Shameless Persistence in Prayer

Grateful seems like a lackluster word when it comes to God's revelation and work in one's life. This summer was an amazing time that couldn't of come at a more crucial time in my journey with Christ. As draining as a summer in student ministry can be, it is always also such a rewarding time. So much prep and prayer goes into our camps, activities and mission trips that when God shows up and works powerfully in our students' lives... it is so encouraging. But none of that compares to being closely connected with Christ and personally renewed and challenged.

I wish I had been more disciplined to journal everything in real time, but now I'm looking back in a more collective way, but also want to hone in on one specific area. I went into summer with a desire to really hear from God and be better disciplined in prayer. And God was faithful to answer my heart's desire.

Learning to listen in my communication with God has been one of the more difficult tasks. I've always been good on the talking end of things. But thankfully God is in the process of sharpening my hearing to recognize His voice and notice His movement around me. But just recently He opened my eyes to another aspect of prayer that has largely been neglected in my life. And He did this through a familiar passage, and a real life example.

My three boys all share a common trait... persistence. All three are unique and persistence shows up differently and with different foci and what's interesting is I don't recall ever teaching them the value of persistence. My big boy is persistent when it comes to an activity he wants to do or something he feels he just has to have. The three year old, at this point, is the most persistent when it comes to my attention. It usually takes the form of "dad, dad, dad, dad..." until I respond. The little boy shows his persistence through grunts and pointing - especially when hungry.

Jesus actually explains a very similar father/son scenario in Luke chapter 11 when He was teaching His disciples how to pray (in response to their request). He likens God's response to His childrens' prayers like a father who hears His kids requests and responds.

But the verse that really captured my attention was verse 5, "if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence" (NLT).

Shameless persistence. Two words I would love my prayer life to be described with. Not whining, not nagging and not on the opposite end of thoughtless toss-ups. But a persistence that comes before the Lord, imploring Him to respond. A dedication to faithfully come into God's presence believing He hears us and stands ready to answer.

I am more and more aware that He is always speaking. The question now becomes am I willing to labor in prayer with a shameless persistence that is aligned with His will? Will my life be marked by dangerous prayers and bold dreams? Can I follow Christ's example of constant communication with the Father? Do I truly believe the more things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams?

Shameless persistence in prayer... only by His grace and for His glory.

Mission Nicaragua: Day 17

It is always a difficult day realizing that it is your final day on the field. Of course, at 4:30 in the morning - you aren't doing much processing. We had a long day of travel to return to the States and praise God a pretty uneventful one. We had two good flights and a really long layover in between to do some individual reflecting and to start decompressing a bit from the mission.

There is so much about these missions that breathe life into our soul and give us a glimpse of Heaven that makes it difficult to leave. They are mountaintop moments that create a greater longing for the things of God as we've labored for the Kingdom. I'm always amazed, year after year, how God shows up in power and meets our teams and works in and through our teams as we make our lives available to do His will.

This year was no exception. God has done a good work in our teams and in our hearts individually. He spoke and we listened, He loved and we loved in return, He gave and we received, He called and we answered. He allowed us to deepen our relationships with Him and each other, but also to form new relationships with brothers and sisters in Christ hundreds of miles away. God graced us to see the work of our hands - in the construction at the church, painting at the school and running the camp.

We're all a team together and we all work side by side, but there are some amazing leaders who labored for the mission and poured into our team that need my thanks... Debbie, Joel, Rhonda & Clay - you guys were awesome and I can't thank you enough for how you loved our students and stepped in to serve behind the scenes and without prompting.

To all of you that supported us - whether financially, through prayer or simply by reading and following our mission teams - we are very grateful for you. It takes more than our team on the ground to complete the mission and we realize that. So it is from the bottom of our heart that we first and foremost thank God for giving us the opportunity to go and the abilities needed to serve. We also thank our church family for the support and and all of you who stood in the gap for us. Finally, I can't thank my family enough for making the sacrifice to allow me to fulfill my God-given calling and to be away for extended periods of time. I know the sacrifice isn't always easy, but the rewards will be eternal.

