An Unexpected Turn of Events

"Noooo.  Not now, not now, LORD!" There was one more day of the conference. The morning session was to teach the pastors how to use Bible stories to communicate spiritual truths. The afternoon was going to be a commissioning time, where each pastor would be prayed over and sent back to their village with a new charter for relationships, intentional leadership, and a toolbox of ideas to teach their churches like Jesus taught his disciples. And, also to teach others to do the same, in a reproducible process.  

"LORD, I can't miss that!"

But the signs were unmistakable. Chills (in the Tropics!). Stabbing head pain. The Big "D". A spectacular "T".  (I'll spare you the details.)  I would be no more capable of leading our group than pole-vaulting to the Moon.

Fortunately, Steve had been doing so well leading big portions of the prior sessions that I knew the pastors would be served well even with my chair being empty  In fact, it was a vivid example of something we taught them yesterday, asking who would lead their church if they got sick and could no longer function in that role. (Our other team members teased me about the notion of contriving an illness to make the point!)

As it turned out, the pastors in our group *were* served well today. When Steve came to check on me at lunchtime, he brought a joyful report that, "They got it!" Each of them had been able to practice telling a story to explain a spiritual concept. There was even an example where Steve was inspired to use Jesus' story of the Lost Sheep to answer a pastor's question about how to deal with a man who had left the church because of hurtful words someone had said to him.

Mid-afternoon, the door to our impromptu infirmary opened.  (This was our cabin, where Nathan and I were both recovering from Nicaraguan maladies. Let me take a moment to express thankfulness for the "infirmary staff" -- team members who stopped by as often as possible to check on us and make sure we had every necessity. Chuck deserves special mention in this regard, modeling servanthood in his inimitable fashion.) Steve's report of the final commissioning time was very encouraging. The pastors gratefully received the Bibles we brought for them inside some extra luggage. In our group, only two of the pastors had a full Bible when he came to the conference, and neither of them were very good. At the conference end, they were all able to take very good study Bibles home to their respective communities.

Yesterday I joked that Steve was doing so well leading his assigned sessions, I could just go home and let him bring it in for a landing by himself. I didn't think God would take me literally! Although I missed directly participating in the last day of the conference, I was able to vicariously attend through Steve's vivid descriptions.

I get to come home tomorrow knowing that ministering will never be the same for over a hundred pastors and other ministry workers in Nicaragua. And, if they follow the "reproducible process" part of discipleship, who knows how many others will benefit into the future?

With God's help and the faithful prayers of our supporters back home, we were able to make a positive difference in Nicaragua despite the challenges. I am very grateful for the privilege of having played a part!

-- John Harms  :-)

Making a Difference

I'll have to admit that I was a bit skeptical when the notion of a pastor/elder mission trip to Nicaragua came up.  What in the world did we have to offer these Nicaraguan pastors?  Some high-minded advice from rich American gringos who didn't even speak the local language?  For only three days? It seemed like a big waste of time and resources.  Right?

I was wrong.  We *are* making a positive difference -- a big one, as best I can tell.

Our presence has created a compelling event -- enough to inspire many pastors from the whole region to come to the conference. (In some cases, it included surmounting great travel hardships even before the bus breakdown.)

The most important things they are learning are some important and essential truths about Christianity.  But along the way, they are also learning some "cool" new tools (not sure how "cool" might translate into Miskito).  For example, today we showed them the Bridge diagram as a way to explain the Gospel to someone.  They had never seen it before, and were excited to get it.  Of course, we had to adapt it to a culture where paper may be completely unavailable in a small village.  (What, no Starbucks napkin to draw on?)  I described how they could draw the bridge in the dirt with a stick if needed, and they can verbally share the relevant Bible verses as appropriate.

They got it -- their mental light bulbs could almost illuminate the room!  In fact, they understood just about everything we we were trying to teach, including the wheel diagram showing the stages of Christian maturity, and how useful it can be to understand where someone is on that scale -- to best know how to help them along on their spiritual journey.

We are making a positive difference, despite the language challenges, the relatively brief time period, and the cross-cultural adjustments.  Our group has told us several times already how much they appreciate us coming all the way from Oregon to teach them these things.

