2009 MISSION EXPERIENCES

February 11-25, 2009
ABCRM Mission Trip to Thailand
Hosting Missionaries: Chuck & Ruth Fox
Estimated cost per person: $2000
Limit of mission team participants: 8
Trip application deadline: November 21, 2008
Contact Mission Leader-Kerry Hassler (kerryhassler@comcast.net) for more information

Needs:

• The "Ban Huai Namkhum Phattana" Akha village near Chiang Rai, Thailand needs a clean water supply for the 99 men, women, and children who live in its 19 households.
• The Chiang Rai "Family Learning Center" (FLC) Christian international school for English-speaking K-12 students needs help with teaching and administrative staff assistance
• The Chiang Rai New Life Center (NLC) is in need of volunteers who can teach Akha women sheltered there various crafts skills, as well as possibly teaching them English.
  

The 2009 Thailand Mission Trip will give you the opportunity to:

• Work with Church Fox, Akha villagers, and in-country Thai volunteers to construct and Akha village clean water system.
• Work with Ruth Fox to provide assistance to Chiang Rai FLC teachers and staff.
• Work with Ruth Fox to teach crafts and/or English to Chiang Rai NLC Akha women.
• Stretch your life to use your talents and abilities by helping people in need.
• Strengthen your relationship with Christ through Bible study and prayer.
• Make new friends and build lasting relationships with ABCRM mission team members and in-country people you meet.

Trip Requirements

• Age 18 or over
• In good physical condition if helping to build the clean water system
• Have teaching, story-telling, and/or crafts skills if helping with FLC or NLC projects
• Flexible and willing to try new things

April 19-25, 2009
ABCRM Mission Trip to Murrrow Indian Children's Home
Hosting Missionary: Joan Brown
Estimated cost per person: $225 (plus meals and incidentals)
Limit of mission team participants: 8
Trip application deadline: February 16, 2009
Contact Mission Leader-Jenita Calton (mjmjpack@vcn.com) for more information

Participants will have the opportunity to assist the Murrow Staff in providing for the spiritual, physical, and emotional need of the children by:

• Work to maintain the 17 acres Murrow is situated on.
• Assist with general building maintenance such as painting.
• Perform repairs and maintenance on tractors.

Participants will also be able to:

• Investigate the cultural heritage of Native Americans by visiting the local museums.
• Enjoy the beautiful wildflowers of Oklahoma at their peak.
• Strengthen your relationship with Christ by fellowshipping with other team members and the children at Murrow.

Trip Details

• Leaver early afternoon on Sunday, April 19 from ABCRM office
• Return late evening on Saturday, April 25
• 4.5 days to work on site

May 9-16, 2009
ABCRM Mission Trip to the Bahamas
Hosting Missionaries: Daniel & Estela Schweissing
Estimated cost per person: $1600
Limit of mission team participants: 6
Trip application deadline: February 9, 2009
Contact Mission Leader-Richard Schweissing (rschweissing@msn.com) for more information

Purpose:

Emmaus Haitian Baptist Church has only a sanctuary with a small crowded lean-to in the back. Children come to the after school program because their parents do not speak English and cannot help them. They must use the seats of the pews as desktops for writing.
Haitian immigrant women with noskills come to a sewing class and set up sewing machines on tables no larger than TV trays in the aisles. Estela and Daniel carry the equipment and supplies for both programs back and forthe from their residence each day.

The 2009 Bahamas Mission Trip will give you the opportunity to:

• Work with others to contstruct multi-use pews that can be converted to tables during the week for both seing classes and after school programs. If time permits cabinets will be contsructed for storage.
• Stretch your life to use your talents and abilities by helping people in need
• Strengthen your relationship with Christ through Bible study and prayer
• Make new friends and build lasting relationships with ABCRM mission team members and Haitian immigrants in the Bahamas
  

Trip Requirements

• Age 18 or over
• Able to do carpentry (building multi-use pews), staining, and/or job clean up tasks
• Flexible and willing to try new things

Watch for more experiences to come. ABCRM is hoping to travel on 5-6 mission experiences in 2009.

