Not to Worry!

After listening to the news lately, it is hard not to get discouraged with the state of affairs in our country. But as we prepare to leave tomorrow for Bluefields Nicaragua, our problems are nothing compared to what our brothers and sisters in Christ experience there. They do not have deteriorating 401(k) accounts…worries about the mortgage rates…or which stimulus package is passed. Their concerns are different and more eminent – will they have enough food for their family… will their children live past age 3…is their drinking water going to make them sick, again? Our brothers and sisters in Christ embrace the concept of “daily manna” far better than I do, that is for sure. It is humbling to be in the presence of those who have nothing (compared to us) and yet they still have a strong faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Matthew 6: 25-34 has struck a chord with me lately – We pray that you are blessed, too!

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Please continue to pray for us as we meet a new church family in Bluefields – we will be building a sanctuary for the congregation of El Buen Samaritano which is a church plant from the original congregation of Strong Tower Baptist Church in Bluefields. God has blessed the ministries there and the gospel is being proclaimed!

To recognize God’s greatness, here are some praises for how God has provided for us!

• We have been making plans for me to attend language school in April – I must become more fluent in Spanish to better serve the ministry. The schooling and lodging will be costly and we prayed about how we might change some of our budget to accommodate. In our year end statement, we received an unexpected one-time gift that will cover, almost to the dollar all my expenses for those two months!
  
• I had been asked to connect with a vision trip this month with Jackson Baptist Church – this expense was unplanned and we prayed again. It will be very important to join this team while they experience in person, ministries in Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua. A couple weeks ago, we received an email from our headquarters about a contribution that was assigned to another missionaries’ account. Not kidding – that gift will cover all my expenses for extra travel and lodging for this trip!
  
• Both Lee Ann and I have felt peace about the coming year, despite it being very busy – and there will be extended times that we will be separated. This peace only comes from God, but we also sense the presence of our prayer partners in a big way – and for that, we thank you!

Stay tuned for more updates from the field as we offer ourselves in service to our Living Lord!

Peace,
Rick & Lee Ann

Prayer for 2009

This was a prayer from a Sunday service bulletin from our former church in PA a few weeks before we left for upstate NY in 1996. I have kept this taped to my calendar as a reminder that God is always in control. In 1996, we were in transition as a family and at that point, we relied on God in a way that has changed our lives forever. SO, I share this prayer with you in hopes that it blesses you and yours in the coming year.

Loving Lord, as we step through the door of a new year, we believe 1996 (now 2009) will be filled with hope and promise. We do not know all that will happen in our lives over the next few months, so we pray that whatever comes our way – good or bad, success or failure, gain or loss – we may have the confidence and strength to accept blessing and hardship. May each of us grow spiritually and in Christian character, and may our church have a greater sense of your mission and ministry for us. In Jesus’ name, AMEN.

Merry Christmas - Wherever You Are!

We will be blessed to have family together this Holiday season... and sounds like we will even have a White Christmas. The northeast has been blanketed by a couple snowstorms and the temperature will cooperate despite a predicted period of sleet and freezing rain and maybe rain on Christmas Eve. It will not damper the festivities as we gather in celebration of the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!

May the miracle of Immanuel, "God With Us" bless you and yours!

Thanksgiving – A Newly Adopted Lifestyle

We can relate to Paul’s encouraging words to the churches in Thessonalica…

We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 1: 2 -3 NIV).

As we contemplate the memories of spending Thanksgiving with our grown children and begin to focus on the celebration of Advent and the eventual birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, it is humbling to reflect on how our ministry was blessed by your presence. Some of you we have known for just a brief time, but others have been long-time, steadfast friends and supporters and for that we want to say “THANKS”!

• Without you, our desire to serve our Living Lord would just not be where it is right now – the mystery of how God uses each one of us to encourage one another is so inspiring!



• We pray that we can be an encouragement to you, too! May God use our ministry to add blessings to your lives and draw you closer to Him!
  

To recognize God’s greatness, here are some recent ministry highlights and what He has planned for us…

• Recently, I met with two Campus Ambassador Groups to discuss our upcoming Summer 2009 Internship program – an 8 week adventure to experience first-hand the people and cultures of Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Applications are being requested and sent out and we expect to have a team forming soon. Internship dates are June 13 – August 8, 2009!



