Now that I am coming on staff with AIM and returning to Nicaragua, I have started a new blog page. I will be blogging on the new site all of my stories, videos, and pictures from Nicaragua.
If you were signed up to receive updates for this blog, you will automatically be receiving updates for the new blog. To follow me on this new adventure, visit my blog and click "Update Alerts".
To help support my ministry in Nicaragua click here.
I am beginning a new adventure as a full-time missionary to Candelaria, Nicaragua. I will be coming on staff with Adventures in Missions and will be going as an AIM-sponsored missionary. I will be moving to Candelaria in January 2010. While in Nicaragua, I will be working alongside New Song Ministries run by Tommy and Linda Gable.
I will be participating in a variety of ministries while working for New Song including: youth discipleship, teaching English, prayer ministry, and hosting short-term missions teams.
My main ministry will be continuing the youth discipleship that my World Race team began last August. I will be conducting small group Bible studies as well as one-on-one mentoring. I am so excited to return to discipling these teenagers and seeing their hearts catch fire for God!
Since I am a certified teacher, I will be putting that training and gifting to work for the Kingdom. I will be teaching English classes one day per week as part of NSM's community classes.
I will also be working with the church's prayer ministry. This church once had a vibrant intercession ministry, but it has recently faded out. I will be working with some of the church's prayer warriors to revitalize this ministry. I know that Candelaria can only be transformed through God's love in action and the power of prayer.
My other ministry will be to the short-term missions teams coming to work with NSM. I will be living in and running a home for short-term teams. This will mean both coordinating logistics for teams as well as serving and encouraging them while on the field. I am very excited about this ministry! My long-term goal is to run a family living home for orphaned, abandoned, and abused kids. The stm home will be a great stepping-stone to my dream.
I cannot embark on this adventure without your help! I need the prayer covering and financial backing of supporters like you. Please prayerfully consider joining my support team through a one-time or monthly donation. I need to raise a total of $16,898 to pay for my living, travel and ministry expenses for a year. All donations are tax-deductible. You can give online by clicking "Support Me!" (link). Or you can send checks to:
Adventures in Missions
PO Box 534470
Atlanta, GA 30353-4470
*Please make checks payable to Adventures in Missions and put my name on the memo line.
Your giving will help transform Candelaria for God's Kingdom and will bring hope to the lives of hurting children and teenagers. Please join me in Nicaragua!
During my time on the World Race, I saw more and more of God's heart for the nations and understood more of my own heart. My heart is to advocate for and be family for the orphaned, abandoned, and abused children and teenagers. This passion for ministry is leading me to a tiny village called Candelaria, Nicaragua to work alongside New Song Mission (NSM).
I first visited Candelaria in August 2008 with my World Race team. I remember walking the dirt roads of Candelaria and seeing the poverty of this small village. As I began to build relationships with the people, I saw that this is a community controlled by gang violence and fear. The lives of the people are full of brokenness. Here are a few of their stories:
Itzel is a lovely 16-year-old girl. A month before we arrived, Itzel's father left her family. She was absolutely devastated. She felt completely abandoned. My team and I held her hand and prayed over her as she wept because of the pain she felt.
Marlon is a 14-year-old boy. His father physically and sexually abused him. At a young age, Marlon dropped out of school and ran away from home. He was looking for acceptance and family. He thought that he would find what he was searching for in the local gangs. He is now addicted to drugs and has been in and out of jail for breaking and entering. He found very conditional acceptance in the gang.
Their stories broke my heart. However, this isn't the final chapter for Candelaria. Yes, it is a community full of fear and brokenness, but it is also a community being transformed by the grace and love of God! Revival has begun in Candelaria, specifically among the teenagers. During my month in the village, we saw three teenagers accept Christ and eleven baptized. These teens have been transformed by God's grace.
Itzel has found God as her Father. She understands His love and has such an intimate relationship with him. She was baptized while we were in Nicaragua She has been growing in God's truth and love ever since. God is bringing healing to her heart. She now serves as a leader among the youth bringing others to the hope she found in God.
*photo by Katie Rowland
Marlon has discovered unconditional love and family through the NSM church. The church has reached out to Marlon in love and grace. They have even offered forgiveness when he has stolen from them. Through this display of God's love, Marlon accepted Christ and was baptized. He still struggles. He will sometimes give into the temptation to return to gang life, but he sees the love extended from the family of God. That love is slowly transforming Marlon.
