Update #2 - Buenos Dias!

Thank you for your prayers! This weekend was absolutely amazing! Ever since we got here, we have been doing outreach – mainly playing soccer and talking, playing with the kids while watching on the sidelines.

Saturday was very much spent still getting situated. After a morning of breakfast, devotionals, and relaxation, we played more futból in the afternoon. We went to the same field as Friday but no one was there, so we walked 10 minutes to a different field. When we got there we saw a bunch of teenage boys playing soccer in mud mud mud. It had rained the night before and the dirt field was covered with water. A few of our team boys played with the Nicaraguans, and because they didn’t have any cleats, there were more than a couple slips into the mud.

On Saturday evening, there was a service with the jóvenes. It is sort of like their version of JCA’s Quest (although it is pretty different, it is a night for their jóvenes to come together and worship). We’re having a great and blessing time getting to know the youth.

Sunday was our official ministry kick-off. Mount of Olives has a carnival-type event for the kids twice a year. So all the kids involved in Sunday school every Sunday came and were able to win prizes with talents. We had our first performance: our chair skit for the kids. The kids loved seeing the colorful balloons and posters and they absolutely loved the candy and prizes.

Sunday afternoon was the Tourneo de Futból!!!! There were 8 teams competing against each other. The mission team was split up into random teams. We got to connect with new people from El Crucero. Getting to interact with the Nicaraguans from El Crucero has been definitely eye-opening. Our first night here, P. Gomez gave us some background info on the church members of Mount Olives, just for us to take into mind the context and the people of our ministry. He informed us of the prevalence of dysfunctional families and the prevalence of child abuse. El Crucero is a more rural part of Nicaragua, therefore a little more traditional, patriarchal society. The men of Nicaragua have been known to be absent in their families and mostly, it is the women having to work and raise the children by themselves. With overworked mothers, the kids miss out on the attention that they need from their parents. It has led to low self-esteem and lives in a misguided direction. Our soccer ministry is to specifically reach out to the kids who don’t have a Godly community to help them and love them. Yesterday was the perfect opportunity to reach out to these very same teens. P. Gomez has been reaching out to a specific group of boys in the area for about 6 months. There are about 50-60 teens near the location of the church but of those, there are about 25 who don’t come out to church. As a result of the soccer tournament, the specific group of boys came out to church for the first time yesterday. There were at least 14 of them. It was extremely touching and blessing to witness P. Gomez’s heart for the youth, to witness his heart being so moved by the evident work of God right before our eyes.

P. Nate’s Sunday sermon was on Luke 15: the story of the prodigal son. It was so fitting for the boys that were there for the first time. P. Nate spoke about God’s relentless pursuit of us, never giving up on us, even with all our baggage. God has truly been moving in small and big ways. We pray that our ministry here isn’t so much about what we think we have to offer for the people, what we think we can teach the people, but sincerely we pray that our ministry here will solely be the overflow of God’s love in us for the people of Nicaragua. We want to be able to discern what the people need, and what God wants us to do for His people.

So please pray for:

1. Our ministry to truly be out of the overflow of the Spirit.

2. This week. We will be doing VBS for about 100-150 children everyday. We are hoping for the children to really experience the love of Christ, but we are also hoping to use this as an avenue to get their parents to come and experience the same love.

3. The partnership in the Gospel with the jovenes at Mount Olives. We want to be like one family as we reach out to the people of El Crucero.