Learning The Bible Verses To Get A Bible
When: June 22 - July 4, 2006
Where: We went to Condega, Nicaragua staying with families in the city of Condega. We worked in two communities in the vicinity of Condega; San Pedro and La Solidaridad.
What did we do: We helped the local churches in the two communities conduct one week long Vacation Bibles School with the theme of “The Roman Road to Salvation”. We also helped the Condega branch of the Universidad Martin Lutero (Martin Luther University) by maintaining, refurbishing and upgrading about one dozen computers which are used for job training. We also prepared and configured a computer for a radio station run by a local Baptist church, allowing them to save and backup all their music to hard drives and run their radio programs by computer giving them the chance to save significant money in equipment and material costs.
Who went: The trip was organized by Grace Free Methodist Church in McConnell, IL. We had twelve people go from McConnell, East Peoria, Houston, TX and Richland Center, WI.
What successes did we have: Besides the already mentioned computer work, the Vacation Bible School was also very successful. The San Pedro VBS averaged over 150 daily, with 160 kids attending the closing program. The Solidaridad VBS had over 440 most days (we are not sure of the exact number) and at least 350 attended the final program. As part of the lesson plan we presented the Gospel using selected verses from the books of Romans and John. Any child memorizing all of the verses received new complete Bible. Those who could not memorize all the verses were given a paperback copy of the New Testament. We also gave new Bibles to all of the teachers from the two communities. Also some Bibles were left for use by a mission team from a Baptist church in Virginia. All told we distributed over 700 copies of the scriptures (over 500 whole Bibles, and 200 New Testaments).
Would we do it again: Every team member has said they would love to do it again. We will see how the Holy Spirit leads for the possibility a future trip.