LETTER #1

The day of our departure, Saturday, June 5th, was quite a day.The airport experience in Miami, by itself, was an adventure because we had to move to four different gates before our final gate.Of course, our flight was delayed and we thought that we were not going to arrive in Bluefields the same day, since the last flight to Bluefields leaves at 2:00 PM.Therefore, we called Sharon Washington, the volunteer in Bluefields, to make another reservation for Sunday morning.

We were all relaxed at the airport, trusting in God's leading at all time.Finally, we boarded the plane around 12:30 PM instead of 9:50 AM.When we arrived to Managua (two hours behind Eastern Time), it was around 1:00 PM (the flight was approx. 2 hours and 45 minutes).By the time we passed immigration and custom, it was 2:00 PM.Joel and Mario were waiting on us outside and had made all arrangements with the airline to wait for us.We rushed to Atlantic Airlines and they were waiting on us.Yes, we made at 2:15 PM.

When we were walking to take the plane, we saw a bigger plane of 35 passengers.Wow, the size of the plane has improved – that's great!We had a wonderful flight of 50 minutes.Some of the members of the church came to receive us at the Bluefields' airport and Sharon took us home.After a while, Sharon told us that we had to go the church.We were all tired, but we left.When we arrived at the gate of the church, the children from the church came running and jumping on us to receive us.After the children, the adults were embracing us and crying with us of joy. Wow, what an emotional time!

While we were preparing to come to Bluefields, we had many boxes to be shipped from Miami for the church and it felt as if we were packing for more than a dozen children.Certainly, the welcome that we received confirmed us that we do have more than a dozen children.The children injected us the energy that we needed in order to stay in the Welcome Program that the church had prepared for us that afternoon.

Dona Elza told Ketly that when the cooking crew heard that we were not going to make it to Bluefields the same day, they did not stop cooking, they trusted in the Lord that we were coming.The Lord honored their prayers and their desire to see us back home.Yes, we are back home!

On Sunday morning, we went to Sunday school.Ketly assisted the adult class and experienced God's faithfulness because of different testimonies and saw the spiritual growth among the members.Vital had his first visit with Victor, the man that takes care of the church property.At 11:30 AM, in our closing time, a group of approximately 15 teenagers came to play basketball.But before playing, they had the opportunity to listen to the summary of the Sunday school.

During the week, we cleaned our room that was closed for one year. Unpacked our suitcases, visited the After School Tutoring Program in the morning and afternoon, which also had a welcome celebration for us, went to Prayer and Bible Study meeting on Thursday in Leticia's house, and received people at home who came to visit us.It was a full week.But again, we are back home and ready to stay before the Lord so we may continue to hear His voice in order to work with Him, with the churches in the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua and with you for His glory.

We are excited that you are part of what God will be doing through us in Bluefields, Nicaragua.Please, keep us in your prayers and we are looking forward to see some of you during this year.Welcome to this great partnership with the Lord!

Love you in Christ,

Vital and Ketly

LETTER #2

Dear Brother and Sisters in Christ:

May the peace of the Lord be with you.

Our first three weeks in Bluefields feels like we have been here for more than one year because of the new things that we have seen, heard and experienced in such a short time.

Ketly's first shock was when she saw Aymara with a baby in her hands and asked her if it is her baby and she answered with her head down:"Yes, it is my baby."We met Aymara when we worked at Zion Baptist Church, an English-speaking church, when we first arrived in Bluefields in 1999.Aymara was a member of the Girls' Auxiliary, raised by her grandmother and an unsecured little girl. Aymara is one case of many cases that we have seen in Bluefields.The hospital is very concerned about the amount of birth among that age group and it is overwhelming.

Another thing that we did during these weeks was to talk with each member of the church.God has taken care of his own—Praise the Lord!When we talked to Jeyshell, a 13 year old girl, told us about two situations in which different men have approached her after school, inviting her to be with them.Because of the trust level with her mother, a member of the church, Jeyshell told her mother about these situations and her mother acted immediately after each situation.In one occasion, she had to go to the police because a taxi man will not stop bothering Jeyshell.Yes, this is happening with our young girls in the church.

Jeyshell's family came to know Christ through the After School Tutoring Program three years ago.What would have happened if Jeyshell did not take the decision to follow Christ and not the crowd?What would have happened if we did not take the time to teach her about the significance of her body as the temple of the Holy Spirit?What would have happened if she did not have the presence of a mother who knows the truth of the Word of God and desire the best for her child?We would have found Jeyshell carrying a baby in her hands.

Another situation that is alarming in the city is the amount of sexual violation from a family member to young girls.The law is not strict in that situation; therefore, many men are looking for the next girl that is not protected and unsecured.In two occasions, Ketly had to defend two girls in town.A young girl came to buy in a store, the man attending her, started to seduce her in front of Ketly and she stopped him immediately and talked to the girl.Another case was that Ketly was walking with a 16-year-old girl from the church, a man saw the girl and he started to seduce the girl in front of Ketly and she stopped him.

