We are home! Friday, July 12

We made it home safe and sound!  Our flight was on time and we arrived back at the church around 3:30 Friday afternoon.  We had a wonderful week, but it is always good to be home!  We are looking forward to seeing how God continues to work in Nicaragua!

Thursday, July 11

Wow! Time has flown by! I can't believe our week in Nicaragua is almost over. Today we said goodbye to Juigalpa and traveled back to Managua. A few of us went zip lining over a volcanic lagoon. We also stopped by an arts and crafts market for a little souvenir shopping. As we were walking through the shops, a man who spoke a little English stopped Melonie and said he could read her T-shirt. She was wearing her LBC missions T-shirt that says "Not Ashamed of the Gospel" on the front. He said he was a Christian and he wanted our team to come together to pray with him for his family. It was so cool to meet him and pray with him in the market. 

We are about to go have dinner in our hotel in Managua and then try to get some rest. We have to be at the airport very early tomorrow morning!

It really is hard to believe that our trip is coming to an end. It has been such a blessing to work with Pastor Omar. I am so thankful that he is serving The Lord by doing what God has called him to do. We were also blessed with our wonderful translators, Bethany and Daniel! They did a fantastic job and worked so hard. It's still amazing to watch how they can switch back and forth between English and Spanish. We also met Josh who is the summer intern with Crosspoint in Nicaragua. It has been great getting to know him and work with him this week. We made wonderful friends at each church we visited, including our sweet friend Rafael. He's a 15 year old boy who spent several days with us out in the field. He is learning to speak English and he has such a precious spirit; so, we've had a lot of fun with him around. Even though we met everyone just a few days ago, it feels like we've all been friends much longer than that! 

It's been a great week. Please pray for safe travel home tomorrow! We will see you all soon!

Wednesday, July 10

Today we traveled about an hour away to Puerto Diaz. The First Baptist Church in Juigalpa is planting a new mission church in Puerto Diaz. This community is near Lake Nicaragua, so we were able to see more beautiful sights today! 

We started out the morning with more door to door evangelism. Several professions of faith were made along with many seeds planted. After that, we held another VBS in the street near the church plant. It's the rainy season here in Nicaragua, so we saw a little bit of rain today. Once the rain was 

over, we were able to get started with the VBS. Thankfully, the rain held off again until the VBS was finished.

We just made it back to the hotel. In a little while, we will head back to First Baptist for supper and to have another church service. We are looking forward to worshipping with our friends there!

We will be heading back to Managua tomorrow and having an early flight home Friday morning. I can't believe our time here in Nicaragua is almost gone!

Tuesday, July 9

Today has been another busy but great day! We started out the morning with more door to door evangelism and many more professions of faith. Each visit was so special, but I'll share a couple stories from the morning. Josh, Julie, and Melonie were invited into a home where the people asked many questions. They were very interested in why we would leave our homes to come all the way to Nicaragua to share the Gospel. Josh, Julie, and Melonie spent at least 45 minutes visiting with this family and all three of them eventually shared their testimony. Page, Deborah, Noah, Michelle, and Dakota where invited into a home where Dakota shared the Gospel and the entire family of four accepted Christ together! How powerful!

After lunch, we had another VBS. This time it was out in the streets of a new barrio. The kids were so excited to play games, sing songs, and learn God's Word. 

During the VBS, Page, Deborah, and Michelle went to the Second Baptist Church to hold a womens's Bible study. We studied Ephesians 1 with this group of ladies, as we did with the group from Monday. They formed small groups to dig into the Word of God and learn about who we are in Christ. I know this is what we have been doing with Mrs. Robyn in the young women's Sunday School class... But it was just too good not to share with the ladies in Nicaragua! I (Page) was so encouraged through studying the Bible with the ladies. They were so eager to discuss how God was speaking to them and I learned so much from them today!

After supper, we headed back up to the Second Baptist Church (we've been working with their church members quite a bit this week). We will be going to a new church near Lake Nicaragua tomorrow, so we were all very sad to say goodbye to our friends from Second Baptist. Josh and Melonie both shared their testimonies at this service, and Noah shared a devotion.

