One Month Supply Raised! Praise, the Lord! |
I am thankful to report that we have received enough money for our initial goal: to buy one month's food supply and seeds for our widows! Moses was in tears at this happy news. Can you imagine having widows call you because they are hungry - and you pray with them - and then a few days later are able to report that the Lord has indeed provided? Praise the Lord! |
The additional funds that come in now will go towards the future needs of these widows, which is almost certain. Why? Even if it started raining today and our widows started planting tomorrow, it would still be at least a few months before they are able to harvest anything. |
picture of the supplies we purchased during lockdowns in 2020 |
Which leads me to my next prayer request: |
Pray for rain!
As you can see in the graph below, the historical weather pattern is for two rainy seasons: one centered on April and the other centered on November. The past two years there has been almost no rain at all, even during these "rainy seasons". We are praying that gentle rains begin soon. |
This graphic shows historical data, amounts of rain in Sagana Area |
Longer Term: Pray for Wisdom We certainly want to help these hurting people during this acute crisis. It is relatively simple to buy some food and give it to them. How can we prevent this from happening again in the future? That is a much more complex question and one that we need divine wisdom for. Would you pray that the Lord gives us wisdom? |
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Drip irrigation? Droughts are going to happen again. Our desire in the long run is to help the widows to not be so dependent on the weather. For some of them, this might mean trying to set them up with drip irrigation systems, which are so much more efficient with water use than depending completely on the rain. Even drip irrigation systems require access to a water source, though - and at their ages carrying enough water from the local river to their little farms is not realistic. And having access to drinking water is hard enough, let alone the amount that would be needed to supply communities with enough water for agricultural use. |
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Diversification of crops & modern farming methods?
There is a lot of scientific research out there that might be helpful to these ladies, but how do we get the most helpful information to them? What are the lowest cost and/or most effective modern tools and strategies? How can we provide them with this? |
Skills Training? Is it possible that some of the ladies can learn other skills such as sewing, teaching, etc. so they are not quite as dependent on their farms as their ONLY source of sustenance? |
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Families and the economy in general In a more ideal situation, the children, grandchildren, extended families and church communities would be willing and able to provide for the needs of these widows. The reality, however, is that most of the people in this area are in the same situation these ladies are in: they work on their tiny family farms on their own property - and then they work as "casual/day laborers" on OTHER people's farms. And that's only IF there is any work to do. No rain means there is no work to be done, which means no income for their families either. What an impossible choice to have to decide how much to feed your children versus your hungry aging parents. |
Conclusion: Our Hope is in Jesus
There is no "one-size fits all" solution that is going to fix it all. And Jesus warned that "in this world we will have trouble" - but aren't we all so thankful that he didn't end the sentence there, but continued "but take heart because I have overcome the world!" (John 16:33). And until Jesus returns, we have lots of opportunities, such as these, to "store up treasures in heaven". Thank you for honoring us with your partnership! |
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Jason flies to Nicaragua tomorrow (Wednesday March 8th) |
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Our field director in Nicaragua, Kevin Aguilar, has been hard at work preparing for Jason's upcoming trip.
Mercy projects (Show) include the beginnng research phases of several water projects, as well as checking in on the progress being made at our main project for the moment: the HillTop Peoples. We have begun progress to this community of 75-100 families who currently have to go as far as 1,000 feet down in elevation to get their water - and then carry it back up! And even then, it is not filtered. We would like to purchase a "bucket-filter" system for each of these families, which will cost about $54 each, and should last for a minimum of 2 years. More pictures and details to come ...
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Plans also include evangelism outreaches (Tell) such as at local prisons, hospitals, training some church members in evangelism and then going out to do street and door-to-door evangelism, ...
Discipleship opportunities (Teach) include meetings with several pastors as we build relationships for pastor's networks in Nicaragua. Jason is also planning on doing some music training, especially with some highly motivated youth in a couple of the churches.
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"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." - James 1:27 |
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| Have we told you lately that we are thankful for YOU? How can we be praying for you? If you have a prayer request, send it to dean@gocrossway.org and we'll add you to our prayer list!
Thank you for your faithful partnership in spreading the Gospel. We believe your prayers matter to our Father in Heaven! |
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