• We want to welcome McLean Bible Church (Vienna, VA) to our “family”! Team leadership has been established and applications for members are being processed – we look forward to our first project with them in Honduras over June 29 – July 10, 2009!



• In October, we changed our ministry name to Beyond Partnership – our leadership team will be meeting December 11-14 to finalize our website and promotional materials, so stay tuned!



• Our leadership team will also review the scope of our ministry for 2008 and look forward to what God has in store for us in 2009. We have an exciting action-packed team schedule planned for next year – a combination of many returning teams along with a few that are new to Beyond Partnership – PRAISE GOD!



• We look forward to leading a team from our home church, Main Street Baptist to Bluefields, Nicaragua. It is exciting to see the growth going on there – we will be building a sanctuary for the sister church that was formed out of the main church we helped build last year!!



• Prayer Request - In order to make me more effective in ministry in Central America, we have finalized plans for me to attend intensive language school in Guatemala – I will begin sometime in mid April and stay until my first summertime team project begins in mid June! Please remember to keep us in prayer as we will be living apart from each other until the summer teams begin – then we look forward to serving together on projects!
  
  

What can you do to help us… and how can we help you?

• Your prayers are the foundation from which we function best – this bears repeating - without folks like you praying and advocating for our ministry, this all would be an uphill battle!



• If you desire to have us present the vision and focus of our ministry at your church or with your small group, we would love to hear from you!
  

We thank you and ask for your continued prayers as we offer ourselves in service to our Living Lord!

Peace,
Rick & Lee Ann

Listening to His Quiet Voice

We continue to be amazed how God has revealed Himself to us in many new and refreshing ways! In times of uncertainty, He was always there with His quiet voice to reassure us – we praise Him for his faithfulness!

After lengthy discussions amongst our leadership team, Partnership Ministries has decided to change our name to Beyond Partnership with a tag line of Serving Their Vision Together – stay tuned for updates! The reasons were many and some were purely a simplification of our vision…

• We saw the word “Partnership” overused, especially in the secular world – with the obligatory photo of two hands shaking signifying some sort of mutually beneficial agreement… but we have noticed that “partnership” even in missionary circles has a connotation of power because of economics.
  
• One of our ministry cornerstones since its inception has been to serve UNDER the national ministries in the majority world – and that the power needs to reside in the local church associations and churches, not in the North American churches or organizations that provide economically.
  
• There is an existing Partnership Ministries… a valid yet unrelated ministry – when we officially established our ministry in 1991, the Internet was not utilized like it is now – we did not need to have a domain name or email. To avoid problems with finding our ministry online, we decided a name change would help facilitate that.

To recognize God’s greatness, here are a few of our recent ministry highlights and what He has planned for us…

• Over the past couple months, I have been able to meet up with some new church partners and individuals who have expanded the base of our prayer and financial supporters – God has been good to us by opening these new opportunities!
  
• Beyond Partnership, at this point has 21 teams booked for projects next year already! This is unprecedented this early in the planning calendar! We anticipate maybe 4-5 more teams bringing our overall total higher than any previous year – praise God! As it stands now, Lee Ann and I will lead 3-4 church building project teams aside from our home church’s trip next February!
  
• We are receiving considerable interest in the Summer 2009 Internship program – an 8 week adventure to experience first-hand the people and culture of Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua as well as some very cool ministries in the region. If you have any “20-something” young adults in your midst that would be interested, please have them contact me directly! Dates are June 15 – August 8, 2009!
  
• Prayer Request - In order to make me more effective in ministry in Central America, we are finalizing plans for me to attend intensive language school from right after our home church’s team leaves Nicaragua on February 22nd until the 2nd week of April – this will give me the needed skills for translation and communication! Pray for the time that Lee Ann and I are away from each other - that we can draw strength from God!

What can you do to help us?

Your prayers are the foundation from which we function best – without folks like you praying and advocating for our ministry, this all would be an uphill battle! If you would want to have us present the vision and focus of our ministry at your church or with your small group, we would love to hear from you!

To donate to our ministry, go to this website - http://www.missionsdoor.org/donate

We ask that you consider financially supporting our ministry with an ongoing contribution (monthly, quarterly, etc.) – we are reliant on folks just like you to partner with us. We promise to be faithful stewards of your investment in our ministry and desire to welcome you as “part of our family”!