Before we left, their pastor shared that they plan to continue the work we have done together after we leave. We did a lot of door to door evangelism with their church members. They would always make a note of who we visited so that they could follow up after we leave. They have also helped with the kids at VBS. It is great to know that they are encouraged to do more outreach and minister to those who have made professions of faith. Please pray for their church as they are pursuing the possibility of building a newer, larger sanctuary in front of the church they have now. Even though we do have a language barrier, we all feel like we have made great new friends at Second Baptist. We will miss them, so we do hope to see them again! We are looking forward to another great day tomorrow!

Monday, July 8

Today has been a busy day! We started out with door to door evangelism with local church members in the morning. We split up in teams and went house to house spreading the Gospel. Several accepted Christ and several seeds were planted! How amazing it is that God would bless us with the opportunity to pray with people as they accept Christ. As we went door to door, we met a few people along the way who belonged to other Christian churches. It was awesome to meet other Christians in Nicaragua who are working to teach the Bible and share the Gospel with others. We met one woman whose name is Aura. She cried as she shared her testimony with us. She praised God for all He had been with her through. She talked about how she committed her life to Christ after she cried out to God to heal her from sickness. She is now teaching Bible classes and sharing the Gospel with others. We tried to encourage her in her walk with Christ..... She definitely was an encouragement to us!

After lunch we had another VBS and did our first women's Bible study. I included a few pictures below from some of our activities. 

We started out VBS with a soccer game and hitting around the beach ball. The kids had a blast. Then, Noah led us in a few fun songs. The kids learned "Jesus Loves Me" on Sunday, so it was great to sing that song with them again. Melonie shared the story of Jesus healing the lame man. We had a great VBS!

We also had a women's Bible study at the First Baptist Church. We sang songs with the ladies and studied Ephesians 1.

We keep talking about what a great day this has been. God blessed us with some great new friendships and opportunities for ministry today! We love you all! Thanks for your prayers!

Sunday, July 7

Sunday has been a day of rest. We attended a church service where Noah preached a great message about sharing the Gospel and not being ashamed of Christ. We sang "Revelation Song" and enjoyed hearing the church members sing praise and worship songs in their language. It was an awesome experience. Even though we couldn't understand the words they were singing, you could tell they were praising the Lord just by watching them. It's incredible to think about how big this world is and how you can praise God in any language. Even if we can't understand each other, we can still worship the Lord together. 

While Noah was preaching, Melonie, Julie, and Dakota did a shortened VBS with a few of the children. They had a Bible story, songs, and games. 

After the church service and lunch, we headed out to see a little more of the city. They took us to a high point in the city so that we could see a great view of the area. Then, we walked around Juigalpa for a little while.

Later today, we are going to head to another church and do another movie presentation for the congregation.

The people in Nicaragua are so kind and welcoming. When you want to share the Gospel they just invite you in to their home and pull up a chair for you. It seems like everywhere we go, everyone greets us with a hand shake and a smile. We will be visiting several other churches in this area throughout this week. Our prayer is that God will show us a certain place where we can establish an ongoing relationship with a church in that particular area. Please pray that God would show us where He wants us to develop that partnership for the future.

We are excited about the next few days in Nicaragua. I've included a few pictures from today so that you can see them. We love you all!

Saturday, July 6

This is a picture of us right before we headed to the Atlanta airport. We had a long day of travel ahead of us, but we are so excited to be in Juigalpa, Nicaragua now!

Saturday morning, Noah stayed with Pastor Omar in Juigalpa where they had a conference with local church leaders and pastors. They had a great day of teaching the Baptist Faith and Message and encouraging church leaders through discipleship. The rest of the team traveled to a mining community near Juigalpa. We did a VBS with children in the local church where we sang songs, played games, and learned the Bible story of Paul on the road to Damascus.

After lunch, we broke up into teams for door to door evangelism. We set out on the streets with pastors and translators to share the Gospel. Several people accepted Christ including a 95 year old 

man named Salvadore! Many seeds were planted, so please be in prayer for the local churches as they continue to reach out to all of the people we met today! 

After eating a delicious supper (prepared by the sweet ladies at First Baptist), we watched Facing the Giants with a local church and heard some powerful testimonies. We heard from one man who had invited his friends to come to the service so that they can learn about Jesus and 

be saved! God is doing amazing things in Nicaragua!

We love you all and thank you for your prayers!

We're Here!

We made it to Nicaragua safe and sound! After a plane ride and a couple of hours of driving, we made it to Juigalpa around 1:00 AM Saturday morning. Saturday has been a great day of ministry! I'll try to post a few pictures and an update of our day a little bit later!