Hey
faithful blog readers and supporters, this is Joe Carter from Vermont
and the FYM Nicaragua team. I am writing on behalf of a vision I
received from Jesus before coming to Nicaragua. The vision took form as
I scrambled to tell my church how God would use me in Nicaragua, "with
a 5k or something," I responded. Having been a runner for seven years,
I took this idea very lightly-if I am following God, why would he use
my passion that has nothing to do with His kingdom? I forgot the vision
until the second semester, after learning that God created every desire
and everything about me in a purposeful way.
It began to burn on my heart to organize a 5k
race for organizations that needed money and I talked to my leaders
about it. This was all I really had to do-besides the most important
thing, pray. Next, my new leader Seth and teammate Sarah were inspired
to help and our local translator Mario was used by God for his
knowledge of local businesses. Later, I learned that Young Life, which
draws 100+ teenagers from the temptations of the street life into the
church, was hurting financially. With Young Life, the youth in the
community are able to play games, worship Jesus, act out Bible stories
and attend Christian sport camps. As a result of the program I have
seen many young people, through tears, commit their lives to Jesus.
Through prayer the Lord led me to have the race benefit this program in
Granada.
What an experience it has been following God
through this vision. Everything has fallen into place, including the
Great Deceiver. Money is our greatest distraction and we have fought
fear of not raising enough. One issue was on the racing fee. First, we
decided to charge each runner 40 cords (2$) and then it was more and
later less. One night I approached God frustrated because I couldn't
believe how cheap we were making the race.
Then, God rocked me. He clearly told me to stop
thinking about the money and to lay it on him. Thus, I concluded to
drop the racing fee and trust God that the money will come. Last night,
God put it on my heart to write you this note. I ask that you take this
event with discernment, read below about Young Life and contribute in
whatever way God leads. If you would like to give financially, please
follow the directions below.Also, here are 3 ways you can pray for Young Life:
That God will provide financially.
More hearts will be drawn to Jesus.
Leaders will rise up from the youth who spread their faith boldly.
Thank you very much for reading. I invite you to be a part of the change happening in Granada.
From a brother in Christ,
Jose _________________________________________________________________________________________________
The words of Sarah Kaye.... Granada welcomed Vida Joven, or Nicaragua's Young Life, in September of last year. The program
has been wildly successful, demonstrating that young people here are
hungry for wholesome alternatives to drugs, alcohol and life on the
streets. El Puente is bursting with kids each Thursday night, and
we've expanded the program with additional offerings throughout the
week.
However,
financing the program is not easy. Joe, a member of our Awakening
team, suggested we put on a 5K Fun Run in Granada to spread the word
and raise support. The city has given its blessing, and we are
scheduled to go on April 25th. As the first event of this sort for all
of us, we are looking for ways to make this a success for the kids.
AIM has opened a dedicated account in which sponsorship funds may be
collected. If you would like to sponsor young people in this race,
we'd like to make this account available to you as well. If you'd like
to help, we suggest the following sponsorship levels:
Single Sponsorship: $5
Triple Sponsorship: $15
Quintuplets: $25
Ten Youngsters: $50
Of
course, you could give more or less, as your budget allows. All funds
collected will go directly to the Granada Vida Joven Club. If you have
any questions, please feel free to contact me. Thanks for your
consideration, and for helping these kids step out in faith. Also note that there is a donor who is willing to triple anything that is given.
El Puente, Granada, Nicaragua
Checks may be mailed to:
Adventures in Missions
6000 Wellspring Trail
Gainesville, GA 30506
Attention: Nicaragua Kids Camp Fun Run (very important)
Oscar Gutiérrez has grown up
in a world of soccer, parties, and girls. His life has been changed through the
ministry of Vida Joven (VJ - In English, Young Life). Now soccer is a tool for
him to invite kids to VJ, he is preparing to be a leader, and he is continuing
his education in the university that he withdrew from three years ago. This is
his story...
Before VJ, before I knew anything about it, my life was completely
dedicated to partying. I toyed with the emotions of girls and smoked a lot.
When I started partying, I wasn't necessarily smoking and into many vices, but
the more I got into it, my life was certainly spiraling downward. I got into
marijuana a few times. This whole scene lasted about eight months, and looking
back, I felt like my life didn't have any meaning.
