The hopelessness of circumstantial hope

At first when I took this picture I laughed because it almost appears as though the cartoon carrying tortillas in the background is fleeing the scene from a passed out drunk who just had his shoes stolen. Later I began to ponder the fact that it is a common sight to see a man passed out drunk on the streets of Matagalpa, Nicaragua. I probably see at least one a day. It is a sad sight to see someone in that state, but after seeing it so many times your heart kind of becomes calloused to the image. On many occasions I've talked with Pablo, my brother in Christ and roommate here in Nicaragua, about what we could do to help. Given the great number of people who struggle with alcoholism, and the difficulty of turning such a life around, there seems to be little to be done to help. We also serve people in the community of Matagalpa who are addicted to sniffing glue. Now when I say glue, I'm not talking about Elmers, but rather something like rubber cement mixed with gasoline. I've seen the effects of this "high" and it's damaging. The saddest part of the matter is that the majority of those who sniff glue are the ones that aren't in a position to buy alcohol, youths. Well surely there's something I can do to help a 15 year old who's addicted to glue? But again given the great numbers who struggle with the issue, there seems to be little to be done. So what about the young boys no older than 5 who are surviving by digging through the trash dump? (And I say boys because drug and alcohol addiction is greater problem among males. There are plenty of 3 year old girls digging through the trash to survive as well.) What is the example set for a young boy, let's say the age of 5, who survives in the dump? Well most of them are without fathers, so the male example in their lives are those who are high on glue and addicted to alcohol. Do you see what I'm getting at with this cycle? Drug and alcohol addiction is real, here and throughout the world, and it doesn't start with a 40 year old who all of a sudden wants to be an addict. It begins with how kids are influenced by those around them.

There are a couple of rehab centers out of town that we could take people to, but it would require each individual to be sponsored for around $100/month. This is a tremendous opportunity to help an individual begin a new life apart from drugs and alcohol. I wish I had great amounts of money to help all of these people, but I do not. But what I do have, I have been blessed with the chance to freely give. And that is the good news of Jesus Christ. When we go to the trash dump and the streets to serve meals every week we talk about hope. We talk about a hope that is eternal and transcends the hardships of the here and now. Part of sharing that eternal hope is, as Jesus did, meeting the physical needs of the here and now. I ask for the prayers of those reading that Jesus will change the lives of many, and that Pablo and I will be able to serve in a manner that brings to light the real hope of Christ.

El Delirio Pictures

 It was requested that we bring a little sweater for this guy. I think he looks pretty good in the onesy but we can probably help him out.

 We've been able to have someone help us out by coloring and playing with the kids while we teach and speak with the adults on Fridays in Delirio.

 Everyone lining up to get cookies and a drink after a discipleship class.

Our identity

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" -2 Corinthians 5:17

Marvin is a community leader in Tres M, Nicaragua, where we teach English classes and have raised funds to begin a water project. I've mentioned Marvin before in one of my previous posts, a man who became physically handicapped in a Nicaraguan war years ago and now has limited mobility, to say the least. Pablo and I were able to stop by Thursday to check on him and bring his family some food. Every time we see him he's grateful to see us and he always seems to be in good spirits. I'd love to take a picture of him to better share with you his physical condition but I have not found an appropriate time. (I have a fear that everyone's always thinking, "there's that white kid pulling his phone out to take pictures of us again, c'mon.") Anyhow, when greeting Marvin we shake his elbow because he doesn't have nerve function up to his hand on either arm. The last several weeks he has been bed ridden from different intestinal surgeries. So we have visited him in his home. He shared with us that he just had yet another surgery. Keep in mind that as we were talking we were absolutely covered by mosquitoes. Pablo and I were swatting our arms and legs every other second as we listened to the content words of a man without hands to swipe the bugs from landing on his face. Nevertheless Marvin shared with us his appreciation for our teaching the kids in the community, the different happenings of the town, and numerous things he had planned to do. What a selfless example he is. It's humbling to see a man who is barely capable of movement spend his life in leadership and servitude to a people far more physically capable than himself.