We thank you for your interest and ask you to continue to pray for us as we offer ourselves in service to the Living Lord!

Peace,

Rick & Lee Ann

1 Year @ Partnership - A retrospective

Wow, we have just passed our first year anniversary with Partnership Ministries – and what a year it has been! God has revealed Himself to us in many new and refreshing ways! In times of uncertainty, He was always there with His quiet voice to reassure us – and also by placing many people in our pathway to offer encouragement!

Over the last week, the leadership team of Partnership Ministries met to review this past year and also to make plans for the coming year with regards to

• How to continue to solidify our relationships with the national and local church planters in the areas we serve
  
• Our ministry vision and goals and how they align with the efforts of the church planters we serve.
  
• Our approach to promoting our ministry – personal and collective presentations, web, DVD’s and brochures.

We rarely get all of us into one meeting for one day let alone three – we have a dynamic team and we are dedicated to continually improve ourselves while remaining focused on our desire to serve under the leadership of the national and church planters.

To recognize God’s greatness, here are a few of our ministry highlights…

Steve Reed, our director and I traveled to Honduras last November – we had wonderful meetings with national missionaries Humberto Del Arca and Erick Sanchez as well as many of the regional leaders that serve the people of Honduras. I was humbled by the many vibrant ministries present and the sacrifices that the national missionaries make on a daily basis to serve God!

In December Lee Ann and I led our first team since our appointment – a team from our home church worked alongside Rigoberto Reyes in El Pochote, a mountain village just outside of Masaya. A bonus blessing was experiencing this with our daughter Lauren who served as translator for the team!

After attending 5 weeks of immersion language school in Granada, Nicaragua, I met up with our home church’s second team – this time, while still in Nicaragua, we ventured back to Bluefields where we finished the church our teams started in 2007. The bond that began last year was reinforced and God’s love abounded!

In April, I represented Partnership Ministries at the Mission Mid-Atlantic conference – from the first day, I sensed God’s presence guiding me into new relationships with churches and individuals – ones that are developing now and allowing me to spread the “good word” throughout that region!

Just last month, Lee Ann and I led our first team that was not from our home church – this time, we returned to Honduras with a team from Calvary Baptist in Warwick, NY to work alongside of Humberto Del Arca. In La Ceiba, we helped the hard working team of nationals build a kitchen next to an existing church building – we also ran a VBS program for children of the area. God continues to show His hand in the ministries there!

What can you do to help us?
Your prayers are the foundation from which we function best – without folks like you praying and advocating for our ministry, this all would be an uphill battle!

We also ask that you consider financially supporting our ministry with an ongoing contribution (monthly, quarterly, etc.) – we are reliant on folks just like you to partner with us. We promise to be faithful stewards of your investment in our ministry and desire to welcome you as “part of our family”! If you would want to have us present the vision and focus of our ministry at your church or with your small group, we would love to hear from you!

To donate to our ministry, go to this website - http://www.missionsdoor.org/donate

There are many options to sending your donations to the mission in support of our ministry! (details for all options are fully explained on the website above)

By Credit Card

By Personal Check sent to: Missions Door 2530 Washington Street Denver, CO 80205-3142

By EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer)

We have come a long way in this first year of service, but we have a long way to go. We thank you for your interest and ask you to continue to pray for us as we offer ourselves in service to the Living Lord!

Peace,
Rick & Lee Ann Myers

P3 = Power from God!

Greetings once more from upstate NY! Summer is upon us and the thought of anything but blue skies and warm days just escapes me! God’s creation all around us gives us a mere glimpse of His handiwork! Since we last shared with you, God has also shown Himself to us, so we offer this update in His name…the power of the 3 P’s… Praise + Patience + Prayer!





Praise!

On June 1st, Lee Ann and I returned to our former home church in Pennsylvania, Christ Covenant Church - it was definitely a wonderful homecoming. We were honored by the warm reception - this was our first time returning as missionaries. We look forward to someday planning a church building trip with this congregation!

I have returned from California to help fellow Partnership short term trip leaders Eric & Gloria Hodel at the Harvest Gathering missions conference. We spoke with many folks about the plans and vision of Partnership Ministries. Eric & Gloria are dear friends that have been positive role models for us and helped Lee Ann and I develop our new and improved retirement program – thank God for their dedication and desire to serve our Lord!

