Monday, January 24, 2011

January 2011

   We pray that everyone entered the year 2011 walking in the blessings of the Lord! We have had a very busy January so far! We just recently returned from a trip to Nicaragua. As of October of 2010, we have been back to having to leave the country every 90 days again. Dave and I were granted our residency when we applied, but we have yet to apply for the children. Costa Rica changed its residency laws where minors are no longer covered under their parent's residency status. So in order for us to keep the children legal with an up to date visa, we are required to leave the country every 90 days. However, we are very thankful that Nicaragua is very close to us (the border is only about an hour and a half from us). This makes it so much easier for us to be able to make our trips. This time we decided to make it a week long vacation and enjoy some things of Nicaragua we have never been to before. Rivas is the closest town to the border, so we enjoy spending time there and in a town called San Jorge which is situated on Lake Nicaragua. It is the largest lake of Central America. In the center of the lake is Ometepe Island which consists of two volcanoes, Concepcion and Maderas. We took a ferry ride across the lake that lasted about an hour. It was a fun adventure. While we were on the island we decided to take a bus ride to another town that is on the island, Altagracia. We spent about an hour in town and headed back on the bus again. We are quite accustomed to riding buses...but it has been a while since we have had to ride one. Jeremiah and Levi stood in the back of the bus to allow extra seats for anyone that needed it, unfortunately for Levi..he got pretty squashed! (see photo in slide show) He did manage to make it up to where we were sitting and find a spot to sit! LOL!

While we were in Nicaragua, we were able to go to Jinotepe and visit a friend of ours, Rene Amador. Rene was part of Pastor Serafin's church when we first went to Nicaragua in 2006 and was a part of the youth group then. Rene had recently given up a life of drugs and turned his life over to God. He was beginning his discipleship program then and in 2007 he went to YWAM of Nicaragua and began his training program for missions. This is where he met and married his wife, Migdalia, the director of YWAM. (see photo in slide show) It was great to visit with him and meet his wife and see what a great man of God he has become in the last few years. They are in the process of planning a trip to Africa and I know they would appreciate any prayers on their behalf!



The most amazing thing that happened to us while we were in Nicaragua was the day after we arrived. We took our family adventure to the Island and spent the day. That evening we took the ferry ride back to Rivas and we were able to enjoy a beautiful sunset on the way back. While we were riding, a gentleman on the boat struck up a conversation with Jeremiah. They talked about various things, then he asked Jeremiah why we were in Central America. He explained to the man what we did and why we were there and the man just out of the blue asks Jeremiah to have his dad pray for him please. Jeremiah went to get Dave and Dave was able to talk with him for a good amount of time. The gentleman (Cedrit Gomez) began sharing with Dave some health problems his 10 yr old daughter was facing. The doctors believed that she had lung cancer and this man was just distraught over the situation. Dave began sharing the Gospel with him and he just up and asked Dave....what do I need to do to get my life right with God RIGHT NOW? Dave explained it to him and he accepted the Lord right then and there sailing across Lake Nicaragua! The man lives in Rivas and was just so upset about news of his daughter that he needed to get out for a while, so he decided to go to the island. But her never even got off the boat! He stayed on...and that is where we met him. When we reached the shore...we were able to give him a Bible and encourage him on the importance of finding a good Bible believing church so he and his family can grow in the Lord. We exchanged email information and told him that we would have our church and others praying for him and his daughter. We told him we looked forward to the outcome of his daughter's next visit with the doctor, which was coming up within the next couple days. After returning home, we did not hear anything for a few days, so Dave emailed him to see how he was doing.  We received a response from him just the other day giving glory to God for the results that he got from the doctor. His daughter tested NEGATIVE for cancer and the doctors were amazed at the change in her! Cedrit said that he is not the man we met on the ferry, he has turned his life over to God and is trusting in Him!! We give God praise and thanks for allowing us to be in the right place at just the right time! He told us that evening that this was the FIRST time he had spoken to anyone about his daughter!! And LOOK WHAT GOD DID!! We serve an amazing God!!

God has been speaking to us about more evangelism in this year. We know that the harvest is great and that the workers are few. When we see the harvest COMING to us...we know God is moving. We are planning an evangelistic service for this coming Sunday, January 30th. We have letters printed up for the congregation to invite friends, family, and neighbors to a special service. One of the special things about this service is it will be the first time for our deacon, Ruperto Hernandez, to preach. We are looking forward to what God will do and we ask for your prayers concerning this service. One of the reasons we are having a service by invitation only is because here in our area it is very popular for churches to have large church meetings or revivials. The only problem we see with this is almost all of the people that come are church goers from other local churches. Our desire is to reach the LOST or the ones that do not have a church home! Please pray with us this week as we prepare for Sunday. We also ask that you include Ruperto (Peto) in your prayers. We look forward to sharing pictures and news with you in our next update!! Thank you for praying with us!!