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