“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (James 1:27) To be honest, as a Christian and a pastor, this verse has always troubled me a bit. Not on the truth side or the understanding side, but more on the application side of it. It doesn’t take but a few chapters into the book of Acts to see that the…
Today was another awesome day of ministry! We were blessed to be able to join another team from West Virginia and head over to Los Brasiles, where my buddy Coburn has an expansive ministry – providing education, meals, after school programs and spiritual development to this little community. Our camp team had the opportunity to fall in love with their kids three years ago, taking them down to to Campo Alegria on Lake Nicaragua. I can’t help but wonder what…
Today was an amazing day. We loaded up our family, with Brinson leading the way and Moses in tow, to head out to the Ruby Ranch to put on an afternoon block party for the kids from the Las Parcelas community. For those up to speed on our Nica Missions, these are the same kids that our summer missions team took down 40 of them to Campo Alegria and put on a camp and then returned to their community for…
As if we didn’t have enough boys in our family already, we’ve added another son to the family, however, today was the first day we got to meet him in person… Nelson David – our child that we sponsor through World Vision. We regularly pray for Nelson as a family and we are always excited to get updates, photos and letters from him. We’ve had the privilege of sponsoring him since he was about 3 years old and now he…
No mission trip I’ve ever made to Nicaragua has been complete without a visit to La Chureca (the city dump in Managua). Over the last seven years I’ve made numerous trips there to get a better picture of “the least of these.” The numbers are continually changing, but there are well over 1,000 people, with a majority percentage of children, who call La Chureca home. The Buzbees have a long standing ministry presence there – caring for the sick and…
But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. (Romans 1:19-20 MSG) I’m always amazed at the sheer physical beauty of the country of Nicaragua every time that I’m here….
The love of God extends salvation to all. Everyone who believes on Jesus has eternal life with Jesus, and everyone who doesn’t perishes. Missions is the answer of our heart to that love. (John Piper) I find myself more and more praying for a heart for the nations. At our family devotional/debrief time tonight, I was so encouraged to hear my boys start to get a glimpse of God’s heart for the nations and our role to have that same…
Well here I am sitting here in Nicaragua (up on the 3rd floor for my fellow Nica peeps, with a great breeze blowing) and I’m thinking about Germany. It’s taken me a bit to process our time there and I’m sure more thoughts will come – at least I hope they do before I start to forget the details! These two countries couldn’t be more different. Just driving around today with my family the fact that this is the second…
“When does being curious distract your heart away from what God wants you to focus on?” There the question was… in big, bold, red letters just seeming to flash at me from my laptop screen. A question that, oddly enough, I wanted to be distracted from answering. To frame out the question in context, it came from an excellent and thought-provoking article that I came across on The Resurgence, which regularly provides some great material for learning, reflecting and in…