That is what we’ve received since we’ve been here in
Nicaragua. We are staying at a hotel run
by missionaries from Maryland, Lynn and Glenn.
The hotel has been hosting different couples of teams from around the
country this past week and this has been great getting to know fellow
missionaries. There are two in
particular I would like to highlight as they’ve had a great impact on our
teams.
Kevin
and his wife bring teams to Nicaragua every year in June. He is a pastor in Pennsylvania and they truly
have a heart for this country. When
their church forced Kevin to take a vacation (he seems like the kind of guy who
is works tirelessly like Paul), he and his wife decided to come down to their
favorite part of the world. Kevin’s just
been a huge encourager of our team.
Every morning he is so excited to hear about what we have planned to
do. He has many stories of amazing ways
God has worked with people in this area for many years. They provided us with Bibles and soccer balls
to give out to the people we are ministering to. One cool thing I thought they did was they
took a deep sea fishing trip for fun, but everything they caught they bought
back to a tiny, poor village they’ve been ministering to for a huge feast. It’s been a pretty incredible vacation for
them in my opinion. God has truly used Kevin and his wife to bless us during
our time here.
Brian
is also a pastor leading a team here from north Georgia. Their southern accents and apple-pie sweet
personalities have certainly reminded me of home. So their team is here helping
build a sister Baptist church and holding evangelical festivals. Brian has been a huge verbal encourager for
our teams. He keeps reminding us of the
calling God has on our lives and how God is pleased we are giving up our lives
for missions. Brian wants to see his
church be more missions minded and has invited us to come speak at his church
when we get back. Brian has offered us
everything from t-shirts to flashlights to medicine. He set up a meeting for me to see the doctor
to check out my sore throat (just allergies).
He and his team also had a pizza party for us last night. Brian would tell you that he’s been blessed
by getting to know us and hear our stories, and we’ve likewise been blessed by
the encouragement from his church.
Being
tired on the race and having God put people in our lives to encourage us has
been incredible. First and foremost it
lets me know that God has not forgotten us and is very pleased with our
work. It also encourages and reminds me
of what our job is. Since we’re not long-term missionaries the best thing we
can do is to encourage and serve the local church. Brian and Kevin see that we’re going to be
here longer than them to serve so they lift us up and make us better. In the same way, I feel it is our job, and
the chance for impact is even greater, to encourage the local believers
everywhere we go. We should let them
know that God is pleased with them. We
should make an effort to provide any resource they may need to carry out God’s
work. And we must simply love them as
our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
Thanks for reminding us of that Kevin and Brian.
