Vision for Nicaragua

I am beginning to reach the point in my life where I constantly find myself ready to "jump the gun" and I begin placing myself in various types of "real jobs" before I have even received my college diploma as I will in May of this new year. Though I get excited about every potential job opportunity and begin placing myself and my future wife, Miriam there. My mind is always on my first missional love, the country of Nicaragua.

I feel God has put this passion for this country in my heart and given me Miriam to better equip me to serve Him and those in Nicaragua. It is obviously not the first place a typical American would desire to go to. It is hot year round with most places not having air conditioning and it is also third-world country with the daily struggles that come along with that status evident in everyday life of those born there.

I have recently been thinking through some thing God has placed on my heart for my work in Nicaragua in the future. I believe this will be further down the road as I try to manage my student loans and all of the changes that come with the transition from college to newlywed life and a new job.

But I would just like to share this idea and vision for you to begin praying through this alongside of me that I bring glory to God wherever he places me today, tomorrow, or forty years down the road. I have been called to vocational ministry for three years now. But with that said, I have never felt called to be a preaching pastor in the pulpit week in and week out. I feel more called to be teaching and "getting my hands dirty" alongside of believers and unbelievers.

God has recently put on my heart to begin exploring options of teaching pastors in the area of youth ministry and outreach in the local seminary just outside of Managua. Nicaragua has huge numbers of young people and teens but very rarely have I seen them in the churches there. I believe this is due to the lack of tailored programs and ministries for them. In Nicaragua, the young people are some of the strongest supporters for the political parties and elections. They want something and someone to believe in. As far as I know, there are very few if any classes being taught. I would like to teach classes to better equip the pastors to reach the young people in Nicaragua.

As well as teaching the pastors youth classes, I feel another strong way of equipping the pastors to reach out to the unchurched in their communities is by teaching the pastors English in the seminary or having lessons in my home. English is such a desirable language for people to learn in Nicaragua. It opens a world of opportunities in the job world and around the world for them. As these pastors begin  to learn English they can then go back and begin offering and teaching what they have learned to their church family and the community in which they live and their church is located.

In the United States our churches have staffs of five pastors to up to one hundred different paid ministry positions in the same church. In Nicaragua, this is not the case and the pastors are normally bi-vocational to be able to provide for their families. This can some times limit the amount of time these pastors can spend in their communities visiting houses, though these pastors are very diligent in doing so. The opportunity for these pastors to learn English as well will allow them to offer these to their members and unchurched members to bring them into the church not only to teach them English but to build relationships with them. And what better material to give them to practice their reading than the Bible itself!

When I dream big, I know my God is bigger and He can make a mountain move. My prayer is this small vision can bring change and a revival to the churches and people of Nicaragua. My God is faithful and His will is always done! I just hope to be one of his many tools in completing His will in the country of Nicaragua.