Click below to view slide shows     

 

Greetings in the name of the Lord!

One hundred twenty five thousand, one hundred and seventy five is the number of salvations we saw in Nicaragua, and even as my fingers type the words into the computer, I find it unbelievable. Many people who will hear our report will find it too hard to believe, or believe that we are speaking “evangelistically”; such numbers are simply unheard of, especially among a small, un-known ministry. Yet as I recall the crusade, the meetings, the message, the testimonies of the people, I can only share with you that the fields truly are ripe unto harvest, and the Lord of the harvest is doing an awesome work in Nicaragua! God truly is the master at performing the unbelievable and He deserves all the glory, honor and praise!

            The crusade started August 3^rd with 134 Americans and 1,000 Nicaraguan pastors spread out across Nicaragua in 7 different cities. There were a total of 34 teams, each team having three appointments a day for five days. Most of the appointments took place in the schools, as God has given us great favor with the public schools in Nicaragua. Some of the appointments were small, some big, but all had one thing in common, the people were ready to receive Jesus as Savior! Armed with the simple Gospel message, many teams saw over a thousand salvations in a day!

As the teams went out that first day I could only imagine our Lord’s joy as the message of His sacrifice rang out across the nation, falling upon the hearts of thousands of people at once. I believe the angels rejoiced with each soul that received Christ as Savior! There is nothing greater than to stand before a crowd of young people and see most of them raise their hands to accept Christ as Savior! What a difference those kids will make on the future of Nicaragua with Jesus in the lives!

As we went into the schools and shared Jesus with the kids we were also able to share the love of Jesus with them by blessing them with candy, a pen and a Gospel of John for those who received Jesus. We were also able to bless the teachers with rice, pens, a gospel of John and a calculator. One year we had a teacher ask us if we could come preach at her school. Of course we were more than happy to, but were curious how she had heard of us. She pulled out a pen another teacher had given her and we realized it was a pen we had handed out. The other teacher had shared with her what Way of the Cross was doing in Nicaragua and she wanted a part of it too! It is amazing to see how God can use something as small as a pen to open the doors for us to preach the good news!

 Our main focus of the crusade was to see the lost come to know Jesus, but we also want to be able to train up the local pastors to be able to evangelize and disciple the people of their areas as well. Many of the pastors we work with have no type of education and most of them are as poor as the people we are ministering to, but they have a heart for the Lord and a desire to see their country come to know Jesus as Savior, so our Saturday meetings were set up in their churches to help encourage them to reach out to their community. It always blesses my heart to see the pastors get excited for the Lord! Many of them had never gone out and evangelized, and as we took them out they began to see how the Lord could use them to minister to their neighborhoods. Many of the pastors were filled with a renewed joy and excitement for the work of the Lord!

            In May, we held a pastors conference where many of the 1,000 plus pastors we worked with in the crusade met us for the first time. The conference was called Catch the Vision and many of the pastors truly did leave with a vision for the Lord. We challenged each pastor that was there to work to see at least 50 people come to know the Lord before the crusade started. It blessed my heart as the e-mails started coming in from pastors sharing the number of people they had seen come to Jesus! Our prayer is that one day they will not need us there, that they will go out on their own, hold their own crusades and continue to bring in a mighty harvest for the Lord!

            Right now we are all praying and seeking God about what he has in store for us in Nicaragua and in other countries. We believe that our work is not complete in Nicaragua, and we are currently planning to have smaller crusades throughout 2007, each one in a different city. We are also planning another Pastors’ Conference that will take place around the second week of May, 2007.

            You don’t have to be a bible school graduate to be used in the crusades or the pastors’ conference! We need servants of Christ who are ready to get out on the front lines for the Lord! We need those who can preach, testify, hand out outreach, sing a song, be a prayer warrior or just serve in whatever way you can. So long as you have a heart for the Lord, we would love for you to join us for a crusade or be a part of the pastors’ conference!  We are working on the dates, and will get them posted as soon as possible.

            We believe that God is also opening the doors to us in El Salvador and the African country of Equatorial New Guinea. Please be praying for us and for the work of the Lord in these countries. You can stay up-to-date on what is going on in the ministry and our future plans by visiting us on our website at www.wotc.org.

            I want to thank you all for your prayers and financial support during this past crusade. I would also like to give a special thanks to World Missionary Press who provided all of the tracks and Gospels of John that were handed out during the crusade. We are anxiously looking forward to what God has in store for us in the coming year!

 

God Bless You,

Brother Ben