Dear beloved in the Lord,
Here is an update from the work in Nicaragua. First of all I want to thank each of yall for being on our team. Especially those of yall who have been with us from the start, through many disappointments as well as the encouraging parts. It has been a journey.
About a month ago we were blessed with Daniel Yoder from Ohio coming and helping with some remodel and repair projects around the mission. We were able to get a ceiling in our house to make it cooler, and made good progress with preparing a separate room for the kitchen.
We also were able to excavate and pour about a 100 yards of sidewalks along the front of the village. It is such a blessing to finally have leaders in our village that have a heart for the people and a vision of making improvements for the village.
By God’s grace new leaders were voted in a few month ago, and many things are already improving. Some of the new leaders are from our church, those who have made a commitment to follow Christ. Thank yall for your faithful prayers and support over the years of difficulty and very little to show for. Those dark spiritual powers had to be broken, and God did it! The stories from the past ten years remind me a lot of the stories in the Bible about the children of Israel, Egypt, and king Pharaoh. It created many uncomfortable circumstances that put us on the spot with impossible odds against us, But God was always faithful in keeping the promises of His Word, and always protected us. It definitely grew our faith in God, and He showed off His power and faithfulness to the people to show them that He was indeed stronger than the powers they feared over all else, and that He does protect His people from the evil one.
We are also hoping to be able to bless the people of our village with a dock at the river with cement steps to the top of the 25 to 30 feet muddy river bank very soon. This is something we have wanted to do ever since we were here, but were never able to pull it off because of the corrupt leadership in the village. (because they demanded we give all the money to them, then they would squander it) But after all these years of fighting against everything we tried to do to help the village, they have finally lost all respect with most of the village people. So much so that the village people refuse to have them for their leaders anymore, and the older generation would refuse to let the younger ones lead who desire to build the place up instead of destroying it. So it was about six month that the village didn’t have leaders.
These same people are the witch doctors (and or tied in with them) that have kept the people under their control spiritually and physically for a long long time. But praise God those dark powers have lost dominance, and they can no longer keep the people enslaved, because the people have been emboldened to defy those powers by siding with the Word of God. More and more are coming forward desiring to follow Christ, and as they make that commitment the Spirit of Light enlightens their minds so they can understand what the will of God is, and how to receive Salvation for their souls.
I know many have a hard time understanding why someone would oppose things that help their people. It is hard to understand, but in the last ten years I have learned a lot about what it looks like when people give themselves over to Satan completely to be used by him. It is the most sad and ugly thing I’ve ever seen or experienced in my life. Before that I never knew what total deprivation in humans looks like. But we praise God that He has been working on the younger generation that have heard us teach the Word and show them what a life surrendered to Christ looks like for the past ten years. They have not only heard the truth, but have seem miracle after miracle of how God saved us time and again from the evil plans of the enemy to kill us, expel us from the country, or at least lock us up in prison to get us out of their hair.
There is a young Amish family from Lancaster PA who have become born again and now have a strong desire to serve our Lord, so they are planning on coming in a few months to help us with the work of building the steps and the dock. We are excited about having them with us for about a month. To finish buying the materials for the project we are still needing right at $5,500. We are excited about finally being able to do this for our village as a thank you for allowing us to come live in their village.
Thank yall again for being on our team! We truly appreciate all of yall. Please pray for our new leaders, because they have to face ridicule, slander, and dark spiritual powers every day. Their faith in God’s power and faithfulness is being put to the test as we speak. It is a bit scary and unnerving to them. Pray that God would give them courage, strength and wisdom to lead in a way that’s pleasing to Him. Also, if you feel led to give towards the materials for the steps and dock project, you can do so on the contribute page of this website.