2009 Mission Experiences to be Announced at 2008 ABCRM Gathering

The ABCRM Missions Team will be announcing the 2009 ABCRM Mission Experiences at the 20008 ABCRM Annual Gathering in Cheyenne, WY. There will be two workshops centered around the ABCRM Missions Team and the workshop on Saturday morning will be the workshop that the 2009 trips will be announced. Please come join us for this amazing weekend in wonderful Wyoming. You can find more information at http://abcrm.org/2008gathering.htm. Come, enjoy the fun!

June 27-30 – ABCRM Bulgaria Mission Trip Project in Pleven and Bulgaria Sight-Seeing

After spending the previous five days in Guliantsi, early Friday June 27 the ABCRM Bulgaria mission team left our temporary Guliantsi Baptist Church home for the nearby city of Pleven to complete our last in-country project at an orphanage there. The many sunflower fields we passed along the way reflected the bright morning sun. What a beautiful sight!

Our Bulgaria mission team soon arrived at the Pleven orphanage, met the orphanage’s acting director, and started assembling the new playground equipment (paid for by ABCRM Bulgaria mission trip funds) and painting the orphanage’s fence. Thankfully, temperatures at the orphanage were a lot cooler than in Gulliantsi and we complete fence-painting by later afternoon.




Also, some of our mission team members enjoyed spending time with some of the kids who live at the Pleven orphanage. Although most of the children were away at a summer camp being held on the eastern shore of Bulgaria, the special-needs kids who needed to stay behind greeted us with big smiles and hugs. Although we didn’t share the same language, our mission team communicated with these kids through a language of genuine care and love for them.


Later on Friday after finishing our projects at the Pleven orphanage, the ABCRM Bulgaria mission team started the Bulgaria sight-seeing part of our trip by going with the Myers family, Katya, and Pepi to the central Bulgarian city of Veliko Tarnovo, a city that dates back to 300 BC and the medieval capital of Bulgaria. After staying overnight in 200-year-old house converted to an inn in the nearby village of Arbanassi, the mission team walked through the ruins of the Bulgaria fortress that was captured by Turkish Muslims on July 17, 1393, beginning the 500-year reign of Bulgaria by the Turkish Ottoman Empire until Bulgaria regained its independence in 1878. The view from the church built above the old fortress in the 1900’s gave the mission team a wonderful view of Veliko Tarnovo that may Bulgarians call the most beautiful city in Bulgaria.


On Saturday evening, we arrived back in Sofia from Veliko Tarnovo after making a visit to the small village of Etera with its many hand-made crafts shops, as well briefly stopping to see the beautiful “Shipka” Greek Orthodox cathedral at another place along the way. We now had only one full day left of our mission trip. It was amazing how quickly our time went by in Bulgaria!


Our last Sunday in Bulgaria was spent by first attending again the Sofia Baptist Church with the Myers family. Team leader Kerry Hassler briefly spoke to the congregation about our ABCRM mission trip, and extended greetings and prayers for the church’s well-being from fellow Christians in the Rocky Mountain Region. After the service, our mission team traveled with the Myers family to see one of the most popular sights in Bulgaria, the Rila Monastary, located in one of the highest mountainous areas of this country. First founded in the 10th Century, the monastery is a masterpiece of “Bulgarian national Revival architecture’, and still is an orthodox school of theology today. We ended the day with a a farewell party at the Myers home in Sofia, that also included Pastor Ivan and his family along with our dear friend, Katya. Our ABCRM mission team members will miss them all!


