First Baptist Nicaragua Missions

Ultimos dias...

2011-06-14T18:10:00.000-07:00

One of the most memorable moments of the trip was a visit on Wed to an elderly woman's home in El Salto with her two severely handicapped children. Pastor Eric has posted more photos and story on his blog and it's worth a look and read: http://erictspivey.blogspot.com/2011/06/mountain-walk.html
As Clarke mentioned before, we spent our last clinic and VBS day in a familiar location, San Jose, one of the poorest communities we served in and one where Puentes de Esperanza has brought many teams and invested a great deal of work. We were able to see several of the houses that Puentes has been able to build there, very nice brick and mortar structures replacing the shacks that so many live in. These homes can be completed for only $2500, and finished in a week of team work. In a nice touch, each house-building team makes a lasting "mark" on the house they complete (one example was the team leaving their thumb-prints on the front encircled in a heart). In one of those houses we made a house-call to a woman who had been hospitalized and was still very weak. We prayed for her and gave her some medications and physical therapy instructions (thankfully Pug is a physical therapist in addition to being a Nicaraguan pharmacist!).
On Friday morning we said our goodbyes at the team house and traveled back to Managua for our "Tour day." We went zip-lining over an extinct volcano crater/lake with beautiful views of downtown Managua and Lake Managua beyond. We also had a chance to do some shopping at the market in Masaya, then on to the hotel where we enjoyed a Friday night banquet together before catching our flight home Saturday.
In reflecting on the week, it was very successful from many angles. God brought together a wonderful group of 26 team members from all over GA. We traveled safely over 3000mi round trip with very little illness. We served with the wonderful people of Puentes de Esperanza, who are bringing real hope (the hope in Christ) to the very needy communities surrounding Matagalpa through their works of service. We were joined in ministry by 20 members of FBC Matagalpa, who left their jobs and other responsibilities to work alongside us for the week. In our clinics we treated 500 patients (averaging 4 prescriptions each). We saw over 500 children (Tammy says more like 5 million) in VBS, sharing the love of Jesus with them in words and action. We reached over 100 women with needed health and hygiene instruction, and dispensing basic needs like soap, toothpaste, diapers and children's underwear. We had a special station in the clinic where anyone who wanted prayer was specifically touched and prayed for (in English and Spanish!). Hundreds were prayed for there. Gary related that, "Praying all day is hard work!"
Perhaps this last story best sums up the week for me. On Thursday we met a young man who was preparing to leave his home in San Jose and travel with his wife and small children even farther into the back-country to be the pastor of a new church plant in La Cruz Rio Grande. Melecio Moreno and his young family were literally leaving all they knew behind, and he inspired us with his courage to follow God's call on his life. We gave him one of our nail/cross necklaces to remind him that there would be people in GA praying for him and his family. Maybe that is really the most important thing one learns from serving on these short term trips... By following God's call on us to leave our homes, families, jobs and comfort-zones to travel to a foreign place to serve even for a week, we get just a small glimpse of what it looks like and feels like to lead a life completely surrendered to Christ. Isn't that what Jesus calls all of us to do? (Matthew 16:24-26)
Oswald Chambers put it this way:

As long as you maintain your own personal interests and ambitions, you cannot be completely aligned or identified with God’s interests. This can only be accomplished by giving up all of your personal plans once and for all, and by allowing God to take you directly into His purpose for the world. Your understanding of your ways must also be surrendered, because they are now the ways of the Lord. "My Utmost for His Highest"

In our devotional booklet for the week, the Scripture for the ride home was Psalm 105 which begins, " Oh give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples. Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; Speak of all His wonders. Glory in His holy name..."

Thanks indeed! There can really be no other appropriate response.
Gloria a Dios!

-Rhett (El Jefe)

Miércoles a sábado.

2011-06-12T19:57:00.000-07:00

Here are just a few more pictures from our trip that was truly blessed. My dad, Rhett, plans to write one last post soon - so keep checking! Thanks for all the prayers :) -Leslie

The woman we visited in El Salto.

Katie, Sarah, Leslie, & Macey outside of El Salto.

Coffee Plant Seedlings.


One of the homes built by Puentes de Esperanza. Thumb prints of the builders.

Little boy in San Jose.

Rhett with Melecio Jarquin Moreno in San Jose.

Alex, Clarke, Chuga, & Rhett at the market in Managua.

Ziplining over Tiscapa!

Katie & her guide.

Sarah & Eric.

Pretty bird at the hotel in Managua.

San Jose Day

2011-06-09T21:52:00.000-07:00

Today the team ended its trip with our last stop being the infamous San Jose. Morning breakfast was the spectacular rice, beans, and eggs. But today had a special surprise being fresh mango that was brought by Don Omar's niece. Once everything was loaded, we drove east instead of west seeing a new side of Matagalpa. We drove through the coffee fields and saw new landscapes that some of us were new too. Speaking of new, Dr. Rhett Weaver got his first taste of "dubstep" music today. He seemed to like the odd sounds that he hadn't heard before. (Geisha by cypberoptics). The day was filled with many familiar faces and some new ones. Also new, we got to walk through some of the houses that were built by some mission teams. The comparability between we live and the way they live; there isn't one. It's almost unreal to see how they live everyday. We as a nation are blessed by what we have. If you're ever in need of a reality check, come down here and witness first hand what life is like. (wikipedia pictures are highly inaccurate and dont show how it really is). Our God is good to us. Even when we don't get the latest clothes or new car, or whatever your squeeze is, Nicaragua is a eye opener that shows you how lucky you truly are.

Dinner was fantastic, but sad knowing you won't see these friends for an entire year. The members of the team that you meet are seriously the most genuinely loving and kind hearted people I have personally every met. They touch your heart in ways you might not feel back home.

