INTERNATIONAL MINISTRY: NICARAGUA TRIP- MAR 2024

What a powerful time of ministry we had in Nicaragua this March!

This trip was unique for me as it was the first time we took a team on a Make Way Ministries trip. I felt led by the Lord to assemble a small team of people with medical and ministry backgrounds. God provided a great group and we saw Him use our team to impact the country for His glory.

We partnered with our good friends, missionaries Rob and Nita Wehrley with Project Samuel. They continue to minister to those in great need with both physical and spiritual support. They are actively ministering to children and raising up a generation of young disciples through their children ministries and Bible League ministry. To connect with their ministry in Nicaragua, please visit their website at: Let’s Get Bold. It was a blessing to be reunited with them and also see our friends Jonathan, who translated for the services and Aaron, who did kids ministry throughout the trip.

Our team landed on Tuesday, and we spent the evening settling in and assembling food and hygiene packs for distribution. We gave away 165 packs of food containing rice, beans, salt and sugar and 200 hygiene packs containing soap, loofahs, toothbrushes, toothpaste and other items to the people in the two communities where we ministered. We also had our first set of Spanish Romans Road cards printed and we brought 500 of them with us. These proved to be very helpful in sharing the Gospel and we got them into the hands of hundreds of people in the country.

Wednesday- Thursday: The Valley of the Volcano

We spent two days ministering to the people in an area called the Valley of the Volcano. It has that name because it sits at the base of an active volcano in Masaya. This particular town is built alongside a landfill, so that people can work throughout the day to gather anything valuable they can find to recycle for money. Our outreaches during the day proved to be very well received.

We teamed up with the local church in the community under the leadership of Pastor Jose. In the Valley, we had around 150 people come to be checked out. Each person that came through had an opportunity to receive attention for their physical needs, but we also shared the Gospel with them and offered to pray for them. Many of them were noticeably touched by the Lord as we prayed. I look forward to hearing testimonies of how He healed them physically as well. We had several who prayed to receive or rededicate their lives to Christ!

During our outreaches, we had children’s ministry meetings also taking place for the kids in the community. It was a blessing to see the kids having such a great time learning about God, worshipping and playing games. Our team also had the opportunity to bring water and sandwiches to those working in the landfill each day. It is hard to imagine working all day in the heat of the Nicaraguan sun, searching for whatever you can find to try to make a living for your family. The people were very grateful for the small gesture of love. For those who had so little, the joy they had in their hearts and the love they had for people was such a blessing to experience.

On the first night, we held an outdoor evangelistic meeting in that community. We were told that there were people in the town who practiced witchcraft, and several told us personally how they were under a curse. Our team could feel the spiritual tension in the air. The worship leader that night began to declare the name of Jesus over the community, and you could feel the atmosphere shift. Two people manifested demons that night and received prayer for deliverance. I preached a simple message, and the Lord anointed it powerfully. I shared about healing, deliverance and salvation. Several people responded to the call for salvation at the end. Our team ministered to many who came forward for prayer. I went into the crowd with one of our interpreters, named Gustavo, and we shared Jesus with several people. One group of three young men in particular stand out in my mind. They heard the message but told us, “We will give our lives to Christ at a later time.” We encouraged them that there may not be more time and asked them to take a Romans Road card and pray about it. I thank the Lord for the opportunity to sow seeds of the Gospel.

Thursday Evening: Rock of Salvation Church in Ticuantepe

It was such a blessing to reconnect with Pastor Ernan, who I met on my first trip to Nicaragua last year. He is the leader of a network of churches, and this was my first time preaching at his home church. I spoke a message about the fire of God and our need for His presence and glory in our lives. Many people came forward to seek the Lord, and we had a powerful time of altar ministry. One girl around seven years old came forward with her mother. They both cried out to the Lord with tears streaming down their faces. To see this young girl so sincerely desperate for God touched my heart in a profound way. It was a great night!

Afterwards, I asked Pastor Ernan if he would be willing to share some of the lessons that he has learned about spiritual warfare. He shared with our team three specific encounters that he had with the demonic in his ministry as well as the principles that he learned about spiritual warfare from each experience. It was such a rich time of training for our team, and it led to many conversations throughout the trip.

Friday: Granada

On Friday, our team had a chance to go to the oldest city in Nicaragua, called Granada. I took advantage of this time to share the Gospel with several people. At one point, I looked around at hundreds of people in the crowd and prayed, “Holy Spirit. If you want us to talk to someone specific, please let us bump into them in some way.” Within about two minutes, a man came up to me and Gustavo and introduced himself. We shared the Gospel with him and prayed with him. It was an almost immediate answer to prayer, and I was reminded of the importance of asking God for divine encounters. The Holy Spirit is so willing to help us reach people for Jesus if we will just make ourselves available.

