Table of Contents
1) Project Ezra Final Numbers
2) Are We Bearing Fruit?
3) Lamb Bleatings
4) Nicaragua March Trip
5) Bagby Bunch Corner
6) Coffee Sale Link & Donations
Project Ezra 2008
Final Numbers
· 17 communities along the Rio Coco;
· 2487 Students grades kinder thru 8th
· 93% passing rate!
This is one of the best years
we have ever had!
Are We Bearing Fruit ?
By Michael Bagby
As we begin a new year, it is very natural that we reflect on the “old years”. As one famous historian said, “If we don’t remember the past, we are condemned to repeating its mistakes” (or something like that!)
It all began as an adventure into the unknown- literally.
In 1984, we saw a need with refugees from Nicaragua living in the outback of Honduras, and we responded. That effort in itself would be enough for a Hollywood movie. During that response, God nudged us into beginning a school project (1986), and then a few years later into an adult literacy education program (1989), pastoral training (1991), Miskito language Bible curriculum (1994), a study tour to Israel (1997), which led to more study tours to Israel, Greece, Turkey, and Italy (1999 - 2008).
Along the way, we wrote and published a book, Just Another Lump of Clay (1995) and another, Living in the Spiritual World (2004), and began work on a third, Echoes into Eternity.
In the process, I acquired a wife, along with four children, met all of you who are reading this, and formed relationships that will last for eternity.
So which is the most significant achievement?
I spoke with Truman and Danilo a few days ago. Truman was measuring the offices for doors in the Waspam Center. He is preparing for the moving of our offices there soon. He is thrilled about finally seeing the completion to this seven-year-long project. I am too!
They were also very excited about a youth conference which had occurred a few weeks earlier, and the statistics from our final exams for the 2008 school year. It seems that Seek The Lamb has been expanding the teaching, pastoral training, and discipleship ministry along the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua. Rather I should say that God has been providing the opportunities, and our leaders in Nicaragua have been responding. It has not been at my urging, but rather their planning.
There was a conference in February, another in May, one in September, and finally this one in December where Danilo, Onofre, and many of our teachers have been involved in sharing Bible lessons, and personal discipleship. They have participated in baptisms, marriages, and generally promoting true Christian living in the communities along the Rio Coco.
They told me about their plans for these conferences, and a few times asked me for fuel money, and food for pastors and teachers. They did it on their own. They came up with the lessons, as God provided the opportunity. It made me very proud to be their ministry partner.
Danilo was also excited about the success of the 2008 school year. After tallying the final exams, Project Ezra students had a 93% passing rate! That is one of the best we have ever seen since working with the Nicaraguan Ministry of Education, teaching their curriculum, (along with our Bible lessons), and being evaluated according to Nicaraguan national standards. Obviously we have a lot of room for improvement when it comes to things that American education takes for granted, but we have made marked improvements in our teacher’s abilities to teach, as well as our students’ academic achievement.
Even more remarkable is the apparent growth in the spiritual lives of our teachers, many of whom are actively pastoring churches, teaching Sunday school classes, and leading youth group activities. There are many things that slip by me in Miskito culture, but I have noticed more and more of our teachers who have actually “gotten it” when it comes to the concept of a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. It is a great joy to realize that most of these are our former first grade students who had our Miskito Bible lessons in the 90’s, and now have returned to the river to teach the Bible!
Jesus said that: “You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. John 15:16
The key phrase here is “Lasting Fruit”. Jesus wants us to work for eternal purposes, and be in the “fruit production” business for the long haul.
Visalia Espinoza was a 7 year old when I first photographed her in 1989.
I took her picture as part of our Child Sponsorship program. We needed people praying for and supporting our students.
A couple from Mission Viejo California, Partick and Lisa O’Conner, sponsored Visalia. They sent us $21 a month, which covered her education expenses, and prayed for her on a regular basis.
She was a good student. She worked hard and graduated from our 6th grade.
She was able to go upriver to Waspam, where she attended secondary school. I lost track of her for a few years.
Then her name appeared on a roster of our teachers in 2001. She was teaching in Sihran, a few miles downriver from her home in Sawa.
Visalia was on staff with Eberto, Beres and Brenes, all of our former students. There are at last count 43 of those little guys that I photographed in the 80’s and early 90’s that are now teaching Project Ezra classes.
It was such a great pleasure for me to visit that school, and see our former students now at the head of the class, teaching all the subjects. I was especially happy to see them teaching the Bible.
Visalia eventually married, and now has a baby. Her husband does not want her to work, but rather stay home and care for the child.
She lives in Waspam, and Truman frequently sees her. When I asked him about her a few months ago, he said “Yes Maik, I spoke with Visalia a few days ago. I asked her to come back to work for Seek The Lamb, but her husband says no. I keep asking her because she does such a good job with the little children, especially teaching them the Bible. Visalia is a good Bible teacher.”
