Leon, Nicaragua
April 13, 2010
Our team is heading to Nicaragua in 6 days from today! 34 people will be traveling to the city of Leon for one week. This is a festival that each of us have been praying over and anticipating for many months now, and we are so glad it's finally time to go.
Latin team member, Bayron Lechuga, said it well: "God is doing great things in the city of Leon! We are ready to make this dream a reality!"
Follow us to Nicaragua by checking our blog daily for live updates and stories!
April 1, 2010
In just over two weeks, our team will be in Leon, Nicaragua, for an outreach festival that is sure to be remembered among the city! Details are coming together well for this outreach, but we continually appreciate your prayer for all the details that have yet to be decided.
Join us today in lifting up Leon!
Nearly 300 churches in and around Leon are partnering with us to make the Festival happen. Our publicity campaign is coming together nicely and has created quite a stir in the city.
- We are doing a ½ hour weekly radio program (on Christian and non- Christian stations). There will be 94 total.
- The work has not been easy but we are very encouraged by the way things have been going. A national newspaper has been advertising the festival.
- We have maximized capacity for our Pastors Conference. This is a great sign to have so many pastors signed up at such an early date.
- We have trained 1,607 counselors and we will be training more every weekend until the time of the festival!
- We think this is the time for God to move powerfully, and the church is ready for a harvest.
A Successful Group Effort!
A huge thank you to everyone who made this shipment of Family-to-Family tubs to Nicaragua happen! Nearly 600 tubs, 
carrying 15,400 pounds of food & supplies are on their way to Nicaragua. Books that we will use as part of the follow-up material during the festival were also sent.
Over 300 tubs were packed and prayed over by some faithful friends and churches in California. Our dear friend, Susan Thomas, took hours upon hours of her personal time to buy and pack over 200 tubs! More tubs came from various friends in Oregon as well. A grand total of 592 family-to-family tubs departed from California on Monday, March 1st, thanks to Don Burck who graciously drove a truck of tubs from Portland, Oregon, all the way down to California, so our shipment could leave on time.
Those tubs will not only bless 592 families in Leon, but every family will hear the Gospel and be given an opportunity to begin a personal relationship with Christ when handed the tub. Thank you ALL for your help with this project!
Updates - February 4, 2010
• The work on the festival is taking form each day. We have been working with the local pastors and they are very excited about the festival. On February 6th, we will have our first counselor training session and we will do training every Saturday until the week of the Festival.
• We now have the full support of the Mayor of Leon. His support is really helping open doors!
• We have organized a team of [youth] leaders to be in charge of the "youth project." We are equipping them so they can motivate a larger group of youth to help with the promotion of the festival.
• We distributed much needed food to the Mayor, the police, the minister of education, the minister of health, two orphanages, and two radio stations that are highly influential to Leon. All of these institutions are grateful and supportive of the festival.
• We have begun the first stage of publicity in the city!
• We have begun preparations for another large pastor's meeting that will take place February 22... this will be our 2nd of many more.
• We are making a plan to be able to invite the university students and each faculty member to the festival.
Pray for us as we continue to press forward in preparations for "Fiesta Pinolera" We are confidently expecting God to do unprecedented works in Leon, Nicaragua, and beyond!
God is moving in Leon, Nicaragua!
Our ministry team recently returned from Leon, Nicaragua. This trip was in preparation for our upcoming festival in April 2010. The results of this trip were amazing and we are seeing God move there in a special way.
As part of this trip, we reached out to people in need with a special food distribution project. The food was delivered from the states via cargo container earlier this year. Our team, along with volunteers, packaged the food and distributed it.
Altogether we gave away more than 43,500 pounds of food to people in need. Those who received the food also received a clear presentation of the Gospel.
The majority of those who came to receive the food were women and children. Our International Festival Coordinator, Jane Rubey, had the opportunity to speak to the women face-to-face. She effectively communicated God's unending love and desire for a personal relationship with them. She encouraged and uplifted the women - expressing that they have value and purpose in life - and God wants to use each of them for His glory!
Jane prayed with the women to receive Christ as Lord and Savior! One young girl, Elizabeth, stood in the back of a crowd waiting to receive food, too timid to go to the front to hear the message that fellow team member, Marshall Clary, was sharing. When Jane quietly approached her and shared about Christ's love for her and His plan for her life, she eagerly prayed and accepted Jesus as her Savior.
Elizabeth's story is just one of the many lives that was touched by our time in Leon. Praise the Lord for His faithfulness among those in Nicaragua. The festival hasn't even taken place yet, and already a harvest has begun!
In conjunction with the food distribution, Dr. Jim Williams led a conference for pastors and their spouses. He spoke on Koinonia, bitterness and the need to preach from the Bible (2 Timothy 4). The attention was amazing during all of the messages. It was clear that the Holy Spirit was doing a deep work in the lives of many who were in attendance. Immediately after the meeting, several pastors reconciled with each other and pledged to work together on our festival in April. One pastor began challenging his congregation to start greeting believers from other churches with a smile and a special greeting - "because we are all part of the same body!" Two pastors reconciled on the spot and decided to have a joint meeting on Sunday night in the street. Jim Williams preached that night and several people accepted Christ. A third pastor came just to show his solidarity.
Unity among the pastors is starting to grow. There is a new sense of purpose and connection between the pastors in Leon.
After the pastors' conference, Dr. Williams was asked to speak at a local church. The church was full of young people when he arrived. He spoke on the "Benefits of Moral Purity." This was a topic that many had not heard before and the room was silent as he spoke. The response was tremendous as more than 50 people came forward to pray and ask God for forgiveness.
God is moving in Leon! We will be sending a second container of family-to-family packets in January. If you would like to be a part of this outreach of love, please contact Jane Rubey by January 8. There is still time to sign up to be a part of the mission trip, in conjunction with the festival in April.
Please be in prayer for the people of Leon, Nicaragua! Ask God to be softening hearts now and preparing people for the festival.
Team Member Materials
Click on the link below:
Nicaragua Information Packet .pdf
1st Container packed full of food has been shipped to Nicaragua!
World in Need partnered with us to send out the first huge container of food to the people of one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, Nicaragua, as part of our compassion aide project. We sent 60 barrels of dried vegetable soup and 800 buckets of dried peaches and nectarines. The soup will have 59 sealed bags in each barrel-- providing 7,000 servings and a total of 420,000 servings! 960 buckets (23,500 pounds) of dried fruit were also sent. All together we sent 27 pallets and 43,500 pounds of food in this container! How exciting it is to know that this is just the beginning of our outreach to Nicaragua!