Early Monday, June 30, the Bulgaria mission team members flew from Sofia to return to the U.S. and (for some) other locations. Many thanks to the ABCRM mission team members who heard the message of “Been Called? GO!” and responded by participating in our region’s June 19-30 2008 Bulgaria Mission Experience. Thanks also to all those in the ABC Rocky Mountain Region who provided funding for the team’s Bulgaria in-country projects through “ABC Missions Basics” contributions from their respective churches Lastly, the mission team is indebted to ABCRM special-interest missionaries Tom and Terry Myers for coordinating and leading our June 19-30 ABCRM Bulgaria mission trip. It provided a wonderful mission experience for us all!

June 22-26 – ABCRM Bulgaria Mission Trip Experiences and Projects in Guliantsi

After traveling in two vans from Sofia to Guliantsi with the Myers family and Sofia Baptist Church member Katya Raichinova during the afternoon of Sunday, June 21, the ABCRM Bulgaria mission team met Pastor Ivan Vassileff, wife Teddi, and their children at the Guliantsi Baptist Church for the first time later that afternoon. We moved into our guest sleeping quarters in the upper levels of the church, prepared for the first day of Vacation Bible School on Monday, and helped celebrate Teddi’s birthday with cake and ice cream later that evening in the church sanctuary. It was a wonderful way to start our 5-day mission team’s stay in Guliantsi to do our VBS and work projects!

On Monday morning, we were happy to see that over 20 Roma Bulgarian kids from ages 4 through 14 showed up for our first Vacation Bible School class. We made out name-tags for the kids (and our mission team), Sherry and Karla took photos of each kid for the “flat Charlie” paper-doll craft they would make later in the week, and Katya began the first session by leading singing VBS-type songs that included kids and adults. Katya was fantastic at getting everyone energized through our singing!

Next, some of the mission team members did a skit for the kids about Jesus making his first disciples “fishers of men” using costumes brought from the Laramie Baptist Church VBS sessions, followed by a time for crafts and games. The first day’s VBS session ended around noon with Katya leading more singing with the kids, talking about God and lessons taught by Jesus, and then the kids were given a snack and fruit drink. This first day’s schedule of VBS activities would generally be followed through the rest of the VBS sessions ending on Thursday.

After enjoying lunch at a nearby Guliantsi restaurant, the Bulgaria mission team walked several blocks from the Guliantsi Baptist Church to the preschool where our schoolyard renovation project for them was done in the afternoons. These included putting together new playground equipment purchased for/delivered to the preschool using budgeted 2008 ABCRM Bulgaria mission trip project, and painting of the preschool’s playground equipment and fence using paint also purchased from these same ABCRM funds. Despite daily afternoon temperatures in the high 90’s, the mission team completed these projects with help from the Myers and Vassileff family members, Katya, several Guliantsi Baptist Church volunteers, teenager Chrisie who lived in Pleven, and the director of the preschool, Matzidana Dasuvosa. One of the Guliantsi Church volunteers “Emo” (who had his own construction business in Guliantsi) helped improve the preschool by replacing wooden playground benches. The completed painting made the playground look alive with color again, and we could see the kids were happy with the results. A local Guliantsi TV station brought a reporter and video cameraman to the preschool on Monday to write a news story about our ABCRM mission trip preschool project shown later that same day. We were told that many people in this town of about 5000 inhabitants were in general amazement that a Baptist mission team from America had come so far to improve a preschool and the Baptist church in their city.



The other main Bulgaria mission team’s project in Guliantsi was to improve the grounds of Pastor Ivan’s church by spreading gravel over the area used for car-parking. This was another task made more difficult by the high daily temperatures. With shoveling and raking contributions by Dwight, Kerry, Tom, AJ, Nathan, Pastor Ivan, Emo, and particularly Kent on our last day of this project on Thursday, we were able to finish this task from Tuesday through Thursday. Church visitors were now had a designated place to park their cars at the church.

