Georgia volunteers in Nicaragua
Anyone who has participated in a short-term mission team knows the way God can unify diverse personalities and gifts in pursuit of his purposes. This usually is more dramatic when the mission is to a remote location complicated by language and cultural barriers. The team of Middle Georgia Methodist missionaries who spent January 28th through February 4th in Leon, Nicaragua came together in service and song.
Twenty members from nine different Middle Georgia United Methodist churches made up the team that served people of poverty-stricken Leon, Nicaragua. The Rev. Bill Huddle, pastor of the Dixon UMC, and his wife Terry, assisted by the Rev. Whit Kirkland, pastor of the Jeffersonville UMC, led the team. The Rev. Sam Lamback, pastor of Park Memorial UMC was the third clergy member.
for more about this awesome trip, click 'comment' below.
posted by UMVIM at 4:52 AM
1 Comments:
Preparation began many months prior to develop various sub-teams for ministry: A VBS team presented songs, puppet skit, crafts, and games at four different schools plus a Catholic orphanage. An agriculture team prepared a sizeable garden plot at one remote school to help feed the children and provide supplemental income. A construction team began the addition of a classroom onto the Pablo Morales rural school. A medical team led by Dr. John Atkinson of Vineville UMC provided medical supplies and worked with a local physician to provide a community clinic at a rural school. Members served in one or more sub teams as the needs required.
The El Ayudante (“the Helper”) mission agency hosted the team at their compound in the Leon area. This innovative ministry based in Jackson, Tennessee includes guest houses and cafeteria for mission teams plus a clincic, workshops, and a Child Protection Center (CPC) that presently houses twenty young children. The Reverend Omar Alvarado, administrator, coordinates ministry with and for the churches and institutions of the area.
On the first morning after our arrival our team traveled with the children of the El Ayudante CPC to a local church for worship. Team members sang and shared greetings and testimonies with the congregation. It was a spirited beginning of a week of work and fellowship in the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
Two particularly emotional experiences highlighted the week. One was the feeding ministry for poor families in a squatter community adjacent to the Leon city landfill. These are people who subsist by foraging in the refuse of the city. A second memory was an outdoor assembly of children of the Masaya country school at the end of our visit. Their principal led them in singing to us the Nicaraguan national athem. Spontaneously our team answered with a heartfelt rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner.” All of us sensed at that moment a compelling love for God and country as we sensed the unity of spirit and hearts in that faraway land.
Bobby Gale, Unto the Least of His Ministries
Post a Comment
<< Home