A Mission Trip
Dennis Allan
Julia and I created this blog last fall. We both enjoy writing. We both enjoy communicating what God is teaching us and what He is teaching our family. Since we first created this blog we've made one post. We're setting ourselves about writing more frequently and consistently this year.
We want to write and communicate about the ways that God is teaching us to live an integrated, indivisible life. Where our personal and familial identities are found and formed in Jesus, and where Jesus is taking the disintegrated, divisible parts of our identities and renewing them. We want to tell a story about the ways in which God is making us whole, while also recognizing that we will never be fully whole until we are wholly united with Jesus. And that will only be fully realized when we are face-to-face with Him.
For the next week and a half we are going to be utilizing this blog as a platform to communicate about a ministry, a mission trip, and a mission team that is traveling to Nicaragua. Our team is eight people. Molly studies at a local university. Chloe works as a dental hygienist and teaches at a local university. Liz is a rehabilitation technician at a local hospital. Sam writes code for software applications. Amanda is an EMT. Christine studies at a local university. Bethany counsels juveniles. I pastor people. This Friday we leave for Managua, Nicaragua.
In Managua we will partner with missionaries Daniel and Jessenia Bain. They run a protective home for children who, when Daniel and Jessenia first met them, were living in a trash dump with their families. Literally, they were living in homes made up of the trash that made up the neighborhood where they lived. There were walls around the dump to keep the trash in and these families and these children lived inside those walls.
The children were at-risk physically and sexually. Abuse of all sorts surrounded them. Daniel and Jessenia were lead by the Holy Spirit to create a protective home for children that they had built relationships with over a few years. Children who were in families that Daniel and Jessenia had come to know. Families that trusted Daniel and Jessenia. Daniel and Jessenia's mission is to see the children that God has given to their care, along with their families, know their identity in Christ by providing a safe place for children and their families to find and make their home in Jesus.
Our team will come alongside and encourage Daniel and Jessenia in their ministry and will seek to edify the children in Casa Liberated y Sanidad. My hope is that you will join our team in the coming days to see what God is doing through Daniel and Jessenia and to see what God will down in and through our team.
You can learn more about Daniel and Jessenia's ministry at their website www.edificacion.org.