Nicaragua/Costa Rica

Dear brothers and sisters,

Greetings in the Wonderful Name that is above every name, the precious Name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I have just returned from a two-week trip to Managua, Nicaragua and San Jose, Costa Rica. The first week I joined with a medical missions team or 21 out of my home church, Maranatha Chapel, and we set up a medical clinic near Leon, Nicaragua with the team seeing over 500 patients there. The medical team had brought with them over $500,000 in medicines that were given to people without charge. My role was to lead the evangelism team that presented the Gospel and prayed with the patients after the doctors had seen them and before they were given their prescriptions. I wish that all of you could have sat next to me and been encouraged during these one-to-one sessions as each non-Christian heard the Great News of Salvation and all but one person prayed to receive Jesus as their Savior. It was a privilege to see the transformations that took place with tears, repentance and joy with person after person who heard the message of Hope many for the first time.  During this week, I tried to arrange fro a visit to one of the prisons in Nicaragua but was unable to do so. Because of price considerations of the airfare, I had to stay an extra day in Managua prior to returning to the US but after the Costa Rica week.  Sister Maria Elena agreed to take me into a prison in Managua on that extra day.

In Costa Rica, I joined with a team of 5 other men from the US including my oldest son, Brad, who joined with me for the first time as a member of the mission’s team. You can imagine the joy of this father’s heart to have his son ministering side-by-side with him in Costa Rican prisons. The team was composed of Cook County Jail volunteers as well. The week was filled with prison ministry as we conducted 9 services within 5 prisons in 4 days. One day was dedicated to searching out a church near Quepos near the Pacific Ocean so that team member Peter Arendovich could partner with them to expand their small church by adding an addition for Sunday School. We visited San Sebastian (men), El Buen Pastor (women), La Carcel de Menores (juveniles), Puesto Diez (pre-release men) and La Reforma (maximum security men). The services were filled with joy, hope, repentance, commitments to Christ and recommitments as well. Most of the men were Christians but few of the women were. In one service, there was an especially powerful spirit of repentance and almost all of the 50 inmates gathered there were crying and sobbing before the Lord. I know that there is debate about the “slain in the spirit” phenomenon but let me tell you one young man who I was asked to pray for. His shame was so great that he covered his head with his tee shirt the entire time I prayed with him. As I prayed with him, I never touched him but he was weeping so hard with tremendous yet humble sobbing that he could not stand up and I had to hold him up when he began to fall. When we were finished, there was a great sense of fresh hope and joy in most of their hearts and they were all eager for us to return (which we did). We brought Gospels of John and Mark into the prisons with us in addition to New Testaments and Bibles. We always distribute and leave The Word when we visit the prisons.

When I returned to Managua on Saturday, Maria Elena was waiting for me and we immediately went to La Esperanza women’s prison. It wasn’t until I landed that I realized that sister Maria and her driver Pablo spoke no English and went to the prison were no one there spoke English. After a tour of the prison, they brought all the women out to the patio (about 150-200) where we had a service that I had to conduct myself entirely in Spanish. I know my limitations in this language even though a non-speaker may think I do great. I was stretched. I absolutely cannot do these things without God’s help because I feel old, tired and unable to deal with the strain, pressure and demands of leadership on these trips. Nevertheless, the Lord never fails and we always see Him do great things. Please continue to pray for us. Yesterday, I received an invitation to do the prison seminar in Malawi, Africa. To God be all the Glory.

Chaplain Rob Brown