Thursday, July 10

We made it back to Managua! Before leaving Juigalpa this morning, we were blessed with a little more time to fellowship with our friends there. The pastor presented Leatherwood with a gift. They are such precious people!

As we traveled back to Managua, we stopped and visited a volcano in Masaya.

We were also able to do a little souvenir shopping at the market before settling in at the hotel. 

It will be a very early morning for all of us on Friday. Please pray for travel safety as we fly back to Atlanta and head home. We will see everyone soon!

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Wednesday, July 9

What another wonderful day of ministry in Nicaragua!

This morning, half our team led a VBS at the church while the other half went to a new part of town to go door to door. The pastor told us that we were visiting a wealthier part of town where people had been afraid to evangelize before today. We had several great visits where we shared our personal testimonies.  5 people accepted Christ today! 

This afternoon, we had a time of games and fellowship with the church we've been working with. I know we will miss our new volleyball friends!

Tonight, we had our final worship service with the Second Baptist Church. 

What a blessing it was to see people that we met going door to door, come to the worship service tonight! 

We sang worship songs and led a skit together. We were blessed to see Callie (from Antioch) dance as we sang "How He Loves Us." 

It was a great time with our new friends; however, we were very sad to say our goodbyes! 

We will be traveling back to the capitol city of Managua tomorrow so that we will be ready for our early morning flight on Friday. Please pray that we will have a safe trip driving tomorrow. We are happy to see our family at home in the United States, but we will definitely miss our Nicaraguan family! 

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Tuesday, July 8

I know this is a day late, but we've been busy! Tuesday was another wonderful day. Leatherwood and Antioch split up in 2 different groups Tuesday. Antioch traveled to Santo Thomas to work with the local church there. They went door to door in the morning and saw 12 salvations! That afternoon, they had a VBS where the children learned about Jesus healing the leper. 

Leatherwood stayed at the Second Baptist Church and worked all day. In the morning, they went door to door where they saw one salvation and many seeds planted. The afternoon was planned to be spent with the youth, however a group of children walked up so we did a quickly planned VBS. We are so thankful that God provided us with more game and Bible story ideas as soon as those children walked up. Even though that wasn't the original plan, God's plan is always better than our plan. We were able to learn about thankfulness. We created a thankfulness web where everyone shared what they are thankful for. 

That night, we had another movie night at the church. It was such a blessing to see people walk in the church who we invited earlier that day when we went door to door. This is a picture of a man who rededicated his life: 

I'll try to post another update about Wednesday soon!

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Monday, July 7

This morning we started out by driving to Rey Jesus where a mission church is being planned. We split up in groups to go out and share the Gospel. Eight people accepted Christ this morning!

We heard many different stories as we went out today, so I'll share one with you:

We met a young man named Eric. As the Gospel was shared, we learned that he had already made a profession of faith a few years ago. He was very involved in church, but he was the only one in his family to do so. He had one family member in particular who made it very hard for him. Eventually, he fell away from his relationship with God. After time passed, he got back in church. However, he soon fell away again into things he knew he should not do. He looked like he had tears in his eyes as he told us that he knows what he should do, it's just very hard for him. Please pray that Eric would draw closer to God and that his family would accept Christ.

Tonight, Matt (from Antioch) was able to be on the local radio station to share from a passage of scripture and invite people to our Wednesdsy night service.

We also had a women's conference. The American and Nicaraguan women had a sweet time of fellowship. We studied how God is bigger than everything and stronger than our struggles. 

Today was another great day! We are excited to see what tomorrow holds!

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More pictures from today:

Sunday, July 6 Update

Today has been a wonderful day of worship! It is so amazing how God put together our team members from Antioch and Leatherwood. Not only are we making new Nicaraguan friends, it has been great to get to spend time with our new friends from Antioch. I love to see how God is putting together our different talents and abilities!

We started out the day by leading the church service. Combining our two churches, we had Robbie on the drums, Chase on the guitar, Matt on the guitar (and singing), and Crystal, Jessica, Erin, and Page singing. 

Our translators even jumped in and helped lead some of the songs in Spanish. It still amazes me how we can sing the same song in two different languages at the same time, and God hears us all! We serve an awesome God!

Matt (youth pastor at Antioch) preached the sermon this morning. During the message, several of our team members took the children back for children's church. They learned about how Jesus calmed the storm! 

After lunch, half our team played volleyball with some of the young people while the others led a VBS. 

The children made bracelets out of colored beads that represented the plan of salvation. 

After supper, we had a movie night at the church. A projector and screen were set up so that the church members could watch the movie, Fireproof.... Spanish with English subtitles of course!

Afterwards, we learned that a precious young lady wanted to accept Christ as her Savior! So, it has been an exciting Sunday in Nicaragua!

Please pray for us as we go out on door to door evangelism tomorrow in Rey Jesus and lead a women's conference tomorrow night. We are excited about another great day in Nicaragua! 

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We made it!

We made it safely to Nicaragua! After a three and half hour plane ride and a two hour bus ride, we made it to our hotel in Juigalpa Friday night. Saturday morning after breakfast, we met over at the Second Baptist Church. We split into two groups. One group stayed at the church and led a Vacation Bible School. They had a wonderful time playing games and learning a Bible story!

The other group went out with church members to do door to door evangelism.

At least 7 people have accepted Christ today! 

This afternoon, we will have the opportunity to play soccer and volleyball with a group of teenagers. Afterwards, we will get a chance to share the Gospel. Please prays that their hearts will be open and receptive! 

We are looking forward to a great week!

It's Almost Time To Go!

In a little over 48 hours, we will be getting on a plane and heading back to Nicaragua! We are looking forward to seeing our friends in Nicaragua again and making new friendships. Please pray for our team as we lead Vacation Bible School, go out on door to door evangelism, and work with the Second Baptist Church of Juigalpa. We are praying specifically that God would prepare the hearts of the people we will meet in Nicaragua. Our hope is to go and make disciples and be an encouragement to the local church. Our Leatherwood team will also have a group of people from Antioch Baptist Church in Oxford joining us this year. So, there will be 19 of us traveling together. Our Leatherwood team includes Denise Argo, Allie Curvin, Josh Forrest,  Melonie Jones, Melissa Phillips, Page Trantham, Chase Waddell, and Michelle Weathington.  As wi-fi allows, we will try to keep the blog updated so that you can see what we are doing each day. We are looking forward to this trip and can't wait to share stories with you when we return home!

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