September/October 2012

September and October are usually times with the mission that we are able to take a breath, finish up summer projects, finalizes our “Smiles” project and starting looking forward to the New Year. However I can’t say that would describe these months in 2012.

It would be impossible to write in much detail all that has happened over the last two months, these are some of the highlights:

Most of you know we have been working on an agreement with Texas Tech Health Science Center that would be part of the agreement they signed this year with MINSA in Jinotega, Hospital in Jinotega, UNAN and UCAN in Leon, and the hospital school in Leon. This agreement them was finalized in September. A special thanks to Dr. Patterson for her efforts in getting this finalized. We have two groups of medical students and one group of nursing students schedule to come to Nicaragua in 2013.
Bible Bowl Finals were held in Jinotega. Our next book to study is Acts. Thanks to Spanish Literature for the translation and printing of the material.
Preacher’s Leadership Conference in Managua.
Olive Branch Ministries’ annual river trip. Their second trip to Nicaragua this year.
Smiles Pick-up…First container was shipped the last week of October and the second container the first week of November. Thanks to your support over 11,000 “Smiles” are coming to Nicaragua this year. This year the Highway congregation led the way with over 3,000 “Smiles” made for the children. Complete details and pictures in the December Newsletter.
Had the opportunity to be with the Decatur congregation in Decatur, TX when Dr Chad Stephens presented the mission to the congregation as they started their drive for their Mission Sunday. This is the second year for us to be part of this contribution.
We hosted a breakfast at Harding’s Lectureship with Baxter Institute and Health Talents; this was our fourth year to do this together.
A second river trip for the fall in October with Bobby Moore and a group from Bread for Hungry World.
Spoke at the Grapevine and Saturn Road congregations in October. The time at Saturn Road was part of the building up to their annual Harvest Sunday. Thanks for their partnership with us. Support from Harvest Sunday has helped us continue and expand our work on the river.
During this time, thanks to the efforts of Aaron Morales and Ismael Olivas, we have been able to continue and expand the IPO in Chinandega. I had the privilege of teaching there one Saturday.. With the IPO in Chinandega, Jinotega, the prison in Matagalpa and in San Andres we now have the blessings of 126 students. We are in the process of developing a new long term plan for our Institute for Preparation of Workers to start in January.
Each year we have the blessings of new ideas and opportunities. One of those for this year is RECLAIM…and effort started by Sydney Clyde to help ladies learn to sew and provide some support for their families by taking used clothing and material and reclaiming them for other uses. In some way Reclaim is what we are to be about as children of God.
Thanks to the support of many we were able to respond to three communities around the San Cristobal Volcano area following the earthquake that caused an eruption in September.
Ken Parrish from Gainesville, FL was with us working with Jonathan on testing eyes of young children for disease. Ken does this in conjunction with the Lions Club.
The new 1^st lesson of World Bible School material is now available in Spanish. Rebecca Molina, one of our staff translators, translated the material. She translated the Character for Kids material last year and she is now working on material written for the Nicaraguan Christian School in Leon. We having the blessing of a great staff using their talents.

Photos for these highlights and other photos can be
found on our website: www.misionparacristo.com,
click on galleries.

On October 27^th we celebrated 15 years of working with the church in Northern Nicaragua. The day was divided in two parts. The morning we had recognition of those who partner with us…those in attending represent Ministry of Education, Minister of Government, Ministry of Health, UCAN in Leon, our teachers, supporters from the states, congregations we work with and the media. Donna and I were presented a gift of thank-you from the church. The afternoon was for our staff and their families, a true time to celebrate and recognize all of those who do the work in Nicaragua. Special recognition was given to Auturo Jarquin (14 years), Porfirio Molina (14 years) and Luis Prada (12 years) for their time with us. We had twelve others of our staff that has been with us for over 6 years. We had the blessing to have with us for the day Mike and Ann Faris and Danny Deramus. But as I say often: None of this would be possible without God’s blessings and your partnership… by you doing something, we doing something and God putting it together we can do something we could not done apart from each other…

THE LIST:

Two people who have been a great blessings to the mission, Dr. AD and Sharron Smith, were in a car accident and suffered serve injures, please keep their continued recovery.
The end of the year we have a number of ways that we ask you to consider helping us financially. We would ask your consideration to help:

a. Glasses. One of the most exciting new things around the mission is “Sight for Sore Eyes,” a vision ministry developed by Jonathan and Sheila Holland. To expand this, we need more glasses. Please contact us on how you can help with these efforts.

b. We have only a few more cased of the last container on soup. We need to secure another container to arrive in January. The soup is free, but we must cover the cost of shipping and distribution, which is $8,500 per container. In 2011, we distributed more than 2 million servings; 2012 we have distribute over 4 million servings.

c. We have many ways we work with congregations in Northern Nicaragua: Bibles, Bible Material (we are able to get Spanish Literature material here on our container shipments), Bible Bowl, Bible Institute (Institute for Preparation of Workers), monthly meeting for the preachers to get together each month for encouragement but our greatest challenge for support of a congregation is money for them to have a preacher. Please be in touch with us on how you can support a congregation to have a preacher

d. November brings our school year to a close in Nicaragua, we will end the year with 29 schools and over 2,000 children in attendance. There is almost an unlimited opportunity to expand our efforts in education in 2013. All we need is your help in supporting the continuance of this good work. $300 supports a school, $25 a month supports another child.

e. Bibles. We continue to ask your help in securing an additional 10,000 Bibles for Nicaragua. We had a commitment this week for another 5,000. The cost is $3 per Bible.

f. An additional $500 a month is needed to expand our Bible Institute. This is one of our more successful efforts in teaching our preachers and others the Bible and helping those preparing to serve and those maturing in their service for our Lord.

3. Many have contacted us about bringing a group to Nicaragua in 2013. Please contact us today if you are looking to bring a group next year, we need your help but also want to make sure your dates work with the schedule here.

Thanks for your continue support for this Mission for Christ in Nicaragua.

Because of Him:

Benny and Donna Baker

The September/October Newsletter is full of pictures and information on all the things going on around the Mission. Please download the PDF version to see more pictures and read about all that is being done.

Misión Para Cristo

September/October 2012

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