Based in Managua, reaching out to Nicaragua: Christ for the City International.
Empowering the local church through outreaches, leadership & pastoral training.
Meet the team and catch the vision for missions at CFCI-Nicaragua.
Based in Managua, reaching out to Nicaragua: Christ for the City International.
Have a wonderful Independence Day weekend!
Amber and I are going to enjoy our Saturday chillaxing at Laguna de Apoyo, a beautiful crater lake in Nicaragua. (We’ll snap some pictures for you.) We hope your 4th of July weekend is just as fun and relaxing. Shoot some fireworks for us!
Summer is here. And that means the summer tsunami of mission teams! This month, read about swimming, splashing, and silliness on the Seacoast 20-somethings mission trip; the national medical outreach in Nicaragua’s sugarcane country; a big answer to prayer regarding the Nueva Imagen sponsorship program; a Medical Interpreters Workshop; an adoption update; plus more praise reports and prayer requests. As you can see, the tsunami is already here! Thanks for checking out the June edition of Field Notes.
Thank you for reading –- and thank you for supporting the ministry! Que Dios le bendiga.
[Note: If you would like to receive our monthly newsletter via email, please email me to let me know.]
Yesterday I posted pictures from my week with the Seacoast 20s mission team in Nicaragua; today I want to briefly tell you about the amazing week of ministry. Here’s a day-by-day recap…Twitter style (that is, 140 characters or less, per day). Ready…Set…Go!…
This doesn’t cover everything (actually, it’s only a snippet!), but I’m learning to practice what I preach to mission teams and others. That is, use the the Five B’s of Public Speaking…and Blogging: Be Brief, Baby, Be Brief! So to make a short story a little bit longer, I’ll just say that it was an amazing week. I’m grateful to the Seacoast team and all of the Nicaraguan families and volunteers who touched our hearts this week. Most of all, I’m thankful to God for all He’s doing in Nicaragua!
(To the eleven awesome team members from Seacoast, if you have any reflections from the week to share — in 140 characters or less! — please share!)
I’m sorry it’s taken me all week to blog on the recent “Seacoast 20-somethings” mission trip. I’ve been a little under the weather…plus trying to catch up on all of the admin work I got behind on at the office. If it’s OK with you, I’m going to take one more day to rest up and get well before I get some thoughts down on paper relating to the trip. In the meantime, here are some pictures from the week in Villa El Carmen and Managua. Enjoy.
Ellen is a short-term missionary serving with us in Nicaragua. Recently, she lead a leadership training course for the Nueva Imagen leaders. Amber was so impressed — as was I when she told me about the day — that we asked Ellen to share her thoughts on the experience:
I recently had the privilege of facilitating leadership training to the leadership team of one of the Christ for the City’s ministry partners, Nueva Imagen, or New Image. The ministry is in a time of transition and there is no better time than now for the leaders of the ministry to be completely empowered to make their vision for the ministry come into action. The training must still be running in my head because I am still using a lot of the key language from it! The four components of leadership we discussed were Vision, Communication, Empowerment, and ACTION! I am anticipating what it is God will do through this ministry and these women as they are preparing themselves to act.
The day was wonderful, and although I was facilitating the training, I learned quite a bit myself during it. We traveled out to a pineapple farm in Ticauntepe for the day. Although traffic slowed us down and messed with our logistical plans for our arrival and muddy roads combined with water puddles that could be mistaken for small ponds all provided obstacles, we all arrived in one piece with smiles. It was hard to step out of the car and not feel surrounded by God’s presence and peace as I observed the beauty of mountains covered in pineapple plants. I felt God warm my heart and reassure me that the day was in God’s hands.
