Hola a todos!
Well, if you take the time to look at this it matters. I want to share with all that the Lord has rented a house for the girls home. When I was in Spanish Class one day last week, my conversation teacher was making me read the newspaper. In that process I took the classifieds and thought I would take a look. I found 2 houses that had no price but were in our area, so we called that very afternoon and before we knew it, we were signing the lease for a one year program! The house is a good and clean house. It has 3 bedroons, 2 baths, kitchen and living room, a very nice yard blessed with trees in abundance of Bananas, plantains, mangos, lemons, sour oranges for juice, pithyia, and great shade for study areas. The house doesn't need too much before we can bring the girls in. But we are going to need lots of things to set up house keeping for them. We should have a House Mother and another person of responsibility in athourity of the house and 5 or 6 girls that God will give us. We are blessed to have two great gardners that live here with us and they are willing to help take care of the ground of the new house. This saves money and gives them a little extra for thier pockets.There are 2 guards that live next door that guards the owners house and will be there to watch after the girls home as well. So already the Lord is sharing with us options to help us out. We take posession of the house in April. Please be praying with us about the girls God would have live in this house and be a part of what he is doing. He wants to love them as his own and share good things with them.The house will need all things to make it home for the girls. They are not too used to having much here and I know that they will be so blessed by whatever the Lord gives them.Pray for the girls to all come to know Him and love him. Pray about their spiritual health, physical health, where they will go to school, to church, boys in thier lives (we don't want to encourage this) pray they will be open to the house rules and willing to live accordingly. Pray that if they have families that they will give permission for us to take them as the Lord offers them opportunity to rise above the ashes. Pray for future programs to be implemented correctly and at the right times, that the girls will adjust quickly and easily without too much emotional disturbance. Pray we will always stay face to face with the Lord because some of these girls may come from destroyed lives and families, some may come from the streets, orphanages, where ever they caome from, God knows them, he knew them before they were born and he has a purpose for them. He is calling us to help them find their purpose in Him and we want to answer that call. Pray for us all. It will be this way..."not by might, not by power, but by MY SPIRIT says the Lord of host" As he draws them/us near to himself, he will be the lifter of their/our heads, he will be the light of their/our life, he will give them/us all they/we need to sustain them/us. We desire one heart, one mind, one spirit in Christ Jesus as we stand in him alone."Unto him who is able to do abundantly more than we could ever ask or think, to him be the glory and the power forever."
In and because of his love
trish

There is a bit of discouragement. For the past two days we were supposed to go and look at houses for the girls home. The first day the realtor cancelled on us. The second day the realtor gave us a run around saying, "Oh I have this great house on blah blah near Metro Centro (the mall) We want the house in close proximity to where we live now so we can keep an eye on things. But the realtor kept on. Finally he understood that we did not want the house there, so he met us to go look at the houses I had found on the internet. When he showed up, what a let down. He said, "I have houses but not here only over there, what I have here is not in your price range and is more expensive." Grrrrr. So we left and didn't pursue anything. Now we will drive around looking for ourselves for houses and get the phone numbers and call instead of working through a realtor.
Keep praying the right house will come along and God will lead us to it soon. Still we haven't heard back from the Ministry of Families, so I don't know what they are thinking now. Anyway, God knows and he is in total control and has it all prepared for us and leads us as we look for him, not for what he has. He has promised to guide us in all righteousness and never leave us stranded.
Thanks fo being a part of what God is doing, we know it is going to really God dementional when it does happen! We look forward always to seeing what He has ready for us! It's always better than would have been.
solo0 en cristo
trish

House hunting!

Hello all,
Well seems a lot happened all at once and we are still sorting through the details trying to make the right decisions. Do we fly on teh radar or "just under" the radar? We have been looking for houses of which there are many, but not always good ones. We took a drive today to check an area close to where we live now and found a beautiful piece of property for sale that has a security wall already built around it. And it was in a great location. We did drive by's of a few houses but will start looking more formally on Monday afternoon. So keep praying for this and asking the Lord to show us where, how and when. We have decided to try to find a place very near to our current address, a fixer-up-er for a house. We need the girls to fill it and a house Mom. We are looking forward to it and we need to move soon because beginning in May, there is no more time to spend on this project., Or teams are coming and they are coming back to back all summer! So we may have to take a beach break! si.
Anyways, keep praying and asking the Lord for direction for us and he will show it to us. Thanks to all of you who are interested! It is happening! Woooohhhhhh.
solo en Cristo
trish<><