The Guliantsi Baptist Church VBS sessions led by Katya continued through Thursday with puppet shows and skits involving the ABCRM mission team along with the Myer’s kids AJ and Nathan, and Vassileff family teenagers Pepie and Monie. During the middle part of the VBS daily sessions, the kids did new crafts and games provided by the mission team every day. These kids worked hard to complete their crafts with materials brought from ABCRM churches in Colorado and Wyoming. The kids especially enjoyed doing water-related games in the churchyard to cool off from the daily high temperatures. On Thursday morning, we held out last VBS class, and said good-byes to the kids we had gotten to know during the week. It was a sad parting for all of us!



On Thursday afternoon, we returned for the last time to the Guliantsi preschool several blocks from the Guliantsi Baptist Church to complete the painting of playground equipment and the preschool’s fence. The preschool’s director and staff thanked us all for our hard work put in since Monday in very hot temperatures by providing the team members with special Bulgarian food snacks and small gifts, as well as certificates (written in Bulgaria) for each member of our painting team and their respective home church. The director said she wanted to use our mission team’s project to encourage people living in Guliantsi to also do volunteer projects to help improve Guliantsi schools. We all saw how the newly-painted playground and fence sparkled as we left the preschool to walk back to the Guliantsi Baptist Church to spend our last evening there.


After having an evening meal at the Guliantsi Baptist Church with Pastor Ivan, the Vassileff family, Katya, and Emo, we gathered for our last evening fellowship in the church’s main meeting room. After singing several hymns simultaneously together in English and, we finished sharing our testimonies about how we became Christians and are now serving the Lord in various ways. It was especially interesting to listen to Pastor Ivan’s testimony about how he endured persecution as a Christian during the Communist time in Bulgaria, during which he lost his job as a farm manager because of his faith. The ABCRM mission team received gifts of gratitude from Pastor Ivan, and we closed by singing “Blest Be the Tie that Binds”. Tomorrow we’ll go to Pleven to do our last mission team work-project to paint a fence and assemble new playground equipment at an orphanage there. Our Bulgaria mission trip is almost over already!

June 20 and 21 -- First Two Days’ Experiences in Bulgaria with ABC-IM Missionaries Tom and Terry Myers

Greetings everyone from Bulgaria! The 6-person Bulgaria ABCRM mission team (Sherry Wilson and Karla Davis from FBC of Laramie, Kent Oakes from Calvary Baptist Denver, and Dwight and Aladine Neuenschwander and trip leader Kerry Hassler from FBC Boulder) arrived in Sofia midday on Friday, June 20 after flying from Denver the previous day. We were greeted at the Sofia airport by our hosts ABC-IM missionaries Tom and Terry Myers (ABCRM special-interest missionaries), who promptly took us to our Sofia hotel to get a few hours of immediate rest after our long 14-hour trip.

Later that evening, our mission team gathered at Tom and Terry’s home to sort out materials and puppets we brought along for the following week’s Vacation Bible School our team is helping to conduct at the Baptist Church in Guliantsi. The church is about 2 hours north of Sofia. The VBS will be taught along with Tom, Terry, AJ, and Nathan, and interpreter Katya Raichinova from the Sofia Baptist Church. We then enjoyed a delicious evening meal prepared by Tom and Terry before retiring early back at the hotel for a much-needed full night’s sleep.


On Saturday morning, June 21, the Bulgaria mission team was transported by Tom and Terry to the Sofia Baptist Church (the Myers’ family church) to meet Pastor Teddy Oprenov. Pastor Teddy showed the group the new 5-story Sofia Baptist Church building (still under construction) that will be used as a multi-functional facility for future church services as well as for community outreach purposes. It will house a medical/dental staff to provide free exams to the homeless, a high-tech Internet café, shops for in-need women who sell craft items for income, rentable business meeting rooms, and a computer training center to teach young unemployed Bulgarians the skills necessary to get jobs involving office computer applications.

After the mission team’s tour of the new facility, we talked with Pastor Teddy about details of this visionary $2 million project he has led for the past four years, along with his summary of Bulgarian Baptist Union’s history. It was truly amazing to learn how Pastor Teddy has combined his skills as a church-building planner and innovative pastor to create a new way to spread the Gospel of Christ that have never been seen before in Bulgaria.









