I want to thank you for keeping our team in your prayers while we were in Nicaragua. Our journey was completely free of any problems, but definitely not uneventful. Our medical team set up a makeshift clinic on three different days in three different locations. There were times we had to use generators and we carried water to each location. The medical team treated close to 450 patients. Our team consisted of pediatricians, nurses, and dentists. While the clinics were being set up I would present the gospel to the people waiting in line to see the doctors. Since Coy is fluent in Spanish she took care of the registration table at each clinic and met every one of the people in the communities we served. We spent one afternoon in a hospital and presented the gospel to a few of the patients. I preached in four different churches. One of the churches has a school that is sponsored by Compassion International. It was interesting to see the focal point of Christian giving from around the world at this church. We spent one morning ministering to the children of parents that lived and worked in a dump. Some of these children are abandoned. We saw a total of 185 professions of faith as a result of all ministries! Two of the communities we served had no church and no pastor. Seventy-Two people made professions of faith in a community called Paradise and fifty people made professions of faith in a community called Rota. Please continue to pray with us that God raises up a godly, evangelical pastor that can nurture these new believers in these communities. In Paradise we found a group of 20 young men ranging from sixteen to twenty years of age. We gave these young men Spanish New Testaments and they began reading them right away. We spent a lot of time with them playing soccer, kickball, arm wrestling and even wrestling with them. Two of them called me out to arm wrestle…and I beat them both! I am now a legend in Nicaragua-the undefeated pastor! Of course I left before their Dad’s showed up. When I left this community I was heartbroken. Even as I write this my heart is burdened for God to raise up a Nicaraguan pastor that can keep these boys on the right path.
Our host was Cheryl Spence, the Nicaraguan director of Jesus Centered Ministries. You can find out about their ministry at www.jcmmissions.com. Cheryl has five children living with her that were abandoned by their parents. These children range in age from seven to eleven, so this presented some fun, yet very interesting circumstances in the home/school where we stayed. JCM has been given a seventy acre farm on which to build a children’s hospital just outside of Leon. They are going to need volunteers to keep clearing the land and eventually for construction. If you interested contact them through their web site.
There are many more details I would love to share with you about this trip, but time does not permit. Romans 1:12 really comes alive to me when I consider how we all worked together. On our team we had people from the USA, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and all of you as prayer partners. Together with God there is nothing we cannot accomplish.
“That is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.” Romans 1:12
In Christ,
Pastor Keith
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