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Family Restoration in Nicaragua

March 28, 2019
The glory of God breaks out among the residents of a trash dump in Nicaragua.

These testimonies are from a First Year BSSM student:

For the last six years, I have been in Nicaragua, and I live beside the Nueva Vida Trash Dump. “Nueva Vida” means “new life.” My heart is to empty out every trash dump because no human deserves to live in a trash dump. My focus is that we would be able to remove the most vulnerable first: elderly, babies, widows, pregnant moms and small children. The dump is full of fumes, bio-waste and other hazards. One little girl has only one relative: her grandmother, for whom she forages to buy life-saving medicine. We help one person at a time. Typically, the children do not want to leave the dump. It is what they know. Their friends are there, and they feel free to run around and ride in trucks and search for food. A few months ago, I was in Mark Brooks’ BSSM class called His Glory and His Presence. At one point, one of the BSSM pastors, Richard Gordon, stopped the class and called out three people in the room. He said, “Stand up because the power of God is going to fall on you.” I stood up, and the moment I did, my whole body got burning hot. I started shaking, and waves of power hit me. I wept because I could see images of the children in the trash dump running towards me like a movie scene. My heart is for them. If I’m going to get power, it’s to see their lives changed. I had an amazing encounter in the class and went back to our main session and went into worship. I take notes on my phone. Usually, I do not get cell service but that day I did. Suddenly, I received lots of photos and messages. My team was sending me messages of the Holy Spirit crashing in on the children and them lying on the ground in His presence. We already had testimonies from another trash dump where children have had visions of Jesus, have gone to heaven and have gone on national television to tell the nation of Nicaragua what Jesus has done in their lives. But this had never happened in Nueva Vida.Some of the kids live with us; some live at home. The day the Holy Spirit crashed on them, they did not go home. We could not get them to leave, so parents came to pick them up and they also fell flat on their faces under the power of the Holy Spirit. One of the dads slid down the door frame and fell on the floor. One child’s older sister fell flat on her face. One boy had an out-of-body experience and saw the others get baptized in the Spirit.The other trash dump had been a harder atmosphere with lots of drugs and heaviness. We had been contending to see God crash in there. After I got all those voicemails and texts, I asked when it happened. We traced the time back, and it was the same time that Richard had stopped the class. The same time the Holy Spirit fell on me, He fell on the kids. Some of them went to heaven. Some had visitations from Jesus.One little girl, Ruth, had a lot of walls up. She was angry and hurting and disruptive. She would want to hit other kids. She came to us only because she liked our dance class. We would do beautiful, choreographed dances to worship music. Outside of dance class, it was difficult to have her there. She refused to be touched or hugged. When the Holy Spirit fell on the Nueva Vida dump in October, Ruth was especially touched. Her encounter lasted the longest.She drew a picture of a heart with herself inside it. Jesus told her she lived inside of His heart.I was there over Christmas, and the Holy Spirit crashed again on the kids. Ruth was out the longest. We lay on the ground, and I held her in my arms as she cried and cried. As I was lying there on the ground with her, the Holy Spirit said to me, “I want you to get up and go to her house because today is the day her mom gives her life to me.” I asked her if her mom was home and if we could visit her. With another team member, I went to her house. Her mother is a single mom with six kids. She was also angry and hurting like Ruth was. I introduced myself to her and told her that Ruth had just had an incredible encounter with the Holy Spirit. This was two months after the first encounter. Her mother said, "Yeah, my daughter is totally different." I said, "Yes, that is Jesus. And while the Holy Spirit was touching us today, Jesus spoke to me about you. Jesus told me to come to you because today is the day you are going to give your life to Him."She burst into tears. You could almost feel the weight coming off of her, and you could feel His peace. In her home, a rusted out tin shack beside a trash dump, the Holy Spirit came down in peace. We led her to the Lord. I could tell they are not a touchy-feely family. As soon as Ruth’s mom gave her life to the Lord, Ruth came running to her mom, and they just held each other. It was the moment we had been contending for: to see families restored. Because of the change in Ruth, her mom was open to Jesus.

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