Nicaragua

Christmas with the Orphans Nicaragua 2011

In December of 2011,  I had the awesome privilege of spending Christmas and New Year’s Eve with the Children at the Casa Bethesda Orphanage in Nicaragua. I felt like the Lord put a tug on my heart to travel with Global Celebration Ministries led by Georgian and Winnie Banov.  I spent 10 days in Nicaragua loving the children at the orphanage. We also  went into the poorest neighborhoods and garbage dumps to minister to people.

While in Managua, Nicaragua the Lord did so many wonderful things for the people as well as for me.  I’ll mention just a few highlights and testimonies.

Christmas Day Outreach

Christmas Day Gift: Deaf ears opened

Christmas Day was such an awesome day for me.  I had some quiet time with the Lord that  morning and just strengthened myself in Him.  The first day was challenging since we went to the largest garbage dump in Montego.  It was nice to just spend time with Him and ask Him to show me why I was in Nicaragua and what I brought to the table.  We spent our morning doing outreach in a poor neighborhood. We handed out gifts to the children, loved the elderly and prayed for people.  That afternoon, the orphanage invited folks from the neighborhood to a Christmas Fiesta! The auditorium at the orphanage was packed.  We had dancing, praise, music and a joyous celebration.  We had an altar call and then we started to pray for the sick.  The Lord healed many people of pain in the knees, difficulty walking, tumors etc.  At the end of the service, the people were led to the kitchen and got in a long line to get free food. We were pretty much wrapped up when a woman walked up to us with her daughter.  She started to explain in Spanish to another team member that she wanted prayer for her daughter.  Over the years, her daughter’s hearing had been deteriorating and was now almost completely gone.  Later, we would discover that the mother had to speak sign language to communicate with her daughter.  I told Alaina, to tell the Mom that we would pray for her daughter.  We prayed the first time and the Mother signed to her daughter to ask if she noticed any change.  The daughter shook her head and said no.  I told Alaina to tell the Mom we were going to pray a second time.  This time, I got an impression that I was supposed to spit on my fingers and stick them in the little girl’s ears. And that’s exactly what I did.  When the other women praying looked at me I said, “Hey, that’s what Heidi Baker does so that’s what I’m doing.” We continued to pray and a few seconds later, I snapped my fingers next to her right ear.  And when I did that she jumped. Michelle, who was praying in front of the girl asked her “did you hear that?” The little girl nodded and we knew she was healed.  I erupted in a loud praise and dance and the little girl was so startled because all of a sudden she went from almost no hearing to sonic boom sound. This was a lovely Christmas gift from Father God to that little girl. It was awesome and life changing.  It was by far the most significant part of the trip for me.

Woman healed of tumor in breast

Tumor healed in Shack Town

On Day 4 of our trip, we went out to do an outreach at a poor shack town about an hour from the orphanage.  This town was just a colony of people who had built shack houses on a piece of land.  It was estimated to have over 1000 people living there.  We showed up and immediately began to dance, make music and praise God.  After a while, Georgian and Pastor Arturo had all the people get in a circle.  The team then went around to each person to see if they needed prayer for anything.  Heather, Michelle, Susan and I prayed for a woman who said she had a tumor in her left breast.  We prayed the first time and asked if she noticed any change but she said nothing was different.  We prayed a second time and when she checked herself she noticed the tumor was gone. God healed her! A few minutes later, she shared her testimony in front of everyone and mentioned that she had the tumor for about 7-8 years and even though it had been operated on once, it came back.  But now, she was totally healed!

Leon

Leon saved from gangs

On New Year’s Eve, I got to spend a lot to time with the kids at the Casa Bethesda Orphanage.  A few ladies and I were sitting around and letting the kids play with our gadgets when all of a sudden one the boys, Leon, began to tell us his story.  He started by telling us that his mother had kicked him out of the house when she married another man.  Leon was not getting along with this new step dad so his mother kicked him out of the house and burned all his clothes. Leon was out on the streets and eventually got involved with gangs.  As a result, he also started to do drugs and sniff glue.  He talked about how he and other gang kids used to rob people.  He remembers seeing his mother at the market one day and she just ignored him and pretended she didn’t know him.  When the man she was with asked who Leon was, she said “No one, just some vagabond.” This must have really hurt Leon.  Leon says he got in serious trouble because he and other gang kids robbed a guy and beat him up nearly to death.  As a result, Leon was involved in a shoot out and while running and trying to get away a piece of glass cut his ankle and he was badly injured.  Since he was high on glue he was not really aware of what was going on.  He eventually ended up at a hospital and was able to get stitches. Leon eventually ended up at Casa Bethesda just 2 weeks before we arrived. All the women on our team ended up praying for Leon. We prayed for him as mothers in the Kingdom and we broke off every spirit of rejection and just loved on him.  Leon thanked us for our prayers and asked us to continue to pray for other children out there that were still stuck in gangs.

Pastor Arturo's Church

Teaching the Next Generation

The last Saturday we were in Managua, we attended Pastor Arturo’s church for the morning service.  There was so much joy, celebration and dancing. There was nothing official about the service.  It just felt like a Holy Ghost party.  Pastor Arturo invited each member on the team to share a word or testimony.  I shared my testimony about seeing God heal the little deaf girl on Christmas day.  The people cheered.  I encouraged them and exhorted them to take hold of the gospel of the kingdom.  I told them that Jesus wanted to be all that they needed.  Whether they needed healing, deliverance or breakthrough. At the end of the service, a little boy came up to me and started to speak to me in Spanish. I couldn’t understand him.  He called a pastor nearby to try to translate to me.  The pastor said the boy wants to know when we were going home. I told him tomorrow.  Then the boy told the pastor something and walked off.  The pastor, who barely spoke english, scribbled something on his palm and showed it to me.  It said, “Very well, word. You.”  The boy was trying to tell me I preached a good word. Come on! What an honor to show the next generation of Nicaraguans how to preach with fire!

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Here’s a short movie clip with pictures and footage from the trip. Watch below!!