Recently, I made a connection with a company that I want to introduce you to – Total Resources International. They specialize in First Aid and Emergency Preparedness Products – and it is clear that the company was founded with God’s heart in mind. We were blessed by them just a couple weeks ago – they donated a case of first aid kits to share with our church building teams. Thanks especially to their National Sales Manger, Joe Fisher for their generosity!


Patience!

Recently, one of my devotions was based on the scripture verse of John 16: 13 - But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. Sometimes, we need to wait on what God has in store for us. Recently I was personally challenged by this concept and God showed Himself to me just yesterday. As some of you may know, there was a TACA airline crash at the Tegucigalpa airport on May 30th which closed indefinitely. Immediately, we contacted Humberto Del Arca, our contact in Honduras, to move to another area closer to the San Pedro Sula airport. These changes were made without skipping a beat, but in the process, our purchased airline tickets got all messed up and up until yesterday, I was not sure we could even fly into Honduras. We were offered a full refund but at this point any existing tickets from other airlines were 40-50% more expensive than what we had already purchased. After spending over fifteen hours on the phone and online, speaking with six CSR’s from three airlines, I was blessed by meeting up with Edward from Confidential Airlines. What seemed impossible to others was simple to Edward… within 3 minutes on the phone, his “we can do this!” was music to my ears! Thank God for that lesson from the book of John!

Prayer!

In 2 weeks, Lee Ann and I will depart for La Ceiba Honduras to meet up with the team from Calvary Baptist. We will be working alongside the ministry of Humberto del Arca and the many pastors of that region. Please keep us in your prayers for God to reveal Himself to us and the team in a way that could only be construed as His… that the team forms a bond that will last for many years…that we are invisible and that the people in the village we serve see God at work!

We are setting up meetings for later this summer and into the fall – there will be a lot of car travel and possibly time away from Lee Ann – please pray for traveling safety as well as for us during times of being away from each other.


How can you help – can you feel the power?

Become financial partners with us – we thank all our faithful supporters but for those who are new to us, we promise to be faithful stewards of your contributions and desire to welcome you as “part of the family”. We have been blessed recently with several generous one-time gifts as well as promises for ongoing support, but we need to press on – we are just over 40% supported now and are striving to achieve full support by year’s end. For details, please either contact us to meet face to face or go to http://www.missionsdoor.org/ and click on “donate” button

If you have been blessed by a short-term missions experience, spread the good word to those that haven’t heard!

Please continue to pray for our ministry…for all the connections we are and will make with churches and individuals.

Your prayers and financial support mean more than we can express in words – may God continue to bless you and yours!

Peace, Rick & Lee Ann

Ministry Update - On the Road - May 21, 2008

Greetings from upstate NY! Our valley is full of green and blooming flowers, shrubs and trees now and the promise of long days and warmth is being fulfilled daily – it is great to be alive in upstate New York! OK, it is a bit dramatic, but when you have 6-7 months of grey and colder climate, you gotta get excited about this time of year!

Great meetings!

• Our presentation at Community Bible Church in Franklin went very well - many thanks to Pastor Walt Schlundt for extending the invitation to share with his congregation. We look forward to how God will open new opportunities for short-term missions for this church!


• Steve Reed and I had a wonderful time sharing the vision and focus of Partnership Ministries with pastors and church leaders at the 2008 Mission Mid-Atlantic conference (formerly known as Mid-Atlantic CBA) at Sandy Cove in Northeast MD. We met some new potential ministry partners as well as caught up with old friends of the Partnership – overall, God blessed the time we spent and I am eager to establish connections with churches in the Mid-Atlantic region.


• The team meeting with Calvary Baptist Church in Warwick resulted in finalizing plans for the VBS and Children’s Program crafts. It is exciting to see the enthusiasm grow within this team of 12! Our building location in Honduras has been determined - will be working outside the town of Catacamas which is about 100 miles northeast from Tegucigalpa. To follow the progress of this team, I have established a blog site – check it out! http://calvarywarwick.blogspot.com/
  

On the Road Again!

