Our friends from church,

Mike and Janene Harper and their family (Brittany, Bethany, and Nataley)

are in Nicaragua working with

YWAM (Youth With A Mission)

http://www.ywam.org/

for about 10 days.

Many in our church family have helped sponsor and support them

on their last couple of trips.

Our Pastor shared last Sunday

about being the “Salt & Light” of the World…

Now they’re sharing the Light of Christ in Nicaragua.

He asked for prayer for them and the team that is there,

along with the country they’re serving…

Prayer for their safety,

for the people there who do not know Jesus,

and that lives will be forever changed!

Here’s the latest update from the Harper’s

and it’s truly amazing to read.

“Boy, are we beat!

We spent yesterday in the town of Masatepe learning the town.

We began prayer-walks all over the city that we’ll distribute Bibles in.

They’re hard covered whole Bibles,

and the people are so excited we’re coming.

The churches were asked to respond, if they wanted to help.

Over 35 churches and 180 people responded! 

Amazing!

Today our 4 teams of 12 will start distribution.

My team will be at the construction site

and at the YWAM base, building a home,

 and working on updating the base.

This town is Dirambe. 

It’s a very poor area,

where the base started its vision in 1996

of getting a Bible into the hands of every Nicaraguan family by 2020.

This first city reached, has seen dramatic changes in crime and violence.

They have become a city with Hope!

 They love Jesus!

And now reach other cities!

I can’t wait to visit this city again.

Kelly, the director, should be there today.

 He has been a missionary in Nicaragua

through YWAM for a long time.

We’ve worked with him before,

so it’s nice to know a face there.

The YWAM school we are considering is his school.

It’s a bilingual school.

 My husband, Mike, preached last night

for about half an hour

on the importance of relationship with Christ,

and allowing that overflow to pour out to others.

The Nicas “Amend-ed” and agreed! 

He had a translator, who is our team leader.

She’s from Spain.

Her name is Gail.

They worked great together.

The church was an Assembly of God.

It was a whopping 1 1/2 hour worship time.

Wow! 

We sang,

‘Open The Eyes Of My Heart, Lord’

in English and Spanish

Wow! 

How it pleases God’s heart to hear our worship!!

 We’re all still well, so far.

We’ve eaten many foods and styles of foods.

It was hard on the tummy at first,

but it’s getting better.

We’ve had an amazing several days.

God’s given the girls great boldness in witnessing.

We’ve been distributing Bibles with churches.

My team has 2 precious Nica ladies.

They helped me lead a family

to Jesus, who

they had never even heard of.

I got to tell them the whole story.

They cried,

and were excited to give their lives to Christ.

When we left,

we saw them reading the Bible already.

Amazing!

Their names were taken down by the local church,

who saw many families already added to their numbers.

The church had new people show up for the Wednesday service to hear more.

The Pastor could not stop thanking us,

and the people in America who sent us.

It put feet to the ministry God started for him.

Some locals and our team ministered at the dump with about 100 children.

I met Eduardo (an 8-year-old boy) there,

and again God allowed my heart to break.

Oh, my heart!

We fed them and played with them.

It was such a day!

I so could have packed him up and kept him.

I could have kept all of them!

Today was distribution and school ministry.

The Principal allowed us to minister to 250-300 kids.

This was a public school!

It was unheard of before.

We went from class to class with the Gospel.

Only God allowed such favor!

We talked to the children about how the world labels us,

and how Jesus cuts those labels off,

and calls us His children!

Each of us spoke.

Brittany gave the Gospel to high schoolers.

What boldness!

Please keep praying.

When I felt very low and overtired,

I prayed,

and God revealed to me

that there are so many lifting us to the Father

right at that moment!

I so needed that.

Thank you for agreeing to do that for us.

We love you

and thank you all for believing in this mission.

Live from Nicaragua (Tuesday PM)

“Today was a very long day for us,

but we saw God do great things.

We had the privilege of teaming up with several local churches

to hand out Bibles door to door.

We told many people the Gospel,

encouraged them to read their shiny, new Bibles,

and laid hands on the sick.

Many gave their lives to God!

In spite of our poor attempts at the Spanish language,

God still used us to do great things!

Later in the day, 

we went to one of the city dumps,

where many families live by digging through the garbage for their food and belongings.

One person said it well, 

‘It was hard for us to take, but it was well received by them.’ 

We fed them,

demonstrated God’s love for them,

and made them feel important.

Here, many consider them ‘garbage.’ 

Yesterday, we helped build a house for a needy family,

did some much needed painting at the YWAM base here in Nicaragua,

and did street ministry.

We are definitely not sitting around wasting time

and, as you can see, neither is God!! 

He is answering your prayers,

working in our hearts

and moving in Nicaragua! 

He is a great God to say the least!!

Love, Janene and familia”

Please pray for our friends…

For the children and people of Nicaragua…

That Jesus would become real to them!!

Isaiah 52:7

“How beautiful on the mountains  

are the feet of those who bring good news,

who proclaim peace,   

who bring good tidings,   

who proclaim salvation,

who say to Zion,   

‘Your God reigns!'”

Amen!