Friday, January 23, 2009

A GIRLS HOME IN THE FUTIRE
We returned to Nicaragua on Jan 13th to find ourselves on the ground running with force to many meetings that were prepared in advance about opening a transition home for girls. We met with the Ministry of Families in the government, with friends in ministry in Nicaragua, friends that wants to be in ministry with us, and those that have similar programs already in place.Our meetings led us to believe that it is absolutly God's will for us to open this home for girls. Each meeting was a perfect connection to the next meeting and all were timed prefectly. We are watching God revel His plan for the girls he has already chosen. So, in our eyes, this dream is becoming a reality. And what we need now is prayer, much prayer.We haved had 2 meetings with the ministry of families (mi familia) last week and they are very anxious to work with us. We saw the hand of God in these meetings because mi familia NEVER calls and says, "We want to talk more with you, or we want you to meet so and so." So today we were to meet once again to visit a center that is needing much help. This center is rescuing kids & youth off the streets and placing them in a program to rehabilitate and transition them,desiring to teach them life skills, spiritual education, social skills, vocational, academic, etc... And they are asking us for our help. So, do we? How do we do this?The meeting today was dpostponed because the lady we were to meet with, Director Marcia, was called to a meeting with President Daniel Ortega. So, I am wondering if she will tell him about us and our desire to help the kids. What if...................what if we have the opportunity to be a lifestyle wittness to Daniel? What if by our Christian life walking in the Light, Daniel becomes a child of God? What if his wife becomes a Believer in Christ instead of follower of Satan? What if we dream really BIG and God becomes Bigger? What if???? Will you pray with us?The following is our current prayer needs:
Pray God will give us favor here with the Nicaraguan government, ministry of families, ministry of education, Daniel Ortega, parents & families of the girls we will house, if any family (we have to have the family permission if they have family at all).
Pray God will SHOW us the lady He has chosen to be our house Mother for the girls.
Pray we find the house or property God has waiting for us to use for the girls at a good price, we can't afford much.
Pray for patience & grace for Gary and me, especially Gary. This place really tries him like FIRE!.
Pray for our PIC Staff in country and more staff that we will need.
PRAY for my language skills. I need to return to classes, but costly.
Pray for our residency here in Nicaragua, we need to get our residency in order to continue with the project, but it's like $1500 and the attorney won't work with us on the financing. God will have to manifest that money.
Just Pray for all involved, paperwork, all legal involvment etc.. Legalities are very difficult at best here.
Thanks you for paraying and taking time from your life. You will be blessed all the more for it.
in Christ,
trish<><

Friday, January 23, 2009

A GIRLS HOME IN THE FUTIRE
We returned to Nicaragua on Jan 13th to find ourselves on the ground running with force to many meetings that were prepared in advance about opening a transition home for girls. We met with the Ministry of Families in the government, with friends in ministry in Nicaragua, friends that wants to be in ministry with us, and those that have similar programs already in place.Our meetings led us to believe that it is absolutly God's will for us to open this home for girls. Each meeting was a perfect connection to the next meeting and all were timed prefectly. We are watching God revel His plan for the girls he has already chosen. So, in our eyes, this dream is becoming a reality. And what we need now is prayer, much prayer.We haved had 2 meetings with the ministry of families (mi familia) last week and they are very anxious to work with us. We saw the hand of God in these meetings because mi familia NEVER calls and says, "We want to talk more with you, or we want you to meet so and so." So today we were to meet once again to visit a center that is needing much help. This center is rescuing kids & youth off the streets and placing them in a program to rehabilitate and transition them,desiring to teach them life skills, spiritual education, social skills, vocational, academic, etc... And they are asking us for our help. So, do we? How do we do this?The meeting today was dpostponed because the lady we were to meet with, Director Marcia, was called to a meeting with President Daniel Ortega. So, I am wondering if she will tell him about us and our desire to help the kids. What if...................what if we have the opportunity to be a lifestyle wittness to Daniel? What if by our Christian life walking in the Light, Daniel becomes a child of God? What if his wife becomes a Believer in Christ instead of follower of Satan? What if we dream really BIG and God becomes Bigger? What if???? Will you pray with us?The following is our current prayer needs:
Pray God will give us favor here with the Nicaraguan government, ministry of families, ministry of education, Daniel Ortega, parents & families of the girls we will house, if any family (we have to have the family permission if they have family at all).
Pray God will SHOW us the lady He has chosen to be our house Mother for the girls.
Pray we find the house or property God has waiting for us to use for the girls at a good price, we can't afford much.
Pray for patience & grace for Gary and me, especially Gary. This place really tries him like FIRE!.
Pray for our PIC Staff in country and more staff that we will need.
PRAY for my language skills. I need to return to classes, but costly.
Pray for our residency here in Nicaragua, we need to get our residency in order to continue with the project, but it's like $1500 and the attorney won't work with us on the financing. God will have to manifest that money.
Just Pray for all involved, paperwork, all legal involvment etc.. Legalities are very difficult at best here.
Thanks you for paraying and taking time from your life. You will be blessed all the more for it.
in Christ,
trish<><