As I laid in bed Thursday night, I thought of Marvin. I thought of the great emphasis society puts on looks, of how important self image seems to be. I've often wished that it were possible to meet the woman I'm going to marry by seeing her personality before I was ever physically attracted. I began to question whether my personality would change if I were obese, if I were crippled, or I was diseased. Is who I am dependent on what I look like? Is what  I think about people dependent on social status? How productive could my life really be if I were in a wheelchair for the rest of my days? None of these attributes should matter as much as they do to me. What good is it to be a Christian if I don't truly believe 2 Corinthians 5:17? And by believe I mean for my life to reflect that belief.

This isn't the first time I've had these thoughts, but they deserve my attention. This summer, as I lived in Alabama, I was privileged to hear the story of Katherine and Jay Wolfe, which is posted on youtube and their website, "hope heals". Jay is the son of the pastor of the church I was a member of this summer, who married Katherine several years ago. To make a long story short, Katherine was a very physically beautiful woman, who suffered the trial of a brain tumor. Against all odds she survived and now uses a cane to get around. Over 90% of couples divorce when a terminal illness occurs, and Jay's faithfulness to Katherine has been a powerful testimony. The reality of this story hit me hard, to think how temporary our "image" is, the very image we spend hours a day in attempt to beautify. The beauty of 2 Corinthians 5:17 is that regardless of physical appearance, we can be made beautiful in Christ. If I am going to continue to call myself a Christian, who I am cannot be determined based on anything apart from who I am in Jesus.

I'm thankful for people like Marvin and Katherine, who have experienced undesired physical hardship, only to become more beautiful beings because of it.

Jesus Heals

"Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, 'Look at us!' So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. Then Peter said, 'Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk'. Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God." -Acts 3:2-8

In an earlier blog I talked about a family we were able to feed that spends the evenings digging through a small garbage dump in town. We were able to help feed them last week and again today. Last week, as we talked and prayed with them, the mother requested that we pray for her son, Wilmer, who was in bed at home with a bad fever and had been sick for a while. The majority of the people we help feed are shy in response, not asking many questions or making many requests. This woman asking us to pray for her child wasn't a small matter. It was obvious that she was distressed about the health of her kid. We gladly prayed for this family, more specifically for Wilmer, and gave them all dinner for the evening. Before we left Pablo looked at Wilmer's mom and said to her, "In the name of Jesus, Wilmer is healed." Now I don't speak great Spanish, but I understood what Pablo said and I could tell that he meant it.

Pablo's been wanting to head back to the little dump to bring some food and check on the family for the past week, but we weren't able to until today. We pulled up to the little dump today and everyone came out to greet us. The mother we had spoke with last week was so excited to tell Pablo that when they went home the evening we prayed for Wilmer, they found Wilmer dressed and leaving their house to go to church. He said he felt great! Call it what you will but Jesus healed that kid. We saw him today and he was all smiles. It's difficult to kick a bad fever, much less a bad fever while on a diet of garbage, literally garbage. And if Nica kids are anything like American kids, they know how to drag out the sick days to get nursed a little by the family. But no, this kid wasn't just better, he was going to church.

After another time of talk and prayer we gave the family meals and drove off. Driving away Pablo said something like, "I told you Jesus healed that kid". Yes you did brother, and yes he did.

