Greetings to all of our friends and family.  As we near the end of our third term on the mission field, we invite you to reflect with us on the ways in which God is working in our family and in His service here in Nicaragua. 

Family News

With Tim and Angela both in their teens our family is in that stage when we are all running in many directions.  It is hard to believe that Tim will be graduating next month.  He has decided to attend Mississippi college beginning this fall. He has enjoyed spending lot of his spare time at the beach surfing.  Angela enjoys being part of a "close nit" class and loves spending lots of time on the telephone and e mail!  We are thankful that our children have the opportunity to attend the Nicaraguan Christian academy here in Managua where they are taught by dedicated Christian teachers.  They have also attended an English language youth group led by the International Christian Fellowship.

We all enjoyed a trip to Guatemala during Holy Week.  It was great to be able to visit with so many of our friends there who will always hold a very special place in our hearts.  

Church planting

As missionaries in here in Nicaragua, our main priority is to focus on the groups of people who are still largely unreached in Nicaragua.  We are faced with the question: How do we impact these thousands of lost people with the gospel? How do we gather them into churches? How do we help them become leaders so these churches can multiply? We must try new ways to reach those who have not responded to or been reached by the efforts we have made thus far. A large amount of Keith time has gone into preparintg materials and training leaders in new methodolgies.

Storying the Bible chronologically is a narrative approach which uses Bible stories to present God's redemptive plan for Mankind from creation to the cross, the resurrection and the new testamient church.

Cell group methodology can result in  multiplication of the congregations and enable them to reach out to the lost in their communities more efficiently..  Pioneer Evangelism focuses on pastors training lay evangelists to start home churches that will be self sufficient and self reproducing.

Church planting teams are being formed to target each of the unreached segments of the population. We have been blessed by the arrival of three new missionary families during the past year. As field coordinator, Keith has been busy helping these new families get settled and leading them in the preparation of "worldview" documents and master plans that will better prepare them to reach the lost and start church planting movements among the people in their target groups.

Penny continues to work with Jimmy and Harriet Eager on the Urban Marginal Communities team. The inhabitants of these communities live under dire conditions. We are challenged to find ways to reach out to people for whom survival is a day by day struggle.  How do we share with them the message of salvation and eternal life, when they cannot hardl even contemplate tomorow? Penny has concentrated most of her effort  working in partnership with Harriet  in the community of Nuvea Vida . She has held weekly craft/evangelism classes for the women.  She has also offered soy workshops in which her friend Chilo Gonzales has demonstrated the preparation on delicious (Really, its true!) and nutritious recipes out of soy beans.   She also taught a VBS workshop and led Vacation Bible Schools in two UMCS in January.

Disaster relief

Since last April we have been in partnership with five Baptist state associations for carrying out continued disasted relief projects. ISC missionaires Art and Dottie Dennis  have come on a two year assignement to work with volunteers from the U.S. in the building of houses. During the early months of the partnership volunteers built many temporary emergency shelters for victims of hurricane Mitch. We have now moved into building more permanent housing.  Keith has worked with local pastors and government officials in designating locations for the building of these houses.  Local Baptist pastors have put in long hours working in all facets of these projects and coordinating evangelism efforts in these new refugee communities. Several new congregations have been formed as a result of this effort.

STAS

Our time of "Stateside Assignement will begin in June. We look forward to being reunited with family and friends, most of whom we have not seen for two years or longer. At the same time it is difficult to leave behind ministries and friends here for a whole year.  It is especially  hard for Tim as he and his friends all part ways and head off to different parts of the world for college.  

Please join us in praising God for:

•  Safety and health of our family.

• A good school year for Tim and Angela and evidence of God's working in their lives.

• The safe arrival of four new missionary families/couples.

• Safety for us our fellow IMB missionaries and hundreds of volunteers over the past year.

• Those who have come to the Lord through evangelism, church planting and disaster relief efforts in the past year.

  Please pray with us for:

•  Our family as we begin our year of Stateside assignement.  

• Tim and Angela as they face change and say goodbye to friends.

• Keith and Penny as we share the mission story in churches in the U.S. and continue to maintain contacts and carry out our field related responsibilities.

• The following church planting teams that have been or are being formed: Urban Marginal Communities team, Professional Nicaraguan team, Rural west team, rural Chontales and Boaco team.

• Direction as we look consider forming a team to target the "gang" population of Nicaragua.

• Continued disaster relief efforts. 

• Growth, spiritual maturity and multiplication of new congregations.

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