The Youth Ranch
Last year I made 6 trips just doing small things in Nicaragua. I saw all the hurt and pain in the people's lives and I didn't know what to do for them, these beautiful forgotten children. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks, the Youth Ranch! What a great ministry for Nicaragua!Fifty years ago here in the USA "Youth Ranch" was the greatest youth ministry I have ever seen. It is an informal Bible study (not church) where teens come and play basketball, ping-pong and other activities. The Bible study begins and everyone sits on the floor, sings contemporary songs and then hear the gospel of Jesus Christ clear and plain. They are given the opportunity to trust Christ as their personal Savior. I knew that was it! "Ranch" was perfect for the teens of Nicaragua.With God's help I found a beautiful building in downtown Chinandega just 1 block from where all the youth "hang out." God also provided us a great "Ranch Director," Lito, as the teens call him. We had our first Youth Ranch meeting December 14, 2007, where over 300 teens showed up and over 20 trusted Christ as their Savior. The ministry is growing by leaps and bounds! Now every Friday night we have the Ranch meeting and there are over 100 kids every week. God is really blessing them. Also, we have a Bible study every Monday night for the core group of teens. On 3 nights a week we have English lessons where 24 kids come to learn English and we get a chance to show them Christ's love.
The Feeding Center
Every Wednesday we go to the city dump where over 4000 people live in the worst conditions you can imagine. There we feed over 300 kids soup. It is the most amazing and rewarding thing you could take part of. We can feed 500 kids for $100. Here at the dump it is the only meal they will get for that day. We want to start doing this 3 times a week.There is a local mission there through an organization called "El Shaddai". This is their ministry and they have welcomed us and the help we are bringing. They've even embraced our plans to bring the mission trips from the USA to help feed these kids and through puppet shows and games present the gospel to these kids. The families of these kids are so poor that there are some that have no clothes and for them grocery shopping means a full day of digging through the city garbage dump.On the mission trips that will be coming to Nicaragua this year we plan to have the women spend time with the girls brushing their hair, washing their hands and painting their fingernails to encourage them to keep their hands clean. There are young teens who live there who have babies of their own. The average pregnancy occurs at the age of 13. The men will have the opportunity to take the boys and play soccer with them and affirm them in the ways that their non-existent fathers don't.