Final days with CCS

The final day we spent in the community was a semi-longer one but a very special day. We were able to go into the community public school and share the gospel with every student and teacher in both the morning and afternoon class sessions. This was an awesome opportunity as many of the students put their faith in Christ as a result of this gospel presentation! Balloons are a huge hit with students, I have never seen such a long line of students waiting for just a normal blown up balloon. We ran out!

We were also able to have a special meal for the teachers. They really appreciated us doing this for them. One teacher said, "I am so happy you took the time to do this for us because sometimes we feel like our work isn't valued here." We didn't realize our chicken and rice lunch with the small gift of school supplies would go such a long way in encouraging these teachers. Ms. Sonya from the team did a great job leading a devotion with the teachers entirely in Spanish! I was very impressed.

 The team's final day consisted of a few R&R activities around Nicaragua. We spent the morning at the market and then had a great lunch at La Catarina overlooking a beautiful lagoon. We zip lined and visited the volcano in the afternoon.

The team headed out early this morning to fly back to Knoxville. Please be praying for their travels throughout today! I thank God for giving us a great first team to work with, the kids, faculty and parents of Concord Christian School are great people that are passionate about serving and sharing the Gospel to the nations!

El Cañon and Sunday Service

Saturday we were able to spend the day in the orphanage in El Cañon, playing with the kids and cleaning. The team brought little styrofoam planes for the boys to make and fly which was a big hit with them. Also in the orphanage I was able to go with Pastor Josue and help lead a discipleship class with the older boys of the orphanage. This was a great opportunity for me to share about my life and ministry to boys interested in being involved and working with the local church. Pastor Josue stressed to them that no matter what profession they go into that is their ministry and mission field. 

On Sunday, I had the opportunity to preach to the church and I spoke on John 9. The story is about a blind mans life that was changed by Jesus and how he then went and told EVERYONE about it. We need to be as bold as him, some people didn't even think he was the same person because he was so radically different after meeting Jesus.

Sunday night we showed the movie Courageous. This was a great activity for the community! After talking with Pastor Alfredo I learned that had 10 first time guests that night which is incredible news for a small new church plant like this one is.

Keep praying God is definitely working here! Pray for energy for me and the team as it was a late and long Sunday and we have a early morning today.

We're headed to share the Gospel in the school! I'll write soon!

Church Painting and Rooster Crossing

Yesterday we spent the entire day inside of a brand new concrete church. This church was a really good sized church here in Nicaragua but it needed some color so we made that happen. The Concord Christian School team was very diligent in working throughout the day to finish the entire inside of the church and as you'll see in following photos it looks great and much more inviting than plain unfinished concrete walls! I asked Pastor Armando, "What do you think?" He told me, "It looks so amazing, I'm very happy!" We're heading down to El Cañon today to visit the orphanage today and do some cleaning there along with playing with the kids. 

Be in prayer for me as Pastor Armando asked me to preach to his church this Sunday!

On a side note, I hit a rooster with my truck today. Not on purpose he just flew up in front of it and met the hood and windshield during flight. First time for everything here in Nicaragua!

Before:

After Primer:

After: 

God is doing some amazing things here and I am excited to see how he uses this new church to reach even more people in the community! 

praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. - Acts 2:47

First Team!

The first team of the summer arrives tonight. The staff and I are all very excited to begin all of the official work with the teams and communities. The prep work and supplies have all been bought and we are just waiting for the plane to hit the runway here in Managua.

This team is a school from Knoxville, Concord Christian School. With them, we will be painting a local church, visiting the orphanage, and playing sports with the kids in the community. 

I will post more details about our week as we get more busy! God bless and please be praying for the teams safety as they begin traveling shortly.

Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. 

- Philippians 1:6

And so it begins...

I am currently riding in the car to the Nashville airport to log my first batch of air miles in my journey back to my second home, Managua, Nicaragua! I am very excited it has been almost 10 months since my feet have been on Nicaraguan soil but that drought ends today! Please be praying for safe and smooth travels today!

Update: I am at my gate and should be boarding the plane to Miami very shortly.

My God Provides!

This past Friday, I lost my job and was very distraught and struggling with how I was going to make the extra money that I had just lost with those hours being taken away. With multiple expenses coming in my near future I began to pray and I tried to fight off the stress and have full faith in God. In James 1, my dad reminded me how it speaks of trials and that in return produces steadfastness. Steadfastness means to have loyalty in hard times and most importantly as believers to be loyal and have faith in God as believers. 

I woke up this morning around the same time I would have gone into work at my old job. I used this extra free time in my morning to read the word, pray, and just worship my God. I was continually reminded of the story of Job and how God gives and takes away but he gave thanks to God in all circumstances. As I walked by the coffee shop here on campus, Blessed Be Your Name was playing over the speakers, yet another reminder. 

Then God opened up his flood gates to me! I went to the rec. center here on campus (my other job) to see if there were any shifts available for me to pick up. I then talked to a coworker working the front desk and he told he how he needed to give up a lot of his shifts over the next couple months for various reasons. I had no idea what his shifts were and told him to give me a list of them and I would see if I could cover any of those shifts for him. A few minutes later I received an email from him, the shifts he needed to give up were on Monday and Friday mornings. The same exact hours I worked at my old job! I would not have a drop off in hours at all. But it does not stop there, there were also Saturday morning shifts that I was free to pick up also! And guess when those shifts begin, the day after I receive my last check from my old job. 

Throughout the last few months I was receiving paychecks weekly and had mastered saving and budgeting my money very well. But it is very rare to have a job or two that will allow me to receive a paycheck weekly. God allowed me to have time with a weekly paycheck to learn how to be a good steward of my money and then he takes away my job but gives me more hours and pay at my current job to allow me to not lose any time or money. My God provides, when He and I am ready! His timing is never wrong!

A Week of Transformations

This week was spent with my home church, BridgePointe Church out of Owensboro, KY. Throughout this week we saw many different types of transformations.

In the community of Ticuantepe, we thought we were going to just put a roof on a church, but we basically built an entire sanctuary for this church. Being in this community we saw many things transformed. Of course, you have the obvious transformation of wood and tin into a place of worship: 

A shot of the before roof and the after tin roof behind it.

Before

After

Also, we were able to visit the community of El Canon and see some more transformations there. First, Jessica was able to use her skills and passion of cutting hair to bless and transform the look of about twelve or so girls in the orphanage.

Before

After

The girl were loving this time with Jessica and they were all getting all of their hair cut off. Also, we were able to build soccer goals for a local field that the younger men of El Canon use to play on each day. Prior to this they only had sticks but now they have metal goals with nets!

Finally, we were able to donate multiple boxes of school supplies to the director of the school here in El Canon. If this picture doesn't say enough she was VERY excited about it all. "I don't have the words to describe how I feel right now!" - Directora Maria

But above all we were able to come down to Nicaragua and plant seeds in many individuals lives and let the Lord grow them and transform their lives. BridgePointe thank you for sending this group here to Nicaragua and know that they have blessed this country and I feel that they have been blessed by Nicaragua as well!