Nicaragua, United StatesNovember 15, 2006 9:18 pm

People In Hell Want Ice Water

yard

That’s what my mother used to say to me when I asked for something silly, self-indulgent or unattainable. I imagine that’s the essense of the response to the request for clean water by the inmates of a thrird-world prison too. Although it’s not silly, or self-indulgent, it is sometimes unattainable.purifier1

We attended a conference last week, learning how to install the McGuire Water Purification system and how it can be used in short term missions. It is fairly simple to install, but requires a fair level of commitment from the end users to keep it in operation.

In most of the places we go on our missions and indeed, most of the world, pure water is in short supply and high demand. In fact, most deaths in the world today are due to water-borne pathogens. That fact makes this purifier a great way to minister to people and introduce them to the gospel.

foodprep

A case in point is the project we will do in February - installing a system in Esteli prison in Nicaragua. There are 650 people in this prison. Check out some of the conditions in these pictures. In Nicaragua, the prison system spends about $1 a day per prisoner to house, feed and guard them. The federal government simply will not do anymore because anyone with any resources at all has paid their bribes and avoided prison. When at all possible, the prisoner’s families come each day to bring them food, clothes and clean water. If they have no family, they only have what is provided which is less than…uh….sanitary. (Of course if they had family, they would pay to get them out!)

tanks

Speaking of hell…(we were, weren’t we?)….because we are willing to do this, the warden will give us full and complete access to the prison to preach, teach and share our faith with the men there. You can read about how this project came about in the previous post.

What we plan to do is plumb the kitchen with purified water and build a water bottle fill station. This way, the drinking water and water used to make juice and drinks will be sanitary as will food washed during preparation. Our plumber will survey the rest of the system to determine what repairs are needed and we will return perhaps in July or later to make repairs to the rest of the system supplying the restrooms and “dorms”.

washroom

We will buy the supplies and supervise, and the inmates will supply the labor. We’re going to need about $2500 to complete this phase of the project. Someone has donated the purifier to us, and everyone installing the system and ministering will be paying their own way.

If you can help out with this project, or would like to go with us, give me a call or email me. Donations are tax deductible.

 

 

Terry Steiden
502-836-9201
tsteiden@insightbb.com

 

BTW - I don’t believe people in Hell want ice water. I think they just want OUT. That’s not up to us, but we have an opportunity and obligation to tell people how to avoid it in the first place.

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Nicaragua, United StatesNovember 3, 2006 8:29 pm

Something Old, Something New

benjaminWe are well into planning our February Medical Mission to Nicaragua. We had originally planned on going to Honduras, but the fares for flights were really high, so we’re going instead to a town called Riva near the Costa Rican border. You can read all about the plans here. You can see Rivas HERE, Look at Rivas weather HERE and see a map HERE.

We’ve already applied for and been approved to get the medicines we need, about 7 people have signed on from Forest Park and we’ve made at least one trip already to pick up supplies.

In the process of all the planning I got a call about another mission opportunity which you can read about below. Consider these opportunities and send in your $100 deposit soon - it’s going to be a blessed time .

Please take just a few minutes to read this story – it might be important to you.

A friend of mine named Mark Hogg…yeah, it really is…is involved in several types of mission work in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and in Romania. One of the projects he does as a mission is install water purification systems.purewater

Believe it or not, poor quality water is responsible for most of the death in the world today via water-borne pathogens. The system he installs actually purifies existing water sources. You can read all about it here if you like.

Anyway, a full time missionary from Costa Rica contacted him recently about the need for a water purification system in a prison in which he ministers in Esteli, Nicaragua. Here is the email I got from Mark:

Hope all is well with you.
Need to chat with you and Ronnie. Got a bit of a problem and need some serious help.
There is a Nicaraguan prison 2 hours north of Managua.
600 people drinking some really nasty water.
Big problems.

You think your church would be interested in EDGE training some people in the water and tank plumbing set up and send some folks down there? Perhaps couple it with one of your other trips. We don’t have the manpower right now.

HUGE ministry opportunities down there at the prison - open to anything while you are installing the system.
Vernon Hodge is on the board of a ministry down there that brought in a REC in the prison.
I met with a guy in Costa Rica last week we’ve been working with who goes there about 1x/month.
The ministry is Food for the Hungry and is world wide.
He is getting panicked for the water needs there.