We began the day with a brief meditative worship session in a small ranchero overlooking the farm. We all shared the things we were thankful for, took quiet time to ask God to remove any obstacles keeping us from God, and prayed that God would prepare each of our hearts completely for ministry. We then moved into learning about the four key components of leadership and how they directly applied to moving forward with Nueva Imagen. As the women were sharing their vision for the ministry I was blown away by their hearts for serving women who are currently working in the sex industry. It is clear that their hearts have each been broken by something that has broken God’s heart and they have been filled with God’s restorative love to bring each of God’s sheep into the fold. When the day was over and we were heading home I knew the women realized they now had a lot on their to-do lists to accomplish, but that with God’s direction and love, mountains can move. I have been honored and humbled to see a pocket of God’s work in motion through the restoring work Nueva Imagen is actively doing in the world. As Matthew 6:10 reads: “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” God’s Kingdom is visible on earth and can be seen in glimpses through the loving hearts of the women of Nueva Imagen.
It was a day I won’t forget as I reflect on my time with Christ for the City: a day mixed with laughter, learning, games, challenges, relationship building, flat tires, muddy roads, and ultimately a day that God worked within each of our hearts to build the capacity of Nueva Imagen.
May was a fun month! We took a short but sweet trip to the States, Amber and the Nueva Imagen leaders learned about vision casting, and progress was made on the adoption front (at least we’re one month closer to getting Baby Babcock!). Now we’re gearing up for the summer tsunami of short-term mission teams — beginning next week with the Seacoast 20-somethings team and a national medical outreach. Read our latest news, praise reports, and prayer requests in the May edition of Field Notes.
Thank you for reading –- and thank you for supporting the ministry! Que Dios le bendiga.
[Note: If you would like to receive our monthly newsletter via email, please email me to let me know.]
I am so excited about what God is doing!
As you probably know by now, I serve with a Christ for the City partner ministry called Nueva Imagen. Nueva Imagen reaches out to women working in the commercial sex industry in Managua. The ministry is going through a major transition period. Helen Goatley, the ministry’s founder, returned to her native New Zealand earlier this month. Nueva Imagen is also going through a physical transition period: we moved out of our former building to a new one that we can use rent-free. The idea is to have as little overhead as possible, focusing on building structure into the ministry, forming the leadership team and a work plan for the women. God has graciously and miraculously provided us with a location to meet for as long as we need it — until Nueva Imagen has its own ministry center.
Ellen Ranson is a short-term missionary in Nicaragua. She has been here since January, helping with Nueva Imagen. She has been an amazing asset to the team and has a passion for working with the women. Earlier this week, Ellen facilitated a leadership training workshop for the Nueva Imagen leadership team. All of us — myself included! — came away with new tools and insights for the ministry. Specifically, we learned the four components of leadership:
Ellen led us in an activity called “the vision tree” where we expressed our ideas about what Nueva Imagen’s vision is and should be. Then we thought about the resources we have — and the ones we will need — to achieve that vision. We realized that we need to start communicating the vision and offering sensitivity training to local churches. We are going to start the action portion of Ellen’s leadership workshop next week.
[Ellen and the Nueva Imagen leaders: Reina, her baby Tania, Xiomara, Hellen, and Amber.]
Nueva Imagen’s vision is to provide holistic attention to women transitioning from one lifestyle to a new life in Christ. But we need partners to make that vision reachable.
Please pray about giving to the Nueva Imagen ministry.
Your gifts will help sponsor women while they are in the rehabilitation process. Your support will cover food and basic needs for the ladies and their children, discipleship, job training, seminars on how to manage their finances, medical attention, spiritual attention and inner healing. Also, the gifts will pay for supplies for the weekly Bible study, support for Xiomara (who left prostitution 8 years ago, has been transformed, and now has a calling to reach out to women on the street!), legal fees (as we try to have the ministry recognized as a nonprofit by the Nicaraguan government), gas (so that we can make home visits), special events (such as birthdays and Mother’s Day), and all other operating expenses.
If you feel led to partner with Nueva Imagen, please visit CFCI’s online giving page or mail your donations to the address below, specifying “Nicaragua Nueva Imagen Project”:
Christ For the City International (CFCI)
PO Box 390395
Omaha, NE 68139-0395
Thank you for your prayers and support for the women of Nueva Imagen!!!
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