Satisfied Wages for Nicaragua

Unison church is on its way to becoming a financially free congregation! Why? How? Well because in October we finished our first course of Freed-Up Financial Living ! This is the Good Sense Movement's English course. We ended this class in October and we have our first mentoring meeting at the end of this month. Jari and I are very excited to hear testimonies and see the progress of our participants. We are using the same techniques and methods we created in Nicaragua for this group, God's Word is universal! Unison Church's Financially Freed-up, all the way to the next generations! It was a small class, but I have learned over the years it's not about the quantity of people in your courses but the quality. The ones who show up after all the prework requirements and paying the registration fee are those who are really dedicated to making a change in their lives in the area of finances. They always increase their faith in God and share their knowledge to others. In...

It has been over a year since we've been back to Michigan. We've had 18 months to focus on our ministry without the interruptions of visa renewals. Growing our ministry as financial coaches and mentors! I have tallied up all of our sign in sheets, courses and interactions with our program seminars. We are very satisfied with these numbers. We are thankful to God for these results and to all of your prayers since we started this work! These numbers have been achieved with a very small budget at the Nehemiah Center, a budget almost non-existent. We have been working by faith and the providence of the Holy Spirit, who has given us the people and placed a motivation to commit to changing their communities for Christ! We have also been working and living here in Nicaragua with a personal budget that has been underfunded. Since arriving in October 2016 we raised about 40% of our budget required to keep our ministry going. If we have had these types of results with underfunde...

The Holy Spirit is working in amazing ways in Nicaragua and through our ministry! What a blessing it is to be a part of God’s Kingdom work! Since the first Finance's for the Kingdom stewardship class in 2017 we’ve had 173 people impacted with God’s Word in regards to money. This month we celebrated 15 new facilitators of the Good Sense Financial course ! Those who had gone through our stewardship class and received mentoring, whose lives have been impacted by these teachings, were invited to the facilitator's training. Participants learned how to teach the Good Sense material to become facilitators themselves! We asked those interested to write a short paragraph of the significant changes they’ve experienced since being part of this program. And I want to share with you a few of their responses. New Facilitators 2019, restoring hope for God's people! Doctor Karla is a pediatrician who works with people of all ages, specifically with special needs children in Managua a...

A neighbor of mine was feeling the loss of BBQ chicken, ribs and steaks. He would come home and smell the air filled with smokey BBQ goodness from El Muchachon on Sunday afternoons! He said he was going to buy a grill from the Sinsa (overpriced Home Depot of Nicaragua). I said "NO! Do not buy some overpriced tin can made in China! We can make one here for you at the ESVO! It will be stronger, better and custom made!" In case your wondering, an imported Charbroil grill here can cost over $200 at the Sinsa. We know back in the USA a Charbroil grill is decent, but they are not worth that price! So my neighbor and I sat down at the kitchen table and drew up some plans for a smaller grill. It was to use the same concept and designs from "El Muchachon' grill I made in December. I brought the plans to the young men at the ESVO (Vocational School) and we started to get to work once again. In a little over a week the grill was completed and now I present to you, 'El...

In 2014 I incorporated Satisfied Wages and formally started a financial coaching business using Biblical principles to help people get out of debt and in control of their finances. Our company was to offer businesses a service of training and professional development for their employees in the areas of personal finance. Helping anyone in their finances is going to increase employee moral and attendance! However God had other plans and sent us to Nicaragua. I almost closed Satisfied Wages when a friend told me "Jesse, you don't need to close your company, your just going international!" His comment really change my perspective on our goals in Nicaragua and helped me settle in to our work quickly. Thanks Paul P.! In July we worked with the Nicaraguan Christian Academy International (NCAI) to provide personal finance training to their employees! We teamed up with the Nehemiah Center and Freddy to bring this training there. A hour and half each day for a week we spent giv...

We need your prayers! A few pastors in the city of Leon asked the Nehemiah Center to bring the Finances for the Kingdom program to their city. They ended up recruiting 10 pastoral couples in total, over 22 people were recruited. Not all of them finished. Freddy and I knew this would be a tough group to facilitate the course to. Leon has a history of struggles, wars and hurricanes, and the new political unrest of 2018. Last year, Leon was locked in a violent struggle for 2 months straight that blocked them off from the rest of the country! The political crisis of Nicaragua has hit the tourism sector very hard, Leon's major industry is tourism. The pastors have expressed a drop in church attendance and offerings. These pastors also recognize the need within their congregations to address financial struggles. Freddy's sharing the Word! We started our first class in June. Right away we felt the presence of a poverty mindset and the doubts it brings in. This group of past...

We spent a Sunday afternoon in the HOTTEST place I have ever been in my life! Over a 100F degrees, sharing God's message about money at a church in Acuhualinca! This church had a metal roof, and no insulation so this building was an oven! During the message I was stumbling words and presentation equipment almost burnt out! I had never experienced this kind of heat before, but God is good and He gave me enough water and Spirit to share a message with this group, eager to hear! The sun even comes in through the door! Back in early May a coworker at the Nehemiah Center, Adrianna asked about hosting financial workshop for the churches she works with. She said since the social political crisis of last year many of the churches in her program are experience tough times earning income, and their congregations are struggling financially. A group of these churches is located in a section of Managua called Acuhualinca. This barrio is located on the northwest side of the capital city...

There have been a few struggles recruiting for the Kingdom Finance Program on site at the Nehemiah Center. So we decided to take the training on the road and partnered with a local ministry called Villa Esperanza. The director Wilbur's sister Shirley is one of our stand out graduates and he has saw the change in her lifestyle as a testimony to the the programs impact within his own family. When we met with Wilbur to pitch the program to him, I started telling him about Shirley, but I didn't know she was his sister! "Jesse, I believe you what you say about Shirley." He said with a big smile on his face, "did you know she was my sister and lives right next to me?" My eyes got wide, "No, I had no idea!" "I saw the beginning of changes in her lifestyle and I hear the way her and her husband Rodney speak about their finances now. I would like our pastors to take this course and I will take it with them!" "Ok, Wilbur let's get it on ...

A hobby of mine has always been the grill. Taking time to smoke some ribs, or roast a leg of lamb has been a joy for me to share this craft with family an friends for any reason. So when we moved to Nicaragua I couldn't take my grill with me, and I had to live a BBQ free life the first year or so. Imagine that, no BBQ? Not that Nicaraguans don't grill meat, they love to grill meat. There are people grilling meat and selling it all over, these paces are called asados. And it is very good, but there's nothing like the flavors you grew up with to make you feel comfortable and at home. So we needed a grill! When I grilled some ribs open pit style at the Nehemiah Center they were delicious and everyone gathered around and ate well. A time to get together again, and forget about the political crisis affecting our lives for a short moment. It was after this day I decided to design a barrel grill, USA style! December of 2018 I walked across the Nehemiah Center's parkin...

There was a lot of tension last year in Nicaragua. The political crisis forced many people to stay home and stay safe. It was a very tense and uncertain time. As the violence started to calm down the Nehemiah Center staff was able to come together again and get back to some good ministry work and planning for next year. North Americans volunteers started to make their way back to the country again. Some friends and I started talking about grilling some ribs before the crisis broke out, but those plans were put on hold. Now with ministry work back in action at the Nehemiah Center we decided to have some good times and reunite in the Nehemiah Center Ranchon for some good eats! Many of you know I am a grill master! So we decided to get 4 slabs of pork ribs and grill them up for everyone at the Nehemiah Center! I love the ribs here in Nicaragua, they leave so much meat on them and they are super tender and flavorful. Really, the United States needs to step up its pork farming because t...