Our water conference would be a perfect place for some of your folk to learn how to do the water purification ministry.
More on that and a 12 page document we wrote for water ministry www.edgeoutreach.com

Thanks for your time.
Let me know what you think.
I don’t have Ronnie’s email - could you forward this to him.

Blessings,
Mark Hogg
EDGE OUTREACH

It just happened that I got this email the night of our men’s dinner at church and I was scheduled to speak about our recent mission to Honduras as well as international missions in general.

I mentioned the opportunity at the dinner with no particular plan for actually doing it. I was just gauging interest. 4 men expressed a great desire to work on the project. Well,… I guess I would make 5. My son, Dallas, was so convicted to go, that even though he will be living in Flint, Michigan by then, he made arrangements to take off from a job he hasn’t started yet to go.

First priority for me, however, is our medical clinic in February. Logistically, it’s already pretty daunting – we have to get everyone’s license, get medicines donated, collected, inventoried and packed, get tickets, etc., so adding another component like this would be really challenging.

We had planned on going to Honduras this year instead of Nicaragua to do our clinic. We even had the cities already identified. Here’s the info sheet I did for the trip: http://home.insightbb.com/~tsteiden/PDFS/2-17-07.pdf

So, to do the water project we would have to drive 4 hours to cross the border into Nicaragua (after completing the week of clinics), drive another 5 or 6 hours to pick up the rest of the team in Managua, then drive another 3 to 4 hours to Esteli to do the project. Of course, some of us would have to go back to Tegicigalpa to go home from Honduras and the rest leave from Managua once we completed the project.

As we started lining up flights to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, however, the cost of tickets came in $200 higher than the same tickets we had just bought in September! We tried every way to get cheaper flights, but we could not find them.

We then decided to see what flights to Nicaragua would cost. They turned out to be almost $100 less than we had ever paid before. Well, I might be dumb, but I’m not stupid – we’re going to Nicaragua. That cleans up some logistics considerably.

To make things even easier, we’re going to a town called “Rivas” which is south of Managua, just across the border from Costa Rica which is where the missionary from Costa Rica will be coming from as he heads to the project in Esteli.

All that was really left to do was make arrangements for transportation, lodging, food, etc. for that week, so, I sent an email to everyone involved letting them know I would get back to them once I got more info. I got this email in reply from someone I have never met:

Dear Terry —
I am a missionary in Nicaragua (also) and am on the NPMI (prison ministry) Board. I would be glad to take care of your transportation and lodging for the water project. I went with Scott to the prison in Esteli last week, just in case I could be of service to you. So I now know the players there. I can translate for you, or arrange translation. I can also set you up with lodging if you can let me know how many are coming and for what time period. In fact, someone who works with me (his name is Gabriel) checked out lodging possibilities for you this past weekend, and he has connections with someone who owns a house that they rent out by the month, but for only U$50!! It’s a nice place (I will go and make sure before you come down), has a kitchen, and if you need someone to cook for you, we can arrange that. [Rafael, the head of all the prison doctors] suggested a place for you to stay while we were visiting, but Gabriel told me it’s “not adequate for Northamericans.” So he went this weekend to find some alternatives for you.]
Let me know if you’d like me to take further action, make reservations, etc. I want to go to the prison with some wood for their carpentry shop before I go on vacation (Nov. 14-Dec. 13), so if you can get back to me within the next week or so, I can get everything set up for you now.
Thanks for being in touch.

Que Dios les bendiga.
Cheryl Avery

At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, I asked you to read this story because sprinkled throughout, it appears to me that God is directing people, resources and events to accomplish this work. Why? I don’t know - but I intend to find out by being available and I want you to have the same opportunity. A great man of God once told me “if you want to find God, go to where he’s working and just hang around – he’ll find you”.

The trip will cost you about $1250. I’ll have to have a $100 deposit by 11/26, the balance of the flight money ($750) by 1/5 and the rest by 2/8. This will take care of all your expenses except a meal or 2 out.

If you are already going on the medical trip with us (2/17 to 2/24) and just want to stay on for the water project, just add another $400 or so.

The trip will be from Saturday, 2/24 to Saturday, 3/3

Email me to let me know that you want to go, or to put you on the email list for this project if you aren’t ready to commit yet. I’ll keep you up to date with the planning.

