Praise in the midst of challenge
NICARAGUA
Editor’s note: Gerald Reimer (Interim Director of Global Outreach for Nicaragua), Ken Zacharias (Retired DGO), and Luke Bartel (Project Builders Executive member) travelled to Nicaragua January 18–26, 2023. While EMC doesn’t have missionaries in Nicaragua, the EMC Board of Missions supports the Nicaraguan churches by subsidizing their annual budget and by giving to special projects. The conference of churches is The Fraternity of Evangelical Mennonite Churches of Nicaragua (La Fraternidad de Iglesias Evangélicas Menonitas de Nicaragua, FIEMN).
Leaders from two house churches in Granada pose with Gerald Reimer. (Ken Zacharias)
Ken Zacharias, Luke Bartel, and I (Gerald Reimer) went to Nicaragua from January 18–26, 2023. It was the first time since 2019 that any of our office staff had been there. Our reasons for travel were to attend the Annual General Assembly, connect with the National Council members, and visit churches that had been affected by Hurricane Julia in October, and those that had received funding from Project Builders in the past few years.
Nicaragua is an extraordinarily beautiful country with amazingly resilient people. Sadly, these people live in a geographical region that is susceptible to natural disasters and political instability. Most of the 50-plus churches and outreaches in the Fraternity are located in rural areas and made up of farming families. When extreme rains and wind, or hurricanes and earthquakes hit them, as they seem to do every couple of years, they can easily lose significant life-saving income. And yet when the economy repeatedly hits bottom, accompanied by soaring unemployment, the churches press on in their outreach and care.
We did not hear any words of bitterness for their situation, but instead lots of praise and thanksgiving to their Father in heaven for carrying them through life’s challenges. And as you see in the accompanying letter, which was read out loud to us at a special church service, there is a lot of thankfulness directed toward the EMC for our decades of support in this beautiful partnership. This inspires them to continue their goal to plant one new church every year in their country. What a beautiful picture of faithfulness on their part, building God’s kingdom one community at a time.
– Gerald D. Reimer
Director of Canadian Church Planting
Fuente de Vida Mennonite Church
La Embajada, Camoapa
January 24, 2023
Dear Canadian missionary brothers, we hope that upon receiving this letter, God’s blessing rests abundantly on your lives, families, and ministry, and that the sweet presence of Jesus continues to refresh your hearts.
The reason for this is to thank each one of you for the help that has come to be a great blessing for us and to be able to fulfill our dreams of constructing our church building.
Once again, thank you and we say goodbye to you, praying to the Lord to pour out blessings on you until there is plenty and it abounds so that you can continue to be a great blessing as you have been up to now.
With the love of our Saviour,
Sincerely,
Luis Antonio Calero Brizuela
Pastor of the Fuente de Vida
Church Congregation
