Satisfied Wages for Nicaragua

There is a change in our method of working with businesses in Nicaragua than when we first arrived in 2016. It is easier to explain this difference with a story! Five years ago I started working with the Association of Christian Entrepreneurs of Nicaragua, (AECNIC). An association started out of the Nehemiah Center. You can read about this association in older blog posts. (I don't know why the pictures do not show up anymore, blogger website problem?) I spent a lot of time mentoring the business owners who made up the board of directors for the association. Hours were spent helping these individuals get a stronger accounting system and flow process in their businesses. I loved working with all of them. Their positive attitudes and faith was, and still is, inspiring today.  In 2018, Nicaragua went through its political crisis. During those months many businesses were hurting and barely surviving. I met with Erica* to see how she was coping with the crisis we were all living through....

It has been a while since I have posted to our blog. I can only say, weeks pass so quickly, even when you are living in a slower culture! There has been a lot of small, detail work that has been going in the start of year 2022. Most of it having to do with editing and prepping our Discipling Marketplace Leaders materials. We had workshops planned with a small church denomination for the beginning of March, but there were troubles confirming the day for our two day foundational workshop. Coordinating two different churches, in different towns to attend the same event is challenging.  We decided to have a special time in a Bible devotional for the two pastors and some of their leaders and businessowners. The church's treasurer invited us to a small cabin he has in the mountain. A great place for these pastors to get out of town and breathe some cool fresh air and set some dates!  Learning about Lidia, the businesswoman We dedicated some time reading about the business woman Lidi...

When Abram heard that  his  relative had been taken captive, he  led out his trained men,  born in his house, three hundred and eighteen, and went in pursuit as far as  Dan. - Gen 14:14 This is a short verse in Genesis that describes the size of Abraham's household. He had 318 trained men, born in his household, to fight as soldiers! That is a big family! When I read about this verse and its significance towards business in a book by Dave Kahle, "The Good Book on Business" it illustrated the size of Abraham's household, or business as the book explains. If there were 318 trained men to fight, born in Abraham's household, how many more people where part of his household. The families of those men. The cooks to prepare food for them. The care takers of the cattle those men were responsible to protect, and on and on!  A huge enterprise! I have used this example as an illustration of business in the Bible to coach pastors and entrepreneurs in our mini...

 It is coffee season here in Jinotega! The city streets have filled with people who work in the coffee industry again. The season lasts from November through January, but December is peak time. Coffee is one of the top exports, so the industry employs a lot of people here in the mountains.  In the past year I have learned so much about coffee and its economy living here, and have learned to appreciate the sweet smelling, brown drink that is in my cup every morning. From planting coffee seedlings on steep mountain sides to roasting 50 pound sacks of beans, there is a lot of hard work being done. Jari and I are spoiled by great cups of coffee everywhere we go! I never thought I would write a sentence like that, I didn't even drink coffee while I lived in the USA. It was too bitter and didn't taste good at all! However, Nicaraguan coffee is smooth and sweet!  Coffee Plants at our favorite farm On the farm we frequently visit, we have been able to see the changes in plants, c...

 Nicaraguan's trust in the Church!  A recent article came out in the press here in Nicaragua. It headlines caught my attention, as it read "Nicaraguans put their trust in the church above any other institution."  Here is an excerpt from the news article: The church is the most trusted institution in Nicaragua, according to the Latinobarometro 2021 report. The Latin Barometer measures the level of trust of institutions in 18 Latin American countries The church: The region's trust in the church reached 61 percent in 2020, the report indicates. However, the church reached its highest level of trust in 2000, (77%) to fall in 2017 to its lowest level of confidence with 58 percent, in a fluctuation of 19 percentage points in 25 years of measurements.  For us working with businesses through the church this is great confirmation for what we already believe as a ministry. The Church is the crucial element in society for economic, social, missional and...

  Cerro  Cubulcán   One of the things we enjoy about living in the northern part of Nicaragua, apart from the cooler temperatures and the beautiful mountain views, is that we are able to see pine trees right outside our backyard. They are on a small hill called el Cubulcán, behind our house. We have climbed this hill several times by ourselves and with friends and its one of the few places within the city of Jinotega where there are still pine trees left. It reminds us of Michigan. Recently we learned that there are oaks trees here in Nicaragua, in Spanish these are called Robles. So far, we have only seen oaks and pines in a few places, sadly many have been cut down for “leña”  or firewood, and very few, if any are replanted. One day we traveled past a small town called San Rafael del Norte. We stopped to have lunch at a diner on the side of the road, behind the diner was an opened field with many pine trees, after our meal we went for a walk around the property. Je...

We finally did it! The Discipling Marketplace Leaders training and workshop materials have been translated from English into Spanish! Yes! Thank you to all our prayer partners who helped us stay motivated and determined to see the work get done! Thanks to our friends in Michigan who helped us with the translation work! A special thank you to my wonderful and hard working wife Jari! She has spent many hours working on power points and revising the translations that we have received from our team.  Since we are not translators this task took almost six months, but we were able to get the foundational materials done. This sets us up to start planning dates for our awareness conferences. We will start with the churches and pastors we have build relationships with in our finance ministry using Buen Sentido. A good personal financial foundation allows a person to build a God honoring business.  In a few weeks we will set up a small review workshop with friends here in Jinotega to ge...