“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor...to set the oppressed free...”
Luke 4:18
Evangelism
Christ Centered Life
Our work seeks to balance the preaching of the Gospel and discipleship with ministries that reach out to physical needs. We see that as a reflection of Christ’s own ministry as stated in Luke 4:18-19 where he declares that he is sent both to help the suffering and “to preach good news to the poor…”. This balance is often difficult to achieve as we are surrounded by so much poverty and ignorance here. 65% of all households are headed by single women. 30% of the population exists on an income of less than $2 per day. Still, God has allowed us over the years to work with Nicaraguan evangelists to start six churches.
Evangelism is no doubt the most familiar kind of ministry Harvest Initiative does. Its evangelism efforts happen in two predominate ways: local church support and Bible training.
Local church support refers to HI’s efforts to train and equip local pastors and congregations for service and local evangelism. Through ministry resources (books) and training sessions (led by wise men and women from the States and Nicaragua), pastors and congregations learn how to talk about pressing issues for Nicaragua’s church. Over the years HI has equipped and mobilized new church planting teams centered around Nicaraguan Evangelists. Carlos Tercero Chaves, Luis Hernandez, Donal Lopez have all worked to start new churches. Once started, Hi works to help the new congregations with community development projects that complement their ministry.
These efforts cross over into Bible training, of course. Bible training also refers to the efforts we make to provide Vacation Bible School to Nicaragua children and families. Some of our great, recurring volunteer groups make VBS and sports outreach a main part of their annual service—which greatly blesses us and the communities that look forward to their return. These efforts happen in the local Managua region and in the Princapolka river region—a much more challenging area to reach by far.
We also reach out in evangelism to the tribesmen of the Atlantic Coast. We are especially excited about the work in the Miskitu Tribal areas of the Atlantic Coast. There we have had a daily radio broadcast of the text of the New Testament in the local language as well as showing of the Jesus Film in the villages. Now we specifically lift up prayers for open doors to start a church in that region.
Bible Institute: Harvest Initiative has always worked to make basic training available to local pastors and leaders. Usually this has been delivered in seminars according to the needs of the ministers. However in February 2015, we are relaunching a more intense schedule of classes with a group of pastors in Matagalpa. The course of study will cover 18 subjects taught in three day intensive sessions over a year and a half. Kirly Lopez Morales is the Program Coordinator and we ask for prayers for her, her group of instructors and the students.