God is moving in this village, but there is still so much more that needs to be done. There are so many more broken people who need the hope of Christ. Here are two examples:
Nubia is a 16-year-old single mom who is pregnant with her second child. She is in and out of an unhealthy relationship with her children's father. She was abandoned by her father and tries to find her worth in relationships with me. She is living on her own with a 2 year old daughter and a baby on the way. She barely has the money to feed her family. She needs assistance to meet her immediate physical needs, skills training that will help her find a job, and most importantly to know her worth as God's beloved.
Elvin is a precious 8 year old who loves playing baseball. He also lives in a house that is the center of gang activity in Candelaria. He is constantly surrounded by drugs, violence, and stealing. Elvin has so much potential. If someone doesn't reach him with God's truth, he will mostly likely become another teenage dropout and gang member. He needs to be shown a different way to live- the way that leads to abundant life rather than destruction.
So I am returning to Candelaria in January 2010to work full-time discipling new Christians and continuing to bring God's love to the broken and hurting of Nicaragua. Please pray for me and consider joining me in Nicaragua.
I wrote a blog in December that included this challenge to my blog readers: "GO! Find a corner of darkness that really breaks and captures your heart- whether it be homelessness, AIDS, poverty, orphans, human trafficking, people trapped by idol worship and false religions- and bring Kingdom to that place. Go and show them the beautiful love of Christ that brought you to life and freedom."
So, this is my corner- the part of the world that breaks God's heart and breaks mine more than anything else:
THE ORPHANED
These are the faces of the orphaned kids of Cambodia, Swaziland, and Moldova
THE ABANDONED
These are the abandoned children of Nicaragua, Vietnam, and Cambodia.
THE ABUSED
These are faces of the abused children in Swaziland, Nicaragua, and Moldova
On every continent, in every nation, my heart is for the children and teenagers that have been orphaned, abandoned, and abused. The children pictured above have been orphaned by AIDS or abandoned in trash cans or on doorsteps. They have experienced both physical and sexual abuse. Many of these children have never experienced the love of a family. They desperately need to know that they are loved, protected, and valued.
This is my passion and my heart: to be family for the orphaned, abandoned, and abused children and teenagers of this world.
"A
father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy dwelling.
God sets the lonely in families..." Psalm 68:5-6a
I want them to know that they are loved intimately by their God. I long to see orphans adopted into the family of God. I want these children to find the family they have always desired within the family of God. I want to see this unconditional love transform the lives and sense of self. This is a passion to which I can dedicate my life.
I had always intended to make a video of our time in Moldova, but between finishing the Race and trying to get settled back into home, it fell through the cracks. So, now two months later, I've finally finished a video looking back at our time in Moldova.
We spent May '09 in Moldova, a small Eastern European country located between Romania and Ukraine. First I was the northern city of Edinet doing children's programs and manual labor. Next, I worked in a deaf school in Cahul, a city in southern Moldova.
Music: "Beautiful Day" -U2 *Musical bonus by Katie, Stacy, & Brian
Anyone who has been on the World Race knows that you must always be ready to put together a children's program at a moment's notice. "Oh Le Le" became a favorite with kids around the world. I led this song so many times that I was called Oh Le Le Lisa in both Mexico and Cambodia. Children everywhere LOVE this song, but at the end of 11 months Racers are so tired of singing it. Here is a look at Oh Le Le around the world featuring kids from Mexico, Cambodia, Swaziland, Romania, and Moldova.
Oh Le Le is a World Race classic. We sang this song with children on every continent. This video features children from Mexico, Cambodia, Swaziland, Romania, and Moldova.
I've been home from the Race for about a month. Every time I run into someone, it is inevitable that they will ask, "So, what are you going to do now?" While I don't know what I will be doing next month, next week, or even tomorrow, the Lord has given me some specifics for my next steps.
Back in August, during my second month on the Race, I fell in love in a tiny little village called Candelaria, Nicaragua. In fact, there was a big part of me that wanted to quit the Race and just stay there, but God had other plans.
While in Nicaragua, my team and I partnered with New Song Ministries. We fell in love with a group of teenagers whose lives are being transformed by the grace of God. These youth came to know Christ shortly before we arrived or while we were in Nicaragua. We were able to begin discipleship and Bible study with these teens and saw them come alive in their faith. It was a beautiful display of God's glory to watch them get baptized, to hear them praying passionately and powerfully for one another, and to see their hunger for the Word of God. These kids come from homes filled with poverty, brokenness, and abuse, but through Christ they are now full of hope, love, and life.
Here are some of the other ministries through New Song:
A church/community center on five acres
A large organic vegetable garden has been planted
Several hundred children have been sponsored for school each year.
