I think I have adequately completed my blogs for life before we arrived in Nicaragua and so now I can share with you all what I am doing right now! We arrived here in Nicaragua on the 3rd of February. We were warmly welcomed by Torre Fuerte Church in Granada. We spent a day in Granada getting briefed on the culture and ministry in Nicaragua and touring this small but beautiful city.
On the 5th, 18 of us left Granada and headed for Puerto Cabezas. This town is on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua and is the home of the Miskito Indians. It is an area of Nicaragua that was hit by a Category 5 hurricane (Felix) in the fall of 2007. Puerto is a poor fishing town and suffered great damage and suffering as a result of the hurricane. We came expecting to be doing hurricane relief but we found so much more.
We are working with a local Pastor (Pastor Earl) and he is the head pastor of our sponsoring church here, Iglesias Verbo, that is pronounced Varbo Church in English. The church has an orphanage that houses approximately 90 children, 2 schools that educate 700 local Puerto children, a ministry in rebuilding homes destroyed by the hurricane, working on microenterprise and a nurse on staff. It is amazing to see what this one church is doing in this community!
Since there are so many of us we have had the privilege to participate in a great variety of ministries. We are working at the schools giving testimonies and bible stories, construction on site and building new houses, going into the hospital and praying with patients, speaking at church services (we have 3 a week), barrio ministry (the poor areas where there is no electricity and running water), etc… So far it has been amazing! We have seen many souls won for Christ in the schools, we have been able to minister to the construction staff while we work alongside them and see the patients encouraged as we pray for healing.
one of the little girls from school
Life is much slower in Nicaragua. We compare the pace to life in Africa. No longer do we say “TIA, this is Africa” but “TIN this is Nicargua.” It is definitely a change from Asia and I know it will cause more culture shock as we reenter America. However, despite the sad state of this area God is moving in a mighty way and we are excited to see all that the Lord will continue to do here in Puerto Cabezas.
p.s. We are getting used to rice and beans 3x a day! hmmm…