This trip has made me want to learn spanish again just so I can intern here. But as Raph said, "If helping is what you want, God is great God who will make it happen if it is what is truly in your heart."

"Once you leave tomorrow, it will never be the same again, nothing will feel the same once you know that you won't be back for a while." Until next year;

-Clarke

El Salto.

2011-06-08T21:36:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful day in the village of El Salto. Although we had a smaller team than usual, with Eric, Caleb, and Gary experiencing Nicaragua's version of montezuma's revenge, by evening all were back among the living. It was a little farther up the mountain than the place we went to yesterday. There was a very nice building that we got to set the clinic up in and VBS took place in a place not far from there. A lady asked if one of the doctors could make a house call to see her two disabled adult children. After being seen by the doctor a group of us went up and prayed with her and her children. It was a very humbling and eye opening experience to be there. We will post some pictures and more details tomorrow. We are almost the last ones awake, guess its time for bed :)

-Leslie & Rhett

Mas Fotographias!

2011-06-07T20:32:00.000-07:00

Making sandwiches!

Rhett & Eric at the church

Clinic at La Corneta

Gracilla Valascus

Chancho y Clarke

Eating chocolate :)

Overlooking Matagalpa!

Rainbow in the mountain.

Team House :)

Hope everyone is doing well! Nicaragua is truly wonderful. Enjoy the pictures I've captured these past two days!

-Leslie Weaver

Reflections from Rhett Weaver

2011-06-07T18:43:00.000-07:00

Today we went to a site we have not visited in the past, a small community further up in the mountains along the road to Jinotega called La Corneta. We set up the clinic in a community center, and the VBS team worked in a nearby school. No rain today! We saw almost 130 patients in the clinic and nearly 100 children in VBS. Today's community has a small government health clinic, but we talked to the nurse there and learned that the very medications that the clinic did NOT have, were the ones that we brought in abundance! Coincidence or God's hand at work? I'll let you decide. We also continued providing health and hygiene instruction for both children and adults (a new project this year with Puentes de Esperanza). We've also continued to be blessed and encouraged with the activities in "Prayer station" where our friends from FBC Matagalpa join us in praying for and with the individuals as they exit the clinic. Today we also had a special treat after clinic. We took the bus up to the top of one of the surrounding hilltops overlooking the city of Matagalpa. Actually the bus couldn't quite make it all the way to the very top due to the very steep grade, so we all got out and walked the last few yards. The effort was well worth it. We had a magnificent vista of the city below us, surrounded by cloud-draped mountains, and even a rainbow! Please continue to pray for our strength and health. We have one team member feeling a little under the weather tonight. Tomorrow we will return to the same general area to another nearby community.

Video Introductions to our Mission Project

2011-06-06T21:30:00.000-07:00

Here are a few videos to introduce our ministry in Nicaragua. First is a video showing how we set up our medical clinic. Today, we set up in a small, mountain village about 15 minutes south of Matagalpa called Yaule. We are in a Assemblies of God church whose pastor was the only survivor of a bus bomb during the civil war.

Second, this is a video outside of the church showing Gary Morris teaching the Bible lesson about Daniel during the VBS part of our camp. This was in the morning before the great rains and the sticky mud arrived. We had to be very fluid today to work with the kids.

Finally, this is a video from FBC, Matagalpa's school. They have over 200 children in a very small area. The kids were great.

Sunday Refections

2011-06-05T19:45:00.000-07:00

Today we had pancakes for breakfast. Pretty normal pancakes.
We loaded the bus and headed into town for inglesia (that's church).
We came back to the team house and had a delicious lunch - baked chicken and a dumpling stew, potatoes and a squash like vegetable.
We left to go to the cathedral. We had to race into the cathedral because there was a downpour. We waited while it stormed. Rain ran down the street. We had to swim back to the bus (like magic school bus (says Caleb)).
We went to a pottery place - actually it was someone's house who sold pottery.
We then went back to the church for an awkward meeting.
Church - it was cool.
The music was very upbeat and at one point we had to clap really fast.
We came back up the big, steep hill to a delicious feast of pasta.
Then we made some panda crafts for tomorrow's VBS - these are called Panda Prayer Boxes.
We are now waiting for showers before the water is turned off and the night meeting begins.

Dictated to Pastor Eric by

Katie Weaver, Macey Doran, Caleb what's his name, Sarah Spivey and Hogan Dyer and some guy named Clarke.

Bienvenidos a Matagalpa!

2011-06-04T19:28:00.000-07:00

We have safely arrived in Matagalpa and are currently getting ready for the activities the week ahead holds. The day started very early as some of us in the North GA area arrived at the church to load the luggage on the bus and make our way to the airport. We were greeted by many joyful and encouraging faces that sent us away with lots of love, hugs, and even honey-buns and biscuits. As we met up with the rest of the team at the airport we successfully checked our baggage, made it through security, and boarded the plane. I've never heard my name called over the speaker system in the airport, but today was a first as my dad (Rhett), Macey, Katie & I were late to board the plane.

After about 3 1/2 hours in flight, we landed in Managua. We were welcomed by Rafael and Alex who helped load up the bus and made sure we got some refreshing drinks and plantain chips (or whatever your snack preference was) :)

We are all looking forward to spending the day tomorrow focusing on what the Lord has in store for each of us. We are prepared to serve in the ways in which we will be called and pray for open and joyful hearts!

-Leslie Weaver

Arriving in Managua

Katie & Sarah on the bus!

Downtown Matagalpa

First cup of Nica Coffee

Rhett, Hogan, Eric, & Gary in the team house