On Saturday afternoon, Tom and Terry gave the ABCRM Bulgaria mission team a tour of downtown Sofia, including stops at the statue of Saint Sofia, the former Soviet headquarters during Communist rule, the current building housing offices of the President of Bulgaria, the National Arts Center, and the 1600-year-old St. George’s Orthodox Christian church. With Bulgaria being a member of the European Union (EU) since early 2007, the mission team saw examples of the many new buildings and municipal construction projects that have been stimulated by foreign investments now coming into Bulgaria. Although there are still many smaller cities in Bulgaria who are suffering from high unemployment in post-Soviet times, Sofia is rapidly evolving into a modern city comparable to other major cities in Europe.

On Saturday evening, our mission team again enjoyed sharing an evening meal in Tom and Terry’s home that was joined by Bulgaria ABC-IM missionary Susan Linderman. After eating, Tom shared with us how he and Terry had been called to their Bulgaria ministry in the mid-90’s after spending 18 years doing farming in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado. Susan (commissioned as an ABC-IM missionary in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in early 2006) also told us about her call to first be an English teach at the International Baptist Theological Seminary (IBTS) in the early 2000’s, and now her new ministry to help in-need women in Bulgaria. What wonderful servants of the Lord are Tom, Terry, and Susan!

On Sunday, June 22, our mission team will attend the Sofia Baptist morning worship service, and then travel by van to Gulliantsi to conduct June 23-26 morning Vacation Bible School sessions in support of Guliantsi Baptist Church under Pastor Ivan Vassileff and wife Tedi. During these afternoons, we’ll be putting together new playground equipment and painting existing equipment and a fence at an elementary school in Guliantsi. On Friday, the mission team will travel by van to the nearby city of Pleven to put together more new playground equipment for an orphanage there. A busy week lies ahead for our Bulgaria team!

Stay tuned for more ABCRM Missions Experiences Blog updates about our mission trip that will be sent from Bulgaria on June 29. Please keep the ABCRM June 19-30 Bulgaria mission team in your thoughts and prayers as we complete our upcoming projects on behalf of ABC-Rocky Mountain region churches and members.

Kerry Hassler
ABCRM Bulgaria Mission Trip Leader

Nicaragua Measure of Success

It is hard to measure success. In Nicaragua where everything you do requires that you solve a problem first or reschedule it for later, success is even harder to gauge. On April 13th, our Region mission team left to help build a church and school on the Mosquito Coast in a community called Kukra Hill. Kukra has a population of about 17,000, with very little industry, high unemployment, no running water or sewage, and very few prospects of a better future. The daily wage of a palm oil worker is about $1.25.

The mission team had three main tasks: to help build the church/school, to lead a Bible school program for children, and to teach adults in the evening. We were welcomed by Pastor Joel, the church planter and pastor of this new church, and Vital, our American Baptist missionary. Joel’s vision is built around the church, but it is aimed at empowering children with education and skills they will be able to use in the future. He is somewhat pessimistic about the ability of adults to change. So not only is the church new, but very young as well.

Although we were successful with all three of our missions objectives, other things emerged on the trip that became more important to us than the reason for being there.

One of the first was the emergence of a fellowship of Christians. The first couple of nights sleeping in a common room were a little stressful, but by the end of the week we could identify each other by our snores and steps. Soon we set aside all the triviality that we use to keep one another at arm’s length and began caring for each other. Soon we felt like a family. The sense that we were family gave us a unique ability to work together and to support one another. One could be passing cinder blocks to the one setting them on a scaffold or pouring water while one shampooed her hair. We miss that closeness in our sometimes busy society. A warm shower might have been an added comfort, but it was not really necessary.