La Basurera Ministry

"And God said, 'This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come. I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind.'" -Genesis 9:12

This passage from Genesis was the first thing that came to mind when I took this picture while feeding people at the trash dump. I looked beyond the couple hundred yards of garbage and noticed how lush the land was behind, and the rainbow in the clouds beyond that. It just left me thinking that it doesn't matter where you are, God is there. We're in the poorest country in Central America with the poorest of the poor people, in the trash dump, and for all those desiring to notice his presence, God was still there. Try to explain rainbows all you want scientifically, but they don't make sense to me. Think about it. It's a group of distinguishable colors in the sky in the shape of a semicircle on the horizon. It's as if a child drew it in the sky. You may deny it, but everyone's amused by rainbows. My point being is that there for a second I wasn't in a trash dump. God's creation has a way of taking your mind away from where you really are in your life. Whether you're in beautiful Rocky Mountains or in a trash dump in Nicaragua God desires to reveal his presence to you.

Pictured below are many of those we were able to provide food for. Thank you to the many who support this ministry! For those of you who would like to help provide financial support, there is a donation link below. God bless!

 It never gets old to feed these people

Our truck bed full of 100 boxes of food

Give us this day our daily bread

"As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, 'This is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.'
Jesus replied, 'They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.'
'We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,' they answered.'
'Bring them here to me,' he said."- Matthew 14:15-18

Monday morning at 7 AM we starting preparing rice and beans to take to the people who survive by digging through the trash dump. By noon we had prepared 38 plates of rice, beans, and tortillas. As Pablo and I pulled into the trash dump, we began to realize that there were far more people than we had plates of food for. I felt like the apostles, thinking "we have only 38 plates and there are over 100 people here." Although we didn't see our food provide meals for everyone there, we understand that Jesus is in  the results business more than we can ever be. There is no way for us to know that all the people we provided food for were even thankful, much less helped by our efforts. To provide food for 38 to ensure that one person's prayer is answered is completely worth it. As much as I hate the phrase "you can't help everybody", for myself and the apostles it is and was the truth. I can't help everybody, but Jesus can, and did. I will never begin to understand the way Jesus multiplies our efforts of service beyond what we can understand. We prayed for the food and the people we saw Monday, in faith that Jesus will take our five loaves and two fish and, in some way I wouldn't expect, feed five thousand.

So today we are preparing 100 plates of beans and rice to again take to the trash dump, hoping and praying that our efforts will be an encouragement and a blessing to those provided for. I would tend to think that one meal doesn't change a life, but I press on in thoughts that maybe my belief in Jesus today is a result of one of the 5000 people's belief in him when he miraculously provided just one meal.

Each plate of food costs between $0.25 and $0.50. For those of you who would like to support in providing food for these people, or any other project in this ministry, there is a donation link below. Thank you for all those who have and continue to provide help! God bless!

 hundreds of vultures eating from the trash along with these people

 Everyone lined up to get food

11/10 Nicaragua update

This past week, Pablo and I started teaching another English as a second language class. This new class we're teaching is in Lucidia, the neighborhood in Matagalpa where Pablo and I live. Lucidia is a poor neighborhood and we have a very diverse group of students, ages ranging from 10 to 37. It's a great opportunity for Pablo and I, as all the students are very eager to learn and have been requesting that we help them. We'll be teaching classes Monday and Tuesday evenings. We have 24 students that meet in a small church building where Pablo's parents help lead a small church family.

We continue our three classes in Tres M on Saturdays which are going well for the most part. Our second class, which is the group of younger students from ages 10 to 13, have struggled as of late. I'm gonna start bribing them with cookies or something to get them to study. Prayers are greatly appreciated for these students as we continue to work with them. There are around 71 students on the three class rosters, and between 50 and 60 consistently show up for class. We're hoping to start a Wednesday class specifically devoted to sharing the bible in a combination of Spanish and English.

Praise God the $2800 has been raised for the Tres M water project! Thank you to all who gave in support of this effort. Pablo and I met with Juan Carlos, one of the community leaders in charge of the water project, and he is speaking today with the community as well as the local city council. We're continuing to pray that everything will come together to begin work on providing water for the 50 or so families now that we have raised the requested funds.

Friday we headed up to El Delirio for our weekly discipleship class where we've started teaching the gospel of John. Unfortunately it down poured as we arrived, but around 60 people, including kids, still gathered into the small building to hear from God's word. It's always a blessing and a humbling experience to meet with this community. It's great to see the many kids that are in Delirio, and to see the childhood they have in comparison to what I had growing up certainly helps me to be more compassionate. I just love bringing them all cookies, drinks and food. It never gets old to give people something they wouldn't have otherwise.

Thank you to all who continually support this Nicaragua ministry! There is a donation link below for those who would like to help financially.

 Students from our class in Tres M pictured above and below

 Random picture of a sloth crossing the road at night

First people to show up to our class in El Delirio

The bread of life

"Whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I main gain Christ and be found in him." -Philippians 3:7-9

I come from a family of five. Growing up we shared many memorable times sitting around the dinner table. Those are treasured memories for me. And in several thousand of those meals never once did I question whether there would be food on the table. Today I watched as a family of five gathered for a family meal. However, they weren't gathering around a table, and the food they were about to eat could hardly be called a meal. Together they were digging through garbage in the middle of town looking for something to eat. We pulled up next to this family in our truck as we were delivering meals throughout the town of Matagalpa, Nicaragua. When asked what they were doing they told us they were looking for something to eat. After we prayed for this family we gave them each a meal that we had prepared. With smiles on their faces they thanked us as we drove away.
As we left the thought occurred to me that I had more in common with that family than I first realized. I have on countless occasions dug through a pile of garbage to fill myself when there was a perfectly good meal available to me that I was simply unaware of. Jesus declared in John 6:35, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never go thirsty." But it is not until we have tasted the bread of life that we will ever consider what we had previously gained to be garbage, as Paul states in the passage above. The problem isn't that there are billions of people on this earth digging through garbage to be filled as much as that they don't even realize what they're gaining is actually garbage. I praise Jesus that he sought to fill the void I have as I so hopelessly attempted to fill it with the trash of this world.
Many reading this might hesitate to refer to anything outside of Christ to be "garbage". Maybe someone's thinking 'what about filling that void in my life with a spouse'? What about filling that void in my life with a family? Are those things garbage? My response would be that they are a small portion of the blessing it is to be found in Christ, a small temporary portion that cannot fill an eternal void within. I praise God for my friends and family, but when it comes time for me to call on someone come judgement day, I will not be calling on my dad, my mom, my brother, or my sister. I will be calling on my Savior Jesus Christ, as I hope and pray is the case for all that are reading this today.


Thank you to all those who have generously donated to this ministry! For all those who would like to support this ministry there is a donation link below, God bless!

 Able to share food with a couple kids living on the streets. This kid's feet were all swollen without shoes

 A couple kids from a poor community outside town that come down to beg

Pablo giving these kids some food

11/2 Nicaragua update

I have now lived in Nicaragua for 44 days. The first week I spent here this past summer was humbling. When I got back from that trip the comment I heard most often was "It really makes you appreciate how good we have it in America doesn't it". And for the longest time that was also my thought. As an American Christian I've even thanked God for the freedoms we have to worship him. My perspective is beginning to change. What if America isn't the more blessed country after all? What if the "blessings" we have as Americans draw us so far apart from God that our freedom of religion has become freedom of self-righteousness? What if instead of praying for good fortune we begin to pray for suffering? A friend of mine asked me before I left a couple months ago what the reason was for Nicaragua remaining a third world country despite the possibility for economic growth. It was an interesting question and my response was that I did not know. After living in Nicaragua for  over a month I began to seriously ponder this question the other day. At first my mind was drawn to serious issues such as alcoholism, but I then began to think of the lifestyle of the people as a whole. There is not a great urgency to make a surplus of money in this country. I see thousands of people who work hard early in the morning to be able to relax amidst the blazing heat of the afternoon. The vast majority of Nicaraguans seem content. This explains why churches hold services six or seven days a week, and on the other end of the spectrum, explains why alcoholics have drank themselves to brain damage. Nicaragua will never become the United States because Nicaragua is content with being Nicaragua. While, ironically the United States strives to become a greater United States, only to face the inevitability of being rightfully humbled. Now don't get me wrong. I love the United States. I'm grateful for the freedom and blessing I've received being born a citizen. The problem I struggle with has to do with the fact that legitimate growth doesn't take place amidst freedom and blessing. Legitimate growth takes place amidst trial and suffering. And while the United States strives to give me peace and comfort, the bible I rely upon encourages me to seek peace in spite of hardship and joy in spite of suffering. After 20 years of claiming the title of "Christian", it wasn't until I began to suffer hardship that I began to understand the necessity of trials. Living here in Nicaragua, under a leaky tin roof, has not left me enviously yearning for my comfortable bed back in the United States, but has rather left me sympathizing with the villages I've visited who are far worse off than I am. I would be lying if I said I'm far more satisfied living here than I am in the states, but it is not a lie to tell you that it's is far more fulfilling to be living here. Yesterday I taught about God's word from the gospel of John to over 60 people crowded in a bedroom sized building. Back home it's difficult to get 60 people to even come to a church service. And I promise you we didn't bribe the people with Ritz crackers and Pepsi; they were hidden and we gave them away afterwards. Today we taught 61 students English in 3 different classes on a Saturday, and they show up voluntarily. As a young student, I had nightmares of Saturday class and a difficult time showing up to class on the weekdays. There is certainly a different perspective in a country that isn't emphasizing the phrase "get rich or die trying". Let me leave you with a few hypothetical questions. What if the United States took its 'tear down small barns to build bigger barns' philosophy and changed it to sell our bigger barns to help provide for those without barns? What if Christians weren't allowed to bear that name without being a true follower of Christ? What if Americans complained less about Obama and spent more time praising God? What if the biblical ideal of being content gave birth to the Christ-like attitude of sacrificial generosity? Things would be different, and lives would be changed. The reality of God's existence would be evident among people who couldn't help but tell everyone they knew about the joy of Jesus.

 At the bottom of the page is a link to donate to the Nicaragua Ministry and help provide for those in need. God bless!

 I wasn't kidding. We gave them Ritz crackers after they endured me speaking.

 People piling into the little community building to hear God's word

 Kids lining up to get snacks in El Delirio

These kids love seeing themselves in my phone camera haha

The creativity of God

"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, 'The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.'" -Lamentations 3:22-24

As I prayed tonight the thought occurred to me that God doesn't act in our lives out of habit. God is doing something new with someone new every day. I pray that I'm someone new each day so that God will create in me something new. Even the most intimate of lovers begin to do things within their relationship out of habit. Unfortunately, habits often bring a numbness to the original joy produced in their early stages. What an incredible thought to think that God does nothing in our lives habitually. His compassion and his creativity is new every morning. Thousands, if not millions, of relationships' growth are stunted because of the seeming necessity of habit. Similarly, the growth of our relationships with God is completely dependent upon originality. Since God's love is completely original every day, we are left with two options. We can pretend that God's consistency limits him to the realm of our oft unoriginal thinking, or we can open our eyes, ears and hearts to the new opportunities God places in our lives on a daily basis to fall into a deeper love with our Father and Creator.

Not only is God bold enough to call us his children, but he is intimate enough to open new doors to us and our relationship from moment to moment. And I know all you ladies just love it when a man opens a door for you. Let us embrace the intimacy of God's love. Let us stop trying to pretend there are more viable options. I want everyone reading this to be able to wake up with the excitement of thinking "What is God going to do in my life today". Together let's pray for open eyes, open ears, and receptive hearts that 'we may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide, how long, how high, and how deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that we may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God'.

 The sunset off the coast of Nicaragua

 The ocean between the forrest and the clouds

Pacific ocean coast at San Juan, Nicaragua