Team 1:
From Alex Leonhardt, Junior:
Today team one worked on the Rancho, we made good progress on that and had a blessed time working with the local church on this building. We worked on this for five hours… about half of this was trying to get their chainsaw working. We had to use these to cut the beams according to the beams that were standing upright on the ground. After we finished our work at the Rancho, we went down the road to a little town were we had lunch, rice, beans, fish, and vegetables. After we filled up, we split up into four teams of five or six; we were door to door evangelizing to the local town. The way that I saw God working the greatest during this time was with a man we encountered. Kristi shared her testimony with this man and I saw God flow into his heart. This man is an alcoholic, he knows that he needs to stop drinking, but he has not known how to stop this sin. The answer has been right in front of him, he had previously heard about God and believed that He existed but did not follow Him with his life. After Kristi had told about how she ran to God when she was faced with her problems, he realized that he was running away from God. Pastor Edwin talked to him for a few minutes and after we had finished praying, he had tears running down his face. Mr. Kemp offered him his Bible and he gladly accepted this gift. As we were walking off to go evangelize to other families, I looked back and saw him praying and reading the Bible with serious intention. God truly put us in the right spot at the right time. We could have never done this just by ourselves; it was God speaking through us. After we had completed this, we played tag with some of the church ninos, a very fun time, and then we jumped in the back of the truck and came back to Balgue to eat dinner and go back to the compound. This was a very God blessed day!
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| Working on the church at Merida |
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Working on the church at Merida
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| Working on the church at Merida |
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| Working on the church at Merida |
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| Working on the church at Merida |
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| Working on the church at Merida |
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| Working on the church at Merida |
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| Working on the church at Merida |
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| Team Lunch |
Team 2:
Taylor Remely, Junior
This day was AMAZING! We started out with another devotion from Pastor Edwin about Nicodemus from John 3. He shared with us that, although we have always had the perspective that Nicodemus went to Jesus, Jesus actually talked to Nicodemus about his real need (Jesus loved him instead of trying to please him). I was very encouraged by the fact that Jesus looks for us and knows our heart. We need to look for Him, obviously, but He looks for us as well. He wants us to be His children and that was awesome to hear and have this new perspective. After the devotion we went to breakfast and then split up into the teams, and my team went to the farm. We filled up small black plastic bags with dirt for the Nicas to plant coffee in. We did this for about an hour and a half, and then heard our translator’s, Manya, testimony. It was encouraging to hear her story and just the many ways God shows us our sin and need for a Savior.
After hearing her testimony, the real fun began! We got to kill chickens!!!! I had been looking forward to this for quite a while, and it finally came! After killing them we had to pluck them, wash and rinse them, and the Nicas cut all of the meat off of the bird and left the guts intact in the membrane. I have decided I am going on “Survivor” since I know how to kill a chicken (just kidding :)).
We then went back to the camp to change into our team shirts and then to lunch. After lunch we walked to Petra Bible Church and unloaded instruments from Managua for the concert tomorrow night, and then went door-to-door inviting people to come to it. We met a man named David who was from Washington and came to Nicaragua for the winter since he does not like the cold. Levi shared about the evangelism concert Friday evening, and he responded very coldly that Jesus was his first teacher, but he was an evolutionist now. We started talking with him more and asking him why he was an evolutionist, and he responded by saying he believed Jesus was a good teacher and he(David) lived a good moral life, but he did not like the judgment that the Church placed on people who were not Christians as well. As the exchanges went back and forth, we slowly saw God start to soften his heart. He went to being very direct and stern about his beliefs and acting like he wanted us to leave, to softened and open to talking about Christ and His work. It was amazing to see how fast his heart was softened and changed to the gospel (thank you, Lord!). We also shared John 14:6 with him – that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. May he come to salvation!
After going door-to-door, we went and had dinner and worked on the plays, and then came back to the camp for showers and devotion time. The devotion time with the team was also very encouraging to my heart. Mr. Goede asked us to share in groups about how we saw the Lord working throughout the day, and all you could hear was everyone sharing about the Lord’s provision and goodness. It was so neat to hear everyone sharing about how God was working in their lives and during the day. May the Lord be glorified through us here! Buenos Noches!
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| The camp and farm where we are staying |
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| Heading into the farm |
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| Filling bags on the farm |
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| The boys working on the road |
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| Team 2 by the chickens |
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| Konnor sharing his testimony |
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| Peyton and Konnor pulling feathers off chicken |
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| Elena and Taylor helping with the chickens |
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| God's creation is amazing |
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Going door to door praying with and inviting people to
evangelism concert tomorrow night
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| Going door to door |
