Dear loved ones,
Greetings to you in the name of our Lord Jesus, from the jungles of Nicaragua. This has been another incredibly busy month. As we struggle to keep up with the Spiritual and physical needs of our people, God continues to give us strength and wisdom to keep going. And as the river gets lower because of the dry season, traveling just takes even more time, with the trip from Waspam being lengthened to eleven to thirteen hours again.
But one of the super good news is that in this month the money came in to buy the much needed boat motor and also for the jetski/ambulance! I have ordered both already and they should be delivered in the next week or two. I am so excited about having these valuable tools to help with the work of the ministry. It will take the hassle out of all the hauling jobs, and the jetski will allow us to do our work in other villages, and all these conferences with so much less time and effort, and after we get our stretcher outfit made to strap on it, we will be using it as an ambulance on the river. This, without a doubt will save many lives in villages that up until now had no way to get medical attention quick.
We cannot express the depth of our gratitude to God and the ones who prayed with us, and the ones who gave to make this happen. I’m convinced that yall will receive many blessings in this life as well as the one to come because of what you did. In this life you will never know how many lives will be helped physically, as well as how many souls you will meet in heaven because of you sharing the resources that the Lord has given you, to do His work on this earth. Thank you with all of our heart, and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, be blessed!
Clint, the medical pilot is moving back to the States with his family in a few weeks, but he donated his plane to another young guy who plans to fly it. He will be based out of Puerto Cabezas where our radio won’t reach, so don’t know yet how we will be able to contact him. The places he can land are about forty five minutes (with the jetski) upriver, or in Waspam which will be about an hour and a half. A cell phone company has built towers along the river, and plans to turn the signal on in about a month. They say there will be signal all the way, but I don’t really expect it to come to KrinKrin, because we are right in the middle of two towers, at a distance that I’m not banking on being able to use a cell phone at our house, but we’ll see.
Our New Harmony Church made my wife and I feel pretty special by paying for a weeks vacation at a laid back resort on the west coast of Nicaragua, because we are celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary tomorrow. We are enjoying our time here, just resting, or recharging. Thank yall for the blessing!
We so appreciate Camille (from Oregon) who came a few weeks ago and joined our “on the ground” team here. In a week we will have another young lady Katrina, (from Indiana) coming to serve with us for a few month, or possibly longer, depending how the Holy Spirit leads her. Having a few more people on our team will help out tremendously.
I will share the account of how one of the conferences went that we went and ministered at recently.
Tulingbila Conference March 20-22, 2015
The date of the conference was set up by the pastor of a little church in Tulingbila a few month prior to the event, at which time he along with a few other pastors from surrounding villages asked me if we would be able come and be a part of it with preaching, worship, our music equipment and also help with some food.
I agreed and put it on our calendar. We stayed in contact and told him to bring a batu (a medium size boat) to take the food and the equipment the day before the conference. When he came he only brought a little duri, (a small canoe) which was not suitable to take our expensive equipment. So we gave him the food and told him to bring a batu the next morning if he wanted the music equipment, but he said he was just going to see if he can find equipment in one of the villages closer, which we all knew didn’t have sufficient equipment.
Chris, Marcos, and Karen were planning to go along to get everything set up and do the worship parts of the conference, but when the pastor didn’t take our equipment they didn’t go right away, and as we were discussing the matter, as to what could be done, the pastor from a downriver village Kokal, (a 2 ½ hour walk away) and his whole group came walking up. (we had gone and ministered at a conference in their village about a month before, and the Holy Spirit had really They asked how things were going with getting ready, so we told him what had happened.
He got a little upset and said, “We are not going to let the laziness of this pastor stop the work God wants to do in Tulingbila! We are going to do what it takes to make this work go on. We have several young men with us, and they can carry this stuff on their backs.” So I took over the rice shelling and Chris and Marcos got all the speakers and equipment ready and strapped it on the guys backs and their backs and took off for Tulingbila, a three and a half hour walk upriver. We sent the little generator with a guy from Tulingbila who had come and got a canoe load of rice shelled.
The first night of the conference could have been considered a disaster. The people that came acted like they were scared to come inside, seemed distracted and not engaged with what was being taught. The worship wasn’t much different, and as Karen was singing, her throat mysteriously got closed off so that she couldn’t sing any more.
As they laid down that night after it ended, Marcos, Karen, and Chris discussed the extreme spiritual darkness that overshadowed the whole church house and what went on there. They began to pray that God would show up and cast the evil spirits out of that place and rest His Holy Spirit there. That night God showed Karen in a vision some of the things that had been going on there in the church house. The pastor was also a witch doctor and used the church building to do his evil rituals to curse people, and scare people into submission to him, so the evil spirits lived there in the building.
