October 2011 - Harvest Initiative

Harvester Mission Team

Certainly the high point of this month was the HCC mission team. The trip involved a visit to the Miskitu Indian communities of Limbaika and Galilea. To reach these remote areas it is necessary to travel by small plane, road and boat but the effort is well worth it. This time Ann, Will and Amelia were able to come along, it’s the first opportunity we’ve had to do this as a family.

In the communities we did activities with children and women, coordinated by Jackie Dowdall. Also the presentation of the Jesus Film in Miskitu is an evangelistic and teaching time with the people.

Preacher’s Seminars

Dennis and Jackie Dowdall spent most of October here learning Spanish, helping in the schools and leading seminars for preachers and leaders. Dennis developed a workshop on conflict resolution based on biblical principles and presented it to five groups. His work is in keeping with our desire to focus our short term volunteers more on teaching and skill transfer. In the USA we are blessed with great talents and knowledge needed by our brothers here. Dennis and Jackie also serve as our forwarding agents in the USA. There is no way to adequately describe all the things they do on our behalf other than to say that without their work we would not be able to stay on the field. Thanks Dowdalls!

Water Project KM 34

For some time the southern half of the Marvin Salazar settlement has been organizing to install a potable water system. They have been frustrated by internal politics in the neighborhood. It is a sad fact that the poorer the area, the more difficult it is to do true community based projects. However we are very pleased to share that work on the system is in progress. Harvest Initiative is supplying about 20% of the PVC pipe for a 400 household project and the community is supplying the rest, along with the labor to trench and lay pipe. Our goal is to truly co invest with the poor by helping them steward the resources they do have for common good. A big thanks to Danira Sanchez and Pedro Gonzales for their perseverance in coordinating our part in the project. The school in that community is doing well and completing its second year of operation. We continue to seek the Lord’s timing for a new church plant there.

The New High School

The new high school construction is coming along swiftly. In order to secure an operating license for next year the project has been accelerated in hopes of completing it by the end of November. When open, the school will function as a Christian Technical High School part of the Opportunity International network of Christian Community Development projects.

• Close to 25,000 meals were distributed through the network of schools and churches we work with here. The food was shipped by the Nice Foundation. We are expecting the arrival of an additional 100,000 meals this month.
• A donated truck is being shipped here from California. When it arrives it will be a great help in all the projects especially food distribution and the water projects.
• The Harvest Center Associacion (Asociacion Centro Cosecha) held its first official board of directors meeting. The Harvest Center is a new Nicaraguan non profit organization which will allow us to work here with a greater degree of legal protection than before. In years past we have worked under the legal umbrella of local churches but as our work here grows it seemed wise to seek a separate incorporation that would not be tied to any single congregation. Thanks to Valeria Lopez for her dedication to this effort.

Prayer Requests

Now that we have been here a couple of months some of the specific tasks for the next six months are coming into focus.

• Open doors for evangelism in Granada
• Peace for the nation as the re elected president begins another term
• Preparations for volunteers planning to come in January from Christian Campus House in Springfield, MO and Brookings, South Dakota

Marcus and Ann Pearson
APDO 83, Granada Nicaragua

www.Cosechanic.com
Skype: marcus.pearson2
Twitter: zevon 19
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