Wednesday

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Monday, we went into the poorest of poor. We saw images of poverty that most people do not experience in their lifetime, not even from the outside looking in. The place we went sat right next to a septic field, which meant any water yielded was highly contaminated and by our standards, unsafe for drinking.
One of the translators made one comment that put this into perspective: For their lifestyle, unclean water is still better than none.The homes were made out of scraps of metal, cardboard.

People collected plastic from the garbage dump that they could sell. Yet amidst all of this, a young girl sat in front of her home having a tea party with her tattered doll.

Scott, Mark and I went together with Nester (our translator) into the homes and prayed for the people there. The first woman had two daughters and her husband. She asked us to pray for her family, protection for her home, and health. She had a soft heart. She told us that she had recently become a believer and was attending church with Pastor Felix. (The pastor who took us to this portion of Leon.) We gave her a new Bible as she told us hers was very old. Lynn, another one of my teammates, said that on his way back to get more food packs from the truck, he saw this woman sitting with some friends reading this Bible.My heart was broken while there.

We met this young man named Martin. My guess was that he was about 20 years old. He said that he was a delinquent and had been arrested for stealing and spent some time in jail. When he came home he had promised his mom he would not get into any more trouble and that he wanted to change. He said that some missionaries at the jail had introduced him to Jesus and he wanted to believe in him but didn't want to play games with God. He felt that he had to get his life on track before committing himself. He didn't want to disappoint God. He said that he was tempted by where he lived. He said that about 2 weeks ago he had been hit in the face by one of the guys he used to hang out with for not going back to what he used to do. He said that he wouldn't fight back and they mocked him for being afraid. Scott asked him if he wanted to accept Christ. once again he told us he could not play games with God. He said if he were to die tonight he would go to hell because he is a sinner. Just then, a young man entered the room and Martin told us he could not accept Christ right now. The conversation ended so sudden. We gave him food packs and Scott told him to remember today and the things that he had told us.

Yesterday morning, the men went to the baseball team and ministered to them. They said words of encouragement against temptation. The men came back blessed from this experience. One of them will be updating later to share more about this experience.

One of the greatest joys for our team has been ministering to the children here. As much as I normally have a hard time doing this, I have been blessed ammensely. While the men were with the baseball team, the women went to have a VBS for a local preschool. The preschool had about 48 children there, with a teacher who is an amazing woman. Her name is Romana. And despite not being able to understand her language, there's no question of knowing her heart. She has a beautiful smile. Her students were honestly the most well-behaved preschoolers I have ever experienced. (Nicaraguan or American!) They followed instructions well, listened and were quiet during their activities. The men joined up for us and we did a puppet show for kids, and in response: they sang us two songs! We spent time face painting and playing with beachballs and soccer balls.

In the afternoon the women went to Iglesia de Dios and had a women's bible study with the women there. Dot spoke to them about trusting God, using the story of Gideon. Dot's message encouraged others to share their testimonies of times that we needed to trust in God. Some women there got up and told their stories. Our teammates shared some amazing stories that related with some of the women in the room.One woman told of her alcoholic husband who was verbally abusive and how she trusted that God would restore her relationship and household. She said that it was after trusting God that she started coming to church and even her husband was attending with her.Another woman told that she had a beautiful home and enough money to send her children to the best schools. But after the earthquakes, she lost everything. She came to Leon with only 100 Cordobas (equivalent to about 5 US Dollars) in her pockets. She said that through trusting God and attending church faithfully, she is able to support herself and her family.

The people here, despite great obstacles and terrible circumstances trust God faithfully and have a strength unlike any other.

While the women were at the bible study the men were doing construction. When they returned from their building project, they were covered in cement. From experience, I'd say that makes for a pretty successful work project ;)

The rest of the evening we spent as a team. We packaged more food for the homes in the area, and packaged hygiene products as well.

Thank you so much for your prayers while you are here. We have been greatly blessed by the experiences here.

Written By Lauren.

I could not have expressed anything Lauren wrote any differently. Please keep us in your prayers as today is a big day for us.

Tammie