Satisfied Wages for Nicaragua

  Valley views After four years of searching, and a full year of negotiating, we have purchased land for Avodah Farm! The property is located about thirteen miles (thirty minute drive), north of the city. The area is know as the hot lands. Where it is drier during the year and a bit warmer than the rest of the Jinotega department. The property is part of a large cattle ranch, where the family was willing to sell us a portion.  I first saw the land in the start of 2022, when Darwin and I were on our way to a community where we heard there were hard working bean farmers. We had never driven into this area before so we unknowingly took the scenic route. It was a rough and winding road. About 3 km (1.5m) in we saw a flat open grass land, with fenced off pastures. I said "Look at this land, it is beautiful! There is no one around here, not a house in sight. Is anyone selling this, at least a portion?" Then we saw some pink underwear hanging on the barbed wire, and joked about that...

I have not been able to write on this blog in the last five months. Our family has grown and with the growth come new challenges for us! The biggest challenge is managing time and returning to work in the mountains! It has been difficult to keep this blog up to date. The concept of writing doesn't seem like a hard thing to do, but it is! Especially if you are not a writer, like Jari and I.  Either way, here we are February of 2025! A month has passed already for the year and we still have some strategic planning to do. We also have to update or accounting records and budgets! Afterall, we cant teach financial stewardship classes and not practice what we preach! These are some of some of the behind the scene things that keep our ministry work in operation. We are a small operation, three people dedicated to helping the Nicaraguan Church make disciples in their communities. Sending out marketplace ministers!  I made a trip to Jinotepe to meet with our Ministerio la Semilla partn...

Resonate Global Missions has a ministry named  Cohort . Where young adults from North and Central America unite for a year to explore ministries outside of the participants cultural context, to see what God is doing in different countries. We had the oppertunity to host the cohort for a few days here in Jinotega. Darwin took them to a farmers field to hear testimony from a bean producer about our work, and how it has benefited his family.  They also came to visit us and have a talk in our local church about the larger mission we have as Satisfied Wages and DML. We read and discussed the BAM Wealth Creation Manifesto and Laussanne BAM Manifesto . These two documents are essential to our ministries foundational work here in Nicaragua, it is what we breathe! We know we are a unique ministry, focusing on the Churches role in business. It was good to be able to share and help these young adults understand the Church has a role in reclaiming the marketplace for Christ too!...

July has always been very special to Jari and I. We celebrate our wedding anniversary and our birthdays! However, we have an extra special reason for celebrations this month. We have heard good news that our family will be growing! What a great anniversary gift! We decided to take a few weeks off of ministry work this month to celebrate, far from home.  I will not be able to give specific details here on this blog about how our family is growing, but it is something we have been praying about for many years. Thanks be to God, He is answering our prayers. So, please celebrate this special month with us!  There is another Discipling Marketplace Leaders global summit scheduled to take place in November, in Ethiopia! However we will not be able to participate this time. We are sad we wont be able to see our friends and fellow workers, but we are so excited for what is to come. This was our time at the last DML summit in T anzania .  I love you Jari. I am excited to see where ...

It has finally started to rain! The rains have been good so far, and everyone is excited for their return! The El Niño effect will be leaving quickly and the meteorologists say we will be going right into La Niña. Normally, there is a two to three year normal period, but not for this cycle. This means more rain for this season, but also more possibilities for hurricanes! The farmers are excited and feel the rains are going to come nice and strong this season.  As a result we have had some good seed sales to start of the season. At first Darwin was worried about being stuck with unsold seed, so we brought a small supply up from Jinotepe. To our delight, we sold the seed in a week and had to make another trip down south to bring more up! A inconvenience, but a good one! The confidence in planting quality seed is spreading in our area. With that confidence comes more opportunities to build the faith of farmers in our Lord Jesus!  Jari and I happy to deliver free trees! We learned...

This year we have been feeling the full effects of a very strong El Niño. The pacific ocean has warmed up and the rains stopped a few months earlier. Temperatures have exceeded 35 degrees Celsius here, where it is normally 28 -30 degrees. Despite the quick onset of drought caused by El Niño, producer Jose Francisco wanted to plant corn, under irrigation. The San Gabriel river runs through his property and it flows all year long. While the levels are low because of the drought, it still has water! He is going to plant a new variety of corn we are offering in our agricultural program. We are very excited for this corn! We wanted to plant some corn ourselves in last planting cycle, but because of the drought we decided on beans.  Great management by Darwin This will be Darwin's first trial with corn, but he had the support of the agronomist team in Jinotepe to fill him in on the knowledge he needs to advise Jose Francisco. An acre of corn was planted near the river, in the middle of ...

