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Here are our prayer letters that we write every three months. If you are not on our email list and would like to receive these letters, please sign up today. Enjoy reading!
March 2008
Driving out of our front gate, I saw 17-year-old Garner waiting for me in front of his home. I was going to pay scholarships in some of the rough areas of Managua and had asked him if he would like to work for the day as my helper which entails watching the car while I go into the schools, asking for directions to actually find the schools and just being a bodyguard for me since I am carrying around quite a bit of money. I don't mean to make it sound that rough because I have always felt quite safe. Many of these neighborhoods have reputations, and even the folks that live in them whose children I am giving scholarships to have warned me to be careful. So that is how Garner came to be with me that day. We started out talking about sports, school and his family. After a pause in the conversation, he turns and says, "Amanda, three more accepted last night." For a moment I was confused -accepted what? And what was going on last night? He proceeded to tell me that a bunch of the youth had been at church last night, and three more guys had accepted Jesus Christ. I was ecstatic and even more so when he told me their names. One of the young guys is the goalie on Thomas' soccer team. And all three of them have attended our youth nights in the past.
When I asked Garner if he had accepted Christ, he admitted that he had not but that he was going to church with the guys. I drove in silence for awhile just thanking God for His faithfulness. When we started the youth program back in 2006, we were amazed at the turnout. And the youth kept coming each Friday night. However, last summer we had to stop for awhile because of our trip to the States. Then the other couple that was involved with us also went to the States, then Samantha was born and needless to say it was getting harder to faithfully continue the youth nights. We did put on our annual Christmas dinner, and over 60 youth showed up. Hearing Garner talk about the guys going to a local church made me so excited. We never wanted to take the place of the local church, and if anything we encouraged the youth to find a church where they could attend. However, many of the local churches tend to be quite legalistic, and I was concerned that the youth would not consider going.
As Garner and I talked that day, I found out about a number of other guys who have made decisions for Christ and are going to various churches in the area. We definitely hope to continue our youth program; we are excited about the fact that we have a couple from Washington who have worked in youth ministry joining our ministry in June for two years.
At the sports center we are continuing work on the baseball field and on the covered basketball court. Thomas has taken on coaching a soccer team made up of youth from the neighborhood around the sports center. We have had three different teams so far this year, and they have helped us put on a sports camp, pack up and give away 400 backpacks, give sewing classes, run a girls' Bible camp, put on a couple of youth nights, provide teacher training workshops and much, much more. Samantha has thoroughly enjoyed all the different people that continue to come and go around here!
Seeking Him for life,
See more pictures of Samantha.
"dale una luz a los que aman tanto vivir en Nicaragua."
~ Guardabarranco (Nicaraguan duo)