Forgotten People Groups Unheard Cries

We began to have further thoughts about God’s purpose and our future in Nicaragua when we begin to see the pattern that was forming before us.

1. First, we were contacted by a fellow friend in the ministry, Chris Bagwell.. Chris shared with us about the 10 year old girl that was pregnant and needed a home. She could not go to an orphanage.
2. She some time later called and shared that the Ministry of Families in Nicaragua was inquiring if we were interested in taking a 15 year old girl who had been abandon and was living on the streets, she needed a safer place than an orphanage. But we were not prepared.
3. Later we were contacted by a Pastor’s daughter who had found a brother and sister staying behind their church. They would come in when the Sunday School kids would get a snack, so they could eat, but got locked inside the gate. We were not established with the government to take them.
4. Once again, a few months later, Chris contacted us again and the Ministry of Families had called to ask her to call us inquiring perhaps we were able to take a 12 year old girl from the Atlantic Coast who was in dire need of help. This young child had been abandoned and violated repeatedly. She had been pregnant, but the pregnancy was terminated. She had a heart condition that required open heart surgery at this young age. She spoke no Spanish.
5. Six months after we arrived in Nicaragua God chose to intervene in our lives once again. We had met Jenny through the Alford family who had adopted Jenny’s sister. Jenny and her 3 siblings have lived in orphanages since a very young age. All they knew was the orphanages and institutional care. Jenny was a 19 year old young lady who had to leave the orphanage. She had not finished high school at this time. She lived briefly with one family and then another, but they began to mistreat her and not feed her and finally telling her she had to leave. Jenny literally went from house to house, praying for someone to give her shelter. God had spoken to our hearts about Jenny when we met her. I remember thinking, how horrible it must be to have 2 siblings still in an orphanage with food and shelter and a sister living in the USA. She was alone and it hurt our hearts. God began to work out the situation to bring our lives together. Because of the mistreatment of the family she lived with, she was very distressed and spoke with her sister in the States. Through her, we were contacted by the Alfords to check on her. We did, and now Jenny is a constant part of our lives in Nicaragua. We have four sons, she is like our daughter. ***In this last year, Jenny did graduate high school and is now in English Classes daily. She is registered to attend the University in Jan to become a pharmacist and own a pharmacy. Jenny told me one night in the kitchen, “ I was so depressed and sad, I had no hope of living. I would have rather died. I almost committed suicide.”.

Jenny is the exact reason we feel God is inspiring us to begin working on this project of rescuing the youth that are ready to leave the orphanages. Had God not intervened and interrupted our lives, Jenny might now be alive. But today, she is reaching for her full potential in Christ and becoming the woman he has created her to be. And He will demonstrate His power through her.
6. Again God presented himself as he presented to us with another teenager. She made a few wrong choices and had to leave the orphanage and now lives with her mother who is alcoholic and doesn’t work. She has a live in man who also is alcoholic and hits around on the teen daughter.
WE HAD NOT SEEN HER IN ALMOST A YEAR. She appeared at our house one day and shared her SAD situation with us. We could see that she had lost a lot of weight and was hungry. We fed her and she slept there for the night, spending time with us as she once again became a child. Ultimately, she went back to to the only life she know, her Mothers house only to show up again the day we left Nicaragua to come back to the States.
As if God were REMINDING us, “DON’T FORGET ABOUT MY KIDS.”
It broke our hearts to have to send her back to her Mother who does not care for her. Massiel, may fall through the cracks. If she isn’t cared for, she will be pregnant and on drugs and possibly into prostitution in another year. She is 15.
These are some teens we have been asked to help or rescue in some way.
These youth are a result of family breakdown by death, abandonment, physical & sexual abuse, extreme poverty, some are sold into prostitution by their families.
There are many reasons these children are at risk which leads to a life in an orphanage or on the streets. Many of the girls on the streets become pregnant and turn to self-induced abortions or abandoning their newborns.
When we were contacted about the abandoned and abused 12 year old girl, we were preparing to return to the States to help care for my Mother and we could not do anything. But, I could not stop thinking about her and others like her.