On April 25 we concluded our Bible devotionals with a group of farmers in a community called San Marcos. We call these lessons "Cultivando Vidas" ( cultivating   lives ). The themes are:  Attitude Goals Faithfulness Friendship Family Compassion Liberty Creation Poverty This group of farmers was very firm and direct in telling us they will not "convert to our religion" as they are traditional catholic. One of the oldest farmers said he will not open his house for these lessons, but he participated in two lessons in his neighbor's house. Our response to their concern is not that they leave their churches, but allow God into their daily  lives , and work in adoration to Jesus Christ our Lord. The farmers opened the doors of their houses to receive us, and we thank God for this!  Thursday afternoons was an anxious time as we prepared for the lessons, particularly for our agronomist Darwin. The farmers are older than him, and he walked a line of respecting his elders...

We have our second induction seminar for new producers! This time it is being held at a coffee roasting business. A much better suited environment as the venue also purchases coffee from producers and the owner is a coffee farmer.  Jari is welcoming our guests! We had eleven new producer finish the seminar! A good number considering there were a few who came to the make up days. One farmer came in by bus over 40 km away, not an easy task to complete considering the roads. We also had the chance to share our experience with a visitor from the Nehemiah Center. Jinnet. She stayed with us to spend the week learning about our ministry and work with farmers.  Jinnet sharing her experience cooking our beans Everyone in line to try a sample of beans to eat! Our seminar last four days, form 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. The subjects include who are we, what is good seed, and of course budgeting and technical assistance. We have reached three different regions of Jinotega, all with slightly differe...

 We were invited by Dra. Gabriela Tijerina Pike from Calvin Seminary to teach DML online through the  Christian Leaders Institute.  This is my first time teaching a course online. We decided to teach our Church Based Business as Mission course. It is going to be challenging as we do not have all the material we need to teach the course in translated to Spanish. This shouldn't slow us too much, because the class is only one session a month, all year long! This gives us plenty of time to translate the lessons as we move along in the course. There are always some problems with translating, and Jari is the head translator for this material. She will be borrowing from a lot of the things we already have in Spanish to help speed up this process. Will get to see how this course develops over time.  We have online lessons from DML president, Dr. Renita Reed-Thomson and board chair, Dr. Phillip Walker. These videos will need an audio dub in Spanish, which costs a lot of mone...

 January 12 - 15 we harvested our third crop of beans! This time we earned a profit, despite a flooded field then a drought for the last part of the growing cycle!  Jari enjoying our progress The oppertunity came up for us to be able to plant a whole manzana (1.7 acres) of land for free! A friend loaned us some land he was not using while waiting to start some construction. We planned on planting corn, because we did not have personal experience with some of the varieties we have available for farmers in our program. However, as the rains for the second planting cycle delayed, we needed to change our crop options. Corn requires a lot of water, and the growing season is longer, around 100 days. In average years the rains would start in September, but October was already starting, and there was still no rain! We called an irrigation company for an assessment of the well on the property. They said the well was shallow, and they warned us with the current lack of rainfall we could...

The week in between Christmas and New Year was always a traditional vacation time for me. I would get the week off when I used to work in the tool and die shops as a young man. This is when the car factories would shut down production and so we would also get the week off in the die shops. When I moved to office work in finance, I would save vacations days to carry on this work tradition. Then I gave my life to God, and the vacation time had a better meaning for me. It was always about family time. I would visit my grandma, aunts, hangout with cousins, good times just being together. In the last few years here in Jinotega, I have not been able , or perhaps even forgot about my traditional vacation week. I am always working in our business/ministry and preparing for the next month! Until this year! I am tired, and so I took the week off, like I used to! Signage to Oscar's Rosquilla shop I visited my friend pastor Oscar in Somoto. He showed us his new location for his cajeta making b...

I think this is my first blog about baptisms! There have been a good amount of baptisms happening around us since we arrived to Nicaragua, I've just never written about the event. Our first Nicaraguan baptisms happened in a church we congregated at in Managua back in 2017. Then a few more over the years. This time, these baptisms felt a little different, they were done in the mountains here in Jinotega, with a lot of men being baptized. We have a shortage of men giving their lives to Christ in Nicaragua. This is evident in the society and the Nicaraguan church. Many events we used to put on and participate in at the Nehemiah Center where attended mostly by women. Especially when it concerned family themed events. This always made me ask the question of, where our the men? How do I get expend my brotherhood? So this day of baptisms was special, as our efforts teaching work as worship to God are being rewarded!  This group was from the Verbo house churches were are loosely affiliated...

I met a man from Colorado who was visiting another ministry in Jinotega. He wanted to see some crops growing so we went to visit our plot of beans. He gave me a small package of a product called Nurtishield, from a company named Soruba. He told me this product was full of bacteria that will help the plant process nitrogen and carbon from the soil. I thanked him for the product and assured him we will try it in our next planting cycle.  He traveled back to Colorado, and then sent an email introducing me to the rest of the Soruba team. We had a few video calls and they told us about a latrine toilet treatment they are developing too. They have not been able to test it to full scale in the United States because latrines, are not used anymore in the USA, except for a few campgrounds. They asked if we would be interested in helping them test and study the product here in Nicaragua. The latrine product will reduce odors, organic waste mass and also help reduce or eliminate pathogens and ...