So the next morning she shared it with the ones who had showed up for prayer meeting. For the next couple hours they prayed and pleaded with God to show up with His Holy Spirit, and in the name of Jesus they cast out the evil spirits that had made the building their home. They also warned the pastor harshly about his evil practices.
From there things completely turned around, with the worship and sermons all being directed by the Holy Spirit. Over the next few days as the Holy Spirit spoke through the speakers, many tears were shed as the Spirit dealt with each individual. On that day (Saturday) there were several who went forward and handed their life over to the Savior.
The following day, (Sunday) most of the other Christians from KrinKrin went with me to the conference, and we started the morning off with worship, and then our drama team did the skit of a young girl who happily walked with God in her innocence, but then a young guy comes along that she likes and ends up taking her innocence away, and from there she runs after all the different things of the world trying to get happy again, but nothing works and last she tries to take her own life.
Finally she remembers how happy she used to be when she was younger and used to talk to Jesus all the time, so she decides to try to get to Jesus. She tries over and over with all of her strength, but is blocked every time by the demons or sins she had committed. At last she falls to the ground completely exhausted, and cries out to Jesus to come and save her. At that moment Jesus steps forward and with one powerful swing of His arm knocks all the demons down, and picks her up and holds her tight for a moment. Then He goes about doing things with His arm still around her, and she gladly follows Him wherever He goes with a happy and joyful heart.
By the time the play was over, probably about eighty present of the people, young and old were crying or wiping tears. Sarah took the microphone and explained all the different things in the skit and also shared her own testimony, which touched many hearts as well.
From there I preached, with scriptures explaining why we are not able to work our way to Jesus, and how Jesus explained how anyone who sins is a slave to sin. I also shared a peace of my testimony about how for many years I was deceived by religion about how to get to heaven, and how satin had me as a slave to sin. How I struggled just like the girl, trying to get to Jesus, but always failing, and how hopeless it became, until one day just like the girl, I cried out to Jesus to save me, because I couldn’t get to Him. How He saved me at that minute and set me free from all those things I was enslaved to. And how He walks with me and I walk with Him now, doing the things that He wants me to do.
I finished out with explaining how anyone who is done with their life can do the same, and that Jesus desires to save everyone that way, and put His Spirit into their hearts and make them “Spirit” children. But warned against thinking they can just ask Jesus to save them, but not be willing to surrender their life to Him like so many people do, and become “name” Christians only, who have no power to overcome sin, and cannot enter heaven because they are not born again.
As one of the local pastors picked it up and talked about what they had seen and heard, and how God is inviting anyone who is willing to surrender to Him to come, a young woman came forward and bowed to the ground and cried out to God to take her life in His hand, and then a young man also came forward in tears and said that he wanted God to take over his life.
Right after the service most of the group went to the river where the two and a few others got baptized. As we were walking back up to the village for lunch I found out the story behind the two who had come forward and given their life to Christ that day. They had been together as a couple for a few years and had children together, but she had gone to the Baptist Church, and his family being Catholic, didn’t want him to leave their church so they told him he needs to leave her.
So he did as his parents and siblings said and left her. From there both of their lives had become a serious mess. And that day the Holy Spirit got ahold of them both. She knew that she had never given it all up to Christ, and that day she gave it all. He too decided to give it all up to Christ, even though that meant being shunned by his parents and siblings. I later took the two aside and shared with them how my family and I had experienced the same thing when we gave our life to Christ, but that it is well worth it. I was able to share with them many words of encouragement for the coming days and years, and how keeping their focus on Jesus will make the difference how well they can overcome their old habits, and how pleasant the journey will be. By Eli Lee
Thank y’all for continuing to pray for us and the people here. We appreciate all the resources y’all provide as well, because without them we would not be able to go about doing the things that we do. One of the areas I would like to ask you to specifically pray for at this time is for resources for the school. It takes a lot to keep that all going, but we know that God is in charge and that He has plenty, so it’s a matter of Him touching the hearts He wants to be involved in this area of the ministry.
I am so blessed to be able to be a part of the work that God is doing here, and pray that everyone of you who is involved will feel equally blessed. And I pray that someday some more of y’all will be able to come visit us here and see first hand what God is doing, and how His Spirit is at work through this ministry He has brought about. I love y’all, and am looking forward to seeing y’all through the month of May when we plan to share with y’all in the States. Eli Lee
God Is So Awesome!