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July 2010
Dear Praying Friends,
Upon arriving back in Nicaragua, after our furlough, we found things in
good order. Alex, a 23-year-old married man with one daughter, is now
preaching one Sunday per month. And I might add that he is doing a very
good job of it. He also heads our AWANA program and Saturday youth
meeting. We are really excited about the way this future pastor is coming
along. The
children’s literacy center has been doing well. So far 16 children from
our program have entered a regular school. Not only have children learned
to read, but we have also seen parents saved as a result of this program.
Krista has just added an adult literacy opportunity. We know that there
are many adults in our barrio that cannot read or write. So far just two
have taken advantage of this but we expect to see it grow very rapidly.
Hats off to
Krista as she just completed writing a 3-year Sunday school curriculum in
Spanish. That was a big job but will be a tremendous help to our churches
in the years to come.
As a way of out reach we have been holding Bible schools in various towns.
It is amazing to us that there are so many children who have never heard
the Biblical account of creation, let alone God’s plan of salvation. We
see there is still so much work to do in Nicaragua!
Our team is looking at new areas to begin works. The Barkers have a couple
of places a few hours north of Managua staked out and will begin regular
Bible studies next week. While in Boaco the other day, a cowboy town that
Krista and I are interested in, we saw some streets blocked off and many
riot police in particular areas of town. I asked a policeman what was up.
He told me that it was just a meeting at City Hall of local politicians
who don’t get along very well. It was amusing to me that while hundreds of
cops were moving about the streets what I heard blaring from the windows
of the police station was the announcing of one of the games of the World
Cup. First things first!
The embassy just wrote to tell us that security continues to decline. In
the last month 12 Americans have been assaulted and or robbed. Indeed some
good friends of ours are part of the statistics as the Mrs. was carjacked
by two gunmen as she was pulling into her driveway. They are ok but they
lost a really nice vehicle, and worse, experienced the horror of having
two pistols pointed at her.
As way of family news we have some good things to report. First of all our
7 year old grandson, Joel, was saved in May. This means that the 3 oldest
of our 7 grandchildren have all professed their faith in Christ.
Our son, Eli, just accepted the call to pastor the Grace Fellowship Church
in Buffalo, WY. We are excited about this ministry opportunity for Eli and
Rebekah. My
mother went through successful heart surgery in December. She did so well
that she decided to pay us a visit here in Nicaragua. For someone who has
always been, and forever will be, afraid of mice, this has been an amazing
feat for her. Not only has she had to suffer through watching the geckos
get their dinner on our walls, she even survived having an opossum run
under the sofa she was sitting on in our living room. What has so
surprised me is that she already has her ticket for her next visit this
fall. Thank you for
your prayers, love, and support for our work with the souls of Nicaragua,
Ken and Krista
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