“…Lasting Fruit…”
How have we done it? Only with your help, and through sheer tenacity and extreme faith that God was going to make it all happen. Listen to what Jesus says when it comes to cultivating fruit:
“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.
John 15:5-8
We desire to bring great Glory to our Father for what He has done through the work of all of us these past 24 plus years in the ministry on the Rio Coco. We want everyone to see Him through our actions as well as our words. Our accomplishments in the ministry and our relationships that we have formed with you and many others in Central America, Europe, Israel, Hawaii, and the rest of the United States are very significant & eternal.
But most of all, in this world which so easily would overlook the presence of a Loving God who so wants all of us included in His Family, we hope that the fruit in our lives would cause all to see our Heavenly Father, and worship Him.
May there be many more adventures, and fruit on the Seek The Lamb tree in 2009!
Lamb Bleatings By Laura Bagby
Life is full of curves…bends and turns of the unexpected. Our growth depends on our choice of response to those unexpected occurrences which have a great tendency to simply rock our world and teeter it toward insecurity, instability and an awful sense of being totally unprepared to face what is presented to us. There will always be moments of intense “unknowing” and inadequacies that fill us up and either cause us to bow low to the One that is able to meet us and help us to face what is before us or we go into our usual mode of defense against all that we are encountering…we go into our functioning mode to keep our heads above the water line of drowning.
The fact of the matter is that life is full of conflict, trials and tribulations and we must choose how we will walk through them.
In the midst of it all, I believe we are still called to allow ourselves to be poured out to others as a fragrant offering unto the Lord who gave us His entirety for our sake. He identified with us and so I do likewise as I identify with those around me. Many of which are in dire straights…
This morning we received a call from my dad who informed us that my mom’s kidney had failed and that she had to receive a dialysis. Not good news. Prior to the news we had been discussing with one of our children some of our values we have in life regarding honoring, respecting, diligence and humility. The family structure is a great teaching environment of how we come to places of realizing the need we have one for the other and how each part must contribute their gifts, talents and abilities in order to make the whole run as it should. Teaching teenagers is a trip…they have stimulated deep places in my soul and caused intense passionate anger to rise up in ways that surprises even me…the owner of those passions. I scare myself at times. I know this is all a part of relationship and as we come together we will create friction…friction that leads to a useful or detrimental flame. Either way that friction will have a result….we choose.
In relationship, we want those we love to grasp the importance of caring for the things we care for, feeling for the things we feel about or simply just being there to give a hug. There have been days I have felt my greatest blessing when one of my children would just come up to me and pat my back or hug my waist simply because they felt some of my pain. Moselle is famous for looking at me and assessing my state and sensitively doing something that offers deep comfort.
I ran into a friend this morning that let me know she was praying for us and asked if I was okay which led me to begin crying in the parking lot of the gym as I told her of my mom. I realized how scared I was feeling regarding my mom and where she was at. I also realized how passionate I was as I got in my child’s face regarding attitude earlier in the morning. I realized how important it was to me for them to “get” the art of coming alongside of us in our moments of need, stress or distress. I want them to “get” how purposeful their lives are and how they will only experience the full blessing of their existence by living outside of and beyond themselves.
Attitude is what makes the difference as we face our various scenes in life…we choose to be negative or positive….we choose to be grateful or whining….we choose to believe and hope or go into ourselves and be incapacitated in fear….we choose ultimately life or death in each segment of our lives. As we choose, we exude either that life or we exude the darkness that we collected through our choices…A life will always radiate those choices in times of good, the bad and the ugly. Usually we are all in the middle of experiencing all three at once especially if we choose a life of a disciple. All of it being used to train us to be more like Him and less like us. We die, He lives as we hide ourselves in Christ. It is a killer process. Someone must die every time….will it be me or will it be my Lord?
We have maneuvered through many emotions this year….the failing health and mourning and eventual death of Pop and Aunt Polly, sicknesses, trials, death of friends, the high of new marriages, the maintenance of relationships old and new, caring for the people, projects, business and things that God has given to us to care for, raising up leaders, struggling through the pains and glories of children making their transition into adulthood, and realizing once again from a very close angle that life does indeed end here this side of heaven and one never knows what shall be….How that causes me to be intentional about my life and my relationships.
I am deeply provoked emotionally in this moment. Yet, above all I do realize that beyond my emotions there is and remains the most stable factor of my existence; One who is worthy of my trust and honor. A perfect Sovereign God who I choose to give my honor and allegiance to. One that I know knows what He is doing and doesn’t need my help or convincing to do the right thing for the right reasons. I sit, I wait, I give to Him my heart once again…my repetitive act of worship in a time of need realizing AGAIN that I am desperate for Him with every ounce of my passionate being. I can never go alone again. Without Him, I would drown and never rise above any of these circumstances or become what I was designed to become or do what I was meant to do in this lifetime.
