Staying focused - Lessons from Nehemiah

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We just started going through the combined book of Ezra and Nehemiah. This week we did an overview. Found out during the study that it was originally written as one text. So next week we'll be starting in Ezra for Wednesday nights.

Looking through the book you see that everything started and ended with prayer/fasting and the word. God gave promises of punishment but also of blessing. And even when Israel failed to meet the requirements, God's mercy was there when they returned to him. How great is it that we are able to come to Jesus under a covenant or agreement of not the law but grace. God sees us as son's because of what Jesus did for us, that however does not mean that we should not work with all our effort to please Him in all we do.

The Enemy does not like it when we are serving God, or starting a new ministry guided by the Holy Spirit, or really doing anything for God. Some of the attacks of the enemy in the book of Nehemiah are geared to get Nehemiah of course. To be distracted for what God wanted him to do. How we too can get so easily distracted. The enemy used, unfounded lies which Nehemiah combats with sayings like, "The Lord will fight for me." The enemy ridiculed him and he prays against the attacks but doesn't stop the work. The enemy tried to attack him physically. Nehemiah didn't stop but had one hand on the sword and another on the work. The enemy tried to plant fear in the heart of Nehemiah but with God's help Nehemiah saw through these attacks. We too can fight with the sword-the word of God and continue our work God has given us.

For us to stay on focus we need to like Nehemiah be men and women of the word, prayer, worship, and humbly confess our sins and that of others to God. (See end of Nehemiah) In this way we stay on task vigilant, alert, and undistracted from God's call for us. The result of Nehemiah's ministry was a repentant people who sought God with the word, worship, and confession. Let's follow his example and watch God bring the fruit!

Calvary Crusade

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Summer is here in Nueva Guinea! It is hot and with school out the youth and adults are free and going to the rivers surrounding the town. You can feel the heat as it hits your head and sizzles. Not quite that bad but its hot.  During this time the town takes a break from work and most activities. We plan on doing a few activities to take advantage of the people that aren’t doing anyting. Murio, the youth, Katering, our new brother Moises Harnandez and the whole church will be helping us.

This upcoming week he’ll be helping run a cleaning crew for 3 events:  Resurrection Sunday, Evangelistic crusade on next Wednesday and Thursday. The crusade will be announced in our radio station, Radio Calvario and in another radio station on the other side of town, The crusade will start at 6:30 pm here the first day Hector will be teaching and the second day Pastor Carlos. During Holy week here people are off work Wednesday thru Friday so it is an opportunity to reach some of the people that would otherwise be occupied. Be in prayer that God uses our church to reach out to the people of Nueva Guinea in the next couple days and God save many through this event. The crusade will be held outside on the church property with ushers helping out with the crowd control. Before and after the event the girls will be selling food and drinks. One of the sisters will be making snow cones with fruit/honey toppings mmmm….

Katherine will be getting the youth girls together to help Angela as she is coordinating the food side of the event. Also be in prayer for Katherine and her family as her uncle just died after a motorcycle accident. There will be a “vela” tonight which is an all night wake, and the funeral tomorrow.  

During the events Danny will be doing sound. And a local band, Alex and his band, they are actually the ones that are teaching our worship team and church more about music and music theory, they will be doing the worship. The church will be getting together here from 7-9 pm on Tuesday night to pray together for the event. You too can be part of the event by praying with us from right where you are at.

Keep Pastor Carlos in prayer as he is discipling the church on Tuesday nights at 6pm. Pray for the church that they would have a heart to follow Jesus whole-heartedly as disciples that are doers of the word and not just hearers.

In Jesus may you find all you need,

Greg

A word from Pastor Carlos translated to English,

“Hello! May God bless you, and I greet you in the name of Jesus our Lord,

There is in our age and time a conformity in the Christian church, when the bible says in Romans 12:2, that we should not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. But many Christians are conforming to this world which has nothing good towards being humble toward God.

We can observe in all places that we go the same situation is occurring. There are people that say they are okay  with God, but in reality, if Jesus came to take away his church in the rapture many would not go. Many live their own gospel and make up their own rules, sleeping and living with their girlfriend or boyfriend and doing things that God says of these that practice such things will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

We have several couples now that are living together that call themselves Christians but live with their boyfriend or girlfriend. We are praying for these brothers and I have been talking with them and telling them they need to fix their lives for the glory of God. They have not yet responded to this call. We ask that you too would pray for those in the church that are walking in rebellion against God by living with their boyfriend or girlfriend without marriage. We love them and want them to go together with us to heaven.

