5th
Catalyst Nicaragua Team Activity
Tuesday 01/05/2010 1:30pmCST
Sunday morning the team went to the Emmanuel barrio. There they attended church at the assistant pastor’s house. It was PACKED. After that the team did a bible club with the kids. Kara & Greer led the bible lesson on Mark chapter 5 with the barrio children.
After that the team took a break for lunch and on the way back to the barrio DJ was praying about talking to the kids again. He felt like God wanted them to walk the group through a Spanish Gospel tract. Upon returning to the village they did that and eight children asked to pray. What an exciting opportunity to have these eight children pray to accept Christ. We are very thankful for this and are excited to be able to connect them to the pastors that are nearby for follow-up. After the lesson with the children the team was able to give out some bread and juice to all the children.
Monday morning the team took a three hour drive on the Chose Children bus to get up to Leon. They unloaded their stuff at the base, had lunch, and went right out to the Miracle of God barrio. (A Catalyst team had worked there in January of 2008.) The team unpacked and began to do some sports and the kids just joined right in. After some soccer and baseball the team did their Bible message. This time Doug, Ashley, and Will lead the lesson. After the presentation eight children raised their hands and said they wanted to talk with someone and pray to accept Jesus.
Another exciting day and we’re so thankful for the health and safety of the team. God is at work in the hearts of the people here. We are so pleased to be a small part of what He is doing in the lives of people. The pastors and believers scattered throughout all these villages are the ones that share Christ’s love with their neighbors day in and day out. Our part is coming to encourage them and share Jesus while were among them. After a long day the team had the opportunity to go into the city of Leon and have some ice-cream. It was a nice treat!
Tuesday morning the team loaded up and went to the Telica barrio. This time the split into four groups with the Chosen Children personnel and did some door to door visits. They met people and told them about the sports opportunity and that they would be talking about God and teaching any kids that came some Bible stories.
Once the kids showed up they did some activities and Jenny, Paij, and Natalie led the Bible lesson. This time thirteen children wanted to pray about receiving Jesus. Another exciting thing that happened here was that Paij was able to use her Spanish to talk with several of the parents. This is exciting because most of the time there isn’t significant opportunity to talk with the adults when working with the children.
This afternoon the team was planning to head out towards the west coast of Nicaragua. They plan to work in the Salinas Grande barrio. There is a great group of believers there and a wonderful little church. They anticipate about 100 kids at this location, which has been a great spot for ministry for previous Catalyst teams.
Wednesday the team plans to head South, back to Managua. From there they want to visit the Chosen Children orphanage in Juigalpa. Some of the team members sponsor children at the orphanage and have been there before.
The plan for Thursday is to visit an especially needy location ironically called Paradise. Here the poverty and physical need is particularly palpable. Pray for the team as they enter this situation Pray that Jesus love will flow through them to the people that they encounter. Pray that God will impact them with the global need for people to know Him. Pray that they will understand how blessed we are in America.
