Our first stop on distribution today was at the Hogar Agape orphanage. This orphanage is operated by a local church. The director said they have children dropped off there on a regular basis.
There have been times when they have had 400 children. When we arrived today there were 15 children ranging in age from 2 years old to 12 years old. There were more children earlier in the week, but they were adopted before we got there.
For these children, being in an orphanage is almost a double curse. Just living in a the poorest country in Central America is hard enough, but to be an orphan is almost a guarantee of a life of despair and hopelessness.
So when we arrived today we were instantly surrounded by the children who hugged each one of us. It was a precious sight.
We spent about 30 mins blessing them and the leaders of the orphanage in Jesus’ Name.
After we left the orphanage, we got on the bus to head toward the village to distribute food for the day. After a few minutes of driving, it was apparent that the traffic was different today than the days before.
Our bus driver told us that today was the beginning of the Santo Domingo celebration. This is a tradition in Nicaragua that started 130 years ago. It started when a man discovered an idol of Santo Domingo in a tree on a mountain.
He brought the idol down from the mountain and it was placed in a local Catholic Church. The next day the idol was missing. It later was discovered back in the tree on the mountain. From that time until now, the idol is worshiped and celebrated the first 10 days of August every year.
The reason that the traffic was so bad this day was because thousands of people were marching in a parade in anticipation of the idol being brought down from the mountain. There were multiple street closures and initially the driver said that we may not be able to get to the place we were supposed to go.
After he said this, we sensed a prompting from the Spirit to pray against any hindrances the enemy was trying to use to prevent us from reaching our destination. So that is exactly what we did.
We prayed and asked the Lord to make a way where there seemed to be no way, and that is exactly what He did. Our driver was able to navigate through some back streets and get around all the road blocks.
Once we seemed to be in the clear, there was another hindrance. We were following the Pastor’s son to the church. He was in a car in front of the bus. All of a sudden, in the middle of the road his car died.
He got out of the car and began pushing it in order to pop the clutch to start it. After two attempts it was obvious he could not get it going fast enough. Three of our guys from the bus got out and helped push the car. This gave hi just enough momentum to get it started. So, we continued on our way.
As we approached the church I began getting a sense of anticipation for what the Lord had planned for this visit. The opposition we encountered that there was something planned by the Lord for these people. I was not sure what He had planned, but I was excited that we would be able to experience it first hand.
Finally we arrived at the church. It was in a very remount area surrounded by farm land and jungle. As we walked up to the church, there was a women’s conference in progress. The pastor welcomed us and invited some of the women on the team to share with the group.
While the women from our team were sharing, the rest of the team whet to an area behind the church on the edge of a jungle. In this area were 50 kids who were learning about the Lord.
It was such an awesome sight to see these kids in the middle of farmland learning about Jesus. We blessed them with stuffed animals and candy.
As the women’s conference ended, we then distributed the bags of food to the women at the conference. The remaining bags of food we left with the pastor so she could bless the community around her. We then prepared to leave for the hotel. But before we left we discovered the reason there was so much opposition to our coming to this church.
The pastor told us that she had just finished a 21 day fast yesterday and the blessing of our visit and the food we left for the church was a blessing that she could never have imagined.
Then we realized that God wanted to bless her for her faithfulness in fasting, but the enemy wanted to hinder her blessings. We praised God for giving us perseverance and making a way to bless her in Jesus’ Name.
That concludes day three of distribution with one day to go. So, if you are keeping score at home, mark your scorecard with Jesus won, the devil defeated, and the Kingdom of God advanced in Nicaragua today!