On one of the nights, Joel showed a movie on the side of the house for anyone who wanted to watch. As it played on the green boards, no one seemed to be concerned about the quality of the picture or the plastic chairs, the heat, or the bugs. One tried to stay away from the fire ants, however. We were all enthralled in the moment, although most of us had seen the movie before. I doubt that I would have even considered watching a movie on the side of a house had I been stateside. I found myself wondering how much of my life is governed by distractions. There were no phones, TV, or internet. We did not have our cars to take us to the mall. There was no mall. There really wasn’t anything to buy. And yet we felt remarkably connected. I found myself wondering if the lack of distractions allowed our team to become more connected. No one complained that they missed any of the modern conveniences. Although I am sure that there were times when we all wanted to catch up on our e-mail.

You didn’t have to look hard to find a problem. I had the opportunity to visit other parts of Nicaragua after our team returned stateside. I found wide spread unemployment, poor health conditions, little hope for the future. I found myself thinking that I do not have problems. I have annoyances and speed bumps. Americans do not understand our connections to the rest of the world. When we enter into a recession, the rest of the world, especially impoverished countries, enter into a depression. They wait for us to recover because that indicates they will recover. It is in this arena or poverty and difficulty that our missionaries try to bring a message of grace, hope and future. It is surprising how well they do it.

Will the church and school be successful? Will the money that we poured into the project yield a return? A mission is an exercise in faith. We cannot measure it in the same way that we would one of our commercial ventures. I already see success, the success of love and hope. If that is all that I would ever see, that would be enough. However, I think that more is coming and I plan on seeing that as well. We have set the stage for success, because we have empowered others to teach, create, give, and make disciples. The way God works seems odd to us. God takes the collected efforts of a few and turns them into great things.

One of our team members said that this work was the first worthwhile thing he had done in a long time. In the heat and humidity, sweating profusely, and dirty, I sensed a deep meaning to what I was involved in building and teaching. I found myself rejuvenated and experiencing Christ again. Sometimes we get so bogged down in our very busy culture that the sense of Christ’s presence is lost. One of the ways I view mission is that it is a ‘reset; button on life. Missions have a way of resetting our priorities, revealing what is important, renewing our sense of direction and faith. The work at Kukra continues. Success was not that we went and completed an effort, but that we participated in something that will go on long after us. I was reminded of a comment on of my seminary professors made many years ago. “God did not call us to be successful. God called us to be faithful and to leave success to Him.”


John Turnage
Mission Trip Leader
First Baptist Church
Loveland, CO

2008 ABCRM Bulgaria Missions Team is Ready to Go!

Thanks to in-country planning by ABC-IM Bulgaria missionaries Tom and Terry Myers, a 6-person mission team from Colorado and Wyoming ABC churches is set to go on the June 19-30 ABCRM Bulgaria Mission Experiences trip. Shown in the photo L-R are mission team members Karla Davis (First Baptist-Laramie), Sherry Wilson (First Baptist-Laramie), Kent Oakes (Calvary Baptist-Denver), mission trip leader Kerry Hassler (First Baptist-Boulder), and Dwight and Aladine Neuenschwander (First Baptist-Boulder). Also shown on the right are Betty and Bill Moseley, parents of Terry Myers and the gracious hosts of the ABCRM Bulgaria mission team’s “pre-trip meeting” held on May 24 at American Baptist in Ft. Collins.

The Bulgaria mission team will first stay in Sofia from June 20-22 to meet Tom and Terry and talk with them about their Bulgaria ministries. They also meet Pastor Teddy Oprenov of the Sofia Evangelical Baptist Church (the Myers family home church in Bulgaria), and then tour the new SEBC church facility currently being built. After attending Sunday morning services at the current SEBC location, the mission team will help conduct morning Vacation Bible School classes and fun activities for Bulgarian children from ages 4-15 at the Guliantsi Baptist Church in northern Bulgaria from June 23-26. During the afternoons, the team will improve the grounds surrounding the Guliantsi Baptist Church by spreading gravel and making other improvements.

