Nicaragua final thoughts

What a trip! It was an action packed, high energy week that should yield much fruit in God´s Kingdom. One of the pastors from southern Nicaragua really stood out. He told us he was grateful for the things he learned and he pledged to us that he would pass it on to others.

At the close of the conference yesterday we gave the participants an opportunity to come forward to make a commitment to the Lord to become a multiplier. The response was amazing!

This morning everything came together for Manuel. The timing was impecable. We met Manuel yesterday afternoon when he carried our bags to the thrid floor of the hotel. Our friend Ron sowed the good seed yesterday and some must have lodged in Manuel´s heart. This morning Manuel was not working and he was walking down the street in front of the hotel and he saw us sitting on the front porch. He came and sat down in the only empty rocking chair in our circle. After some small talk I opened my Spanish Bible and let him read some key verses. After a few minutes of interaction, he said he was ready to trust the Lord. We saw it happen before our eyes...one plants, someone else waters, but God gives the increase. It was a fitting end to a remarkable trip in this beautiful country.

Nicaragua Team Update #4-Photos

Nicaragua Team Update #3

More from Karen Kenney on the Nicaragua trip, "Truly love in any language! The food is incredible, the people beautiful!

Yesterday the morning we went to the mens prison LaModelo. There GHO Prison Fellowship Nicaragua and Prison Fellowship International as well as DownLine was represented and well received in a joint effort to minister to the inmates the guards and leadership there. We met Mon Senor Pena. The preist at the prison- burdened for the inmates and commited to bringing peace, bible teaching and reconciliation to them as they pay restitution for the crimes they have committed.
After lunch we visited the dump and were very moved by families children and animals living there. We went to La Chureca and saw the crime prevention center that provides childcare for mothers working on the streets.

Last night Javier an amazing atty. with Prison Fellowship. Set up a meeting with the board for GHO Ron Brown and Rolando of PFN as well as Pepper, Ashley and I to discuss the relationship and future plans to bring future medical dental campaigns and discipleship to the Prisons and Nicaragua.

This morning Pepper Ashley Rolando and I met our translator Erica and went up to the House of Hope. We met with April - the Paul there. And her Timothys. Pepper shared the Great Commission and Ashley followed with taking the women leaders through Multiplication. We had a sweet time of prayer and encouragement. Then a tour of the grounds. They minister to 510 women and girls in prostitution and have about 30 mothers and children that live there go to school and receive vocational training and bible teaching. They also have 30-40 little girls rescued from the streets and prostitution that have left there families and are solely in the care of House of Hope. Wow what a responsibility.

Ashley and I were talking about how protected and blessed our children are. It is nothing we could have ever imagined. This afternoon we drove ip to Jinotega where they will hold the pastor conference for the next day and a half.

Tonight we had dinner with one of the pastoral leaders and a few pastors. Earnesto the leader who helped organize the conference asked me so many questions to so Many things we take for granted. He has a heart for his people and for God. I explained what Downline means and how it will be taught through Matt 28 and 2 Tim 2 tommorrow. I connected him with Pepper and began praying for him.

I remember Brother Herb saying we may go with big plans and lots of purpose in our own mind but sometimes we may go for ONE man. Earnesto may truly be that ONE man!

Pray for him and the other pastors tommorrow. I asked him about his discipleship he does in his church and it is 4 sessions. Confirm belief in Christ, teach them what Holiness means, teach them consequences if they go back to their sin, then baptize them. That's it they are done. So gently I encouraged him to pray about taking that further and that we are here to help them and encourage them to follow Jesus example with the disciples and the Great Commission. He was so receptive and eager. Pepper is an annointed leader and teacher. It will be a great day tommorrow.

I could go on and on about all that is happening here but tommorrow will bring a whole new day. Just rejoice in what the Lord is doing and know that all of you at Downline and our families at home have invested well in the lives of so many through the vision and strategy and willingness to go and to send out teams. Bless your staff, students, alumni and financial supporters!!! Thank you so much for allowing me to be apart of it!"