As a church, should we just sit and wait for these things to happen?We started to pray about these situations and lifting our flag against these sexual abuses.While Ketly was unpacking, she found a curriculum that Al and Charlene Meyer from the Tin Roof Foundation, Inc, that do mission work in the Pacific Coast of Nicaragua, members of Montgomery Community Church in Ohio shared with us.The material is a great tool for teaching sexual education in the context of Nicaragua, according to the Word of God in the school.Ketly felt that she found gold.Please, pray for the receptivity of the schools to this curriculum.If Ketly is in the schools, then she will be close to the girls and the love of Christ will touch, heal and restore these girls with the power of the Holy Spirit.

Please, pray for so many girls who are in deep pain because of sexual abuse in Nicaragua.

May His presence continue to guide you always.

LETTER #3

July 13, 2004

A family of four, including a three year-old girl arrived on July 1stto Bluefields, Nicaragua from Hope Full Gospel Family Church in Philadelphia to do mission work.Their timing was just perfect because they wanted to come originally for the two weeks of school vacation in July (school year in Nicaragua is from February to November) to do Vacation Bible School (VBS), but the Department of Education advanced and shortened the time of vacation to one week.The Lord put in their hearts to advance the trip and they were able to participate in VBS on the 2nd and 3rd of July, the driest two days (no rain) in the last two weeks.

Prior to the VBS, Mrs. Emelina and Ketly went around the neighborhood of the church, called San Pedro, inviting the children to the VBS.The church has been in that neighborhood for 1 ½ years and we have not had too much response from the neighborhood.In spite of their resistance, we continued to pray and waiting upon the Lord of the harvest, and did not give up visiting their homes and sharing the love God in various ways in order to establish a closer relationship with the families.

We were able to reap a great harvest during these two days of VBS.From 126 children to the VBS, ¼ of the children were from San Pedro.We were able to see the fruit of the VBS through their assistance in Sunday School the two following Sundays.Last Sunday, we did not have enough chairs for everybody – Praise the Lord!

Please, pray with us that God will use the children to bring their parents to know Him.

LETTER #4

For two weeks the church has been praying for the situation of the adolescents in Bluefields and believed in God to do something through us.

While Ketly was still unpacking, she found a curriculum designed to teach in schools in Nicaragua relating to the problem of promiscuity among adolescents and young people.Last March, Tom Lipsey, Pastor of Montgomery Baptist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio invited us to meet Albert & Charlene Meyer founders of The Tin Roof Foundation, Inc. who do mission work with children in the Pacific Coast of Nicaragua.They shared with us this precious information, not knowing that we were going to deal with this issue in Bluefields.Yes, Ketly found a gold mine that day in the suitcase.

Ketly talked to some women in the church and they were very interested to go to the schools and to present the curriculum to the Directors.Yesterday, Ketly went to Cristobal Colon School, the largest secondary school in Bluefields, to talk to the Director.Surprisingly, the Director was available at that moment and she shared the overwhelming problem that they are confronting in the school of teenage pregnancies.The Director offered to send a letter to parents in regard to this new opportunity to guide and help their children in such a difficult time.The class will be offered once a week for a period of six months in our Multi-Purpose Facility on Friday afternoon because the school doesn't have available empty space.

Please, pray for the parents and adolescents so their hearts would be open to the teaching.

Newsletter #5

On Thursday, July 15, 2004, Ketly e-mailed to Albert and Charlene Meyer from The Tin Roof Foundation telling them that:

"We have been in awe with the high percentage of teenage pregnancies in Bluefields during last year, even of teenagers that we have known in our last four years.That situation is overwhelming!At the same time, we thank God for our encounter in Ohio with Pastor Lipsey last March.Definitely, our encounter was not a coincidence, but God orchestrated it.

We have already visited different schools in relation to the curriculum you gave to us and they are excited about it.How can we find more copies so we can start offering the classes to the teenagers in the schools?Will you please give us the contact person in Managua?We are in full speed with it and ready to start!We hope to hear from you soon."

The same day they e-mailed us back saying:" How exciting to hear from you.We will be arriving in Nicaragua tomorrow evening, Friday, July 16th. Please let us know today how many student manuals and teacher's guides you need."

On Sunday, July 18, they came to Bluefields with 250 student manuals and 12 teacher's guides -- Praise the Lord!We could not believe how quick God was answering our prayers in regard to this situation.At their arrival in Bluefields, they explained to us that the day that they received our e-mail was the day of their departure to Nicaragua, but the flight was cancelled due to bad weather in Managua.

While the Meyers were in Bluefields, they were able to meet with the Delegate of the Minister of Education for this region of Nicaragua on her day off in her house.It was a great experience because she also had the same burden for the children and youths that many lives are being shattered because of lack of hope.

The first time that Ketly taught the curriculum was last Saturday in the Youth Ministries' Group of the Church.Our teenagers were very open about the subject and they are looking forward for the teaching.According to a questionnaire given to them, we realized how that so many young people are going the wrong way because of lack of knowledge.We trust that the Lord will bring His knowledge and conviction of His Word about the importance of their body described in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 that says:

"For this is the will of God, your sanctification:that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified.For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit."

Let us continue to pray for these adolescents who will be receiving this teaching about building family value which will lead them to take good decisions for now and their future.

In Christ,

Vital and Ketly Pierre