At some point, we will all have to accept that Mission Nicaragua 2010 is over - our work is done - but we also know full well that THE mission is never over and we have MUCH work to be done! So let's not waste our lives!

Mission Nicaragua: Day 16

Today we rode the wave of emotions in all of our activities and ministry time. We started our morning with a visit to La Chureca (the Managua city dump) which is always an eye-opening experience. There are so many parallels to the dump and the sin in our lives. It is heart-breaking to see the conditions that these families live and work in. But there is a ray of hope in the dump - Colegio Christiano Esperanza is the school in the dump that the Buzbees run. It was such a blast to stop by and see the children and to have some time to play with them.

After our time in the dump, we went over to Sister Ruby's for our time of worship and prayer as a team. God definitely met us in that upper room of her home and the Spirit was moving freely. God had many encouraging and challenging words for our team. Our hearts were drawn closer to the Lord and to each other as a result of our time there. Praise God that Ruby's ministry continues on after her death.

For our afternoon, we had our tour day and this team chose like the last to go to the market and then to the zipline. The market is an experience that you don't quickly forget and the ziplines were likewise, an awesome experience. We had to navigate them in some rain, but it didn't damper anyone's fun!

As if our day wasn't busy and exhausting enough, we capped it off with our team dinner out. We ate a La Finca and had a great meal and a great time of fellowship together.

It's always hard to come together after your last full day... especially knowing that the morning is coming really early for us. We'll but up by 4:30a to head out to the airport for our first leg. Please be in prayer for us as we travel and as we return. Pray that the good work God did in us and through us would be etched into our hearts and minds.

Mission Nicaragua: Day 15

The camp team traded in their hats today for some construction helmets as we went to work in Los Cedros today. Our team divided and one half tackled removing rock from the new room at the church and then back filling it will dirt to prepare it for the concrete floor. The other workers were busy welding and getting the support beams in place for the roof. It's not quite ready to open for use, but it's getting closer by the day.

Our other half of the team trekked over the Christian school to help bleach the stone sidewalks that get algae growth during the rainy season. This team worked diligently spraying bleach and scrubbing to bring life back to the sidewalks. One of our construction teams laid nearly all of the sidewalks out at the school (some 450 stones) in 2006.

Both teams joined up for lunch at the school and to see many of the kids we took to Campo with us. The younger kids go to school in the morning and the older kids in the afternoon. We enjoyed seeing them in the classroom and also participating in recess with them.

As we walked through Los Cedros, we also found many of our kids at their homes and were warmly welcomed to come inside, have a seat and meet the rest of the family. We heard from the parents what a great impact the camp had on their kids and many shared stories when they returned all evening long. It was a great reminder that God only knows what an eternal impact that camp had on the lives of the kids and their families. God truly orchestrated these meetings as we really had no idea where any of the kids lived!

We also took the time to stop by Mauorje's house (2008) and Sylvia's house (2005). Three of Slyvia's kids came with us to campo. This is always a special time for me personally to spend time cultivating relationships that have formed through the years, but also special for the current team to feel the connection to teams of the past that have labored for the Gospel in Nicaragua and specifically Los Cedros.

Tomorrow is our last full day here in Nica and we'll start the day with a visit to the dump and to Sister Ruby's for prayer. Then we've got our tour day to have some team time together just having fun. Thanks for your continued prayer support!

Mission Nicaragua: Day 14

We knew this day was eventually going to come... the last day of camp. As tiring as camp can be, it is always difficult to say goodbye to the kids. God has shown up in such a powerful way at camp. Not only has our team done an amazing job working together to pull off camp, but God really seemed to be at work in the lives of the kids. The kids asked great questions, listened well to God's Word and a good many even accepted Christ! And besides all of that we just had a great time with them and were honored to provide that experience for them.