Saturday: Project Samuel and Ticuantepe

On Saturday, we were a part of a childrens program for the kids in the neighborhood of Project Samuel. They had so much fun playing the games and acting out the story of the walls of Jericho. That evening, we traveled to Ticuantepe and I was asked to speak at a gathering of several churches from Pastor Ernan’s network. The worship was amazing, and I spoke about the need for the church to reach the world with the Gospel. Afterwards, we prayed for many who felt a specific call to be an evangelist. We then prayed for many who needed a touch from the Lord. It was a special time as the Lord moved in the room in a tangible way.

Sunday: Two Church Services

On Sunday morning, we were invited to Mount Horeb Church by Pastor Yasir. The people were warm and welcoming. After a time of worship, I shared a message about not allowing the enemy to put the fire of God in our hearts out. The people were very responsive. We prayed for many at the altars and the Holy Spirit moved in a powerful way. Pastor Yasir asked if we would anoint and lay hands on his leadership team. The Lord touched them and I believe that what God stirred up that morning will continue on.

That evening, we travelled to an area outside of Managua to a church that I spoke at on my first trip. It was a blessing to be reunited with Pastor Oskar and Pastor Henry. This year, they set up an outdoor evangelistic meeting outside the church. We had a great time of worship and afterwards I shared a message highlighting Jesus’ ability to deliver people from bondage, heal their bodies and save their souls. One young lady came forward at the altar to give her life to Jesus. She was pregnant and I’m grateful for how the Lord will touch generations in her family through this mother’s faith. Another elderly man came forward to rededicate his life to Christ. He had a lot of pain in his knees, and after praying for him, the pain had decreased exponentially. We prayed for several others for their needs as well. They had the children from the church come up front and our team prayed for them. It was a beautiful moment, and we could see how the Lord is raising up a generation of young people on fire for Him. The Lord ministered to many that night.

Monday-Tuesday: Los Altos

We spent Monday and Tuesday in a town called Los Altos. Pastor Noel pastors a church there, and they opened their building for us to host two outreach days to minister to those in need. Between the two days, we saw over 150 people. Several came to the Lord, and on the second day, several were physically healed as we prayed. One young lady who had pain in her thigh said that heat came into her leg when we prayed and all the pain left. Another was healed of back pain and a man with knee pain was also touched. Many others we prayed for had ailments that were not possible to know if there was an immediate touch from God, but we believe in faith that many others experienced miracles that day.

On both Monday and Tuesday nights, we held outdoor street meetings in Los Altos. We set up the meeting right on the street in a residential community. The first night, I spoke from the Gospels and gave a call for salvation. Several came forward to pray to receive Christ. We then began to pray for people who were in need. When we prayed for one gentlemen, something didn’t feel right in my spirit. I asked the translator to find out what the man needed from the Lord. He shared that he had stomach pain and had gone to a local witch seeking healing. I asked if he was ready to renounce that tie to witchcraft and he responded that he was. As we prayed, a demonic spirit began to manifest, and as we took authority over it, the man began to vomit blood and it left him. He will receive further ministry from the church there. Praise the Lord for His delivering power!

There was a man standing outside his home listening to the message and I felt drawn to speak with him. We asked him if he was a believer, and he said he was not but that he was ready to become one. We prayed with him and he asked us to pray with his wife as well. She was not ready to receive Christ, but she sat through the whole message the second night. I believe the Lord is going to touch her heart and transform that family. We left a Romans Road card with them and the husband was reading through it intently as we were packing up after the meeting.

On Tuesday night, I preached a message about the blood of Jesus. When I gave the altar call, no one responded at first. However, after a few moments a man came forward, followed by a couple of women. Then several children came forward. As I led them in a prayer of repentance, the children prayed out loud sincerely. It so touched my heart. I realized that this was a moment that many of them would remember as they responded to the Lord and He washed their sins clean. Pastor Noel expressed his deep gratitude to our team for coming and ministering to so many in his community. He was grateful that we not only ministered to the physical needs of people, but also the spiritual needs.

Final Thoughts

The overall theme of this trip was definitely 1 John 4:4: “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” We were constantly aware that the enemy was not happy that we were doing what we were doing. However, in the midst of the warfare, we saw time after time how prayer was effective in pulling down strongholds. Many of our prayers were answered almost instantaneously by the Lord. In one instance, we were in a customs line and it seemed the clerk was giving people a hard time. We prayed as a group and within seconds, a security guard waved us over to another line. We saw God move in this way all throughout the trip, and we were so encouraged at the power of prayer.

I was also reminded of what an encouragement it is to the church in other nations when we come to pour ourselves out in their country. Several of the pastors expressed heartfelt gratitude for the fact that we would bring a team to bless them. However, we left feeling that they poured more into us than we gave to them!

So many lives were touched on the trip through the ministry, only Heaven knows the true impact. But we were so blessed to see many people touched right before our eyes. I am so grateful to the Lord for how He moved. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for praying with us along the way!

If you would like to donate toward our International Ministry to help make trips like this happen, you can do that by clicking here. Just select the “International Ministry” fund and all of those donations will go directly to our overseas work.

I shot a seven-part vlog of updates throughout the trip, including many of the testimonies of what the Lord did and video clips of the prayer/ worship in the services. You can watch it here: