Mission Trip to Nicaragua

(To read the entire article, be sure to click "Read More" at the end.)

We just returned from a mission trip to Corinto, Nicaragua - an adventure that I have looked forward to for a long time.  It was one of my post-retirement goals that I thought I would accomplish before now.  It was such a joy to be able to finally participate in such an inspirational event.  You can see all my photos documenting the trip on my Facebook page.

Gralyn and I were on a team consisting mainly of members from Milton First Assembly of God, Billory Baptist Church and Wallace Baptist Church, led by Cheyenne Bodie who is a missionary with International Gospel Outreach  and leads Light and Life Missions.  

It was a God-orchestrated team, each one fulfilling a specific ministry.  Different ones participated in construction, home visitation and prayer, Pastor's conference and Pastors' wives conference as well as regular church services at Luz y Vida Church (Light and Life Church). 

The barrels are the foundation columns for the future new roof.

The construction consisted of pouring concrete for foundation columns for a new roof structure that will be erected on the next trip to Corinto.

This is a view of the rear of the building.  The new structure will extend
out to the last blue barrels on the right side of the photo.

While there, our team experienced two funerals, five weddings and ten people baptized in the Pacific Ocean.  We visited many local homes to pray for the sick.  I personally participated in two people giving their hearts to the Lord and prayed over many more. 


View of the beach from the conference room.

One of the main activities of this trip was a Pastors and Wives Conference. Men on our team ministered to the pastors and myself, Molly Maxwell and Debra Gilmore spoke to the ladies. The conference was awesome! We had around 25 ladies and it was a beautiful setting in an open-air second floor building. We had a view of the volcanoes on one side and the Pacific Ocean beach on the other side. The ladies were so receptive. My topics were "A Woman and Her Identify" and "A Woman and Her Struggles." You can hear a recording of them here if you like. At the end of the conference each pastor was given a bicycle and a large bag of staple food. You should have seen the joy on their faces. They were obviously blessed.


Volcano view from the conference room.




The ladies praying for us Americans.

At the women's conferences, Molly Maxwell and I prayed for each individual lady and especially Molly was greatly used in the gifts of the spirit to give them words from the Lord. But the biggest blessing of all was when they prayed for us Americans. Oh, the spirit of the Lord was there, you could tell that they are praying women.






Gralyn putting together the bicycles.

Some of the pastors with their bicycles and pink bag of food
given to them at the end of the conference by Light and Life Missions

The funniest thing that happened to me there was when I was beginning the second session I said something like "In this session we are going to talk about sex." My interpreter (a young single lady) looked at me and said, "Are you sure?" I cracked up. Evidently she had not read the notes! But, yes, we did talk about sex and other types of intimacy. The topics were chosen by the Luz y Vida pastor's wife and her daughter (Arellys Bodie). 

On Monday, the lady pastor of Rivers of Living Water Church came by the mission house and asked if we could come to her church to have a Women's Conference.  On Tuesday afternoon at 2:00 we went to Rios de Aqua Vida and 21 women were there for the conference.  It's amazing how they get the word out so quickly about events.  We had a great time with them. 

Serving queque to the newly married couples.

Another funny thing that happened was on Sunday night after we had had a full church service and 5 weddings, we went back to the mission house with the married couples and I was helping to serve them cake.  After everyone was served I asked if anyone wanted "mas caca."  I didn't know that I had said it wrong until I heard Cheyenne laughingly say "She just said 'caca'!  I found out later that there is a lot of difference between the meaning of  "caca" (poop) and "queque" (cake).  That'll teach me to try to speak Spanish! 




Helping to baptize the oldest baptism candidate.

It was very humbling to be asked to minister to the people in Corinto.  It was indeed a pleasure to get to know them.  One lady we prayed with in her home was hooked up to an IV for fluid because she was very weak due to a bad heart.  On Sunday, she walked out into the Pacific Ocean to be baptized.  She refused to sit on the beach and let us bring the water to her.  She came up out of that water with such a smile on her face! 



One of the quilts we made was given to this beautiful baby.

One of houses, beachfront property.