Joshua 22:5 “…To love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
MARCH 2017
CHURCH: March was our massive push to complete our new building to the point we could meet there and move out of our rented space by March 25th. Andy Large, our 2 interns, and the Nicaraguan workers worked like mad on the construction and our Nicaraguan & Expat church folk and I worked hard on cleaning, repainting, and moving out of the old place. PRAISE THE LORD, we had our first service in the new building on March 26th.
As you know from prior updates, there are many absent fathers in Nicaragua, and of those that are present, even fewer are a positive father figure. During March I had the opportunity to lead a Bible Study with our church ladies where we explored the concept that God is a Good Father to us.
Our church is looking for a Nicaraguan pastor to come and step into the work here before the end of year. Pray for the Larges and the church as they seek God’s will for the right man.
SPANISH: Once again I was rotated to a new tutor. She is a question asker and nearly daily had questions about the Bible, theology, God, etc. She is seeking. Despite my very broken Spanish, God allowed us to have some very good conversations.
My old tutor, out of the blue asked if I would do a Bible Study with her!!! Wow, talk about God bringing people to you. We have met 3 times now and she is eager to study the Bible. We are going through a study called “Story of Hope” which takes people step-by-step through the Bible. Our most recent get-together, was different though. She asked me to go with her to visit a friend who is dying of cancer. It turned out her friend is someone I know and this friend is a believer. What a special opportunity to visit the friend and sing and read with her and discuss the hope we have in Jesus while my former teacher listened in. Sometimes who you are talking with is not who God is using you to speak to. (Sadly I just heard this morning that the lady passed away. Pray for opportunities to comfort)
OUTREACH: There have been a number of opportunities around town and on bus rides to share with people about the hope of Jesus. One of the most interesting ones, was while sitting on a bus and discovering the Nicaraguan woman next to me worked at a law office!!! Such a cool conversation.
ENGLISH CLASSES: I’m learning God allows us opportunities for season and then has different things for the next season. Sometimes ministries need to be re-evaluated and sometimes they need to die. Sadly my English classes have been dwindling and the hope I’d had of using the classes to connect with children and their families, has not come to be. So after praying about it, I’m stopping the classes for a few months and am exploring better ways to build relationships in the community. I’ll be spending more time out on the streets and in the public gathering places trying to reach out to the young people.
ABWE Team Retreat – All the ABWE missionaries gathered for a couple days at the end of March for a conference. We had some great sessions on future planning, team unity, and working with different personalities. I also got to meet with our Regional Director Gary Crawford and his wife Marty while they were here for the conference.