• On June 1st, Lee Ann and I will return to our former home church in Pennsylvania, Christ Covenant Church to present at a breakfast meeting and briefly during the service. This homecoming has been in the planning stages for a while – we have stayed in touch with many dear friends since we left in 1996, but this will be our first time returning as missionaries. The seeds of our appointment with Partnership Ministries were sown at this church, where Lee Ann and I were involved with two short-term trips to the Navajo Reservation in Window Rock, Arizona.


• I will travel solo on June 5th to Elk Grove California to help fellow Partnership short term trip leaders Eric & Gloria Hodel at the Harvest Gathering missions conference – it is a Central and Northern California event – I am being asked to represent the East Coast. We are in the process of developing new promotional materials (brochures, videos and website) so I will also take time to meet with Steve Reed to discuss strategies for those.

Making Plans!

• We are filling up our schedules for travel this summer – we would love to add your church to our itinerary – give us a call if you are interested! Has your church considered investigating short-term missions? We are available for your congregation to begin the process of evaluating short-term missions. Speaking for my family and church community, I can vouch for the blessings we have received through our short-term missions experiences. Maybe you would consider these opportunities…
  


• A vision trip – 4-5 members of your congregation would travel with folks from Partnership to “shadow” a missionary that we currently work with to experience first-hand how your church could partner with a church in Central America – it is an awesome way to ignite the spark of interest for short-term missions.
  


• Your Church’s Missions Conference – maybe you have spots in your upcoming missions conference – we can prepare for just about any type of presentation – from a short “mission moment” to a Sunday School presentation to participating in an international potluck dinner. Our goal is to communicate to as many folks the immediate and longer term benefits of short-term missions!

How can you help?

• Please continue to pray for our ministry… for all the connections we are and will make with churches and individuals.


• Become financial partners with us – we promise to be faithful stewards of your contributions and look forward to having you as “part of the family”. For details, contact us or go to http://www.missionsdoor.org/ and click on “donate” button
  
• If you have been blessed by a short-term missions experience, spread the good word to those that haven’t heard!

We appreciate your interest and concern for our ministry – may God continue to bless you and yours!

Peace,
Rick & Lee Ann

Ministry Update - May 1, 2008

Greetings from Oneonta, NY! Spring is trying its best to arrive in upstate NY… we did have a hard frost this morning, so we may have to wait a couple more weeks! The tulips looked good for a little while! Lee Ann and I just returned from a week with our daughter and son in-law in South Carolina - it was fun to see the transformation of seasons as we headed south from NY to PA through MD, WV, VA and NC on the way to Spartanburg, SC. Azaleas and other flowering bushes and trees displayed their colors in South Carolina…we have faith that the browns will be replaced by greens and the other colors of Spring!

We have many opportunities to serve the Living God in our future with Partnership Ministries, but before I get into it, I want to thank all of our faithful prayer and financial supporters. Words cannot describe the reassurance we feel because of you… thanks! We are just over 31% in pledged support with many generous one-time gifts. As the news of our ministry gets out, we are attracting more and more partners…we look forward to the coming opportunities in the next few months. Please pray that the support discovery phase is fruitful and that we approach 100% support levels quickly so we can mobilize! If you are being lead to support us financially, please let me know – let’s talk!




We have a few things on our docket coming up… please remember us in prayer as we prepare for these and other approaching opportunities to share our ministry. Also as I plan for further my Spanish language study – amongst all this activity, I will need to concentrate on that again so my ministry will become more effective.

This past Sunday, Lee Ann and I presented in Franklin, NY at the Community Bible Church. We have a few friends there and also share a rich history. As board chair of the Central New York Youth for Christ, I worked closely with CBC. In this new capacity, I am excited about the opportunity to share the scope and vision of Partnership Ministries with this congregation! The congregation received us openly and some folks are interested in hearing more about how they can get involved with short-term missions.

Next week, I will team up with Steve Reed, our director and will be exhibiting and presenting our ministry at the annual conference of the Mid-Atlantic Conservative Baptist Association – we will have time to meet and share with many pastors and church leaders! MACBA geographically includes churches from Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, DC and West Virginia. We want to thank MACBA Executive Director Dr. Jim Leary for offering us this wonderful opportunity!

I am coordinating our first official team effort with our home church, Main Street Baptist and Ray Ramos and Edwin Colon – both are Missions Door spiritual warriors in Brooklyn. Ray is an urban church planter with two Recovery Houses of Worship in place – one in the Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn and the other in Staten Island. Edwin is the pastor of the New Baptist Temple in Brooklyn centrally located with a wide spectrum of opportunities to serve and glorify God!