Thankfully there are some orphanages in Nicaragua, but there are NO homes for the kids that are too old for the orphanages and they are forced to leave between ages 15-19 with NO SKILLS, 6TH GRADE EDUCATIONS, OR NO HELP.
We don’t see homes for these that are told to go and left on the street, becoming desperate to do what they must do in order to survive. They will become involved in using and selling drugs of choice (usually shoe glue-) on a daily bases. The deep longing for love leads the to sexually activity and prostitution (both male and female) for a few cents. EXAMPLE: the girl that had left the orphanage and approached our Taxi driver and ask to sleep with him for 20 cordobas, (this is $1.00) she was 15).
They are ALSO victims of rape, victims of gangs, and invited into gangs, and serve prison sentences. They are children who experience the effects of alcohol and drugs early, who steal, fight, kill, and ultimately hasten their own death just trying to live. What a waste! They are simply just cast aside. Thrown away, ignored, forgotten, alone, and wasting away their purpose for which God created them.
Through these we believe God is speaking and letting us in on His Hope for these kids.
He wants to save and protect these kids. He desires for them to become who he created them to be.
We see them and we believe the Lord sees them as a “forgotten people group” just like the indigenous tribes deep in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, or the refugees in Pakistan. Forgotten, left behind in their life of confusion and dysfunction and fade away into the darkness of this world controlled by the death grip of the evil one, never grasping the love of their Creator. Oh! But they can be saved! Saved and preserved for the Lord in the Light of His Love! Saved for a future and a purpose He already has for them. Saved for the Hope He has already planned for them. Before they were ever conceived, they were purposed for Him in this world. They too, are His creations! They too, are His children who are made in His image. They, too, can be transformed to live in society as a “whole” person giving Life instead of taking lives.
We believe the Lord wants us to see the potential in these forgotten people. Just as we saw the need in Jenny Suhey Mendoza, even though she had not yet become an extreme case, she was at risk, and left alone she could have easily been lost to this world in the grip of darkness that surrounded her and was stealing her life. But God heard her heart and rescued her.
Jenny is moving into a bright promising future. No longer is she depressed and thinking of taking her own life. No longer is she “the forgotten” for now she has been given hope and love to cling to. So, after being ask to take the abandoned, pregnant12 year old heart patient from the Atlantic Coast, my heart and mind was restless. Many nights I was awakened as my mind began to fill with so many thoughts I had to get my notebook and write.

JUST A FEW EXCERPTS.
““.......................... She is a special case- An extreme case. I know we cannot take her, but I am sensing that you Lord are beginning to show us where you are taking us, Gary & me. So Lord, here we are. As I have been awakened this morning with this girl on my mind, I pray for her, wrap your arms around her and protect her. You are all she has for now.

Thursday: 1:40am Sept 11, 2008
As I begin to lift from the restless sleep, I am completely aware of the thoughts invading my mind. I begin to think about what God has been doing in our lives and what He wants to do with our lives here in this country. The Lord took me back to those kids that have no place to go -the extreme at risk kids. I began to pray for His will, the possibility of a plan to house them and the financing for a project this massive. “So Lord, I am asking you tonight to make YOUR dream that you have placed in our hearts a reality. Help us to find those you have chosen & prepared to realize this project.”
As I lay awake I thought of a song from a long time ago:
HE’S STILL WORKIN’ ON ME to make me what I ought to be….
It took him just a week to make the moon and the stars, the sun , the earth, Jupiter and mars. How loving and patient HE must be! Cause HE’s still working on me