On Friday, June 27, the team will go to the nearby city of Pleven to make improvements to playground equipment at an orphanage for Bulgarian children of primary school age. The last days of the mission trip will be spent touring the historic Bulgarian city of Veliko Turnovo before returning to Sofia to attend Sunday services at the Sofia Baptist Church.

To pay for the cost of materials for the June 19-30 Bulgaria Missions Experience projects, ABCRM has provided $4400 to the Myers for use in buying project materials prior to the mission team’s arrival on June 20. These ABCRM funds are part of the total $25,000 funds designated in the 2008 ABCRM budget for in-country project costs for the 2008 ABCRM mission trips to Thailand, Nicaragua, Cambodia, and Bulgaria.

You may read about the experiences of the ABCRM Bulgaria mission team during their June 19-30 trip by reading updates posted on the “ABCRM Missions Experiences” blog at http://abcrmmissionexperiences.blogspot.com/. Please keep the Bulgaria mission team members who have answered the challenge of “Been Called? Go!” in your thoughts and prayers!
Kerry Hassler
Bulgaria Mission Team

Lending a Hand in Nicaragua

I had the privilege of going on a mission trip to Nicaragua sponsored by ABCRM this past April. The trip was led by Pastor John Turnage of Loveland and consisted of eight other members from Colorado ABC churches, including FBC Loveland, Calvary in Denver, FBC Colorado Springs, and my own church, American Baptist Church in Fort Collins.

The purpose of the trip was to help ABC missionaries Vital and Ketly Pierre, and their church, Bethel Baptist in Bluefields, with the construction of a multi-purpose building at a site in the town of Kukra Hill, where Bethel Baptist planted a new church in January 2007. Kukra Hill is about 17 miles north of Bluefields on the Caribbean Coast and accessible by boat on the Rio Escondido River.

The second purpose was to put on a Bible study for the children of the Kukra Hill Church and the community. Another important goal was to develop relationships with our missionaries, the parishioners of the Bluefields and Kukra Hill churches, and the Nicaraguan people.

It was hot and humid, and the work of masonry construction was hard and not the sort of work any of us was used to doing on a regular basis, but very rewarding. We made a large dent in the task of finishing the cement block and concrete beam walls. Better yet, we got to know our fellow Nicaraguan church member workers. Language was never a problem. Some in the group were bilingual and the rest of us found ways to communicate.

The three ladies in the group had a successful Bible school with the help of a wonderful lady named Alice from the Bluefield’s Church and Pastor Turnage, both of whom are bilingual. When they weren’t putting on the Bible school, the women helped with the construction.

My fondest memory of the trip was the rapport I experienced with my fellow team members and the Nicaraguan people. Our team meshed very well together and I found the Nicaraguans to be a very warm, friendly and inviting people. I believe that God will use the work we did and relationships we made to foster His purposes in Nicaragua. When the airplane wheels lifted off the tarmac at Managua on the trip home, a large part of me did not want to leave.

Bruce Nuttall
American Baptist Church
Fort Collins, CO

First Update from Nicaragua Mission Experience

Hi All,

We are back in Managua after 9 days in Bluefields and Kukra Hill, mostly in Kukra Hill. Conditions were pretty squalid in Kukra Hill- we were basically camping out in the church building. The work was very hard with humidity around 40-50% and temps in the 90-100 degree range. Rats and geckos in the rafters, chickens and scraggly dogs everywhere. Bugs had a feast on me the last few days. We were in Bluefields only a short time and there was no internet access at all in Kukra Hill. We could not get telephone service internationally there either.

Conditions were rough and remote but I love the people down here and I truly do not want to leave. The church members who we worked with and for are wonderful, humble, hard working people full of God’s grace. They will go far. If everyone from our churches had the opportunity to experience what I have experienced, they would have a much greater sense of urgency about the crucial importance of missions at all levels to the vitality of the Christian church. See you in a few days.

Peace,
Bruce
Member of Nicaragua Mission Trip