These past two months have been filled with opportunities to meet with pastors and church leaders. It’s exciting to watch God open doors. We pray daily for His guidance and wisdom as we walk through these doors. Thank you for taking the time to see what God is doing in Nicaragua.
Training and Planning Meeting for San Dionisio Area Pastors and Church Leaders
Ten pastors and church leaders came together on June 29 to review the Evangelism, Believe (key Beliefs, Practices, and Virtues of a Jesus follower), Discipleship, and Biblical Counseling resources. During this meeting, we were able to work together to plan the implementation of each in their churches. The 19 churches were divided into 5 groups and we scheduled the initial Evangelism Training and Outreach in each group.
Samulali, Piedra Colorado, La Pintada
On July 15 the first grouping of 3 churches came together for resource discussion, Evangelism training and outreach preparation. We met in Pastor Aristide’s church, Iglesea Luz Divina, in Samulali. Each time we meet we will rotate churches. The people were very welcoming, engaged, and are excited about what God is doing and will do in their communities. Several walked an hour through the mountains to attend. We really enjoyed establishing these new relationships and were able to form a WhatsApp group for them to begin receiving daily devotionals, resources, and participate in discussions. We look forward to our next meeting with this group.
Iglesea Visión de Águila
We were invited to attend and speak at Pastor Miguel Martínez’s church in Matagalpa on July 16th. Pastor Miguel is a student at the Bible Institute where Eric teaches and has begun partnering with us in ministry. This was our first opportunity to meet with and share with the congregation the Evangelism, Believe (key Beliefs, Practices, and Virtues of a Jesus follower), Discipleship, and Biblical Counseling resources. Eric was also able to share a message on how God created us for His glory, how we respond, and how we live this daily. We had an Evangelism training with several members in May and we were able to join them in neighborhood outreach, along with the Chilhowee Mission Team from Knoxville,TN, at the end of May. We look forward to next with them!
Santa Emilia
We have been partnering with Pastor Cesar and his wife, Blanca, and their church, Iglesea Mahanaim Bautista for the past 8 years. During this time we have participated in home visits, evangelism, implementing Bible Studies, Sunday School Ministry and meeting physical needs where we could. As we have mentioned, God has given us an intentional focus going forward on Evangelism, Believe (key Beliefs, Practices, and Virtues of a Jesus follower), Discipleship, and Biblical Counseling. We met this month with Pastor Cesar to go over these materials and talk about how we can partner going forward. We are excited to see how God will continue to use this partnership for His glory!
Mark Caskey Bible Institute
Eric will finish teaching this school year on Aug. 5th. He has been teaching 3 different levels since March: Believe by Randy Frazee to level 1, The Attributes of God by A.W. Tozer to level 2, and Evangelism to level 3. Bryan Rodriguez has been his interpreter for every class. This time with the students has been such a blessing and right in alignment with what we have been called here to do in ministry. I (Wendy) have enjoyed going with Eric and serving coffee and refreshments during the class breaks. We love being around people who have such a hunger for God’s Truth. We are already looking forward to next year! We are thankful for Farrell Burton and the Hope Project and for their invitation to participate in this ministry.
UNAN Medical School Resources
Healthy Neighbors International hasn’t physically been able to come to Nicaragua for several years but they are still very active in helping. In addition to providing monthly medicines to selected follow up patients and providing smokeless stoves to people in several communities, recently they responded to a need and request from Dr. Franco and provided 5 medical educational models for UNAN University’s Medical School. Thank you HNI for all you do for the people in Nicaragua!
Relationships
Every day we pray for eyes to see who God puts in our path. The security guard at our grocery store is a sweet example of this. One day he shared that he knew we were missionaries and would like to participate with us in ministry sometime. We gave him a Study Bible and another study resource. He’s told us how much he enjoys reading these daily. We tried to connect one day for ministry but he ended up getting sick and couldn’t go. We plan to try again!
Coming trip to the U.S.
We will be in the U.S. August 10 - September 21 spending time with our family, connecting with churches, and seeing some doctors. We hope to see some of you while we are in the States. We would love to connect with you if possible. Please reach out if you are available and we will schedule a time. We are looking forward to our visit!
Prayer Requests
* It is once again time to renew our residency. We are praying to be able to get all the documents we need and that they all be current at the same time. We are also praying for a 5 year residency status.
* We are continuing to pray for additional financial provision for our personal support and for ministry as God continues to lead us.
How You Can Help
We are so thankful for all our family and friends that pray for us and financially support the ministry we have with MVI. If you are interested in partnering with us financially with a one-time donation or monthly giving, please follow the directions below:
1) Go to our website at https://www.inhisstepsnicaragua.org
2) Click on the yellow donate button. This will take you to our missionary giving page on the secure Missionary Ventures International website.
3) Follow the instructions on how you want to give either by credit card or ACH Donation (direct bank debit).
If you desire to mail a check, please make it payable to Missionary Ventures International and mail to MVI at 1017 Maitland Center Commons Boulevard Maitland, Florida 32751-7205. Please include a note on the memo line stating “Preferenced for Eric & Wendy Harbinson”.