Attentively,

Your brother in Jesus,

Pastor Carlos Arteaga

Music Class --- Clase De Musica

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So in the past I was praying about how to be able to better serve the Lord in worship. And better help others lead worship. Recently we have been blessed with a music teacher that has studied in Costa Rica he can read music, play all the instruments we can possibly use, knows how to do harmonies and make them from scratch and I just really thank God for him coming at this time because he's an answered prayer. Alex is going to be charging us less than U$3 a person for three hours of class which will be every Wednesday and the 1st course will last 6 months. Doesn't sound like much money but here in Nicaragua where a days wage U$7 it is. I'm excited to be able to learn how to create harmonies in music and help the worship team here draw the congregation together in worship.

Pray for us as we are going to be starting this the 25th of March. God bless you all richly and may his desires be our desires! Love Greg

En el pasado estuve orando sobre como servir mejor el Señor en la alabanza y también ayudar a otros ser mejores lideres en la alabanza. Recientemente hemos estado bendecido con un maestro de música que ha estudiado en Costa Rica, toca todos los instrumentos que nosotros podemos ocupar, conoce como crear harmonías y yo agradezco a Dios por la venida a Alex. El va a estar cobrando U$2 por tres horas de clase. No suena que es mucho dinero pero cuando la gente ganan U$7 el dia es algo. Las clases vamos a tomar cada miércoles. Estoy emocionado de tener la oportunidad de crear harmonías in la alabanza y a ayudar el grupo de alabanza mejorar por la gloria de Dios!

Ora por nosotros porque comenzamos el 25 de Marzo. Dios le bendiga y que sea sus deseos las nuestras! En su amor, Gregorio

If you'd like to sponsor one of the kids for this let me know by email how much you gave and then donate at http://graceministriesint.com/donate/.

Right now we have 7 from our church. So donations given for this will be split among the 7.

greg@graceministriesint.com

The Spaniard

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No I'm not talking about the movie Gladiator... Even though it was a great movie! This Spaniard is one that lives a block away from the church and sells propane gas and seems to have left his gladiator helmet and sword in the closet. Jose, "the spaniard" has just recently moved here from Spain and you can really tell the difference in the accent. He kept telling me my name is Jothe, and I said what is your name? he kept saying Jothe, over and over... Then finally he changed his accent and said, my name's Jose and I said, "Oh! Jose, nice to meet you." Even before this time he was a little standoffish and as I rolled up with Murio a young adult who just started discipleship with Hector, we were a little unsure of what to do with this guy. When I asked him if he knew and wanted to talk about Jesus he said it must be my wife that your looking for she's the one that goes to church. He said, "I believe what I can see." So this doubting Thomas is someone that has been on our heart and we've been praying for him. Some of his remarks were, If I don't work I don't eat. And God is like Harry Potter just made up. So what we want to do is we are looking to reach him at the root of the problem. He doesn't believe in God and that Jesus is God. So we are talking to him at the core of the issue which is, he doesn't believe in a creator. And wholeheartedly is adamant about believing that we can't know what is true, that when we die we're all going to the same place anyway. Which is not true according to the word. And truth is not relative anyway, Jesus is either saying the truth or lying. He also believes that history is all made up and you can't believe dead people. But he believes in evolution and Charles Darwin last time I checked Charles is very dead.

Pray for Murio and I, plus Jose, as we look to study and share with him about God as Creator, and the case for him as creator. If We can get him to believe in God as creator than we have something to talk about with him and can work to share the gospel with him.

God bless you all,

In His love, Greg

No power at church! Plus upcoming travel for the Chavez family and Leah

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We had a big turnout for church today. And after worship was over the lights went out. So we we're all turning on cell phones with flash lights. When the lights go out here it is pitch black. Usually when the power goes out we have a back up generator that runs the lights. As the main generator runs the radio station in power outages. But our backup generator is down at the moment. Pray that it gets fixed.

But thank you Jesus we made it work. Running several extension chords. We were able to get a little light for the youth group that were outside and for the adults that were in the church building.

After church Pastor Carlos and I went taking the youth back to their houses. As it is dangerous for girls to walk alone during power outages.

Thank you Jesus the power is now back. And I am able to give you this update. Some needs....We're running low on batteries and flashlights. With the humidity here the flashlights break very fast and the batteries go fast as we are many times without power and need light to be able to move around.

