Team Nicaragua Update 3

I noticed the high temperature in Portland over the foreseeable future will be 32 C degrees. The low in Nicaragua for the foreseeable future will be 30 C degrees.

This morning we finally started the conference! We were expecting 75 but nearly 100 men showed up. Steve broke them into smaller groups and led them in a prayer for unity. It was amazing to see them all speaking and sharing with each other right away. One of the toughest challenges we typically face is getting the men in the conference to open up and speak honestly with each other within the first day. We believe God is really moving here early.

One of the most important foundations for a conference is to make sure we all have the same understanding on the difference between truth and culture. We were here to teach them the truth. Truth comes from the Bible. Then they can apply the truth into their culture. We were not here to teach our culture. We also gave them a simple method how to read and study their Bibles.

During our preparation, we were given local counsel to use the example of training baseball coaches as an analogy to making disciples. We soon discovered that over half of the pastors here did not understand our example so we had to change everything on the fly.

Bill taught on servant leadership and used the example by washing feet.

After lunch, Steve had them get back together in their small groups. He defined what a disciple is using Matthew 4:19, "Come and follow me and I will make you fishers of men."  A true disciple was defined as one who: is following, is being changed and is being committed to the mission of Jesus. You must know, love & play the game. Steve did a great job using the small groups to communicate the message.

Then Branden started off his time speaking directly to them in Spanish. Thankfully for the rest of the team, it did not last very long.

For some reason, Branden & I are the only ones with a room without electricity. I have run out of water during my shower and have not been able to get running water for a shower on two other occasions. I pretty sure I discovered I have bed bugs and earlier today I disrupted a nest of mosquitos when I moved around our bags. We just roll our eyes, and are glad that the rest of the team does not know have to deal with any of this.

Thanks for your prayers!

Comments

[Erin]

You are a true example of SERVANT LEADERSHIP:-) Continuing to pray for the last 2 days!