In September of 2008, I met a girl. When I met her, she didn't tell me
anything about VJ. She was hanging out with a couple of other girls who wanted
us to go to VJ's club, so I went with them. In the club, we watched a video
about a guy named Nick, who should have been incapacitated, but functioned very
well considering his circumstances. I saw in this video that nothing was
impossible.
Shortly thereafter I had the opportunity to go to my first VJ sports
camp. At the camp they took us to a labyrinth and taught us about listening to
God's voice. I tried it out, but it was very difficult for me to hear him. The
camp was good because, while they were somewhat restrictive, but they weren't
legalistic. They made me not want to do the things I had been doing.
Following this I was invited on another VJ camp. When we were there, we
had a time of worshiping God. Something moved me to tears during the singing. I
was closing my eyes, and when I opened them, I looked down at the floor and I
saw the face of Jesus. I sobbed uncontrollably as I felt the Lord calling me. I
felt him intimately; I knew then that he cared for me. This motivated me to
give my testimony about my life and what I was still doing to the others that
were with me. They were people from my city that knew me or knew of me before.
Before I started talking, I didn't feel like I'd have the words to speak
because I was embarrassed, but my heart compelled me. I wanted to express that
yes, I can change and others can too.
My next camp was a follow-up camp. There we went on a walk of faith.
They blind-folded us and had us walk around. It reminded me of Catholic
tradition we do here in Granada
in which they blind-fold a statue of Jesus and parade around the street
carrying him on their shoulders. They do this a lot the day before his death.
It's called a procession of silence. The idea is that Jesus is walking through
the crowd - the world, but he's blind to it, he's not of it. During this walk
we were put thru a barrage of tests.
In one of them, they had me grab onto a rope and to imagine two worlds
- this world and the one Jesus calls us to. The devil started speaking to me
then, reminding me things of my past. I remember a moment when that was all I
could focus on. I felt pretty confused and I cried because I didn't know what
to do. I felt very alone. But I kept walking and tried to focus on God's voice
alone. Then he spoke to me. He told me he's the way and the truth and the life.
After this, the things that the enemy was saying to me didn't matter at all. As
I continued walking, I felt closer and closer to God. Later, we were given the
opportunity to go to the labyrinth again and invited into intimacy with the
Lord; to hear his voice personally. This moved me a lot. I felt great meaning and
purpose in this relationship I was introduced to. It was one of the most
impacting experiences of my life.
By the fourth camp I was playing soccer and stepping into leadership. I
felt incredibly incapable and ill prepared, but every time we had a meeting or
I was pushed into something, God gave me the words to say to the kids there.
These kids were into drugs and after a number of activities, we encouraged them
to cry and let their emotions out. I said then, "Lord, I want you to change
these kids' lives. I know that they need you and I know that you're the only
one who can touch their hearts. You're the only one who can change them."
When we got back, I followed up with these kids. I saw that they truly
desired God and this brought me great joy. True joy. It brought meaning into my
life.
VJ is very close to my heart. It introduced me to Jesus and taught me
how to move forward in my life. I know that because it has done this for me, it
will continue to do so with others as well, and I want to be a part of it. I
love that sports can still be a part of my life and I can actually use it to
reach out to other kids. Now, I am focused on other kids and it's given me
direction and meaning. I'm moving forward. I am available and want to be
available for the kids at VJ. We have a vision to change their lives and
facilitate an encounter with the Lord. I am really excited about VJ. I love it!
I want to continue moving forward to be a great leader for them. I believe in
this vision; it changed my life and it will continue to change lives.
Hey all! I feel like I really haven't been sharing enough on my biggest ministry I have down here. And well that ministry is Young Life.
In this photo we have Caleb, Me and Heather. In March a couple of the guys on our team and a couple girls on our team went up to Jinotega to Young life camp. As you can tell it was a little bit cooler up there. Jinotega is about a three hour drive from Granada, an it is a three hour drive up into the Mountains.
Here we are at Young Life camp just outside the kitchen with all the other people on work crew. The camp that was going on during that weekend was a soccer camp so while the boys played soccer, we learned how to mass produce Nicaraguan food! It was a blast!
Here we are heading out to Alvardo's Farm. We were going there because Alvardo is in the board for Young Life. And so one Saturday a bunch of us headed out to Alvardo's farm for the day. Here you can see the boys riding Nica style to the farm. This picture was tooken right outside the El Puente compound.
Here we have Yelba at Alvardo's Farm kissing a fish. At Alvardo's Farm they cultivate fish. We caught a bunch of these fish, and then the cooks made us all a bunch of soup. And this isn't any ordinary fish soup! The put the entire fish in the bowl!
Here we have pictured left to right Heather, Pepe, Alvardo and me. This was also on Alvardo's farm.
Every Thursday night we have Club. Although we have Young Life events almost everday of the week, Thursday night is the biggest night. Club is held every Thursday night from 7-9 at El Puente. This was the last club we had last Thursday, we had about 120 people there. Although Young Life was brought to Nicaragua almost 10 years ago it was just brought to Granada this October. So we have been growing amazingly fast, and it is all by the grace of God.
Every Club we have a theme. Last Thursdays theme was students. Pictured from left to right is Me, Rafa,Yener,Jennifer,Francisco, and Oneyda. Yener and Oneyda are the area directors for Young Life in Granada.
A Club for Young Life usually consists of a few games, a few songs, a few skits, and a talk. I will tell you about my game at the last Young Life. Turns out if you freeze mayonnaise it looks exactly like ice cream. So we had an "ice cream" eating contest. The looks on all there faces when they figured out what it really was, was hilarious! Then it became even more funny when they all decided that they still wanted to win so they ate all of it! Another one of my games was.... I had two girls whom I made sure had there feet freshly washed. Then I put both girls on a stool. Then I brought out two pans filled with already pealed orange juice. I then told them that they were to stand up and start smashing the oranges with there feet...in order to make orange juice of course. Then I had two boys help them pour the juice in a cup and add sugar. Then each team had a captain. Those captains I had pre-choosen to be Heather and JD two other Young Life Leaders. But in order to win the teams had to fill the cup all the way and then have there captains drink it. It was hilarious!! And the kids loved it!
Young Life in this neighborhood of Granada has truly changed the neighborhood. We have recieved so many coments of how this neighborhood is not the same as it used to be. We ex-drug dealers coming to Young Life and stepping up into leadership positions. And just really finding in the Lord in amazing ways. But there is always more we can do, so please pray for this ministry and the city of Granada, because it is deeply needed.
Here is one of the ministries that is going on here, and if you feel moved to help us out at all please do so. But even if you do not feel moved to finacialy support this ministry please take a little time to watch the video and please take some time to pray for it.
As I sit here on this computer and I am going through websites like foxnews.com and cnn.com. It is really hard to not get sad at looking at how bad some people have it. With everything going on with our country like our current war and how bad the economy is getting. It is really hard to not worry about am I going to be able to get a job or for some people am I going to be able to keep my job. Or am I going to be able to keep the lifestyle I live. Or whatever we all have our own worries. When I am looking at all these stories of how people got there houses forclosed on, and now they are living in a tent and it looks like they are going to be homeless soon. Can you imagine living through this without God? Now I think we can all agree that we wished this recession would not of happened, and that it is going to be tough.
One of the churchs we attend regulary here is called Torre Fuerte which means Strong Tower. It is a ministry I am not really involved in but their story is still touching. Every Saturday around 3 in the afternoon, over a hundred children come to the El Puente compound. They come because they have to to recieve a feeding program ticket. Because without the ticket they can not recieve food. Now this feeding program that used to happen three times in a week now only happens two times in a week. It only happen two times in a week now because funding from their sister church in the United States has slowed down. For some of these kids these are the only meals they recieve in a week.
But for most they do recieve other meals but it for sure will not be three meals a day. In our ESL class we have this student whose name is Josè. One day he came into class really sweaty and hot, and I asked him why and he told me that he had to go to Masaya which is like 14 miles away to see his friend he wanted to have money to come to ESL class and he would not have had money if he would have taken the bus. Keep in mind our ESL class cost 5 corodobas a class which is about 25 cents.
