Vacation Bible School

Thrive Church hosted two VBS's during the week. The local public school was on a two week break, and all the students came to school during their time off to enjoy all of the fun games and activities. The second VBS was at a local church we support in our barrio. The children were able to participate in arts and crafts, play games, and broke a pinata at the conclusion. As always, each child received a Salvation bracelet as the Gospel was shared.

WE FINALLY DID IT!!!! THRIVE CHURCH - JULY 2019

After ten years of construction, we were finally able to host our mission team ON OUR MISSION FARM. Over the past ten years, teams stayed at the local hotel in town. It was always our dream to be able to host teams on our own property, and this year our labor of love came to fruition. We always knew that our HOME church should be the first team to stay with us, and in July that happened. Here are some pictures of the amazing team from THRIVE CHURCH, Winter Haven, Florida.

It's been a long time...

It has been quite awhile since I posted. 2018 brought numerous challenges and heartbreaks. I lost both my mother and oldest brother, had two foot surgeries, then Steve had a close call and ultimately ended up with a defibrillator pacemaker. 2018 also brought civil unrest to Nicaragua, which forced us to cancel our mission teams. Through it all, the anchor holds.

Without having groups, we were able to do more construction than ever before. We are very excited to announce that for the first time, we can start hosting the mission groups ON OUR MISSION FARM instead of the local hotel. It has been a labor of love for the past ten years, as we have watched our dream come to fruition. Being self-funded missionaries we had to go through a lot of trial and error, but in the end, we are ready!

This July, we will be hosting our HOME church. It was always my desire to have my home church to be the FIRST group to stay on site. (partly because if something goes wrong, they will be likely to extend more GRACE...hee hee) Stay tuned for more details and photos...

Hebrews 6:18-19 (NIV)

18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain...

Summer Missions 2018

It's that time! The time to announce this summer's mission teams. Our first group is coming from Davie, Florida. This will be their third time doing missions in our little town of Nagarote, Nicaragua. We are so excited to have this amazing group return once again. As one of their profile pics claim, Jesus Changes Everything! We couldn't agree more! 

The second group and first time visitors to Nagarote is Iglesia de Dios Pentacostal from South Lake Wales, Florida. The exciting thing about this group is it is a Latino church. That means fluent Spanish for everyone. We are really looking forward to hosting Pastors Wilfredo and Diana Perez and their mission team. 

For the love of God...and music!

Steve has always had a desire to better equip each church with music. Often we have gone to a local service where they were singing without any instruments or very little. Over the years, he has outfitted some churches from everything from the microphones to drum sets. On this trip, we attended a service where singing and clapping was the way of worship. By the end of the service, the pastor was literally hoarse and almost without a voice from singing and preaching without a microphone. Both Larry and Steve donated their guitars to Pastor Wilmer's church, and Thrive Church donated a keyboard, microphones, and cords to support this church in their music ministry.

Womens' Conference - July 2017

While the men are away leading the pastors' conference, the women on the mission team are leading a women's event. During this conference, Yvette Maynard, our home church pastor's wife, shared her heart and created a beautiful day for these women. The focus was loving ourselves and seeing ourselves as God sees us. The workshop included a Bible devotion, several arts and crafts, a time to share, and a meal. (the one male in the photo was the interpreter)

Preaching and Teaching - July 2017

After the first few times we hosted mission teams in Nicaragua, I turned to the local pastors and asked them what our teams should and could do to help them and the people of Nicaragua. Often, as North Americans, we go to a third world country and decide what WE think they need. After speaking with several pastors, they ALL said they would like to receive more training to better serve their own churches. Out of the seven pastors we spoke with, only one had received any formal training and seminary. We decided that pastor trainings and conferences should be at the center of all of our mission team agendas. On this trip, our own home church pastor, Bobby Maynard, conducted a few day training with a group of local pastors and leaders. The picture below is from the night he went on to preach at a local service.