2000 miles, 2 days of traveling and day 1 of our pastor’s training in Choluteca, Honduras is in the books. I’ll have to admit this has been one of the most exciting days that I’ve experienced in a long time. I coined a phase several years ago that says, “when GOD shows up, He always shows off.” As you travel through both Nicaragua and Honduras it’s very easy to see the poverty of both countries. Twelve years ago when we started working here Pam and I were both overwhelmed by the needs of so many and our inability to meet those needs. God showed us the importance of making the difference in one persons life, one day at a time. With that said I’d like to introduce you to a lady that has been in our class for the past 6 months. Her name is Edelmira Azucena Aguilera Osorio, 40 years old, 6 children and has been a single parent for 12 years. Edelmira leads bible study in three different locations around Choluteca, does laundry by hand to earn money to provide for her family, walks everywhere she goes because she can’t afford a bicycle or taxi. While eating lunch she received a call from one of her children asking permission to get some food from the store and charge it because they had nothing to eat. She told them no because they owed to much at the store and for them to just drink water and they wouldn’t be hungry any more. After lunch one of the pastors shared this with me and ask if I could help her just a little. By asking a few questions I discovered that the 10ft x 10ft building that her and the 6 children live in collapsed last night during a heavy rain and everything they owned got wet or ruined.
For the past 6 months we have been teaching these men and women the word of GOD but also how to be the church. Today we ask them to put into practice what they have learned about serving and being Jesus. They responded by giving what they could and that is all that GOD ask of them. You have to understand that all these men struggle just to feed their families and we ask them to trust GOD and do what they knew to do. Today I had the honor of watching these men respond to the Holy Spirit and trust GOD. We were able to purchase some new metal for her roof and enough groceries to last them for a couple weeks and by the way they no longer owe anything at the store. Thank you Lord Jesus….I could never express to you how thankful Pam and I are for GOD’s provisions.
Oh by the way our Bible study today was the book of JOB and the theme of the book is “Blessings through Suffering” In His Love, Donald and Pammie
Dr and Mrs. Donald M Gillette Because We Care Ministries, Inc. P.O. Box 21806 Roanoke, VA. 24018 WWW.BWCM.ORG
Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America. To the north it is bordered by Honduras, and to the south by Costa Rica. Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the western hemisphere, partly because of the long civil war of the 1980’s and the devastation caused by hurricane Mitch in 1998. The vast majority of the five million inhabitants live in abject poverty with many suffering from severe malnutrition and starvation.
Church Resources
Here is a link to download a video file that you can show in your church to introduce our ministry and share about the work we are doing in Nicaragua. Right-Click here and choose save to download the video file to your computer. The video is also located on Vimeo.
Our Ministry
This ministry helps people meet their chief need for a Savior, while also helping to meet the critical physical needs of hunger, poor substandard housing, shortage of water, lack of schools and education, lack of churches and pastor sponsorship. We offer general economic, healthcare, and emergency relief. To date we have helped feed tens of thousands of hungry people with hundreds of tons of food.
Download our Mission Trip Prayer Journal
We have developed a mission trip prayer journal to use during your trip. We encourage you to print this out and review before the trip, and then use as a journal during your trip.
Download the PDF
Who Can Volunteer?
Anyone with the desire to minister to hurting people in another culture can volunteer! Experience is helpful but not required. The ability to speak Spanish would be a plus, but we always have interpreters who assist in our work. Each team spends about a week in country ministering to the Nicaraguan people in some of the more remote villages.If you are interested in learning more, please contact us to discover if you can become part of this wonderful work.