Gaining momentum in all the right directions

      Hello again, everyone! I’m sorry I wasn’t able to post a blog last week. My squad and I all went on a screen fast. We gave up all of our electronic devices for a while so that we could be more connected in community and in our time with the Lord. Being removed from computers, ipods, nooks, etc, was very refreshing. There seemed to be virtually no distractions to keep anyone from not being fully here mentally. Our only options to check out and get away from people were to read a book or take a nap. However, with the intention of spending more time seeking the Lord and spending more time in community in our team of 25 people, it was a very fruitful time. I realized I became more intentional about how much time I spent pursuing the members of my team to pray for them and challenge them to grow in their relationship with God. I saw more Bibles out in the past week than I had since we arrived in Nicaragua. I just want to encourage everyone who reads this to ask God if fasting is something he may be calling you to do, whether it is distractions like facebook and electronics, food, whatever. Surrendering yourself and something you feel like you are entitled a right to in exchange for seeking more of God in your life will yield incredible results.

      These past 2 weeks have been great! We began 3 new types of ministry that I am sure will be very fruitful and rewarding. The first one is a construction project we began for a man who serves my team of missionaries with complete selflessness every day. His name is Mario. He is a local Nicaraguan man who drives all of us around in a big army truck every day to ministry sites and into town or wherever we may need to go. We started building an extra room onto his house to give his little boy his own room. They live in a 2 room house right now. We started off with uprooting 2 trees and leveling out the ground. Now we have laid down the foundation and will construct the concrete walls soon. It is such a blessing and humbling experience to be able to bless such a deserving and selfless man in such a big and tangible way.

      We also kicked off our first young men’s Bible study small group last Friday! Every Friday, roughly 15 young men ages 15-25 from a local village named Bethel will come to our base for a time of fellowship and Bible study. We already go to their village about 4 times a week for spirit led ministry, but this is a great opportunity to truly disciple the youth and build up men of God in the community. The first meeting was a lot of fun as we focused primarily on breaking the ice and making friends. However this week I was supposed to share my testimony and share how God’s grace has been sufficient in me as he brought me from a lost punk of a kid and into a son of the King. Even though I am still learning and growing and being transformed daily, I hope to be able to glorify God as I share with the young men how he has moved in my life and called me to his plan. We were not able to meet for the second time this week due to a riot by some local sugar cane plantation workers. They have blocked the road leading to the village of Bethel for the past 2 days and it has been very violent at times. Please pray for God to intervene and move in the hearts of the authorities over the plantation workers to settle this uprising correctly and quickly, as it is affecting many surrounding communities and their people.

      Finally, we began our door to door ministry. That was an amazing experience that I am so excited to begin here. Back in Mexico, while doing door to door ministry I saw the physically sick healed in the name of Jesus among other amazing things. So needless to say, when we were dropped off in a plantain jungle village far away from our base, I was very excited. I was nervous, anxious, expectant, and amped. As we wandered off into the unknown of the village with some church members from Bethel, my group of 5 Americans and I went from house to house sharing the Gospel of Jesus and his love and praying over the people we encountered. The lord gave me a prophetic word to speak over one older married couple we encountered. They told us they needed prayer over their financial situation. God told me to declare over them the verse Luke 12:24, which says “Consider the Ravens: they never sew nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!”. Even though my Spanish is pretty broken, and I was having a tough time translating for my team and the villagers, God used me to prophecy over them that God will provide for them, his children, and that he treasured them and was still with them. Many other great things happened that day, and I cannot wait to go and do it again.

      Thank you all very much for keeping up with this blog and for all the support I receive in the comments you leave. Thank you to all who supported me both prayerfully and financially so that I could come here and do God’s work. I hope this blog is a blessing to you all, as you are just as much a part in this as me. I will give another update next week! Until then please pray against physical sickness over my squad and wisdom for myself as God teaches me how he wants me to lead my team he has called me to lead in this season. Thanks again for reading and God bless!