There is still one more day, and it has already been worth the price of admission!  :-)

-- John Harms

P.S. My large-group story presentation went well, IMHO.  Thanks for your prayers!

Photos from Thursday - and Lynn's amazing storytelling

Here are some photos of our small groups!  God is doing amazing work in and through these pastors, and He's also using our team in great ways.  It is such an honor to serve with the men I am with, and it's been a life-changing experience to see God in these Nicaraguan pastors.  I also added two photos of Lynn King doing an absolutely extraordinary job as a storyteller tonight.  The last photo is Lynn describing Saul's encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus.  I don't ever recall seeing someone teach at a church service while lying on the floor.  It was an amazing story followed by an amazing testimony!

Lynn King - storytelling tonight at Verbo Church

Lynn King - storyteller extraordinaire; Saul on the road to Damascus

A greeting to CR from Pastor Marty and friends!

A quick clip with Pastor Bill at Austin's Farm.  GREAT DAY!

AMAZING FIRST DAY!


It didn't start out that way.  Right after breakfast a monsoon hit our location with sheets of rain pelting the tin roof of our our eating area.  We were all hesitant to make the trek to Verbo Church so we tried to wait out the rain until the last possible minute.  I carried my gear/books with me under my armpit to shield them from the rain with a lot of success!!  Unfortunately, when we reached the church a pad lock and chain were around the front gate... so PB and I went across the street to find some cover... it defintely damped my spirits but that didn't last long.  Once the gates at Verbo were opened, our team pushed through with our purpose and began our conference with the pastors from the Rio Coco.  We worshipped, met with each other, and grew in our relationships very quickly!  Steve and I met with 6 pastors in a small group and began talking out our relationship through dicipleship.  Our talk began with a small story of my testimony and how I came to know Steve.  We also spoke of our farming background which seemed to resonate with our group.  Please pray for group - Ramon, McDavis, Juram, Ricardo, Roland, Olegario, and our interpreter Amil as we meet again today. 

Our interpreter Amil is a Verbo missionary who farms rice with some of the villages on the Rio Coco.  He is a very charismatic guy who has a deep passion for sharing Christ.  Steve and I are very thankful to have him in our group.  He has the task of basically speaking all day... all the time.  Pray that God gives him strength.

My Group the first day

It's Thursday morning and I wanted to share some of my thoughts on my first day of the conference with my group after a good night's sleep and some processing time with the team.

My group comes from a small community two days journey down the Rio Coco to PC. They came by foot and by boat staying in people's homes along the way.  I started in the morning with five men:

Antonio the head pastor of a church of 30 members, his two faithful leaders Gorge and Thomas, a young man named Santos and a man who drove the boat named Juan. 

All but the younger man who is 18 had large families of 8 to 13 children with ages ranging from 2 to 29. They are farmers raising food to feed their families.

I was immediately impressed by their warmth and friendliness.  As we started with a time to get to know each other I realized that I was in a very special group that represented all stages of spiritual maturity. Juan wasn't a follower of Jesus, Santos was a new follower of 2 months and the other three men were more mature followers of a decade or more.

Also I was blessed with a wonderful translator who was very fluent in Mosquito, Spanish and English made a very difficult and problematic communication process so much easier (it was still hard, nonetheless).

In the morning until noon we laid the groundwork for discipleship and I felt we made good progress in getting to know each other although I sensed that the group was reluctant to reveal very much about themselves.

After lunch we dove into some of the most difficult part of the conference where we presented and discussed the various stages of spiritual growth (what we refer to as the "Wheel" because it is represented as circle diagram).  I could tell that my group, which after lunch was reduced by two - Santos and Juan, was beginning to experience a bit of fatigue and info overload.  Also, teaching Socraticly through questions is not an established skill for me so as the afternoon progressed I slipped more and more into a "talking head".  Not good, in fact, when Marty came by to see how I was doing I immediately got defensive and without him saying anything I blurted out "I'm doing too much teaching but I don't know how else to do this".  Oh boy...

The plain fact of the matter is that we are working across a gulf of language, culture, education and experience and we need to depend moment by moment, word by word and question by question on the Holy Spirit.  And through this we learn in a fresh new way the truth that in our weakness we are strong.

So as I begin a new day I look forward to the Lord to work through my weakness - "Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord".

Thank you for all your prayers, we need them!