The 2013 campaigns are now all over. Yesterday was the final day and it was a great one. We have tried something different here in Managua this year. Each time we've come here, we have always had Kids' Clubs in the parks in the morning. Each day we would go to a different neighborhood and set up 5 stations (Bible story, Bible verse, games, music, refreshments) and invite the neighborhood kids to spend 2-3 hours with us.
The Pastors continually evaluate the results of our efforts and have realized that although Kids' Clubs are fun, they have not been a very powerful tool to grow the church. In fact, they are very costly and there has been very little "fruit that remains." Most of the time the parents send their kids to the park without joining them. So, this year it was decided that we would forego the cost and effort and try something different. For the two weeks before we came, Pastors Felix and Rodrigo distributed fliers to the neighborhoods we planned to visit. This announcement told the neighbors about the upcoming family festival in their park.
In the mornings we all went to park where the evening campaign would be held, put up the inflatable as a "teaser" for the kids and then the team went out to share the gospel door-to-door. Unbelievably, we had 30 to 40 decisions every morning. Even more importantly, the pastors have realized when people make decisions in their homes, those decisions are more likely to be genuine--more of them will visit the church, more will start discipleship and more of them will have transformed lives. In the evenings we've returned to the park to find the kids waiting for us. The attendance at our evening events has been great. The team went back out to share door-to-door and found "new" people home.
Both Pastors Felix and Rodrigo are excited abou the number and quality of the contacts they received this week. The follow-up phone calls have already started and the Los Robles church site is holding a reception this afternoon. The Bolonia church has their reception tomorrow.
As far as the team goes, almost all of them are on their way home. The bus left at 2:00 AM this morning (and we're thankful we weren't on it.) A group of 15 went to the airport this morning at 6:00--their flight leaves in about 30 minutes. Our flight is not until this afternoon, so we are taking it easy this morning. We will be eating lunch with Pastor Felix and his family and then heading to the airport.
Please pray for the follow-up and for the US teams as they transition from a very warm week and mountain top experience to "normal" life. We pray every single one of them will arrive home as a different person. Thank you for your faithfulness to pray for us and the work here in Central America. We leave for the states next week and even though we're not happy about the cold weather we will face, we're excited to spend time with family and friends in the Kansas City area.
