Walakitang Update…

     We drove up to Jinotega to meet with Pastor Victor Nieves yesterday from Walakitang.  Our meeting was delayed a month because he had chopped his hand with a machete and wasn’t able to travel on the river for the the two days it takes to come out, because when you ride on a boat they expect you to help with the guide sticks and oars.  Because we have no ability to contact them on a daily basis we had begun to worry.  So, we were happy to hear from him when he called out of the blue on Sunday.  His hand was healed for the most part, but still in pretty bad shape.  We prayed for God’s healing before we left.

We had a nice time meeting and catching up.  Everything seems to be going well in Walakitang.  He came out with another church member Felix.  We shared stories and heard about how the church is doing in Walakitang and other church plants in Lakusta and Xixiaris.  Things are going well, but slow moving.  These communities are small so there is the frustrating experience for Victor of having people come and go from the church pretty regularly, but things are good.  In these early years for Victor as pastor it is just good to be there consistently with people and visit them.  He is doing well.

Felix organizes soccer and baseball teams for the church and tournaments in the community which is a great ministry outreach, for me it was good to hear about the sports ministry…I love sports.  We also had a friend recently donate some money specifically for Walakitang so we got to decide how to use it.  We paid for two cows that the church slaughtered for Christmas Feasts in Walakitang and Xixiaris….hundreds of people were blessed by that.  We gave money to help build a house for a widow named Latina who has been on Victors heart for a while now as well to do reparations to the co pastor Jorge’s house who has been in a very bad situation for a couple years now.  We bought three Miskito Bibles and a soccer ball to send back with them as well.  Also, sadly a young woman passed away on her way to the hospital recently in Lakusta.  She was part of the church there and her family is having a difficult time, as you can imagine.  We were able to give an offering to help them with the expenses of funeral and burial costs.  It was a hard story to hear, they brought out a picture of her.  It was a joy to be able to bless different people from the church.

When we were in Miami Krista and I bought some spanish study Bibles and I had given most of them away already, but I had two left.  When we were going to meet with Victor I remembered the Bibles, a nice Thompson Study Bible and a youth study Bible.  So I brought them to give to Victor & Felix.  They were very excited about the gift!  It was very cool to see their excitement to recieve the Word of God.  They really cherish being able to have a Bible.  Victor immediately began to tell us about a dream he had just had about being in a field and a soldier approached him with a firearm, he wasn’t attacking him but giving him the firearm.  Victor said he didn’t understand until this moment.  He now had his weapon….the Word of God.  That was encouraging for us to hear.

It was a really refreshing meeting for us.  It was nice to spend time with Victor.  He said that everyone in Walakitang keeps asking when we will come back with a team.  We are trying to figure that out.  Michael Perkins has one planned for November, but we are praying about a trip before then.  We shall see, we will be meeting with Victor again in July.  Please keep praying for the church in Walakitang, for our future plans, for Pastor Victor and for all the members of the churches along the Rio Coco!