I can't imagine the stories that are being shared even tonight as the children returned home. Some are definitely returning to less that ideal conditions whether it be family dynamics or socio-economic conditions. Yet what they have experienced and received can never be taken away from them. Our prayer is that they would always remember what God did in their hearts at Campo Alegria 2010.

After our morning sessions we brought everyone back together for a going away celebration. We started it off right with a whack at our pinatas. There's nothing more fun, yet scary than these kids with a baseball bat in their hands and swinging it around blindfolded! We then gathered together for our closing assembly. I was able to share a simple blessing and prayer for their lives. Then we showed the camp highlights slideshow - and the kids love seeing themselves up on the screen. Finally, we handed out the backpacks that we provided for them. Each one was loaded with school supplies, toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, bubbles, t-shirt, small toy and a stuffed animal. They were so excited to open them and so grateful to receive them. What a blessing for us to be able to provide this for them.

Then in true Nica fashion we chased the bus down the drive to say our final goodbye. But it will be a short lived goodbye as we are going to their community of Los Cedros tomorrow to visit them at school and even visit some of their homes. I'm sure it will be an eye opening experience for us to see where they come from and how they live.

We also had a good team time tonight. Many thoughts and ideas where shared about camp and how we can improve for next year. We also talked through some expectations that weren't met and how sometimes God can show up in unexpected and unplanned ways. We are all trying to train our eyes to see God moments and train our ears to hear His voice. And above all we want to see and know Him for who He is and live our lives in obedience to Him. Please continue to pray for us in our remaining time here.

PS - A special anniversary shout out to Santee from Rhonda here in Nica!

Mission Nicaragua: Day 13

With each passing day I believe I understand more what Jesus meant when He called to some little children who had gathered around and said, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God." There is such innocence and joy in the eyes of a child. Yet wrapped up in such a small package is a heart that is sinful and separated from God. But praise God for the opportunity to point them to Jesus!

Today was our last full day here at Campo Alegria. It's amazing how smoothly things are going and how well our students are doing in their various roles. We are really bonding well with the kids as we share life together here and I know tomorrow will be a tough day for all of us as we have to say goodbye.

This afternoon the camp staff created an awesome water slide that pumped water up from the lake. The kids flew down the dunes on plastic into a small pool at the bottom and had a blast! Our team joined in the action and amazingly we all walked away accident free. We also opened up the zipline again. These are activities that these children would have never normally had the opportunity to participate in and will give them lifelong memories of Campo.

Tonight was also a special night during our evening worship. The kids have been working on learning verses all camp during their Bible class and tonight they were able to stand before everyone and recite them. How awesome to see God's Word being hidden in their heart. Then I had the privilege to preach the Gospel tonight and give the kids an opportunity to pray and receive Christ. Many indicated that they were already Christ-followers but we also had about 10 or so kids pray to receive Christ tonight! We always love seeing those pass from death to life and become adopted into the family of God. Praise God!

We will be capping off camp tomorrow with a shortened schedule but a full one. We are praying that God does a mighty work on the last day of camp - in the kids lives and in our hearts as well. Thanks for your continued prayer support - it is evident all around us!

Mission Nicaragua: Day 12

Today was our first full day of camp and we are thankful that God gave us the strength to make it considering the campers woke us up around 5:00 am when the sun is just coming up. Needless to say, no matter how much we "prepare" for this reality, it never hits you until it happens. Some of our teamies have the gift of being able to sleep through it... and probably a small tornado since that is what morning around the cabins sounds like!

I can't tell you how awesome it is for me as a pastor to see the body of Christ at work. After breakfast and our time of worship, our students started leading their respected areas (art/craft, Bible, sports and music). God has gifted our students and given them great abilities that come together to make a really fun camp. At times it is difficult to keep the Nica kids engaged, but between the zip line for sports and tye dying t-shirts they were having a blast. But they definitely look forward to their time down on the beach swimming in the lake. I don't think any of us have carried, thrown or been attacked in the water by more kids than we have here!