Many new Christians have been baptized, powerful prayer warriors see healings and miracles
Bible training center for rural pastors
A Medical/Dental Clinic is in process of being built, as well as athletic fields.
Christmas gifts given to the children
Drama and crafts, health, and English classes
Young adult and children's ministry
Support and instruction to native leaders
Emergency medical needs met
Food for the most destitute
Rural dental and medical clinics
Support and help to widows
A parsonage has been built
A well has been dug to supply clean pure water for the village community
Vitamins and supplements have been provided
We have various levels of sewing classes, craft classes and apprenticeships
Native evangelists have spread out into the outlying villages and have started several new church fellowships and Sunday Schools and one has been adopted by a church in the US
(List of ministries taken from New Song's website: www.newsongmissionnicaragua.com/ministries)
I fell in love with the teenagers, New Song's ministry, and the village. Ever since we left Nicaragua, I have been praying that I would be able to return. The Lord has answered that prayer...
I will be moving to Candelaria, Nicaragua in January to partner with New Song Ministry. Once I arrive in Nicaragua I will be living in a newly constructed team house on New Song's property. I will be able to continue discipling the teenagers through Bible study and youth services. I also have a vision to start children's programs and tutoring programs.
In the future of New Song Ministries, there are plans to construct a second team house (one for guys and one for girls). Once the second house is completed, I will be living in and running the girls' home. This will be a wonderful opportunity to ignite a passion for missions in others and it will be great practice for the family living home that I hope to run one day. Also, Tommy & Linda Gable (the founders of New Missions) have a vision to start a coffee house/restaurant on the church property which I will run (don't worry I'll be making some delicious coffee drinks, but someone else will be cooking!). I am very excited about all the opportunities before me as I move down to Nicaragua.
I am still trying to work out all of the details, but I will let you know soon how you can partner with me in this ministry. Please pray that the Lord will continue to lead and direct my journey to Nicaragua.
It's impossible to sum up all that we have seen in the last 11 months. I have seen the deepest hurts of the
world: abuse, starvation, poverty, AIDS, trafficking, and children who
are orphaned and abandoned. At the same time I have seen God. I have
seen the God who loves unconditionally, offers more grace than I could
ever imagine, and pursues His children. I have seen abandoned children adopted into the family of God. I have seen people in hopeless situations find hope in Christ's presence. I have seen prostitutes drawn out of the bars by the love of Christ. I have seen lives completely transformed by the grace of God. I have fallen more and more in
love with the God that I encountered in the nations.
My beautiful WR family on our last day together The lovely Kiatera ladies... they are my sisters!
My World Race family has changed me this year! I have always loved sharing my home with people and living in community, but this year, for the first time, I learned to live as the Church. I found more abundant life in the community of the early church. This is something that our churches in America have lost along the way.
They devoted themselves to the apostle's teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. ~Acts 2:42-44
These verses in Acts are what we have seen and experienced this year. This community has loved me unconditionally, poured encouragement and truth into me, challenged me to deeper faith in Christ, and has exposed so much selfishness in my life. We have seen the power of prayer, a fuller view of God's love, and the Kingdom of God coming to the nations. Community is one of the most difficult parts of the early church, but it is also one of the most rewarding. God calls us to initmate and redemptive community. Dive into community- it's so worth it!!
Here is a video that my lovely teammate Katie made showing some of the ways that we have been changed through our World Race family.
I'm now sitting at my parents' house in West Virginia trying to understand all that God has done during this past year. There will be blogs coming that tell more about who God is, what I have learned this year, and what my next steps will be. However, it's going to take me a little while to process through those things so that I can actually articulate how this year has changed me. In the meantime, here is a video that just shows glimpses of our year. I hope that this will let you see the people and places that have captured my heart and will give you a glimpse of God's heart for the world.
I am beginning a new adventure as a full-time missionary to 
The church has reached out to Marlon in love and grace. They have even offered forgiveness when he has stolen from them. Through this display of God's love, Marlon accepted Christ and was baptized. He still struggles. He will sometimes give into the temptation to return to gang life, but he sees the love extended from the family of God. That love is slowly transforming Marlon. 
Elvin is a precious 8 year old who loves playing baseball. He also lives in a house that is the center of gang activity in Candelaria. He is constantly surrounded by drugs, violence, and stealing. Elvin has so much potential. If someone doesn't reach him with God's truth, he will mostly likely become another teenage dropout and gang member. He needs to be shown a different way to live- the way that leads to abundant life rather than destruction. 
These are the abandoned children of 
These are faces of the abused children in 