If you’d like to contribute, I’ll be glad to talk to you about that too – we’ll have to buy some equipment and supplies.

If you’ve gotten this far and want to know more, here’s the rest of the story up to today. Things are moving quickly.

The Costa Rican missionary has been to the prison in Esteli to do a water survey. It revealed that the water used in the kitchen is in good shape, but water being pumped out to other areas (for drinking and washing) is highly contaminated.

This is probably due to the fact that the water lines run through areas where they are exposed to sewage in ditches as well as contamination from sewage saturated ground water. (There is no freeze danger, so water lines can be run above ground, on the ground or just below the surface – they don’t have to be below the freeze line).

When power goes down (as it is does a regular basis), the pumps shut down, pressure is lost on the pipes and the contaminated water can seep in.

Therefore, we need only treat the drinking water at the building(s) where it will be used, not the whole system. (I guess it is not feasible to replace the whole piping system).

I am scheduled to attend a training seminar on November 8, 9 and 10 to learn how to construct and install the system and a team in Nicaragua is photographing the site so we can get an idea of how the system needs to be constructed when we arrive. You can see some pictures of what the system looks like here.

I’ll get back to those of you who contact me. Feel free to pass this on to anyone else you think might be interested

Terry Steiden
502-836-9201
tsteiden@insightbb.com

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United StatesJuly 5, 2006 2:20 pm

New Orleans Youth Mission

The youth group spent the past week in New Orleans cleaning up from Hurricane Katrina. Mike and Susan Luka rented a van and took 15 teens and a bunch of tools. Susan says:

Everybody!
 Michael and I are back from New Orleans! We got back Saturday around 7PM.
Thank you to all those who were praying for us. We could feel those prayers and we had each request answered by God! He gave us safe travel there and back. God gave us safe travel while we were there. The Lord kept us drivers sane and focused! The Lord worked on all our hearts and did a lot of transforming! The trip was truly amazing.
I encourage all of you to try to make it down there just once in the next 6 years. There is so much work to be done. We went through an organization called CrossRoad Missions. All they ask is $100 per person coming. Which is amazing, because that is your meals, lodging, tools for work! You just have to provide transportation to and from sites for you people! I recommend them. For now, they are gutting houses, but soon they will also have a rebuilding division where people can come and rebuild someone’s home.
I went in, wishing we could have gone Mississippi instead. In fact, both need us. However, I am glad God opened up New Orleans for us because it dispersed a lot of my prejudices against them. They are just people there too. They are known for many bad things, but they are people just like the rest of us who have gone through a disaster. Many still have no power. Where we stayed we had no AC, just a generator that was able to run AC window units and a fan. Across the street many bigger businesses had power, but our side of the street had none, unless you had a generator.
The homeowners were wonderful and brought so much clarity to our lives! We were able to gut 3 houses that week. Our group came in second out of all the groups that have been there. The only other group that had the highest amount of gutted houses in a week was 5 houses. We did really well and our team (us and another church) really got to see the power of Christ work in us in very rough situations! We had to wear long sleeves and jeans and shoes. We had to wear the respirator that takes up practically your entire face. All this had to be done in 102 weather and 80-90%humidity. In all that, we sweated like pigs, but were able to see what the power of God can do do through earthen vessels! It was a marvel to watch!
We hated leaving. We wanted to just keep gutting houses and work with those precious homeowners! Know this above all. God was glorified and God has a plan for the people of New Orleans. "What was meant for evil, God will mean for Good"! I trust that. There is a lot of good being done there. Don’t give up on them just because of what they are known for. Instead pray for revival and hope to be brought there! God will hear and answer!
We love you all and can’t thank you enough for your prayers. To those who supported a teen going financially, thank you from the bottom of our hearts! Your financial gift brought blessings into a life of a teen that you can never imagine that it would bring! Thank you to all of you. We love you and we look forward to going back next summer!
Love you all!

