There is a beautiful country in Central America, with almost 7 million inhabitants with a 38 missionary-educators team on the front line working with 466 children in the 17 PEPE units spread across the country. We are going through a challenging stage, but at the same time, God has blessed the Program because, through the Ministry of Education, each child receives a backpack with school materials and benefits from school lunches. To prepare the food, we make a schedule among the mothers so that they can cook themselves and thus participate in the ministry.
Andrea Galán is the director of the first PEPE implemented in Nicaragua. She is celebrating ten years of operation at the Resurrection Baptist Church. During that time, she has been working voluntarily in the direction of PEPE in the afternoon while she is a teacher at a private school in the morning. She said that PEPE was God’s answer to her prayers because she always dreamed of having a school in the church to serve the children of the community that have families with low economic resources. As soon as PEPE introduction in 2013, she immediately promoted and encouraged the church to accept the challenge. Andrea said that the path was not easy: there were difficulties, and I shed tears, but the effort to serve the community and bring the love of God and his Word to children is not in vain. In the ten years that the school has been under operation, more than 150 children have graduated and are well prepared to attend elementary school. PEPE’s reputation in the community is immense; enrollment expectations exceed each year. This year PEPE is already working with three classes with 59 children supported by five missionary- educators.
Oscarling Palacios, now 21 years old, is a PEPE missionary-educator at the Rios de Agua Viva Baptist Church in a rural area of southern Nicaragua called Ochomogo. She accepted the challenge of teaching the children at PEPE and said: Teaching biblical stories and talking to God is investing in the future of these children; working with children is her greatest happiness and personal fulfillment in her spiritual and professional life. She loves teaching at PEPE and felt the need to prepare herself by joining more by joining the magisterium in her city this year.
Mr. Ledys was desperate and needed a job to support his family. While walking through the neighborhood, he passed the church where PEPE Peniel works in Sébaco City. There, he mustered the courage to go in and ask if they needed a security guard. He got hired. Seeing all the children, he learned more about PEPE and asked if he could enroll his daughter. His little girl, Genesis, was accepted immediately and began to study. Ledys and his partner Emília began attending Bible classes and soon accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. They were made disciples, married, and got baptized. PEPE has changed the lives of children and their families.
We are working to fulfill the mission with Nicaraguan children; we need your prayers and offerings! Together in prayer and action, with courage, persistence, and love, we will complete the mission that Jesus left us!
Lizeth Detrinidad – national coordinator of PEPE Nicaragua
Translated by Victor Baptista