We are also working with Calvary Baptist Church in Warwick, NY as they are finalizing their plans to travel to Catacamas Honduras to help build a church there from July 26 – August 2. It is exciting to guide this team through the team building and fundraising phases – we look forward to sharing this potentially life-changing experience with them! Please pray for our next meetign with this team on May 10th as we begin the process of preparing VBS crafts.

We hear wonderful stories from Rigoberto Reyes, our bother in Christ in Nicaragua who we have partnered with… the church we just helped build in El Pochote is growing and flourishing. It seems like success breeds success as we also hear of other smaller community churches that are now meeting in homes are eager to have their own worship centers built. The ministry in Bluefields continues to amaze me – a sister church has already sprung from the church we started to build last year and completed this past February. Rigo has plans to build a church building for this growing congregation as well as maybe venturing up the coast into some new communities. Praise God for the many people who have heard and responded to the Gospel of Jesus in these areas! Please continue to pray for the Nicaraguan Bible Extension Institute – that it continues to grow and to train new pastors to serve the entire country of Nicaragua.

Do you want to hear about Partnership Ministries or learn about how your church or organization can be blessed by serving God via short-term missions, please give me a call – I am available to talk on the phone or to travel and meet with you at your facility. Take it from someone who was blessed himself – it is awesome!

Thanks again for your prayers and support of our ministry… we will keep you posted on any new developments!

Peace,
Rick & Lee Ann

Calling All Recipes!

We are compiling a fundraiser cookbook to benefit our future trips that support the ministries of Rigoberto Reyes throughout Nicaragua. We are working with a company that has a website to enter the recipes to help us save production on costs. Just let me know and I can give you the log-in and password.

We have just passed 200 recipes! This is awesome... BUT we need at least another 100 more recipes to make this venture worthwhile...spread the good news and get everyone you know to send in their 10 best recipes! If you have entered all your recipes... we thank you! Do you have more recipes? You can add another contributor name and add 10 more recipes! If you haven't reached the limit of 10, please dig deeper into Grandma's recipe box for those treasured family favorites! Remember…we are doing this to help our church building projects in Nicaragua!

We will also need to have you work hard to sell these once finished! They will be a great gift for family and friends!

Nicaragua Team Report - Mark Your Calendars

When?

Sunday March 30, 2008

10:30 AM & 6:00 PM Services

Where?

Main Street Baptist Church

333 Main Street, Oneonta, NY 13820

The two Nicaragua church building team will report on their experiences in El Pochote and Bluefields Nicaragua. Come on out and see how they saw God at work!

We look forward to sharing with everyone!

PRAISE Report from Chinandega!

This update is just in from Chinandega where a medical missions team offered their time and talents... Partnership Ministries was asked to offer logistical and translation support. But what resulted was way beyond our wildest dreams! We serve an awesome God!

Last night I got back from Nicaragua from the medical project. Last you heard things were looking really bad for the medicine and medical people to get into the country. The health ministry said that they would hold the meds for a week. I got pretty depressed, thinking the whole thing would fail, that we would lose our relationship with VIMM, the medical missions organization that came with us, and that the Nicaraguan church would have ruined their relationship with the communities where we were to work.

But God decided to show us that we need to continue to have faith even when it seems impossible that things will work out. In our minds, the last option we had to make things work out was using Pastor Marlon's (Chinandega) brother who is director of Radio Sandino to have a meeting with Rafael, Daniel Ortega's son, who with just a word can make almost anything happen in Nicaragua.

The appointment two days before the group's arrival was put off until the next day, but at the exact same hour of when the meeting with Rafael was originally scheduled, Rigo had to go to the health ministry, and believe it or not, they apologized to him (extremely uncommon in Nicaraguan govt., especially with Sandinistas) and gave us the fast track to get everything approved. Not only that, but they didn't send anyone to the airport to inspect the group, nor to the sites, which they normally do with medical teams. In fact, They called Rigo 3 times asking if they could help in any way. Now we can see there was a huge spiritual battle going on, and it ended at 3pm on Feb 28 when the wall at the health ministry crashed to the ground, and everything else fell into place at the same time.