NChrist, Susan
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Nicaragua, United StatesFebruary 18, 2006 8:53 pm

Travel Day

Prelude

On Thursday, 2 days before our scheduled departure for the medical mission, I received an email from Terry Dupont, our missionary host in Nicaragua. He had met with MINSA, The Nicaraguan Ministry of Health (Ministerio De Salud), who had informed him that we could bring in no drug that was less than 6 months from expiration.

doh

The reason we are able to have so many drugs available to us at very little or no cost is that they are nearing expiration and we take delivery just weeks before leaving the country with them. 75% of the drugs we packed weeks earlier did indeed have less than 6 months before expiring.

About expiration dates; drugs are required to have an expiration date by the FDA. This is the date that the manufacturer will guarantee absolute, 100% full potency and safety of the drug. A study by the FDA, however concluded that most drugs are perfectly safe and retain their potency even 15 years after their expiration date. There are some exceptions, of course, for specific drugs like tetracycline, but we didn’t take any of those.

So, with our drugs already in the hands of the travelers, spread out over 2 states and with just 2 days left before departure, there was no way to get together and pull out the medicines with the offending expiration dates. I wrote our host and told him of our situation and that we would just take our chances at customs. The worst that could happen would be that all of our medicines would be confiscated at customs which would shut down our clinic. Leaving behind 75% of our medicines would have the same effect, so we became smugglers or humanitarians depending upon your point of view.

Departure and Arrival

On Saturday, 2/18 we began meeting at the airport at 1:00 PM for a 3:00 flight, but as the first few people arrived, we were confronted with new problems – some of our totes full of drugs were over the 50 pound limit.

We began shifting drugs around between totes to keep each one under the limit. Right in the ticket line, bottles and packages of drugs were all over the ground being moved about, weighed, moved and re-weighed. The agents were strict about the weight limit – we were not even allowed ½ pound over. In the end, we spent over $500 in excess weight charges to save leaving behind many hundreds of dollars worth of medicines. Of course it may have been money wasted if all the drugs were to be confiscated upon our arrival.

We finally boarded our flight to Houston after a short delay in loading luggage. However, upon lifting off, we were confronted with strong headwinds and our flight was late in arriving. So late, in fact, that our plane to Managua was held for us at the gate as we raced through the airport. (We’re 45 minutes late).

We board the plane, but the captain announces we are overweight and must de-board some passengers and luggage. We finally take off and wave good bye to some of our totes sitting on the tarmac. (We’re 75 minutes late) Strong headwinds again, but we finally arrive in Managua. (Now we’re almost 2 hours late)

In customs I hand over our drug inventory (which does not include expiration dates) to the MINSA representative who says thank you and disappears. There are no inspectors on duty, no one at the exit to conduct random luggage inspections… we simply walk out into the Managua night with all our totes, still sealed, never even noticed. It’s as if some Jedi Knight waved his hand and said “these drugs are OK, let them through”. Should I have expected any less?

We will later receive a call from MINSA asking us to turn in all of the Flucanazole tabs . No reason given and we will ask no questions. 4 totes did not come in, but we have everything we need to start our clinics without delay.

There is excitement on the bus as we travel 90 minutes in the darkness to the missionary’s home in Leon. There are several who have not been here before, a couple who have never been out of the country before and at least one of us has never before flown. The rest of us, knowing something of what to expect, are anxious to get organized and on with the task at hand. The foreign sights, sounds and smells all around us elicit a heightened awareness of our surroundings, nostalgia for some, a comfortable familiarity for others, and all in all, a feeling of anticipation.

We finally arrive, make introductions all around, find our beds and drift off. 18 hours ago we left snow on the ground and now we are turning on fans trying not to stick to the sheets from sweat. What an amazing world.

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Nicaragua, United StatesFebruary 2, 2006 8:05 pm

Nicaragua - We Are Ready

totes

Well, the missionaries and others all gathered at Forest Park last Saturday and packed drugs for the clinics in Nicaragua February 18th to 25th, 2 weeks from now.

$120,000 worth of drugs and supplies and we packed it all in 15 Rubbermaid totes. No wonder health care is so expensive. There is no way the people in the towns of Somoto and Sebaco, where we will be ministering, could afford these medicines any other way. Our Optometrist, Dr. Scott Denison is also bringing 300 or so pairs of eyeglasses. I wish you could see peoples faces as they are able to read again after years of failing eyesight.

Our plane leaves Saturday, 2/18/06 at 3:05 PM. If you can come out, we’ll be checking in at around 1:PM and we’d love to have your prayers and good wishes as we leave (you can also help carry some totes!).

