the church in Las Sabanas and it was one of the most humbling experiences I’ve had.  Everything was very simple; the pastor played the guitar and his wife sang (along with a couple of other women).  The guitar was not tuned and the singers were off-key… but they didn’t care.  They sang and played with all their heart and mind and strength and the resulting passion was incredible.  It was all to the glory of God and God alone.  How foolish we can be when we forget who we worship and think our own ideas of perfect pitch and tone are anywhere close to what God desires.

Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! Psalm 95:1-2

Tuesday, October 20

Today we went to a community called La Victoria.  It’s a small town and is not easy to get to.   In our prayer-walking the day before, we were invited to a believer’s house who offered to host us today.  She was someone who had done evangelism in another area before and was now in La Victoria.  Again, I was amazed to see God’s sovereignty at work in how He puts people in each other’s paths at just the right time.

Because of the small size of the community, it did not take long for us to go house-to-house and we were done by lunch time.  I remember thinking that sometimes we get these “Billy Graham” views of evangelism and expect that “success” equals thousands of people coming to Christ in a single setting.  Or, that we’re somehow more spiritual if we walk long distances over huge hills to do God’s work.  Yet, God shows how limited those views really are and how different His perspective is.  There was a reason He sent us to a place that had maybe 25 houses.  To Him, that community was important, regardless of its size.  Those people were valuable to Him and they were worth the effort.  And, that night, just about the entire town came to a 1-room school house to watch a movie about Jesus and heard the gospel.

But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.       Ezekiel 33:6

Friday, October 16

There were times during this trip that I felt completely inadequate for the task laid ahead of me.  I’m not an outgoing person, I cannot hold conversations with people in Spanish, and I rarely hold conversations with people in English.  I confessed to Loren that one of the things I worry about is that my “introvertedness” gets in the way of doing things that God might want me to do.  After reminding me of a number of people in the Bible who felt similar inadequacies, Loren also reminded me that I did end up going up to several people’s houses and communicated effectively enough in Spanish that they knew I had a gift for them and when/where the movie was that night.  Before and afterwards, I was my quiet self, but for 45 seconds, God absolutely gave me what I needed to get His work done.

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.  Isaiah 55:10-11

Written by Jennifer Gidden

 

Nicaragua – October 2009

Our primary purpose while in Nicaragua was to partner with IMB missionaries Loren & Karen Dickey, as they oversee Operation GO Nicaragua.  The primary task of Operation GO is to get the Gospel into the hands of every person in Nicaragua.  This is done through Gospel saturation and showing the Jesus Film.  During this week our team of seven worked alongside Pastor Francisco who is a local church pastor in Las Sabanas Nicaragua.  Francisco has a heart for reaching eight neighboring villages surrounding Las Sabanas.  Our team was able to go into two of the remote villages (La Victoria & Aruse) passing out the Gospel of Luke and sharing the film.

During our time of ministry in La Victoria and in Aruse, as we showed the Jesus Film to 100 plus individuals and families whom we had visited over the span of two days, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the urgency with which we share the Gospel.  Not only that, but what it must be like to finally have someone come into your village (which can only be reached primarily by foot, horse, donkey, or in our case Land Rover SUV) to share the Gospel message.

As I sat there with my team and the Nicaraguans watching the visual depiction of Christ’s life, death, burial, and resurrection I wondered how many were seeing and hearing the Gospel for the first time.  How would they respond?  Would they cry, be amazed, wonder, or maybe not care?  Then I thought how many times I have seen, heard andread the Gospel account.  Would it affect and impact me now, just as it did the very first time I understood what Christ had accomplished for me.

I also began to think about how far we drove to get to these communities and then hiked to get to these homes.  Who would go if we didn’t?  Who would share the good news if we hadn’t?  As Carl F.H. Henry is quoted as saying, “The Gospel is only Good News if it gets there in time.”  I came away from this trip with a much deeper devotion to the Gospel, to evangelism and to taking the message of Christ to those who have yet to hear.