Also keep in prayer Leah, Deanna's sister that will be flying back to the states tomorrow. Hector and Deanna will be accompanying her. They will also be in Managua for 1 to 2 days. They will be getting a birth certificate for Lydia God willing and applying for her Nicaraguan Passport. Pray that they have favor with the authorities as they are asking for one Last Name which is out of the norm.

Evangelism with Jose from Managua

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This last Saturday Jose and I were able to go out and Evangelize. It was a great time. The first stop was a to a house of a youth that I've come to know, whose name is Roger. He has cut himself a lot in the past and has many scars on his arms. He asks for repentance when drunk or high but really I think he doesn't remember later. Pray that he would be given a sound mind to be able to make the decision for Jesus. Pray for his deliverance from the gang that he is in, and that the enemy would be bound so he can make a decision for Jesus. 

The 2nd person we went to visit on our trip was the house of Yesner's dad. He is the father of one of the youth that comes to church. He runs an almost daily poker table where they drink a lot to forget their problems. This last time I went to visit him we sat down and bought him a soda and talked a while. He was telling me about his friend that shot himself in the head and if that guy could have been saved. We told him that only God knew where his heart was. But to be sure we have to trust and give our lives to Jesus recognizing him as our savior and Lord. So he thought a lot about it. Pray for him and for the next time we go to speak with him that the Holy Spirit would convict him of his sin and he would turn to Jesus. 

Lastly we went to the house of Isaias. He is a youth that came to our youth center and is a friend of Roger. He has recently joined back into their gang. Pray for him that he would leave and seek a life given to God. That God would open his eyes and break every chain of the enemy that would keep him in bondage. 

Katherine's Graduation

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One of the youth Katherine graduated from highschool!
Please keep her in prayer as she takes this next step in her life. That she would trust God with all her heart and pray that she would know God's next move for her.

Katherine Serves on the church and youth worship team, teaches youth center once a week, coordinates christian drama/dances with youth, and helps in cafe.

 

Katherine seen with her Granmother, aunt, Pastor Carlos and Gabriella.

Zone #6 Park Evangelism

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So went to the zone #6 Park to evangelize tonight. Daniel a youth went with me he is now in his 20's and said he wanted to go. Armed with a bag with a basketball a bible and some tracts we started out from the park in Zone 5 and arriving 20 minutes later at the other end of town we arrived at the Zone #6 park. There we brought a basketball. And since the boys there don't really know how to play basketball very well they were interested and I was able to show them a few things. Like how to shoot right and dribble. So we ended playing a game for a while, 5 on 5. After we played for around 30 minutes we sat down with them on the basketball court and talked to them about Jesus. Many of the boys did knew Jesus but some didn't and as we started to share the gospel others came to listen that didn't know Jesus.

It was a big blessing because we were also able to give out tracts with verses about coming to know Jesus and we asked those that did know Jesus to give the tracts out to their friends that haven't yet received him. So with that we started to head back to the facility. On the way out we talked with 3 men that did not know Jesus and they listened and were thinking about receiving Jesus but didn't, they said that they would think more about it and took home with them some tracts.

Pray for the Zone 6 boys and men that they would continue in Jesus and for those that don't know Jesus that they would receive him!

Lost Boys...... but a Big God

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This last Tuesday I was getting ready to clean out one of the classrooms when i saw a lot of the youth in the park. Some of these youth are lost and others have been in the church youth group in the past but have stopped coming. So I figured it would be a good time of evangelism if they would come help clean out the classroom. So I went over there and 1st found out that they didn't have any water because the water didn't come in the morning. So we helped Eduardo and his family get some water for the day, hauling it from the facility. Then they came over and we cleaned out the youth classroom as it was getting dirty. After that we went up the hill of the facility and cut down some coconuts to drink and eat. During that time I was able to talk to them a little more personally as they were sipping down on the cocos. I asked them in a gang if there were 2 brothers and the one brother died to protect the group but before he died if he asked the group to do something, would the gang respect what was asked? And one of the youth that is mixed with the local gang said yes.

So I told them the same thing is with God. God's gang or group is the world and he stepped up and protected us by dying on the cross. We deserved to die but he died in our place so we could be free from sin. Then I told them that it was time than that we respected what Jesus has said to us. They stopped talking and started thinking.

Pray for these youth, especially the youth that were with us at the youth group but haven't been coming, youth like Eduardo, Javier, Rodrigo.

City at night in Nueva Guinea

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Went for a walk tonight over the city of Neuva Guinea. Praying about where to evangelize during the night with the male young adults and some of the male adults. 1st I went to central park there are groups of kids that like to ride BMX bikes and there are youth that like sports, there are also couples and families there.