If you will send me your email address, I will send you updates as I can while we are in Nicaragua. However, we will be staying in a hotel in the town of Esteli during the clinics to avoid having to travel a long distance home each evening afterwards. So, unless I can find an internet cafe, updates may have to wait until Thursday night.

Forest Park conducts a medical clinic every year in Nicaragua. Every year medical people of great skill, ministers of the gospel, people willing to give and people willing to go all combine to be Jesus to a people in need. If you have not yet participated on a short term mission, seek the Lord’s will for you and then see me! He’ll give you the will - I’ll get you the ticket!

It will be a blessing to them and an honor for us to go in the name of Christ with healing in our hands and on our lips.

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Nicaragua, United StatesDecember 22, 2005 7:42 pm

February Medical Mission - Preparations

nicamap
Click the picture above for a larger map. We’re going to Estili, Sebaco and Somoto to set up clinics. All 3 towns are in the Northeastern part of the country, fairly close to Honduras. We will fly into Managua (near Lake Managua) then take a bus north to our hosts home in Leon.

We are already getting in medicines and equipment for February’s mission trip to Nicaragua. King Benevolent Fund is our largest contributor with over $100,000 worth of medicines donated on our last trip. Others have brought vitamins (very expensive in Nicaragua), antibiotics and some medical equipment.

Open Eyes Ministries in Central America are our hosts and they do a great job of handling the logistics of the trips - lodging, food, transportation and opportunities to impact lives and share our faith.

Read about our last mission trip here: 1, 2, 3, and 4, do a google search on Nicaragua and see if the Lord speaks to you as you learn about this great country in great need that has opened it’s arms to Forest Park.

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United StatesOctober 25, 2005 7:18 pm

Katrina Relief Mission

Jerry and Kay

The North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Church operates one of the largest relief organizations in the country. Some of our members have attended training to provide services in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama in the Hurricane Katrina relief operations.

Recently, on just 2 days notice, 2 of our members, Jerry and Kay Schooling were ready to give up some vacation time to help others - here is their report;

Jerry and I recently went to Biloxi, Mississippi to help out with disaster relief due to Hurricane Katrina.

We went through the KY Baptist Convention’s Disaster Relief training program and were ready to go anywhere and to do anything we were called upon to do. A week later, we were on the road to Biloxi with a “mud-out” team made up of folks from Jeffersontown Baptist Church, Farmdale Baptist, Southeast Christian, Simpsonville Baptist Church, and Jerry and I from Forest Park.

We really didn’t know what to expect when we got there. Since we were novices, we didn’t know what we would be doing other than cleaning houses. Well we found out quickly, that just about whatever the homeowner needed we would do, from chainsaw work, hauling limbs and debris, tarping roofs, tearing out drywall, paneling and insulation to power washing, and bleaching walls and floors.

Biloxi

We also talked, hugged, cried and prayed with the owners. I must say that we received more blessings from this experience than the homeowner did, but they would probably disagree.

I encourage anyone who would like to assist with disaster relief to contact the KY Baptist Convention’s Disaster Relief office here in Louisville, or contact Jerry or myself and we can get you the contact numbers.

There is plenty of need in the world, whether it’s in Nicaragua, Malawai, or here in the USA. Just ask God where he can send you. I definitely would like to go again, and hope you can too. It truly was a blessing.

A saying I recently read said “Work for the Lord – the retirement is out of this world!”

Check out a group photo on our Groups Page

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United StatesJuly 7, 2005 7:05 pm

September Mission

Our September mission has revised dates! The new dates are - September 3 through 11. That’s right, an extra day at no extra charge!!!! This makes our trip Saturday through Sunday.

Deadline for deposits is this coming Sunday, July 10th, then ticket money must be in 2 weeks after that (total of $750).

The town where we will build is called Cruz de Zapata or “Cross of Zapata”. There is no other protestant church in the town now - only a Roman Catholic.

This is about where we will be building the church. *CLICK*

Zoom out to get a better idea of where this is in relation to the rest of the country. If you click the “map” tab, you’ll see the borders of Nicaragua and the rest of central America

There are plenty of opportunities for evangelism also for those not actually working on the building.

There is still time to get in on this trip if you sign up right away.

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