It would appear that we're starting to wear some of the Nica kids out (no comment about us yet). We were coloring after swim time only to look up and see Oscar asleep on the paper he started coloring. After dinner we do worship and teaching and then a movie where we lost a few more Nica kids to exhaustion.

So far so good - camp is off to a great start! God seems to be knitting our hearts together with the kids and for that we are grateful. So not only are they making friends, but hopefully they are seeing and hearing the Gospel from us. I had the opportunity to preach tonight and lay out the Gospel and they are also getting more during their Bible station. So please join us in praying that God's Word would land on fertile soil and take good root!

Mission Nicaragua: Day 11

Our last relaxing morning where we could sleep in a bit is gone and will be replaced by the sound of children stirring around 5:30am. So while we could, we had some time to simply enjoy the beauty of God's creation here at camp and have some time alone in His Word... just desiring to hear from Him.

But shortly after... camp officially began! In the distance we heard the sound of the bus coming down the dirt road so we jumped up to form our welcoming line. We have 49 children that have joined us from the Los Cedros community. We put on a camp two years ago and we immediately saw a few familiar faces, but the good majority have never been to Campo Alegria before. We have Abran, Mahaila & Louie with us from a home we built in Los Cedros five years ago. It was awesome for me personally, to get to see them (even though we go see them every year) and have them at camp with us.

Camp went well for our first day as we got some of our activities underway, did our first evening session, had swim time, free time and just great chances to start interacting with the kids and learning their names. They seem to be a good group of kids and are incredibly excited to be here at camp. We're already bonding with them and communicating the universal language of love through physical touch. All of these kids long to be held, played with or to tackle you during swim time. Everywhere we go, we have little shadows.

It's such a amazing reminder that Jesus said that the Kingdom was for the little ones and that entry would be through the faith of a child. So following Jesus model, we are striving to love the kids and point them to Christ.

We were able to sneak away during our evening movie to grab some team time together. Camp is pretty fast paced and you are on duty 24/7, so having some time together or even individual time with the Lord can be a challenge. But God is already meeting us here in our time and we are seeing Him at work among us and the camp in general. Thanks for continuing to stand with us in prayer!

Mission Nicaragua: Day 10

Well the transition has taken place and the handoff has been made from our construction team to our camp team. We sent our construction team off bright and early to the airport, despite the girls sleeping through their alarm and having to move very quickly to get moving!

The camp team was able to get a good night's rest and transition to Nica time. We had a good team time together as we opened the Word and accepted the challenge to "set our minds and hearts on things above" for this mission. Our prayer is that God would meet us here - in our time together and our time alone in the Word.

We loaded up the bus and left the Buzbees around mid-morning for camp. It's a bit over a two hour ride to camp, but we pass through many unique towns and get a beautiful view of Nica as we travel up in elevation. We arrived at Campo Alegria and had our lunch and some down time before getting unloaded and preparing for the kids arrival in the morning. We had great weather and the camp is located on Lake Nicaragua which is one of the largest freshwater lakes and also has Volcan Concepcion in the middle. The only drawback to the beauty is some of God's little creatures that are swarming, crawling and pretty much everywhere so most are having to get beyond their bug-phobias pretty quickly!

Our camp staff prepared an amazing traditional Nica dinner of nacatamales, rice, plantains, fruit and rice pudding for our dinner which was a great way for us to start camp together! After dinner we had our team time and took a look into God's Word before moving into our small groups for discussion and prayer. We hope to get one more good night of rest before the Nica kids arrive tomorrow and our sleep schedules change drastically!

I am just praising God for how He moved in our construction team and the work that we were able to accomplish and now we are praying with expectation for God to again meet us here and move through this camp team as well. We are looking forward to getting camp going and bringing the hope of the Gospel and the love of Christ to these kids. We appreciate you joining us in prayer!

