So just wanted to let you guys know that our team has moved from the hotel with wireless in Jinotepe to the church by the barrios in Diriamba.
So far its been good, were staying in the church’s “Clinic” on the floor, its a really beautiful property that apparently used to be owned by one of the richest families in the country, the Somosa’s (I think that the name), but it used to be like a private zoo with all kinds of animals roaming around. The church has a really cool vision for the property and its slowly happening. I dont have time to get into the specifics as I am short on time.
I really just wanted to ask for
prayer as I feel that
God is leading me to preach at one of the church services this weekend. So I am trying to see what God wants me to talk about, I think I will be using Ephesians, I think these will be the points I make;
1. We need to
live from a positive perspective. We can do this only as we recognize our position in Christ. The Lord has lost none of His power to sustain His children. As we live from a positive perspective, we have greater opportunity to impact our society. Our lives demonstrate desirable characteristics that draw others to Christ.
2. We need to
maintain unity within the Christian fellowship at the expense of personal prejudices, but stop short of spiritual compromise. Many of the issues that divide believers and harm Christian witness are of little eternal impact.
3.
A life of holiness and separation from the world needs to be a continuing Christian distinctive. Paul’s admonition to a holy life follows Christ’s own command to His followers when He said, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Mt 6:33 ).
4. We need to
carry our faith over into all the relationships of life and especially into those relationships involving family and vocation, since they consume the greatest part of our time and energy. The believer’s witness will be the most crucial in these two areas of life. The home will be our greatest sphere of influence.
Thats the basic outline at the moment, I borrowed it from a Bible Study program that I have on my computer, which has been really amazing because it has all kinds of resources that really are helping me to learn how to study the Bible. I also think that having to put together a message is very helpful because it provides me with a good deal of motivation.
I really just wanted to get that prayer request up there, I really need God to just give me words and burn them into my heart, he’s really been speaking to me about the importance of unity, because like the rest of Latin America, in Nicaragua there is a huge divide between the Evangelical and Catholic church. Even within the Evangelical church’s there are rifts that keep them from working together.
And all i can thi
nk when I walk the streets and go into these homes is that if these neighbors would just begin coming together, meeting together, studying together, praying as one, then they could take back this country, person by person, block by block, city by city, until the country is so completely transformed.
So this is what I hope that we can begin to show an example to these people on how to just love their neighbor, love the drunks, reach out more to the elderly that have no one to love them. I’m continually learning the power of love, it really does cross language barriers, I can barely speak any Spanish, but I can show love and God can use it and has used it greatly already. Last week 2 men came to Christ I followed God’s voice and just went up to them,acknowledged & loved them. Its amazing how people really are desperate to be loved and to know their God. There is no discussion, you ask if they have a relationship with Jesus or if they just know about him and then when they say, I only know about him, You ask, do you want to have a relationship with him and they say yes.
This is one of the only photos from this trip that I actually like, I should have a blog up later on this week with some words that this image inspired.
Also if anyone wants me to send them files to make prints from, if you make comments on specific photos, then I will try to send you a high enough quality file to make prints from. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tweisemann/
