Note: 6-2-13Fundraising has closed, and I will be leaving on Friday June 7th for 10 days in Nicaragua. Thank you all for your help! Watch for videos and pictures shortly after I get back.
Friends and Family,
One beautiful thing about our God is his universal love for all people everywhere in every country. I have now been on 6 overseas missions trips, and each time I meet people with extraordinary faith.
In Germany the local organization we were working with was filled with people of quiet intensity on a continent that seems to be drifting farther from its Christian roots each year. They know that it isn’t the popular thing to share what is perceived as ancient and unenlightened with the culture around them.
In Haiti we routinely run across people who have nothing but Christ, and somehow Christ is all they need. I am reminded of orphanage’s that run on prayer each day for their daily bread. I can’t remember ever having to depend solely on other people to be obedient to God and provide what I need for the day. The faith they have is staggering!
In Nicaragua, you find a people whose government robbed them at the moment of their greatest need (following a massive earthquake in 1972) leaving them broken and unable to recover. Things have not really gotten much better in 41 years, and Nicaragua is currently the 2nd poorest nation in our hemisphere. Each year Dayspring Community Church reaches out to the small village of Tipitapa through the local church we support there. Each year the team returns challenged by the faith of those who have no resources of their own.
This year I will be going to Nicaragua again. Not as a “savior from the United States” but as a fellow brother in Christ to the local church in Tipitapa. We will meet our good friends the Chema’s and serve alongside them at their church. We will work together to create life changing events for teens, distribute food to those in need, and continue our yearly work to support the local ministry there. After 10 days we will go home knowing that ministry will continue while we are gone. We will return to the United States leaving behind our brothers and sisters to continue the work we have supported.
Each trip I film constantly to help tell the story to our supporters when we return. This year the story will be of the heroes doing God’s work in Nicaragua, and the team from Dayspring that went to support them. There is nothing like knowing that God has your back when you need him, and we are going to be God’s reassuring hand on the shoulders of our family in Nicaragua, encouraging them and lifting them up through our strengths.
Ultimately I need to raise $1200 to go on this trip. Would you consider being a reassuring hand on my shoulder, encouraging me and praying for me in the mission God has called me to?
Thank you friends, your support means more than you know!
joshua Stairhime
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