Nicaragua Team Update #2

Our brothers from

GHO and Prison Fellowship Nicaragua and Prison Fellowship International. (rt to left Ron Brown, Rolando and Aklilu) They have worked diligently to pave the way.

Nicaragua Team Update

DownLine has a team currently serving in Nicaragua. Below are selections from the emails we have received.

Karen Kenney says, "It is incredible the work begun here and the efforts of so many here working to change lives and future generations through the gospel through medicine and discipleship.
Though we came to serve and bless we have been served and blessed so much ourselves.
Today we went to the mens prison and began footwork for next years visits with GHO as well as DL. We visited a crime prevention center and la Chucera the dump. Very humbling and heart touching. Tommorrow morning 8am we leave for Jinotega to the womens prison where we will love them and share great commission, multiplication and 2Tim2 with their leaders.
Pray for Ashley and Pepper and I that we will be empty vessels filled with the spirit to pour out for Christ glory!"

Nine Months in Mada

Hello! For those of you in the Downline world who do not know me, my name is Ryan Brazile, and in the 2010-2011 season of Downline, I was an Emerging Leader. This year, I have the exciting opportunity to have been sent out by Downline to aide Bishop Todd McGregor and his wife Patsy in their missionary efforts. Todd is the Anglican Bishop of Toliara, the hub of southern Madagascar, where I arrived four days ago.

Those of you who participated in Downline's past trips to Madagascar will be thrilled to know that their ministry is going very well, and as I write we are currently having a training conference for about 40 evangelists, who lead churches in villages around the south. That training conference is taking place at the new training center, which was a mere piece of barren land last time Downline had a group here in Madagascar.

I am very excited and humbled in view of the opportunities here in Madagascar, and both Todd and Patsy are very dedicated to discipleship and excited about the opportunity to partner with me. Right now, I am doing all I can to take in everything. As much as I want to "do something" Patsy gave me to very wise advise to start off not trying to do anything. Rather, she advised, be with the people and observe. Live with the people and see what God is doing. Trying to "do something" right off the plane is a great way to feel overwhelmed, especially in light all of the incredible needs here in Toliara, spiritually, and economically. Anyway, I have spent these past few days observing and trying to learn as much Malagasy as possible. I hope to keep all of you in the Downline world updated as the year goes on!

Philippines Trip

MAAYONG GABII

Good evening!! As I write this it would be evening over in the Philippines. Because we were unable to have any internet access I am just now able to give you an update on the trip. I wish I could have given you a day-to-day update because there is so much to write about, but hopefully this will still give you a good picture of what took place.

Our team: Jay, Quinton, Stephanie, Caitlin, Roz, and Nate

GOD IS IN CONTROL

As our team of six arrived in Davao City after almost 23 hours in the air we made our way to a small village/campground on the side of the mountains. We quickly realized that many of our preconceived ideas about the trip were wrong. We thought we would be teaching in Davao but instead were taken to this campground two hours outside of the city, surrounded by two prominently Muslim communities. Secondly we thought we would be teaching mostly pastors and women, but instead found out we were also going to be teaching a large number of youth (ages 12-24). When plans change there tends to be disappointment for unanswered expectations, but in this case, God changed our hearts quickly. We began to see God’s hand fully at work in the lives of those we were getting to teach.

Brother Quinton teaching pastors and women alongside his translator

Brother Quint, as they would call him, was able to teach the pastors, youth pastors, and women on several lessons of discipleship over the span of the week. He was so encouraged by their hunger to learn. He began to hear how many had already begun the ministry of discipleship and were seeing so much fruit through multiplication. It was so encouraging to not just teach about discipleship but hear stories of how it is already taking place.