We are all in this world together…finding our way. Through all of our complexities of life, there remains only One Way, One Truth, One Life all of which is based on love and relationships that aid our way and us theirs. It is a lifetime of choosing relationship over things, over tasks, over what we want or think we need.
During the Christmas season, the kids all get very involved in thinking of what they want to give to one another. We go shopping and talk about what their sister or brother would like or enjoy….It is a fun process. On one of our expeditions, Arielle and Moselle were chatting in the car about the things that they wanted to give and receive. Moselle started up by saying, “You know what I NEED…I NEED…” Before she could continue Arielle stopped her and in a kind motherly fashion said, “Moselle, YOU do not NEED! You just WANT….You want things…you already have EVERYTHING you need…you can only say you want NOT need.”
“Okay, then….I WANT….”, Moselle retorted and the conversation continued…it was a great point for me to ponder. With a wide grin on my face, I told them since they didn’t need anything, why don’t we just skip all the shopping and buying part…
“Noooooooooooooooooo!”, came the double chorus. “It’s fun to get stuff for everybody, MOMMY!!! Yeah, mommy, we like stuff!”
So, much for all that depth I thought Arielle conjured up for us….
I suppose what I like most about the gift giving commotion is what I observe between the children as they do give to one another and the joy they receive from that act of buying something that they really hope their sibling will like and the excitement that is demonstrated as they wait in anticipation while their gift is opened and received. It is an exchange of their feelings one for another and the thoughtfulness behind what they gave…trying to identify with each other in their gifts. It is an exchange that is hopefully transferred on a daily basis between people in our lives. That is the stuff that true life is made out of.
The things we “Want” verses the things we “Need”….our pride often thinks it knows what we want and what we need most in life. I have come to realize that I truly do not have a clue what I actually need or want. The only things that appear to be certain is that I have the privilege in the states to go and purchase toilet paper and napkins. Actually napkins and especially Kleenex is optional…and really in some of the parts we travel, even toilet paper is a luxury that many do not enjoy…
I have heard people say, “I did not sign up for this.” A quaint saying in frustration, but the reality is we, in all of our feebleness, don’t have that option to sign up or not sign up. We are recruited into this life and truly have very little control over the events as the world turns on its own by the hand of the Creator. We fool ourselves if we think can control anything beyond our own disciplined response to life and all that it throws our way. Respond well….live and breathe life….while you have the breath.
Seize your moments. Laura
Nicaragua Trips
March 16–20 and March 20-April 1
Coffee Production Tour and Construction
We are planning a trip to Nicaragua that will be multi-dimensional. For all of you who have wanted to see first hand coffee production and participate in a “cupping”, we will visit the Vida Joven Farm & La Esperanza Beneficio from Monday March 16th to Friday March 20th. We will actually have time to help with the harvest.
On Saturday the 21st, we will fly to Waspam to continue the finishing work on the Waspam Center. With schools in session, we hope to actually visit some Project Ezra schools during our work week.
We are determining costs for this trip, so please call us this month if you are interested in joining us for one or both of these adventures! Space is limited.
The Bagby Bunch Corner
We have had some quiet days over the Christmas holidays, and they were needed. We have been on so many trips over these past two years, that we have many “unsettled corners” of our office and home. Now is our time to get things in order before our trip to Nicaragua in March.
Speaking of which, we will be spending some time in the mountains around Matagalpa helping with coffee harvest at the Vida Joven farm, and getting a lesson on tasting coffee from our friends at the La Ezperanza beneficio (coffee factory). If you really want to enjoy your Rio Coco Bean coffee to the max, then please join us for this trip. Afterward we will be on the Rio Coco for 10 days of construction and adventures. Join us for both if possible!
The school year ended very successfully, and we are already saying our prayers for the start of the 2009 year. Why pray now? Because each January we need to hear from the Lord about teachers, where they are to be placed, how many we should be hiring, and what we should be paying each one. We have many villages who want Project Ezra teachers. The project has always been a walk of faith, and in this present time, it would seem like we really need to hear from God what He wants to do this year. We all have our part to play. We are so appreciative of you who are with us operating in God’s economy rather than the world’s. God so much wants to show Himself to us in these days. He says that He will take care of us as we follow His direction to care for those around us. It is a totally opposite approach of our world’s economy, which is currently saying: “Keep your money in your pocket! Take care of #1!” God’s economy says “Trust Me and be a cheerful giver!” Who should we believe and follow?
What a time to be alive and a follower of Jesus! In these coming months we will have so many opportunities to shine His light! There will be many in these next weeks and months who will notice your walk of faith, and how you are handling the world situation.
We are glad that you are with us. Laura & Michael
Coffee Sale Honduras Copan from our friend Carlos Fuentes. $9.50
Donations- Click here to contribute to the project or support one of our missionaries.
Life is just a series of trying to make up your mind.
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