February 2009 Newsletter

Medical Trip

Yolaina woman with new glasses
The month of February started off with a medical trip to the communities of Yolaina and El Serrano in the Nueva Guinea area. Three doctors and an optician saw patients and fitted eyeglasses in these rural communities. These towns like most rural communities here have little access to medical attention and so these visits are greatly appreciated by the people. They also help encourage the local preachers by attending to the physical needs of people as part of the churches ministry. The team also saw patients from the barrios surrounding the church in Masaya. In all about 440 people were treated. Thanks to the First Christian Church of Coco Beach, Florida for making this happen.

New Church in Ciudad Sandino

Church Service in Ciudad Sandino
The congregation in Cuidad Sandino marked a new phase of its life by moving out of its first meeting place to a larger site. The Lord has really worked with the Evangelist Carlos Tercero and the community by providing a large open field in the center of town as a site to use the large tent for church services. The site also has a basketball court and an abandoned building that we hope to fix up a little at a time for classrooms, office, and bathrooms.

They celebrated their first anniversary as a church in the their new tent on 8 March with an attendance of 95 adults and 94 children. The new place comes just in time since they were rapidly outgrowing the rented community hall. Since it never gets cold here in Nicaragua a tent is actually a good option for a new church.

The whole tent project is a great example of how different groups can work together to get things done. The tent was donated by the Harvester Christian Church in Missouri, transported to Nicaragua by the NICE Foundation, Illinois and now a group from the Crossroads Christian Church in California is here helping us install a chain link fence around the site for security. Meanwhile Carlos and his congregation are evangelizing, disciplining and praying that the Lord will give them open doors for service.

Valeria Lopez’ Projects

Valeria with some of her sewing ladies
Valeria is one of our main co workers here. She does a variety of administrative chores for us. She also takes on projects of her own. Some the items she is working on now include: the customs paperwork for a large shipment of donated goods for the schools and other projects, small business work with women’s sewing and baking groups and follow up work with two young people who need surgery. She stays busy. Valeria’s husband, Jacobo, works for a shipping company and both attend university on the weekends. They live with his parents, as many couples here do. They are saving to buy a house and also to pay off medical bills incurred early in their marriage. Valeria is a good example of how the Lord blesses us with Nicaraguan co workers that share the vision for ministry here and over time grow to become leaders in their own right.

Clean Water Projects

Installing the new pump in Limbaika
We were able to make two trips to the Miskitu community of Limbaika. The fist trip was to set a concrete pump base. On the second trip we installed the hand pump on the well. This is a well rehabilitation site were we are reactivating a well that was drilled a long time ago but has fallen into disuse once the pump wore out. These are good sites since we can get clean water to a lot of people without the expense of drilling a new well and the risk of a dry hole. Since our well drilling equipment is still in customs, we are trying to concentrate on some sites that do not require drilling. Also we are taking advantage of the short dry season in the Atlantic coast region where the communities are located. During the rainy season torrential rains make the roads difficult and river conditions unpredictable, so the dry season is a crucial. Limbaika was visited by an evangelistic team from Harvester Christian Church so this project builds on the contacts made on that visit.
Gen 26:18 “And Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham…”


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