I’d like to take this time to inform all of y’all exactly what my team and I have been doing in Nicaragua this first month. The ministry we are partnering with is called REAP (Restoration. Empowerment. & Purpose) Granada. It’s a self-sustaining ministry owned and operated under an American named Scott. Scott and his wife have been for 7 years now and have built an organization that operates in all parts and aspects of the neighborhood they are founded. Scott started this with just his family but is now accompanied by another American family along with a translator named Caitlin from the US and a dozen local Nicaraguan that have partnered with his ministry to reach the locals in their areas of operation.
Their property is used as a base for growing various fruits which are used to sustain the ministry financially (along with many generous donors which allow the ministry and it’s impact to continue to expand). They use the fruits that are grown here as a way to sell to local vendors (at a highly reduced price) so they can sell the product in the local markets. Along with this project, they are building a community center in what used to be considered one of the worst neighborhoods in Granada, Nicaragua. The second story of the building is currently under construction and will be used for an opportunity for the local youth to spend their time rather than partaking in drugs, alcohol, or gang-affiliated activity.
They use their grounds for sporting activities and ministry through these sports that the locals come to play. They use it as a church to hold more traditional services on Saturday nights. Primarily, it is the housing for various teams that continuously fluctuate in and out of their dorms (glorified hostels). These teams tend to help with upkeeping the grounds, construction on the community center in town, or the other ministry outlets this ministry partakes in.
Some of the other ministry outlets REAP uses consist of feeding and praying for the people living (yes, living) and working at the city trash dump, visiting the jail and praying for the inmates there along with a message from scripture, visiting and praying for the patients in the local hospital/clinic in town, and prayer walking in town where the community center is built and housing around the ground’s area.
Prayer walking is simply walking around the neighborhood and meeting the locals in their homes. We have a conversation, see what they need prayer over, and extend an offer to join in church and/or a local Bible study being held in one of the locals houses.
One thing is for certain, the Holy Spirit is working in these people and this community. The areas we primarily operate used to be too dangerous for gringos to walk through during the day. Now, we walk through them met with smiles on the locals faces and welcomed into their homes the same way. The love of God is real and it is unlike any other, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ” (1 John 4:7-8).
