This has been a very encouraging week for us. We had a good meeting with a small group called Youth In Action. The group (from left to right) is Dennis M, Danelia, Dennis T, Ralston, and Othoniel.
 Dennis Miranda has started a ministry at the hospital and has another young man working with him. Dennis Tirinoco likes to organize youth events. Ralston works with all of them. Othoniel knows how to play every manner of guitar and keyboard and trains musicians.
The immediate purpose of the meeting was to plan an youth event for the end of September. They are going to put a budget together and we will meet again soon. The last event they planned, they did on a budget of $40.00, just enough to buy coffee, sugar and milk and a small radio ad.  They had 150 kids from all over who spent all night in prayer and singing and exhortation.
This event will be larger, but the budget probably will not be larger than $500 at the most. We gave them $75.00 to fix their 4000 watt amplifier and also money to buy good tweeters for the event.
Our mission is to train and support leaders in ministry, which often simply involves working behind the scenes and connecting these people with resources and help them be effective.
All that these young people need is just a little financial support and the knowledge that there are people  standing behind them, and that money is greatly multiplied in terms of impact . . . it is really kind of like feeding a crowd of 5000 with a few loaves and fishes.
We are planning to help them buy the paint and roofing so they can turn this dank room into an office for their hospital ministry. I have to admire the faith and determination of these young people.
One thing they want to do is a "flash" soccer tournament in a weekend. A man has offered to donate them the land if they will clear it and use it for ministry purposes. We could even do a soccer camp all week, have the tournament on the weekend and then do a blowout evangelistic event at the end. That is in the works.
The discipleship groups are continuing to go well. We took a little diversion to cover the topic of eternal security - how does a person have assurance that they are going to heaven.
 We have also had good fruit from our daily Bible study at the house with the workers. In this country it is very common for men and women to live together and have families without ever getting married.
This week one of our guys went home and told his young lady that he wanted to marry her. He told her that he was changing and he wanted to make this commitment. She about fell over. She has also been reading the New Testament that we gave him. We gave them a Bible for their family.
 Israel, one of our small group leaders, is in the fishing business and just got back from a fishing trip to the communities. He brought us back a very large fish (Schnook) and it was really good.
Kim spent much of the week in Managua buying the tile for the entire house. She stayed with Shelly in Managua and they went to several tile warehouses. We ended up getting the tile for about $1.00 per square foot on average which is a very good price.
The house is coming along well. We are making one last trip to Rama for sand and stone and then we will pour the remainder of the second floor. We had used a lot of sand making blocks, so we ran too low to pour the second floor in front this week.
There are a lot more pictures of the house in the photo gallery so be sure to take a look. We found out today that we can see the bay from the second floor cafe and craft area. That is kinda cool.
Tim and Kim |
