1,250 Gospels

This past week was a great adventure. Our team was from Crawford, GA and there were 11 of them. Also, we were privileged to be able to bring Nicaraguan church members from Loren and Karen's home Baptist church in Managua to work with us during the week. We went to the town Comalapa, Nicaragua. The exception with this town is that there really are no churches in it. People in Nicaragua consider themselves Catholic if their family before them was Catholic, not because they actually attend the Catholic church. So this was a town Karen had been praying about for months, and she said that no one from their church in Managua had ever wanted to go to Comalapa, but a few weeks ago the pastor of the Baptist church said that he had had Comalapa on his heart, and Karen's prayers were answered when 6 members of the church came with us to help distribute the Book of Luke this past week.
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We began our journey with 1,250 books to give to the locals. In Comalapa, we handed out around 500 of those books and finished quickly, leaving us to go to another community to hand out the Gospel. We ended up in Cuapa, a community about 45 minutes from Comalapa. This place was one where we were not sure what to expect, as far as the people being receptive to the Gospel. This town apparently had a "Virgin sighting" of the Virgin Mary, so their root beliefs and future beliefs are set in thinking that Mary sacrificed her life for us, instead of Jesus being sent from God to save us. We prayed over the town, and prayed some more. They have erected a huge shrine to Mary in one part of Cuapa, so we went there to pray that they would all come to know Jesus as their Savior.
When we handed out the Book of Luke, it was awesome because not only were they receptive, they were excited to take our gift. We did receive a few "no"s from people, but in those situations, we left gospels at the entrances to their yards, in case they changed their minds later. We were some what discouraged by the size of the town, thinking that it would be too big to have enough books for every house, but we were blind in our thinking, forgetting that God provides. We reached almost every house, and for those houses we couldn't find, we prayed that they would hear about the gospel.
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After covering Cuapa that day, we drove around country roads and handed out books that were far away from the towns. It never ceases to amaze me that those people who live wayyy out in the country are so accepting of us, what we have to say, and what we have to give. I will never forget the lady who was so grateful that, as she was on the verge of tears she told me "thank you" and "God bless you" multiple times. Nor will I forget the man and woman who invited me into their home, as if they had known me as a good friend for years. It's awesome to know that we have brothers and sisters in Christ everywhere, even way up in a little house on a hill in a small community in Nicaragua. The Lord works in mysterious ways, so we will never know how those communities and people will respond to the Word, but after watching the Jesus film our last night, 6 people got saved. This may not sound like much, but 4 of them were men...and for men to commit their lives, the hope of building a Baptist church in that community becomes more of a reality. I know that we handed out all 1,250 books over the course of 2 1/2 days, and that in itself is a blessing.

"My word, which comes from my mouth, is like the rain and snow. It will not come back to me without results. It will accomplish whatever I want and achieve whatever I send it to do." Isaiah 55:11

Amidst handing out Gospel tracts, we took part in many fun things with the community of Comalapa. I was able to practice my Spanish with Claudia and Carolina, two Nica church members who were with us, and they were able to practice their English. Anddd there was a 12 year old boy named Nestor who hung out around the building we stayed in, so I tried to speak Spanish with him, and helped him with his English homework...it's his favorite subject. The boys in our group played basketball with the locals, which was really neat because that was good bonding and great incentive to the the local guys to watch the Jesus movie we showed across the street from the park. We spent our nights avoiding mosquitoes, although Lauren and a team member, Dean, were quite bit up...poor fellas. We adopted a local dog and named her "Julie", and sadly had to leave here in Comalapa when we left. We made friends and enjoyed ourselves, and in the name of Jesus we impacted at least 1,250 households, and many more people.

The Great Commission
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."
Matthew 28:19