It’s so good to be posting again. It’s been awhile! We are now in the middle of Month 3…MONTH 3! I can hardly believe it. We are settled into our new ministry here in Aguas del Padre, Honduras (just outside of Siguatepeque) called La Providencia. To learn more about our home away from home, check out www.providenceworld.com. This place is truly incredible. It’s a utopia halfway between two of the most dangerous cities in the world.
I’ll post more about Honduras and our work here in the next couple of days, but I need to share a bit more about Nicaragua before closing the door on that chapter of the Race. I mentioned last month that I’d write about a word at the end of each month that best describes the people, the country, or what the Lord has taught me there. For Nicaragua, that word is faith.
We saw people come to faith, and we saw people of great faith. I hope the stories of our time in Nicaragua encourage you and spur you on in your walk with the Lord. It calls to mind that quote from The Chronicles of Narnia…”Aslan is on the move.” He is, friends. He is.
We spent most of our days in Nicaragua walking around dusty villages with local pastors and believers, going door to door, talking with people about Jesus, and praying for them and their families. Some days we spent in local schools, sharing with students about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse and the hope that’s found in Christ.
There were 118 people who became believers in Jesus Christ last month in the villages where we focused our time. 118! In Acts, many of the stories end with, “And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved…” The same could have been written at the end of each day in Nicaragua. It was a JOY to be a part of God’s work there.
Not only did people come to faith in Jesus daily, but we also met believer after believer who had remarkable stories of spiritual and physical healing. Matthew 17:20 says, “For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
I saw this kind of faith in Nicaragua. It was a hallmark of the believers we met there, many of whom were experiencing suffering and pain in giant ways. I’ll leave you with one memory that will remain etched on my heart and mind forever.
As our team made our way from home to home in one village, we came upon the home of a sick man. As I’ve mentioned in the past, large numbers of men in Bethel and the surrounding towns who work in the sugar cane fields are suffering from severe kidney disease due to a pesticide used by their employers – a pesticide that is illegal in the States. This man was probably in his 50s or early 60s. He’d just returned home from dialysis at the local hospital and had an orange bandana draped around his neck, covering the port.
From the moment they saw us approaching, he and his wife welcomed us into their small one room home, made of corrugated metal and other scavenged finds. They were smiling ear to ear as they greeted each of us with a hug and kiss on the cheek. As we gathered around them, they began to tell us about how difficult life had been for them. This man’s wife began to talk lovingly about how she tries to make him as comfortable as possible, and he gazed back at her, clearly grateful for her constant care. But their story wasn’t one of suffering…ultimately it was one of joy. The way their eyes lit up as they talked about how good the Lord has been to them was incredible. They invited us to pray with them, and she began to sing worship songs before we began. As we stood in a circle in this tiny home in the middle of a dusty village in Nicaragua, pleading with the Lord for healing for this faithful man, and praising the Lord for His goodness, my eyes filled with tears. This was the Gospel. This was joy in suffering. This was the church.
This was faith.
Father, may my joy be so tied to you and your goodness that suffering only causes me to press into your love and praise you more.
With love and great joy,
E
