How would you describe July 1 through August 9?  FULL…..and what a blessing….we had 15 groups:  Harding, Harding Pharmacy School, Highpointe, St Clements, Saturn Road, Knoxville, Oak Ridge, Jacksonville, Highland Oaks, 4^th Ave, Decatur, Sylvan Hills, Texarkana, Dover and El Dorado.  Go to our website… www.misionparacristo.com …and click on galleries and see these group’s pictures and all that was done because of God’s blessings of them coming.  
 
As we look back over the summer and see the different things the groups did while they were here and the people they touch in name of our Lord:  construction, medical (over 7,000 people served by our groups medically this summer), Bible Adventures, Casa Materna, Special School, Las Pipitos, Day Care, Hospital Kids, vision screening, food distribution, painting, and more; one thing that seem to stand out for many is our Reading Buddies (Robertson Memorial Mobile Library).  Our schools do not have libraries; our Mobile Library gives the opportunity for the children to read and open a whole new world to them.  What we could use is more books in Spanish. We are also looking on ways to take your old e-reader, Kindle, etc and load it with Spanish books.  Let us know if you could help us provide greater opportunity for these children to read
 

Some of the highlights of July and August:
 

• We celebrated of our relationship with Harding University’s Uplift, with our 10th Uplift Nicaragua with 1,300 in attendance.Uplift also serves for our final competiton for Bible Bowl each year.
• Completion and dedication of the baseball field that so many of you have worked on over the last two years.Thanks, El Paso for the field and the uniforms.

 

• Opening of a new location of the Bible Institute (IPO) in San Jose Bocay.
• Successful completion of Bibles for Nicaragua Drive with 9,125 Bibles on their way to Nicaragua. They are on our 5^th container of the year that is transit. Should arrive in Jinotega the middle of September.
• onathan working with the youth in the congregation in Jinotega has started a Sunday afternoon program for children.On the 31^st of August a special Family Day was held inviting the children and their families for day with the church, around 300 were in attendance.He also continues to work with Juan Carlos in Apanas with the children on Saturday afternoons.
• Sight for Sore Eyes, Jonathan and Sheila’s effort to continue to screen and fit glasses has touched so many this year.This month we were able to order a new piece of equipment that will allow them to even better screen children.
• Esperanza Para El Rio … A trip on the Rio Coco to encourage the congregations there, IPO, and to distribute food, clothes and medicine.We will be taking a medical team with Olive Branch Ministries in September.

• One Child Matters, adding 25 more children in both Jinotega and Apanas, also the start the development of a third location in Yali.Special time for those who came that had sponsored a child to be able to interchange with their child….one lady said, “it was the best part of my week.”
• Hope4Life continues to touch families with now over 300 water filters in homes.They have also helped develop two congregations in the area they have been working.Clean water so people can understand there is one that gives pure water for life.
• Janese continues her work with Casa Materna, regularly going to five different locations.Thanks to Dr. Patterson and Texas Tech we will be starting a pre-natal vitamin distribution in September. Thanks to Becky and Rebecca and their help with Casa Materna.Janese has also started a class on how to make jewelry.
• Felipe and Luis working with the Youth Judge has given us the opportunity to host each month an activity for those under her supervision.This has also given us the opportunity to reach to the prisoners in the local jail.

Sheila is working with the preachers each month to help them with material for their children’s classes.  Thanks to those that have sent material for this.

THE LIST:
 

• Prayers for Nicaragua.Thanks to everyone that helped us respond to those that were affected by the earthquake in April.But now we face another crisis that is caused by the drought. The loss of crops, rises in food prices in the market and reduction of the projected number of workers for the upcoming coffee harvest is causing the beginning of major food crisis as we end 2014 and go into 2015. This Food Crisis is also being felt in Honduras and Guatemala.Some are projecting that by the end of the year there may be a need of response to this Food Crisis as great as the response to Hurricane Mitch in 1998.We presently are working to secure 3 containers of the soup mix and have received commitment of 425 (100,000 servings) cases of the soup mix to put on the Smiles container out of Dothan in October.
• Working with the Dr. Chad Stephens we are moving forward on the development of a Specialty Medical clinic as part of our medical outreach.Be in touch with us on how you can be part of the development of the expansion of our medical care in Nicaragua.
• Continue to keep the impact of One Child Matters in Nicaragua as we add additional children and look to the development of the new project in Yali.Contact us today to on how you sponsoring child can make a difference for life.
• We are regularly given many of opportunities to serve but we are not able to say yes to everything, please keep us in your prayers for wisdom from God for when to say yes and to say no.We pray for it regularity.
   
    "Smiles-2014"  
   
  http://misionparacristo.com/docs/Smiles-Brochure-2013.pdf
   

Thanks for all your support and encouragement. 

Benny and Donna Baker
 

Thanks from all of those that God’s blessings of your support touch and serve in Nicaragua. 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 have not done apart from each other…
I Cor. 12-13/Philippians 1:3-5 

 

The July/August Newsletter is full of additional pictures showing 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.