Mission Nicaragua: Day 9

Today really couldn't have been a better day for the construction team. We started with our annual visit to the dump (La Chureca) which is home to an estimated 1200 residents with around 800 being children. It is such an eye-opening and heart wrenching place to visit. There are many spiritual analogies that can be seen to our own lives and our faith journey. Then after the dump we all gathered a Sister Ruby's for a time of prayer and worship. Ruby was an amazing evangelist and prophetess who passed away earlier this year, but God continues to use her legacy and home as a powerful place of ministry. God definitely showed up and spoke into our lives. But we also celebrate the new life that came to our translators!

No visit to Ruby's is complete without stopping by our friend Damaris' home. We did construction on her home three years ago. She is a single mother of six and has a hard life, but is a dear sister in Christ. She welcomed us into her home and we enjoyed a few moments catching up with her and praying for her.

After Ruby's the team headed out to the market in hunt of good deals and in support of the local economy! Then it was off to the team excursion time. This year the team chose a zip line tour over the canopy and a crater lake. A great time was had by all... well almost all... the ones brave enough (or well enough) to participate!

We capped off the day with our team dinner out and had a great time together. We brought our translators and Santos (who is the Buzbees construction foreman) and his wife and two boys with us. It was fun to enjoy some of the local food and spend this last night together as a team.

Our camp team arrived safely and were pretty exhausted. I'm looking forward to jumping in with them as we will travel down to Lake Nicaragua tomorrow to prepare for the Nica kids arrival on Friday. Our construction team has to be up and moving at 4:30a to catch their first flight. So please keep them in your prayers as they travel and our camp team as we hit the ground running tomorrow!

Mission Nicaragua: Day 8

It is always a bittersweet day when it is our last on the worksite. We were excited to complete the construction of the walls and begin the process of having the interior ready for a concrete floor. The only thing lacking is to put on the roof, which is a bit beyond our skill set! We also completed the painting project at the school and it looks great. The tough part of the day, however, is saying goodbye. So many kids would come by everyday to simply hang out with us and play with us during our breaks - and we had a blast building relationships with them. It's always hard to say goodbye.

Last night after dinner we had a very special celebration... a surprise birthday party for Debbie. Unfortunately, I don't have any pics because I went down pretty hard after the workday with some sort of sickness. I'm not sure what it is yet, but it wasn't fun for sure... but I am incredibly grateful to Dr. Rob Campbell of the FSU med team and his care and medication. While I was resting, our team had their group time of worship and prayer and I hear God's Spirit moved in a powerful way. Our times at night have been really powerful this year.

Tomorrow is our last day and looks to be a busy one! We will start the day with a visit to the dump and then prayer time at Sister Ruby's house. Then the team choose a zip line excursion for their afternoon fun time (after our annual visit to the market). We'll finish it all up with our team dinner out at a restaurant. Then we will be awaiting the arrival of our camp team later tonight. As always, we appreciate your continued prayer support.

Mission Nicaragua: Day 7

After having a great morning of time alone with God and breakfast we were off and running in the van (which made for a crowded, bumpy ride) to Los Cedros. Today we divided to conquer our two projects. The patient type went over to paint at the school - finishing up the trim and working on a second coat in places on the preschool building. Painting is always more fun with school kids running around you and trying to help you paint! Actually, it was fun to be out and see many familiar faces from working in Los Cedros so many years and taking their kids down to camp.

Our hardcore construction crew really got to go at it today as the interior wall had to be demolished. Nothing like serving Jesus with a sledgehammer! We also got to most of the rear wall up to height and the side wall up to height as well. The final step today was removing some of the existing roof to prepare for the new roof to go up on the addition. It's definitely exciting to see both projects nearing completion.

And again, nothing helps the work go by faster than having some regular breaks to hang with the neighborhood kids. Most days we've had kids stopping by on their way to school and then hanging out with us after school. Some will even jump right in with a shovel and help mix concrete or move blocks. Of course, besides the help, we do love running around or playing some soccer with them as well.

Today we also returned to Rosa's home and then Aurela's home. We met these sweet ladies out prayer walking and had the med team come by and check them out. We also assessed some of their needs and were able to go to the grocery store and stock them up with some food which we delivered today. They were so grateful to receive it and we were honored to have another chance to pray and spend time with them.