“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?  And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?  And how are they to hear without someone preaching?  And how are they to preach unless they are sent?  As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’ “  – Romans 10:14-15

Written by Ryan Martin

 

Nicaragua: June ’08

My favorite day Today I am up at 5:30am, pancakes for breakfast, a devotion on prayer and off we went. We headed the opposite direction we had gone the past two days. We stopped at a school and were able to go in and pray for the children. They were adorable. Then we split into teams. I was able to use my Spanish quite a bit. At one point I broke off from the group with a Nicaraguan woman and her two children. We went down a long path to about 5 houses. I LOVED it! Everyone was quite surprised to see a gringa walk up to their house yelling…”Buenas!” After we passed out several tracts of the gospel of Luke we headed to El Jabon for a coke and a very COLD dip in the river. This is where the men from our group were introduced to the local wildlife (leeches) however that is another story which I would gladly share, just ask me. After our dip, we headed back to base camp then to Julio’s house (the man of peace) for another film. People came (walking of course) bringing their own chairs to sit on. We had a wonderful audience, wonderful weather and a few professions of faith. It is amazing to see God’s work right in front of your eyes.

Written by Karin Alvarado

 

Nicaragua: June ’08

Today was our last day of prayer walking and passing out the Gospel of Luke in the community between Matigaus and Rio Blanco. Our first stop was at a school which was two rooms with classes of younger elementary kids. The principle of the school let us in to pray for the kids and pass out the Gospel of Luke to the kids. Then we split into two groups. The group I was with went along the main road and passed out Gospels. We drove but had to walk along paths to get to houses and people working off the road. One of the summer missionaries and I found three guys planting seed in a pasture. We gave each of them a Gospel of Luke. The third one was very excited and started reading it right away. That was an amazing picture of sowing the seeds of God’s Word to men sowing seeds in a field. Next, we all met up and went to the river to bathe. It’s not a very cleansing experience when you get out and find leaches on you. The afternoon was spent eating lunch and hanging out on the porch of the church. That evening I decided to stay back at the church and help pack with two of the summer missionaries and Loren while the others went back to show another movie like the Jesus Film. After cleaning up, we had a blessed time of talking to each other and praising God.

Written by Scott Rainer

 

Nicaragua: June ’08

We left Managua headed for a small community outside Matiguas on Sunday afternoon after a 2 hour delay due to a flat tire. Once on the way, we had a few detours on bridges where the old bridges had been washed out. The ride was about 3 hours. Then we get to our turn off which is a very bumpy gravel road, then the final turn off with is about a half mile of nothing but mud. Our vehicle makes it but the other vehicle (Loren is driving) gets stuck so our vehicle drops us off and goes back to help. We finally get everyone there and get unloaded. While the guys unloaded, I took out my Polaroid camera I had packed specifically for this trip. After I started taking pictures of the Nicaraguan church members who had come to greet us, everyone wanted one. It was SO much fun! They were so proud of their photos. I was reminded by Loren that some of these people never had a photo of themselves.After all our items were unpacked and set up, it was time for church. It was amazing. The pastor sang and played his guitar. Then a woman of the church sang a few songs (actually led us in song as everyone sang along).  We clapped and sang so loud! Then the pastor’s wife led us in song, Loren preached and led worship and introduced us. Then the pastor preached. They spoke of sowing the seed. I only know this because Loren gave us the passage. (Everyone spoke in Spanish so I was a little behind the 8 ball.) When service was finished we prepared and ate supper, then it was time for bed at all of 8:15pm.

It took a while to fall asleep but when I did, I slept good. Nature called so I woke at 2:30am and headed to the outhouse…yes, outhouse. Luckily Jenna (summer missionary) and Kelli were up at the same time and we all went together. (Other animals travel in packs, why shouldn’t we?) Then back to bed and straight to sleep had it not been for the rooster who was so confused and crowed all the time. (I think he was lucky to be alive when we left. There were some pretty tired and unhappy campers. Luckily I can sleep through a freight train!)

Written by Karin Alvarado