Dear Friends,
It has been an exciting time for all of us here with E.M.I. in
Nicaragua. We have seen God open the windows of heaven and pour out
His blessings upon this ministry.
We have had many groups from the States down. In October 2007 we
had a new group from North Carolina. It was their first time to
visit Nicaragua. That same group and others came back this year in
February. In all we were able to distribute over $3000 worth of food
to the church members from our four churches. Knowing the difficult
economic situation that this country is in, it was a tremendous
blessing to all that gave and to all that received. Of course, we
all know it is more blessed to give than to receive. If you or
someone you know is interested in bringing a group down please
contact the home office at 205-646-0808.
We had a group of men that came in January and February to help
us build Sunday school rooms for the churches in La Reforma, Buena
Vista and El Quebracho. Our Sunday school program is growing to the
point where we need more space to divide out the classes. That is a
problem that we hope we will always have. We are so thrilled to see
how God is adding to the churches not only with buildings but more
importantly with people being saved.
Last year God blessed us by allowing us to see more than 50 souls
saved from all of our churches. Many of those were baptized in
October and others were baptized in January. Just this year we have
already seen 6 men and women saved. In La Reforma Pastor Luis held a
3 day kids retreat in February. Each day we averaged around 100
children. The best of all of this was that 12 children made
professions of faith.
In result of these precious souls being saved we have seen our
churches growing both in number and spiritually. There was a time
when you would only see women and children in church but thank the
Lord we are now seeing more men get involved. I am just so thankful
and excited to see how God is blessing this ministry. Please
continue to pray for 2 more pastors.
On February 3, 2008, we experienced one of the greatest joys that
you could experience in a ministry. After a two year intense study
we had 6 students to graduate from our very own Living Water Bible
Institute. This institute had been a dream of Dr. Baker, Bro.
Harrelson, I and others for some time now. We have 5 new students
that just started this year and 7 that are continuing from last
year. So from now on we will have graduation ceremonies each year.
WHAT A BLESSING!
The purpose of the Bible Institute is to put these people to work
in this ministry. Many of them are already involved in their church
teaching Sunday school, preaching, church leadership or going out
evangelizing. Another way that we have been able to use them is in
teaching in the public schools. As I have said before, the doors to
the schools are wide open for us to teach the Gospel. We currently
have 6 people going into the public schools. I am so excited to
think of all the schools that we will be able to reach as we have
more people to help us. It is an awesome feeling to literally be
begged to teach in the schools. We are covering 10 schools at the
present time. We have the opportunity to go into 86 schools. Thank
you so much for your prayers. We are encouraged because we know God
is answering our prayers and is providing the help we need to get
the Gospel out.
The last few months we have had the opportunity through Global
Impact to give out schools supplies such as globes, maps, text
books, and many other things to all the schools in this area, which
has allowed us the opportunity to work with the Superintendent of
Diriamba on a weekly basis. You must know that she is a devout
Catholic. In fact, if you visit her house you will see a note on the
door that she is Catholic and does not want to be bothered. However,
last week as we were traveling to a far away school some other
ladies and I took the opportunity to talk with her about Christ. We
asked the simple question, "If you were to die today, where would
you go?" She was speechless and just bowed her head in shame. She
said nobody has ever put it to her like that. We spent almost an
hour just talking to her about the Lord and how we can have that
assurance of where we will go when we die. For the first time, I
know she was really thinking about what we were saying. I invited
her to go to church with me on Sunday and Praise God; she went and
has promised to go with me this Sunday and to bring her husband.
Just to show you how great our God is, the message Sunday was "Jesus
Christ Paid the Price for our Sins." Is God working in her life? You
better believe it. I ask you to please lift her, Nohelia, up in
prayer. We will all rejoice when she gives her heart to Christ.
For some time now we have been praying for a well for the
community in La Reforma. The only water supply this community has is
the nearby creek. We have attempted twice to dig a well by hand but
with no success. A friend of the ministry made a contact with
another ministry out of Georgia that digs wells with a machine. We
currently have 2 guys digging this well. Please pray that water will
be found. As soon as water is found in La Reforma then they have
agreed to dig a well for the local orphanage that has to go weeks at
a time without water. After that then they will be coming to our
compound and digging the mission a well. Please pray that water will
be found at all these places.
We continue to feed around 200 children a day in our feeding
kitchens. We still have around 25 children in need of a sponsor. We
praise the Lord for all the children that have been blessed through
this program. We thank each one of you for helping to make a
difference in the life of a child. If you or someone you know would
be interested in sponsoring a child for $35 a month please contact
Martha S. Harrelson at Rmsharrelson@aol.com or 205-646-0808.
We continue to have our clinic open 5 days a week. We know that
many of you have labored with us to see that this clinic stays open
and taking care of the needs of these people. We have a local
dentist helping us now. We are so thankful for those that helped us
raise the money to buy all the dental supplies that was needed.
It is an awesome thing to see God working in our lives each day,
God has answered so many of our prayers and we give Him all the
Glory and the Honor. Words could never express to you how grateful I
am for your prayers and your faithful support for this ministry.
There is not a day go by that I don’t need your prayers. I know
without a doubt that your prayers are what have kept me going. I ask
you to continue to pray without ceasing for me and this ministry. We
know that we "wrestle not with flesh and blood…" but we also
know that "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man
availeth much".
Following, you will find many kids that need your help. I ask you to prayerfully
consider becoming a “Parent” to at
least one of these children. Each one of our children in this
program has met all the rules and regulations necessary. One of
those rules is that they have to continue being faithful to church
and their parents must come with them.
Eliezer Dionicio lopez Jimenez
Elisa del Carmen Quiroz
Jose Cristobal Alvarez Ramos
Jose Manuel Arias Garcia
.JPG)
Kevin Alejandro Rios Arias
Arturo Manuel Espinoza Puerto Faitma de los
Angeles
Miriam Anies Arias
Zulma Del Carmen Aragon Chavez
