So pretty much for the first week,
in the mornings we would walk around the local barrios with one of the Pastors
here in Jinetepe, specifically one of the pastors who preaches on our site on
Sunday afternoon. His name is Pastor
Armando Cruz. He recently in the last
few years moved back to Nicaragua his home country from spending 20 years
living in Miami, Florida. He still has
his wife there and some kids living in California, but he felt the call to come
back home and speak deliverance to the locals here. You would think if one lived in the states
for 20 years he would be quite fluent in English but he has managed to tell me
that he was an auto-mechanic who lived in a Spanish speaking community and
never really ventured out of it.
Since our first rounds with him, I
knew that he passionately loved the Lord as he would be singing as we walked
down the different paths and around the barrios. He would pray with a spirit of confidence and
with such boldness. He would just walk
around, from house to house and walk straight up to the houses and start
evangelizing without a blink of an eye. On multiple occasions I felt he was sharing the gospel to those who were
present with understanding of the scriptures and a knowledge of a man who has
spent many hours studying and reading God’s word, (the reason I say I felt was
because he would obviously speak in Spanish and although my Spanish has gotten
better, I still don’t understand a lot of what is said to me and around me by
those who do speak it).
I compare him to a modern day Paul because of
the attitude he takes to life and the joy he has everyday as we go about just
walking around going house to house praying and speaking words of encouragement
to those we meet. I don’t think there is
not one person we walk by that he does not greet with “Dios les bendiga” which
means “God Bless You”. He has such zeal
for people and especially to those who are suffering hard times, its inspiring
to watch him and walk around with him as we attempt to communicate with the
little English he knows and the even less Spanish I know. Praise God for his presence in this community
as he certainly is preaching the Kingdom of God and of repentance and of a better
life to come, while living with your whole being in the current status of life.