In the El Puente compound the back cement wall of the facility is pretty much in the Barrio. Well we have this group of woman whom over time we come to get to know them pretty well. Now I want to describe these houses to you. All of them have dirt floors. Which actually brings me to an interesting little face, and that is even though a good amount of floors are made of dirt here, people continue to clean. Women will be in there house sweeping there dirt floors to get the dirt floors. But interestling enough it actually does help. Because they also throuh some water down on the dirt to keep the dust down. But anyways the floors are made of dirt the walls made out of wood, and the ceilings are made of tin. When I say that the walls are made out of wood I mean that it litterally looks like they cut a tree down and cut the wood into slices then nailed them up. There are now pretty 4x2. Now you can imagine that in 90* weather it gets pretty hot in these houses. Yet they never complain. One of the women name Marta has four children, and her husband lives in Miami working for them and sending back money to them. That is when he can afford to send money back, for the economy is affecting him to.
I felt that the Lord has been pressing these issues on my heart, and that He wants all of you to know that you can be just as happy in the worst of times as you were in the happiest of times. Because when you look at it from all of these peoples perspectives they are all happy yet they nothing in compartive to what most Americans have. The Lord loves to test our faith in the worst of times. So lets use this time to grow together in the name of the Lord.
Hello all! I want to start off with telling you all how thankful I am for everything you all have done for me. But with that said I would like to start off with telling you all about what I am doing here. I have a few ministrys I am involved with. They are jewlery making, womens bible study, ESL classes, Young Life, and lastly cordinating a 5k race. The first the jewlery making class. For this ministry we are working with a non-profit organization called Opportunity International. For this ministry we have four classes a week, two natural classes which will work with making jewlery with seeds and anything found in nature. And also a recyclable class which will deal with things such as bottlecaps and old chip bags. We will be making earings and purses. I will be working with the recylable class. Also we have started a womens bible study for women who live in the neighborhood. Also for those who are not familar with Young Life, it is pretty much a super fun bible study. I will keep you all updated on all of these ministries.
When I take a moment to look at all the things I am doing here in Granada. I can truly say I am making a difference. I can truly say that we are replacing the evil in this town with good. But as we are here doing these things to better the kingdom of God, the Devil gets angry. And I want to talk to you all about a topic that may or may not be new to you. That topic is spritual warfare. What is spritual warfare? Spritual warfare is the many ways the Devil attacks us daily. The Devil may attacks everybody. But he attacks different people in different ways. The Devil used to attack me in ways that would pull me away from God. He would put ideas into my head. For example it's 8 o'clock and I hadn't done my daily devotion for the day. I had the choice of either doing my devotion or watching that primetime TV show. Overtime the Devil would put thoughts in my head such as you are so busy you don't have time to do your devotion, you know that God loves you. He won't mind if you just skip that devotion time today. And these thoughts of being to busy would turn into, oh well the bible is just boring anyways. In my mind I would think God still loves me. But the truth is the Devil was just whispering these lies into my head. The first step away from God didn't seem that bad. And the next step didn't seem that bad. And the next step didn't seem that bad. And eventually I would start to question my relationship with God. I would think is he even real? Does he even care? Now I see that these are all lies! And these are all ideas that Satan puts into my head. This is what is called spritual warfare. It's not a traditional war. It's more important. We have to be ready for it. I encourage you all to read Ephesians 6 In ephesians four it talks about the Armour of God. It tells us we must wear the breastplate of righteouness, feet fitted with readiness, the shield of faith, the helmet of truth, and lastly the sword of truth. We must be ready when the Devil attacks us. We must be able to rebuke him in the name of Jesus Christ. We must have scripture memorized and ready to recite it. Because the Devil knows his scripture, and he will use it against us. But anyways when the Devil starts to realize that the way he was attacking isn't working anymore. He will change his tactics. And for me this week the Devil changed his tactics. His old ways were no longer affecting me. I was growing more than ever with my relationship with Christ. So the Devil took it to a new level, and attacked me in a physical way. I had just finished my bedtime prayers, and was about to close my eyes. Then I felt a hand press down on my forehead. Immediatly I knew what I was up against. Then I felt a large bug crawling up my neck, when I reached to sweep it away it wasn't their. And right when I sweeped it away, the curtain rod and curtains fell off the window. I'll be honest in telling you all I have never been more scared in my life. I immediatly rebuked the Devil in the name of Jesus Christ and told him he was not welcomed here. But he knew he had stricken fear in my heart. The next day I was little bit off. But that night I knew I would have to face him again. But this time I wasn't going to face him alone. I opened up the word of God, and asked him to help me overcome this fear. The Lord led me to this passages Pslams 23,56,91, John 14, Luke 12.4-12 and Luke 10.19. In all these passages they talked about only fearing the Lord, and to trust in me. They told me, why fear someone who does not determine where you are going. And in John 14.26 it says to remind the Holy Spirit of what you need. When you ask with a pure heart. You will recieve what you ask for. I asked for strenght, love, grace. But above all I asked the Lord to strike the fear from my heart. Because I know that the Devil does not like the lifes I am changing here. But newsflash for him I don't care what he thinks. And I am going to do everything in my power throught God to make him angry. Because he is not worthy of anything. Our Lord is loving and forgiving. If you are dealing with anything like any of the things I mentioned, you should take it to the Lord in prayer. And do not be afraid of anything I have said, because if you are then you are letting the Devil make a foothold in your life. But I do encourage you if you need help with any of these issues to contact a pastor, and if you have any questions please feel free to contact me. Just go to the left side of this blog and click on the Contact Me link. Our Lord is loving, mercyfull, and forgiving.....Don't ever forget that.
I used to not beleive in speaking in tongues, or phropechy. I used
to not believe in anything that seemed to be "supernatural." But the more I have thought about it, and the more I have grown in my faith. The more I wonder. If in my mind I say that those things are not possible or that those things do not exist. What am I really saying. I am saying that my God is not in control of all things. I am saying that He is not all powerfull. I am saything that He can not do everthing. And then what faith do I have? What I am doing by saying that God is not able to make these things happen? Well I shall tell you, I am putting limits on God? And then what kind of believer am I? One that only believes God is possible of some things, but not all. I am a person lacking to beleive that God is all powerfull. I am a person with little faith.
Romans 13:1-2 KJV "Let every soul be subject unot the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever resisteth the power, resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God..."
So this week was are second week back in Granada, and these are pretty slow going yet still fun. Mostly this week we have been doing yardwork, such as raking, picking up trash and rocks in the back of El Puente. Which is now where we live. We are all still trying to figure out ministry opportunities to do, and this week our leaders introduced us to some options. I would like to ask for your prayers for me and my team as we all try to figure out what we want to do for these next four months. Thanks so much!
We have arived safely back from the island of Ometepe. And tomorow we will be returning home in the United States. Please pray for safe travels for all my teamates and me, and especially that nasty weather. God Bless!
So today was the end of our last full week of being in Granada. How crazy is that. So what have I learned this week? Well I always know that God created the heavens and the Earth in 7 days. But have I ever really apreciated that. I hear people saying you have to apreciate it. These people would go on saying how amazing it was and how they just couldn't imagine it. My thoughts on this are... yeah ok cool, I don't really like nature that much. I would have something like that up until this week. This week I went on a ATL. I felt this conviction of not apreciating nature so strongly. So my group and me walked down to this area by the lake. It's an area that is pretty much untouched by humans, except for of course the massive amount of trash on the beach, which for here is normal. So here we are sitting on this concrete kind of railing, and this huge hot pink dragonfly flew by. It was so beautiful. It was such a pretty pink and was slightly iradecent. At this place you also have a view of volcano Momabacho which is not blocked at all by any building or anything that humans have to do with. So on two sides of me are this lake, one side the volcano, and the otherside is my favorite. The rains toward the end of the rainy season were really bad. Therefore alot of the beaches flooded. So there was this water with thousands of tadpoles and fishes swimming around in it. It was so cool. So on an impluse I jump into the not so clean water. If you would stand in one place long enough, the fish would swim up to your feet and start nibbling on them. It was so cool. And the whole time all of this was happening, I just kept thinking how amazing all of this was. God broke me down that day. He made me apreciate, all that he done.
Also this week we had our final trash pick up, and childrens ministry. Which was a little bit sad. This week we also had to go to Managua to get our visa's renewned. Everything this week was kind of coming to a hault. We are all trying to pack, and clean and getting ready to leave. Because on Tuesday we leave for the island of Ometepe. We will be there for a little over a week. Then we will be returning for a day then coming home. When I say home, I mean home in Iowa! We are going to this island to work at an orphange for a week. I would like to ask you to all pray for my team and me. My prayer request would be for hearts to remain calm and keep our hearts and minds focused on doing God's will for these last two weeks we are here for. Thanks you all so much!
-Sarah