As a result of the medical team, there are now 3 fledgling church groups in three villages. In one they will give the church land to build, in another they want the church to have services in the community center, and in the other a woman has offered her home for church meetings. Thanks for all your prayers for us. Mike

...because we serve an awesome God... that's why!

Back to Bluefields, Part 3!

From Oneonta to El Pochote to Bluefields
It has been 2 months since our first team left Oneonta on December 26th to help build a church in the tiny village of El Pochote, Nicaragua just outside the town of Masaya. We departed there on January 6th with all but the roof completed – but within 2 weeks, the roof was added and we hear reports from Rigoberto Reyes, our missionary contact in Nicaragua ,that new families are worshipping there. We were blessed by the experience and we pray that the congregation becomes a beacon of light in that mountain community.

On February 14th, I met up with the second team from Main Street Baptist – we traveled from Managua by bus to El Rama and stayed overnight (well, sort of… our “stay” was only for 6 hours!). At dawn, we headed down to the docks and traveled east on the Rio Escondido to the town of Bluefields. For some of us, this was our third visit to Bluefields… for others, it was their first… what was common regardless of our individual experiences, we saw God at work in this town! We continue to be impressed with the ministry of Rigoberto and Claudia Reyes… they do not stop all day long… Rigo is constantly meeting with people – sometimes juggling multiple conversations regarding the construction site with cell phone calls with brothers and sisters in Christ throughout Nicaragua. Every morning, before our team arrived on site, Rigo would lead the Nicaraguans in devotions and Bible Study. Claudia directs the women in their ministry in the kitchen – sometimes serving 70+ people – cooking all day long (from dawn to after dark) with smiles on their faces - that truly was a blessing for all of us!

God is Big in Bluefields… Jesus Walks the Streets
I am quoting our very own songwriter, Suzanne Johnson, who penned a heart-felt song about our experience with God on this trip. Suzanne was able to play and sing her song at our “Good-Bye” service with her daughter Devan and fellow team member, Tara Stone singing it in Spanish. We worshipped and shared together in Spanish and English – God was glorified that night for sure!

The church in Bluefields was designed to be a regional church capable of training and sending local pastors into the eastern regions of Nicaragua. Already, two daughter churches have emerged from this church in a little over 2 years since Rigo’s vision trip to the region. One church is closer to the downtown area and another one up the coast. Many new families have joined the congregation since we last visited Bluefields in April 2007… there were at least 200 adults in attendance for our final service on Friday February 22nd not including a very large group of youth and children. It was truly a blessing to sing and worship on the newly poured altar looking up at the near capacity crowd that gathered. Earlier that week, we attended a baptism service for four youth (from the downtown church)that made their public declaration of faith – at the end of the week in Granada, we had a similar blessed event – with four of our team being baptized – praise God!

What’s Next??
The Bible is full of stories about people’s interaction with Jesus – I find most interesting “the rest of the story”, that is, what people did after their interaction with Jesus. For example, after meeting Jesus at the well, the Samaritan woman went back to her town and lives were changed because of her testimony (John 4: 39-42). I pray that these two trips have a similar impact on our lives - we all need to take time to process this trip and ask how God can be glorified. For even the veterans of 5+ trips, God continues to reveal Himself in new and exciting ways, so we all are challenged to seek His wisdom and guidance. Personally, these two trips were my first experience as a team leader for Partnership Ministries and I was humbled by how God’s love was revealed to me.

After saying good-bye to Lee Ann and the rest of the team on January 6th, I headed to Granada for five weeks of one-on-one instruction at language school. It is amazing how much information was poured into me… please pray that I can continue my studies and apply what I have learned. There are local opportunities in Oneonta to audit classes at SUNY Oneonta which I plan to pursue. I realize I need to continue with more full immersion classes in the future… please pray for God’s wisdom as I mull over the options available.

We will spend the next few months touching base with our faithful prayer and financial supporters – without you folks, this all would be an uphill battle with no end in sight. Knowing that we have friends and family praying and offering help when needed (especially while Lee Ann and I were apart for over 7 weeks!) brought us true peace and we thank you for that gift! Lee Ann and I will be visiting new churches in hopes of attracting potential partners for our church building efforts in Central America and also New York City (with my brothers in Christ, Raymond Ramos and Edwin Colon in Brooklyn). This is definitely a wonderful part of my new assignment… to introduce people to experiences like we just had in El Pochote and Bluefields is truly a gift from God!

