He is Jealous for Me

The air is thick with heat. The streets are full of
motorbikes and pulperias (little convenience stores) and bright colored homes.
We are in the city, but you can see the jungle encroaching and the volcano in
the distance. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed Mexico, but Granada is where my
heart has longed to be.  

Our home for the next six months is El Puente, the AIM base
here in Granada. There is a home in front with an eating area, dirt floors and
a kitchen with only a sink, fridge, and stove top to cook with (that stove doesn’t like me). Our dorms and
bathrooms are in the back, surrounded by beautiful trees and flowers that lead
to a small prayer house.  El Puente is
only about 1 or 2 years old, so all of the ministries we get to lead are new
and evolving, and we have tremendous freedom to work where the Spirit leads us.
There is already a small community of missionaries living in Granada, mostly
families, and we have gotten to work along side of them and party too…it was
our leader Seth’s birthday last week.

The Spirit is moving here. We have been visiting some of the ministries this week and each forming a schedule for the next two weeks.
I’ll give you a list of some existing ministries>

                Feeding
people who work at the dump at the base of the volcano

                Spending
time with girls who live at a home for abused or neglected girls

                Literacy
program for kids

                Feeding
people en el barrio (slums)

                Working
at the Nursing home…don’t think American nursing home

                Working
at the hospital, helping the nurses and making friendships with patients (not
like US hospital)

                Making souvenirs
and bracelets from Jicaro (a Nicaraguan gourd thing), all proceeds go to the
Young Life

                Vida
Joven (Young Life) a youth group type program

                La
Jungla (the jungle), an area in the city infested with drug addicts, only for
the men though

There are more, but I will not list everything. Many of the
ministries that Charles leads (a missionary who runs El Puente) are geared towards
young men getting back on their feet after struggling through addictions.  He runs Bible studies twice a week, an AA type
meeting, and church services…all bilingual. It has been exciting getting to
know people, and Fri evening we had a community dinner and got to speak more
intimately with them.

God has really laid the women of this city on my heart. In
this culture, women are often merely sexual objects. I have only seen one woman
come to the bible studies, Rosa, who I had the chance to spend time with at the
dinner. God is really starting to build a community of Christian men through
the ministries that Charles, Pepe (administrator of El Puente), and other missionaries
have started. I want that for the women, and I know it will take hard work and
lots of prayer, but they must know that God is Jealous for them, and it breaks
his heart to see them surrendering themselves to the pleasure and abuse of men.
God has been speaking to me through the song How He Loves…you should look it up if you don’t already know it, and really pray over the words. A missionary who lives here, Becca, also has a similar vision, and we are going
to meet this week to brainstorm ideas and pray for direction. I will also be
doing ministry at the hospital, cooking with women in the feeding program at
the barrio, spending time at the girls’ home, running the literacy program,
making jicaro, and spending time in the prayer house. I will start working with
Young Life once January starts, because the whole city is in fiesta mode during
December (think parades with creepy Mary floats, street vendors, bands, and
fire crackers at all hours of the day and night).