Despite the rain, no day is complete without a guys' game of animal ball in the pool. We've introduced our translators to this game and they've paid the price for joining us!

God continues to show up and speak through His word in our team time and small group time each night. Tonight we looked at the reality that we are temples of the Lord and the implications on our lives. Then a few verses later in 1 Corinthians, Paul talks about being found faithful in the end and we made that our prayer not only for this mission, but our lives! We so appreciate your prayer support as we are in the homestretch of our mission here in Nica!

Mission Nicaragua: Day 6

What a blessing to be able to join with the nations in worship of Almighty God today. For whatever reason, being outside the States helps give us a better picture of the reality that the nations are lifting up their voices of praise to God and we got to be a part of that celebration.

We went to Verbo Church in the morning, where the Buzbees attend. This church has a very international feel to it and is very familiar to what we would experience. And it is always cool to think that while we are worshipping in Nicaragua in Spanish, Wildwood is worshipping the same God hundreds of miles away in English. Verbo has a full praise band, screens and an translator for the many teams that join with the Nicas in worship there. We recognized a few of the songs and we able to join in English. The sermon was delivered by a guest speaker and gave the teams alot to talk about based on some of the Scriptures used and theology. But I was encouraged by our students discernment in listening.

After morning worship we just enjoyed our Sabbath by hanging out here at the Buzbee farm. It was a great chance to relax, read some and enjoy fellowship with each other before heading off to Los Cedros for evening worship.

Pastor Manuel's church in Los Cedros is quite a different experience. Thankfully God provided a nice breeze and the ceiling fans helped. This church is quite a bit smaller, but just a passionate in worship from the youngest to the oldest. Everyone in the church puts on their best and walks to church. Rain or shine and no matter how hot it is outside and inside the people gather with joyful spirits and spent a good hour in worship through singing. There are no screens, few instruments and a meager sound system, yet it seems none of that matters.

I had the opportunity to preach and was grateful to have Carlos translating for me. Carlos was a translator for our med team in April and an awesome young man of God. Oftentimes, the worship service in Los Cedros can last for 2-3 hours, so I'm sure it was a relief for our team to see me get called up to preach and then Pastor Manuel not preaching after I had finished! At the end of the service the whole team stood up front in a line and was personally greeted by nearly every member in attendance. They are so warm and welcoming and it is so great to grow the relationships we've built with that community of faith for the last 5 years.

Tomorrow we are back to work as we only have a few more days to finish the addition and the painting project at the school. We're grateful to God for the strength He is giving us and look forward to how He continues to work in us and through us. Keep praying!

Mission Nicaragua: Day 5

It is pretty hard to believe that we are about halfway through our mission. This team has been hard at work on the church extension (and it has helped that we have some great brick masons helping us) so the back wall is almost complete! But today, we only worked a half day at the church and then went over to Collegio Christiano Havilah to do some painting.

Before we left to go paint, we had the opportunity to go around to some church members in the community to do some visits with Pastor Manuel. We met a sweet lady today who has some sickness and pain that limits her mobility and she, like most in Los Cedros, barely has enough money to feed herself or her children. Elizabeth (RN) came with us to see her and make a diagnosis. We brought her medicine back to her and spent some time praying with her and getting to know her story. We will also make a run to the store to try to stock her up on some food.

Over the past missions we have done multiple projects at the school. One year we laid nearly 450 concrete stones to make sidewalks, we've done the foundation for the preschool building, painted a mural in the preschool building and even taken some children from the school down to camp. The school is run by Pastor Manuel and his wife who love the community and especially the children.

Working at the school is always a blessing - especially engaging with the kids, but they were out of school today... which actually made the painting go by faster. We were able to get the exterior first coat done and will be back on Monday to do a second coat and also the trim.

Tonight during our team time we took a look at our responsibility and privilege to be a laborer for Christ. Matthew 9 tells us that the fields are ready for harvest, but the laborers are few. And I believe that it has always been the case that there are more loiterers than laborers! Our prayer tonight was that God would strip us of our excuses and rid us of our fear and by His grace and the power of His Holy Spirit would allow us to be faithful to tell those who haven't heard. And we realize that this is not just in NIcaragua, but in our families, friendships, places of work and even school campuses.

It can seem overwhelming to think that an estimated 4 billion people in the world do not know Christ and even an estimated 1.5 billion of those have never heard or don't have access to the Gospel. We prayed that we would have the "beautiful feet" that Romans 10 tells us "brings the good news of the Gospel."

God is doing a good work in our hearts individually and corporately. We praise Him for what He is teaching us, showing us and working through us. As always, we covet your prayers.

Mission Nicaragua: Day 4

I wanted to start by simply saying what an amazing privilege it is to take these teams down to Nicaragua each year. This team has hit the ground running in so many different ways and it is such a joy to be able to labor together for the Kingdom. And even more rewarding is seeing God work in and through each and everyone on our team as their God given gifts, abilities and personalities are used for His glory.

We are making good progress on the two exterior walls at the church that we are building from the ground up. Once the process gets going, it seems to move a bit quicker each day. Today, we poured the forms for the columns and center rebar, so we are over halfway there on these two walls.

Today the FSU med team was serving at the same church in Los Cedros. This gave us the opportunity to see them in action, but also brought alot more people to the church that we could interact with and more kids to play with in our down time. We also took some time this afternoon to travel a few streets over to a home we build two years ago in Los Cedros. This was the home of Mauroje, a widow who is a member of the church. She lives at the base of a small mountain that after we spent some time with her and her family and prayed for them, we all decided to climb to get a view of all of Los Cedros. It was an exciting adventure to say the least and we all had a very challenging climb up a rock face to make it to the top.

We came back tonight and in the midst of God's fireworks show (lightning all around) we sang praises and opened up his Word up on the 3rd floor for our team time tonight. We looked at passages in Isaiah that show God's majesty and our necessary response and it seemed very fitting as He displayed His majesty all around us!

God is doing a good work. We appreciate and cover your prayers each day as we hope to see Christ formed in us and work through us. We're off to more brick laying tomorrow at the church and hopefully an afternoon of painting over at the Christian school where we have served before on two other trips.

Mission Nicaragua: Day 3

Another hot but beautiful day working in Los Cedros at the church. We are really making good progress as we get a bit more handy at making the rebar, mixing the concrete, moving the block and making the mortar. God has definitely put together a great team as we all enjoy working together and serving each other. It is so awesome for me as a pastor to see the body of Christ at work and to be a part of it.

A special part of our time here in Nica each year is going back and seeing our previous team projects and families. Today we want back to a home that we built 5 years ago. No one other than myself was on that team, but we have seen this family each year. It was such a blessing to reconnect and hear how they are doing and their 5 children and to pray for them.

Today we hit a few slow spots which gave us some awesome opportunities to play with the local kids after they get out of school. I always come down loaded with trinkets, stickers, candy and more. We simply were sharing the love of Christ through the universal language of "playing" today and giving of gifts. Many of the kids just love hanging out at the worksite and even pitched in to help us move block today.

During another slower portion of our day, a segment of our team broke away to go on a prayer walk through Los Cedros. Many had never prayer walked before and came back very excited with stories of neighbors they met and prayed with. They were also able to give out a good many of the Spanish Bibles we brought with some of our team's testimonies that had been translated to Spanish inside. God's Spirit was moving ahead of this team and gave them many ministry opportunities as they walked the streets. Everyone is very community oriented and open to having someone approach their home and even pray with them. It is definitely a change from the way things are in the States.

Tonight after dinner we had our annual 'unpack all the donated clothes fashion show and dance party' in the Rancho. Many thanks to those of you who gave clothes to the ministry down here and also for our temporary enjoyment tonight. It's always a huge undertaking, but somehow the fashion show and dance party makes the tedious work go by a bit faster. The clothes are such a blessing to those down here who will receive them and have so little.

Our day tomorrow will bring us a bit closer to the completion of the back room at the church and we'll also get to see the FSU med team in action as they will be doing a clinic inside the church in Los Cedros while we are working outside. We might also be able to start our painting project at the Christian school in Los Cedros tomorrow as well. Thanks for your continued prayer support!

Mission Nicaragua: Day 2

We have our first official day here in Nica under our belt. It was a hot, sunny day but I guess God showed us his favor with some rain that cooled us off... other than the rain later turned into a torrential downpour! But in true Nica fashion - the work continued! Today we worked at Pastor Manuel's church in Los Cedros. Pastor has become a dear friend to our teams as we have spend much time in Los Cedros. We've hosted med clinics, built homes, worked at the church, worshipped at the church, taken kids to camp and built and worked at the Christian school there. So being in Los Cedros definitely feels like home for us. We even got to see some familiar faces already.

We spent today building rebar, mixing concrete and painting some support beams for the roof. Our primary project at the church is adding a children's "wing" to the back of the church. There is already an existing small room that we are going to expand to the wall height and then build out new walls, while taking down the dividing wall. This will be a huge blessing for the church to give their children and young people a place to gather and be taught the Word.

The bus ride back from Los Cedros is always exciting, but more after we made our pit stop at the grocery store and some of our guys decided to have a hot sauce chugging challenge. Just thinking the the bus with limited water wasn't the best choice, but who actually thinks those things through ahead of time right?!

Our team time is always a highlight of our time together at night where we open the Word and open our hearts before the Lord and each other. We covet your prayer support!

Mission Nicaragua: Day 1

Well it seems of late that my posting is only happening while on the mission field. I sincerely wish that weren't the case, but setting aside the time to blog has been on the back burner, but it a shame - not so much for my readers - but for me personally. It is always a great practice for me and an encouragement in my walk with Christ to be able to online journal what He is up to in my life and ministry.


I find myself here again in Nicaragua, this time down with two great teams of high school, college students and adults. The first team and I arrived safely tonight and are excited about what God has in store for us this week. It would appear that we have a few construction projects already lined up working in the community of Los Cedros where we have served for many years now.

Please be praying for us - that God's Spirit would move in a powerful way in and through our teams. Our desire is to be faithful to minister the Gospel in word and deed as we make new relationships and build on existing relationships here in Nicaragua. Don't forget you can follow us on twitter.com/wwoutreach as well.

Med Mission Nica: Day 7

It's was a bittersweet day on our full last day here in Nicaragua. What a blessing to be able to make our annual visit to La Chureca (the city dump) even though it is a heart breaking experience. Over 1000 people call the dump home with many young children making their home there. The Buzbees have multiple ministries going on in the dump - from medical and re-nutrition to education with the Christian School. We were able to drive through this morning and then stop and the school and see the kids. After a visit at the school we walked around the dump to see some of the residents that Elizabeth ministers to.

From there we headed over to Sister Ruby's house. Ruby was a dear friend and awesome evangelist and prophetess who ministered right outside the dump in a neighboring community. Our teams have always visited for a time of prayer and this team was no exception. And even though it was different since Ruby's home-going, it was still a powerful time of prayer as a team. The Holy Spirit moved in a mighty way, speaking and challenging our hearts.

This afternoon we had our team tour day where we travelled down to Grenada - one of the only cities that survived the war with it's colonial style buildings intact. We took a boat tour around Lake Nicaragua which was a fun experience until one of the island monkeys visited our boat. After Grenada we headed up to a little area called Catalina which offered a change in elevation that gave us cool breezes and a spectacular view of a crater turned lake and some places to shop.

We returned for our last team dinner and Maria pulled out all the stops with a traditional Nicaraguan meal. Our time has truly been amazing down here. I know God has worked through us, but more importantly in us. Please pray for our travels tomorrow, but also pray that God would continue the work He has started in all of us!