In the Park in Zone 6 there is a smaller park that has a lot of younger kids and there are youth that play sports. In the Park in zone 7 there are a lot of kids that don't have much to do. Are addicted to marijuana or alcohol and just are looking for a place to fit in. They listen when you talk to them and are open to conversation.

In the park in Zone 5 there are those that are heavily addicted to drugs, there are those boys that are smokers and light drinkers but still need Jesus. And those that just like playing sports and nothing else.

Pray for these areas and the youth, young adults, and adults that go to these places. Also pray that God raises up others to go with me. Pray for these to possibly go with me, Cesar, Don Daniel, Moises Toruño, Yeltsin, and whoever God would have in mind.

Pray for open doors for sharing Jesus and that God would help us to share his word effectively. Pray for the lost adults, young adults, and youth in these areas.

Radio Tower Work

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As Hector Sr., Hector Jr, myself and Hector's 2 year old, Natanael were walking to visit Louis Adan a few blocks away from the church Natanael says, "Hot!" The son is pretty hot right now and the rain comes and goes. We were blessed today to be able to work on the radio tower some. We had some equipment that was fried because of lightning so we were able to put up a lightning resister for the networking. so that should help next time there is a lightning strike to not fry our equipment. It was also a good time of fellowship today. 

Keep tomorrow in prayer as their is a potluck in the park to raise money for giveaway baskets to the poor for Christmas time. 

Tonight is youth center which the youth always have a blast at. Last week after the devocional Hector brought out the volleyball net and the kids played an adventure game on xbox and had a blast! So keep that event in prayer and that god would continue to bring forth fruit. Last week some boys came that are in chains from drugs, alcohol, and bad influences pray God gets a hold of their hearts.

Praise Report! Update from Guatamala :)

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Good morning family! Thank you Jesus for blessing us with a new morning, one that we don't deserve. When we come to think about it we deserve hell and anything more than that is a blessing. How blessed are we. I'd like to thank Jesus today for my salvation and always  being faithful. Despite any difficulty our God is a God that is always faithful! He knows the best for us and for others. Oh, that we would be more like our God! What a different world it would be.

I'd like to thank God and for providing for our needs according to His riches and His glory. He's worthy of our praise! Jesus loves us so much! I'd also like to ask blessings financially to those that have taken part of God's call to get Pastor Carlos, Bismark, Diego and myself to the conference we are very blessed here and are learning how to be more effective in the ministry to lean more into God's word and rely on His spirit to guide every aspect of our lives. The theme of the conference is --- 2 Timiteo 3:10-17

10 But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, 11 persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra—what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me. 12 Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. 13 But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, 15 and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

"Carefully followed my manner of life"....Follow the example of Paul? Why should we follow men? It is because they follow Jesus! We follow the example of brothers that serve and live for Jesus. We follow their example but our ultimate example and not only example but our call to live and to follow is to follow Jesus! How wonderful it is to follow Jesus the author and finisher of our faith!

May God richly bless you today with his grace to live the life he has called us to.

Much love in Christ,

Pastor Carlos, Bimsark, Diego, and Greg

Warrior King Song Idea

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Here is a little bit of me and Danny messing around on the guitar and the drums. Danny is a youth faithful to God when many his age choose to turn to women, friendships, being cool, and other pressures of adolescence instead of finding true joy and peace from a God who is saddened by us looking to be satisfied outside of Him. Continue to pray for him as serves in worship ministry, sound ministry, and Music class. Pray that God would give him the strength to live for Jesus and be a strong light for him.

Also pray for Katherine who only has a few months left of high school and then she is possibly off to college. She has mentioned that she wants to study medicine and is now investigating schools and options. But still wants to serve the church. Pray for her and the decisions of what school she will be going to whether here in Nueva Guinea or in another city like Juigalpa 2 hours away in bus or in Managua 6 hours away. Katherine serves in Youth Center on Fridays, in the worship team and helps out in whatever she can. Pray for her also for a possible call to missions or full time ministry/missions as God has raised her up and she is to the point if God wants that it could be a possibility.


Home Bible study pics

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The Church had home bible study at Anielka's house today. Her family owns a carpenter shop. They make all sorts of things with wood. We also we're blessed as they opened up their shop for home bible study. It was a wonderful time of praise and worship and a refreshment in the word as we read through the book of Philippians! Keep Isaias in prayer as he was at the home bible study he just lost his grandmother.