Encouraging email following 2010 Rivas Institute

I received this email from Cairo yesterday. Filemon is the head of the Rivas Pastor's Council. It was a blessing to hear his kind words. Thanks for partnering with us to make this happen:

Hey brother,
It´s been a month since we saw each other.
I got a phone call from Filemon today to tell me what a blessing it was to have the conference you taught. He says everybody has said many good things about the teaching and how much they learned.
Just wanted to pass on those words to you.

How´s Tara and Crosby?
Hope to hear from you brother,

Cairo

Video from San Juan del Sur

This place is gorgeous. We can't help it if God called us to train church leaders just 25km up the highway. (Next time I'll turn the iPhone landscape instead of vertical)

The gringos are stateside

We made it back to Arkansas yesterday safe and sound. It was a great trip. Thanks you for the support and prayers! We'll post more pics and reports in the coming days.


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Enjoying God's General Revelation

After teaching the Doctrine of God all week it only made sense to seek out some of his General revelation in Nicaragua. His involvement is apparent...








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Pastor Roger tells about the impact of our ministry

We had an excellent week. This was the best Institute in Rivas yet. The last 3 years of striving to truly get the momentum rolling are really paying off now. God is using this ministry to impact Rivas and we are blessed to be a part of it. You shouldn't take my word for it though...listen to Pastor Roger, who has been with us since the first trip.



God is SO good! He is SO great! It is an honor and a privilege to be a part of what he is doing in Rivas.

A great week!!!

I cannot tell you in strong enough language how great our week at the bible institute was! We just wrapped up and headed to San Juan del Sur. I'll post more later, but wanted to tell you we are all safe and had a great week of teaching. Now I need to go introduce my friends Eric and Philip to the Pacific ocean. ;)





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Wednesday update

Another great day in the Institute! The students are wonderful, so eager & attentive. We have covered some heavy theology in the doctrine of God and they have soaked it right up in humility and excitement. We are having a great week and could not ask for the teaching to go better.

We are going to a local church tonight and Eric Moffett is preaching. It should be fun.

Tomorrow (Thursday's) teaching line-up:
God is Creator, Redeemer, King, fountain, rock, refuge, warrior, shepherd - Philip
God conquers Evil- Eric
Our response to God, Worship & Fear - Eric
Our response to God, Love obedience, & service - Chris

Please lift up our final day of teaching and the remainder of out trip, specifically that we would remain healthy and God would use us to impact this country.

Thanks.

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Tuesday was good

We had another good day in the Institute. We had even more students today. It was warm, but nothing like Arkansas. The students are so attentive and we can tell that they are grasping the material based on the questions they are asking. Good stuff!

Please pray us as we teach again tomorrow. So far everyone is felling healthy...a huge praise.

Tomorrow evening we are going to a local church and Eric is going to show them how the 2nd VP of the SBC brings the Word. Should be a good time.

Here is one of our very faithful students.


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Tuesday's teaching line up

Want to know specifically how you can pray for us on Tuesday?

Here is the teaching line up for Tuesday:
False views of God-Philip
Trinity-Eric
God is Great, Eternal living spirit-Chris
God is Great, Supremely awesome-Philip


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Great first day of teaching

We had a great first day at the institute. There were 114 students there eager to learn theology. The teaching went well. Good


was good to us.



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Estamos en Rivas

We had a good drive down to Rivas from Managua today. We stopped at the Volcano National Park (video to come) and the Market. Everything is going well. We will meet up with Pastor Filemon shortly to say hello and finalize plans for the week.

Please be in prayer for the teaching and the students at the Bible Institute that begins tomorrow. And please be in prayer for our health, everyone is feeling fine we are just aware from previous trips how easy it is for that to change. Thanks.

Update:
We stopped @ the volcano on the way down. Here r a couple of videos: http://yfrog.us/j79cyz http://yfrog.us/5hfs8z

Here is 1 more volcano video. Tomorrow the sightseeing ends & the real work of teaching @ the institute begins. http://yfrog.us/mq4hzz

Etamos en Managua

We are in Managua safe and sound. The trip down was nice and uneventful. Eric even got a bump to first class... sorry sucker.

Cairo met us at the airport and we are now at the hotel for the night. We will meet up with the other interpreters in the morning and head south to Rivas. We will actually begin teaching on Monday.

Thank you for the prayers. Please keep them coming.

Hanging out in Houston

We are in the ground in Houston, just hanging out and waiting to fly to Managua. Flight leaves at 5:50pm.


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Team building

We are at the Little Rock airport waiting to board. Everything is going well so far. We are excited to head south.

Eric and Philip are spending some quality time getting to know each other. It is a blast to spend team with the team.


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Philip's Passport Arrived!

Praise God! Philip's passport arrived today...only 24 till take off.

A Good Problem

I received this email from my friend Cairo, our main Nicaraguan contact person, this morning:

Chris,

We have a good problem.

Filemon is having to say no more to many church leaders. They are being very organized and each pastor is bringing a list of their church leaders coming to the conference.

Filemon already has 125 people listed. I told him I would let you know to see what you think about this since this would totally increase the cost around a 20-25%.

I asked him to say "no more" until we hear from you.

This problem is God´s fault!.

Talk to you later.
-Cairo

Praise God for what he is doing in Rivas. After many trips it feels like we are finally getting some momentum. Please be in prayer for wisdom and God's provision.

Support a Pastor

If you would like to support a pastor or church leader to attend 1 week at the Rivas Bible Institute all it takes is $25.

This will provide transportation, a meal & material for the the pastor or church leader while they are at the institute.

$25 is all it takes to send a brother in Christ to a week of biblical training. Is it worth it to you?

To provide support you can send checks (memo line: Rivas Nicaragua Pastors) to the following churches:

• Fellowship Bible Church Conway
  PO Box 10480
  Conway, AR 72034
  
  
• Fellowship Church Arkadelphia
  P.O. Box 1332
  Arkadelphia, AR 71923
  
  
• First Baptist Church Sparkman
  

Your support makes it possible for these Nicaraguan brothers and sisters to attend the Rivas Bible Institute. Thank you for partnering with us in this ministry.

Ways you can be praying...

Here are some ways that you can be praying for the upcoming trip (July 31- August 7):

• Teachers and preparation
• Connection and continued improvement in relating to the Nica's
  
• Financial support for team members and the support a pastor deal, we still have a ways to go.
  
• Logistics and travel (we are trying a different hotel in San Jorge for obvious reasons)
  
• Our families while we are gone.

Ways you can pray for the big picture of the Rivas Institute

• Possibility of a combined trip with OBU CM in Spring of 2011
• The summer 2012 trip
• The possibility of Fellowship Conway supporting the Rivas ministry as they wrap up their institute in in Juigalpa in Fall of 2011.

2010 Rivas Bible Institute

This is year will be hosting the Bible Institute in Rivas Nicaragua July 31- August 7th. Our team of teachers consists of Eric Moffett, Philip Williamson, and myself (Chris Kear).

We will be teaching the Doctrine of God Monday through Thursday of the trip. Please be in prayers for our preparations as teachers, the Nicaraguans that will attend as students, and our wonderful Nicaraguan interpretators.

More updates will be coming soon. Thanks.

Summer day in Managua

It looks like it will be a pretty day in Managua today. We are headed to breakfast then to meet up with the rest of the interpreters. We will drive south to Rivas and stop by the Volcano national park and the market in Masaya along the way.

Please pray for safe travel and our preparation for teaching tomorrow.