If your church is interested in investigating short term trips and you are located east of the Mississippi River, contact me and let’s set something up! Right now, we are 30% funded, so, if you are able and desire to financially support our ministry, we would love meet with you! We can share our vision for our ministries for Central American and New York City church planting as well as economic development projects that would support all those endeavors.

God is not only big in Bluefields… he is omnipresent and at work everywhere!

¡Hasta luego! ¡Bendecidos!
Rick & Lee Ann

A Church is Built on a Hill in El Pochote

The team from Main Street Baptist in Oneonta has returned from Nicaragua and by now is back into the swing of their normal routines... the small church community in El Pochote just finished their worship service in their new sanctuary! Boy, did we have an awesome experience in the process!


My last visit to El Pochote was after the team from Oneonta left Bluefields last April… I was able to tag along with Rigoberto Reyes, Aaron Palmatier and Mike Najjar to venture to El Pochote amongst other destinations in that region. The church at that time was a dilapidated structure that needed to be torn down. Not only was it in poor condition, it also would be too small for the potential growth of this church community.

So, after our arrival on site on December 27th, we started working and the church emerged from the flat ground. Slowly but surely we organized into jobs that utilized our skill strengths and progress was immediately noticeable! Digging foundations was necessary to begin the process of wall building, so immediately the team got busy. Columns needed to be made out of rebar and formed metal rods… column manufacturing was one project that never ended throughout the week – both upright vertical columns within the walls and cross beams required the same technology! Concrete had to be made, but first materials had to be moved about the work site… the sand and rock were delivered by larger trucks and sometimes had to be moved twice to a strategic location. The building blocks for the church were large quarried stones… weighing just about 100 lbs. each, so for those with the energy and stamina were enlisted to move these closer to where the masons could use them.











Most noticeable throughout the week were the relationships that were formed between our team and the local folks that volunteered to help build the church. Actually some traveled from as far away as Chinandega… about 2-1/2 hours away… others from nearby Nindiri also contributed their time and skill to accomplish the overall goal – it was awesome to see! Everyone has their sties of how they were impacted… all I can say is that as a first time leader of a team, it was so cool to see how we all cooperated despite the language barrier… Christ’s love was shared… and that is universal!




During the week, our team shared with the local children through puppet dramas depicting Bible stories, singing and craft making. Even the simplest crafts became treasured keepsakes. The children seem to have a natural ability to open up quickly and the teams responded with their creativity. Many times you would see kids playing with team members… sure the building needed to be done, but most importantly, relationships were formed. Jesus taught us about relationships… and that lesson will last a lifetime!



By the time for our departure, just 9 days after we arrived, the church was completed all except for the roof… and that could be finished by local volunteers. One of our team members, Justin Leuttger carved a sign into one for the quarried sytones with the name of the church - it was such an awesome gift from Justin... and it was a gift in return to Justin when the stone was placed on the last wall... God gives gifts to those who freely give of themselves!

All week, we were blessed by the awesome service of our sisters in the kitchen… out of a basic structure cam food for our army of workers… I do not think I noticed any dissatisfied customers all week! What a true blessing this ministry is… the women are up at least 3 hours before the team and spend most of the day preparing and cleaning up after the current and next day’s meals. The women always greeted the tired and hungry workers with a smile or a kind word… I will never forget them!

On the last day, while preaching for the first time in the new sanctuary, the pastor, Gonsolo stood and praised God from the new pulpit area, raising his hands to the open sky… he looked like he felt very comfortable. We worshiped together and after tearful goodbyes, we departed for our hotel in Masaya for the last time.

After all that hard work, we headed off to Granada for well deserved R&R&R… rest, relaxation and reflection. A definite highlihght was the canopy tour at Volcan Mombacho... everyone tried and and survived to tell their story! It may take a few weeks or months for some folks to comprehend how God wants them to use this trip… for some, maybe a career change is in the future… some need to make college choices… some have to ponder post college career choices… some will consider how to serve God more sincerely… the list goes on I am sure!



We praise God for safety during our travel and work… we also praise and thank Him for his desire to befriend us and guide us on our Earthy experiences.