A picture of the downline of disciples of Pastor Ben (some unable to be present)

POTENTIAL OF ONE MAN

One story in particular is about Pastor Nick, whom Quinton had the pleasure of building a relationship with. Nick shared how one night he happened to come across a drunken man in the road whom he actually almost hit. He felt God telling him that this man was “a person of peace.” To him this meant that God was lying on his heart to reach out to the man, share the gospel with him, and begin pouring into his life in a discipleship context. He found out this man was a mechanic and so for the next several weeks Nick took his car to this mechanic (even though there was never anything wrong with his car). He did this to begin building a relationship with this man. He soon was able to share the gospel with him and the man accepted Christ. From there a discipleship relationship took place and now that man is overseeing almost 300 people for the sake of Christ. Nick truly saw the masses through this one individual! This preaches so clearly the potential of one man!

Brother Nick sharing his testimony to the entire camp of pastors and youth

Apart from Quinton, the rest of our group had the opportunity to teach mainly youth and young adults on discipleship. Everyday we split them up by gender. It was incredible to see the hunger of such young people. We are excited as a team, for we believe there are many of those youth who are already applying what we were able to teach them just last week.

Roz and some of the girls after a teaching session

AS YOU GO

A theme phrase our group began to live by was “as you go.” Quinton challenged us from the beginning to not let this trip be all about evangelizing and teaching once we arrive at our destination but that we seek to share the gospel “as we go.” As a team God gave us several opportunities to share our faith in the airport, on the plane, and in the city. We pray that seeds were planted and will continue to be watered. Once at the camp we were also in awe of God as we got to see eight youth commit their lives to Christ for the first time. God was really working and we were humbled to be a part of it.

Our team in front of the conference banner

LET EVERYTHING THAT HAS BREATH PRAISE THE LORD

This was the theme song for the youth conference. It holds a whole new meaning for our team, as we were able to sing it with an entirely different culture all the way around the world. What a beautiful picture of the heaven. On the last night of the conference they held a worship concert. The daughters (ages 20 and 24) of Pastor Ben and his wife Esther led worship along with their worship band. It was breathtaking to sing with the voices of young people in another language who are so passionate about their Almighty God. As a team we were asked to be apart of this concert. Although some of it was out of our comfort zones we performed a step routine, and then some of us from the group performed separate songs and dances. As a whole we were able to end the concert with “God of this City.” It was a powerful way to bless them with the hope that the God who has “began a good work in these people will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil 1:6).

The entire group of youth at the camp where we taught

LIFE ON LIFE

One of the greatest surprises for our team on this trip was that we had the opportunity to live life with the people. Because we stayed in this small village we did everything with the people we were serving and teaching from morning until night. This allowed for many relationships to be built. Several of us have already begun keeping in touch with those whom we became close brothers and sisters with in the gospel. We had never before been surrounded but such joyful people. They had such a desire to love and serve us as if we were royalty. Their hearts showed us the sacrificial love of Christ as they served us in every way. It was evident that these people find their joy in Christ. I pray that joy rubbed off on each of us.

Nate and Jay spending time with some of the boys after a teaching session

SACRIFICE

Although I could write so many powerful experiences from this past week, there is one that sticks out above the rest. On our very last day our group split off into four groups in order to cover going to four different churches. Quinton and I were able to go to Pastor Ben’s church. As we drove about five minutes from their house, the jeep dropped us off on the side of the road. One of Pastor Ben’s daughters asked me if it was ok that we walk the rest of the way. Of course I answered yes. Little did Quinton and I know that walking to church meant trekking through the heat for nearly 20 minutes in deep, slippery mud along a narrow pathway with little to hold onto to keep balance. Surprisingly this became one of the neatest moments in our lives for worshipping our God. To be apart of a sacrifice that these people make every week just to worship God with other believers. Now, I could not help but move much slower than Pastor Ben and Quinton. So they went on up ahead and the daughters walked with me. Once we got to the village where the church was located the daughters went to a neighboring house and asked if we could use their water to wash our feet. The two daughters got down and washed my extremely muddy feet for me. Talk about servant’s-hearts. Then as we arrived at church the first song I heard them sing was “God is So Good.” This could preach all day!

Walking in the mud on our way to church

Regardless of air-condition or zero circulation churches; regardless of driving in cars or walking in mud; regardless of eating Italian or rice and chicken everyday; regardless of living in Memphis or a small village outside of Davao; GOD IS SO GOOD!