Dear Friends,
The base here in Granada,
Nicaragua is
seeing change. This week a Nicaraguan staff member was let go. He had been at
the base, called “El Puente”, for about as long as it’s been running. This
follows the trend of refining the ministry here for the last two months. I am
praying that the Lord also refines me each day into realizing his intentions
for me.
I have been ministering in a number of different places – a
hospital, an orphanage, a school and at El Puente with a small group of guys.
The hospital is one that began this month. One morning in our weekly staff meeting
we began talking about health care and how the service at the local hospital is
nothing much to speak of. Somewhere in that conversation, God put it on my
heart to start ministering to those people. So I wrote a letter to the hospital
director, met with him, met with the head nurse, jumped through some hoops, did
a little dance and a couple of weeks later we have almost full access!
I was setting up this ministry because I felt the Lord
guiding me to do so, yet I know that I have a weak stomach when it comes to any
kind of blood and guts. (Anecdote: I once fainted and, while falling, hit my
chin on the edge of the kitchen counter. Upon seeing the small cut in the
mirror, I immediately turned to the toilet and threw up.)
The day before my meeting with the head nurse to arrange a
schedule, Joe and Julie, a couple from the States, showed up. They said they
felt the Lord guiding them to ministry in a hospital and that they’d like to
start immediately. What a relief this was as it would have been just me! They
accompanied me the next morning and now spend about ten hours a week
ministering to the needs of the patients and staff at the hospital.
Many of the patients have been waiting months – no
exaggeration – to be attended to. One lady named Rosita (pictured above with
her sister, Joe and Julie), who I speak with at every visit, had a bum right leg she calls
her hoof. The doctors thought they could save it by taking a piece of her
fibula off her left leg and transplanting it into her right. She now has two
bum legs. Rosita has been “recovering” for quite some time and has been in the
hospital for about a month and a half awaiting further attention. She has bed
sores, two broken hips and bruises all over her arms from the shots they give
her every day. We are working at getting her, as well as others, personal wheelchairs
from a ministry in Guatemala.
Please join me in praying for Rosita and the many like her who are awaiting care
in the hospital.
Some of the participants
on the next mission trip will dive into this ministry when they arrive at the
end of November. In three days I’ll head out to the Gateway, AIM’s base in Mexico, to meet
them. The first “Novas” team to Nicaragua
(pictured here) has been training at the Gateway for two months. I will guide
and disciple them for the next six months. I am thrilled about the opportunity
to invest so thoroughly into such raw hearts. They are hungry and eager to grow
– the best sort!
This morning I was reading my dad’s blog about some dreams
he shares with many AIM staff:
- That
his children and their generation walk like Jesus walked. (For a good
summary, read Luke 4-10.) - That
his children & and their friends get their inheritance. - That
the kingdom comes in dark places around the world.
This is why I am here – for these
dreams to be realized in me and those around me. For this Novas team to begin
walking as Jesus did, for them to catch a glimpse of their inheritance and for
them to bring the kingdom into the dark places of Nicaragua. Places like the
hospital, to people like Rosita. Many of you have partnered with me in this
ministry by your support, prayers and/or encouragement. Thank you! There are
many days you keep me going. I still need $6,000 for the year to continue
ministry here. If you would like to contribute, you may do so using the Support Me! link on the left.
I would love to answer any questions that you may have, pray for you
personally or just know what’s going on in your life. You may email me at [email protected] or leave a
comment on any of my blogs.
My prayer is that you grasp God’s love for you today. What better gift can
we give God than to realize the reason why He died for us? And in return, may
we all be used as a vessel to bring His kingdom to earth.
With you for the kingdom,
Seth Barnes, Jr.