It is our vision to not have kids dying trying to live, to have them all come to the knowledge of a loving Father and Lord.
It is our mission to rescue and transition the youth of Nicaragua’s orphanages into a whole life by equipping and inspiring them to reach their full potential in Christ.
By….finding “house parents” to foster them, placing 4-5 teens per couple living as a family in a house as opposed to institutional style group homes. Demonstrating unconditional love and structure. Offering them Spiritual mentorship, discipleship, vocational training opportunities, continued academic education, University scholarship programs, recreational & sport opportunities, enabling them to experience all that God has waiting for them. By believing in them they will reach and fulfill their full potential in Christ Jesus.
We believe that we can incorporate this vision & mission into the ministry with which PIC is now involved
We believe it is possible to continue to work in Nicaraguan communities and continue to increase that territory.
It is possible when we begin to house the youth, that we can teach and train them to be a part of what God is doing in their own country.
It is possible that they be involved with teams from the States and work along side them in our partnered communities.
This would be an excellent way for them to learn to give back what God has so graciously given them.
We believe and pray that these teens would be a WITNESS for the manifestation of Christ in their lives and begin to reach other youth on the streets.
We also believe this all needs to be done with prayer and strict guidelines for the children to provide housing and nurturing relationships.

· Restoration is still possible:
· If our hearts beat with God’s heart, we are compelled to help these kids because of His love for them, not our pity FOR them.
· By offering God’s Compassion, Restoration, and Inspiration we bring healing and HOPE begins a new generation
· The deepest need is love, when this is missing, life is missing, God’s purpose is missing.
· Broken lives depend on our capacity to give sacrificial, unconditional love, Jesus.
· We believe God is calling us to action, to a higher place in the midst of his people as He sets the stage of characters who will play the roles he has chosen to be a part of this DRAMA he is writing.
As Jesus lived and walked among the people, He brought healing, First through having COMPASSION on them, COMPASSION resulted in RESTORATION and RESTORATION resulted in INSPIRATION.
Inspiring them to GO and share all that had been done to them.

He cannot and will not do anything if we do not take the first step of in the ACT of believing him and being obedient to do what he calls us to do. He has called us to care for those that are not cared for, the fatherless and abandoned.
According to Isaiah 58, it is our responsibility as His children and ambassadors, to offer care to those who are poor wanderers in this world, without hope, His creation. He expects us to show them The Hope
. We believe in order to accomplish this vision, we should probably begin FIRST of all by PRAYING. We will have lots of needs to see this realized. We invite all of you to be a part of God’s future work in Nicaragua by praying with us as God reveals HOW He will work.

Dr. Doug Segar has said, “ If you know the WHY, It doesn’t matter HOW,
God will handle the HOW.”

And so we wait, for the HOW

Provision or Provider

Tonight we attended a Christmas Party and through the speaker we were firmly but lovingly reiminded why we have Christmas. It all started in the Heart of God. It was all for Him and His Glory.
During this time I spoke with a wonderful friend, Carl, who shared with me a story he had experienced recently and how God used these words from the book of John as Jesus had spoken to the 5000 for quite some time and the people had gone without food and Jesus knnew they were hungty. So he had caompassion and turned and spoke to his disciple, Phillip.
John 6 5-7
"Where will we buy bread so these people can eat?" BUT.....the Word says,'he ask this to test Phillip, for he knew what he was about to do.'
Phillip answered,"200 denarlii wouldn't feed all these people!"
But you seee, as Carl said, Jesus KNEW he was going to make a whole bunch of food out ouf those five loves of bread and two fish. He knew he was going to multipy it and that there would be way plenty left over!
He was looking to see if Phillip would reconnize Jesus as the provider, not the money or the provision, but Jesus. And, quite honestly, most of us do look for the provision and where will it come from...oh my! But if we look to the Provider, God, Jesus, our Lord, we don't have to sweat from whence comes the provision. He said he would provide all, ALL our needs according to HIS riches in glory, do we believe that or not?....he owns it all.
So as I contemplate about "where will the provision for this massive project come from..." I must move away from "where" and move to "who". As our Pastor Doug Sager says, "If you know the why, it doesn't matter how. God is the how."
Be blessed!
trish<><