CBC-Colorado Mission: Nicaragua 2012

CBC-Colorado's largest mission team of the 2011-2012 school year. (Click to enlarge)Trip leaders and CBC instructors, Dan and Penny Funkhouser, stand with several young ladies and their new shoes. (Click to enlarge)At the end of April, Charis Bible College-Colorado sent its largest team of the year (33 people) on a short-term mission trip to Nicaragua. The group, led by CBC instructors, Dan and Penny Funkhouser, was hosted by and served alongside, Karen and Darey Jolley and their ministry, Ambassadors to the Nations. While in Nicaragua the students ministered to over 3,200 people, working as a team toward the same goal; to share the Gospel and the love of Jesus.

One family of three had the unique opportunity to travel together to Nicaragua. It was their first time on a plane and their first time out of the country. Paul, Valerie The Strattons, Paul, Stormy and Valerie, with 7 year-old, Heyling, one of four children they sponsor through Ambassadors to the Nations.
(Click to enlarge)and daughter Stormy Stratton were blessed in many ways throughout the mission trip, but one of the biggest highlights was meeting three out of the four children whom they sponsor through Ambassadors to the Nations. “I couldn’t help but think, ‘Wow! I’m actually here talking with, embracing, and beholding these children we sponsor. God is so good!’ How at peace I felt knowing they are taught the true Gospel and that our family gets to be a part of something so great!” Valerie shared.

Valerie felt that the CBC team seemed to be of one mind and one accord for the entire trip. “We just loved everybody with the sweet love of Jesus. It was a great blessing to be with the body of Paul Stratton came face-to-face with the reality of need in the world.
(Click to enlarge)Christ serving in unity and purpose. This team will forever hold a special place in my heart,” she said.

For Paul the trip helped him to realize the great needs of other people in the world. “Here in America we live in somewhat of a bubble. We can be so unaware of what is happening in our own backyard much less in other parts of the world. The need for help is great; the need for the gospel is even greater. This trip has greatly increased my desire to do all I can to further the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” he said.

Part of the team that performed the False Identity drama. (Click to enlarge)Paul shared that he thought that the two dramas the team performed, False Identity and The Heart Drama, reigned as the highlight for showing the love of God and the gospel to the Nicaraguan people. In addition to participating in the drama outreaches, Paul also had the opportunity to water baptize five of the CBC team members, including his wife, Valerie, while in Nicaragua. “I praise God for this ministry experience,” Paul said.

CBC student, Roderick "Robbie" Gammon, got a word from God to encourage the teachers that work at the schools built by Ambassadors to the Nations. He told them that they are helping to raise CBC students ministering from a place of victory in Christ. (Click to enlarge)up a generation of leaders for Nicaragua by giving them a strong foundation built on the Word of God. “They are manifesting Jesus to these kids,” said Robbie. Later he received a confirmation about the word he shared from another team member, Dennison, and Karen Jolley who shared how a teacher impacted her life as a child. Robbie also prayed for a woman who was in severe stomach pain, and following prayer the woman was pain free.

Regarding the time spent in Nicaragua, Robbie had this to say, “Ambassadors to the Nations is the most effective ministry I have ministered with. I love Karen and Darey’s hearts for the people of Nicaragua. When I see them, I see Jesus!”

CBC-Chicago Ministers Globally

Second-year CBC Chicago students traveled the world in March. They ministered in Nicaragua, Uganda and Russia where they had the privilege of sharing the power and goodness of God. (Click to enlarge)Over the course of the past academic year, the second-year students at Charis Bible College in Chicago, Illinois prepared for their mission trips abroad. The students took mission prep classes, in which they received practical training in how to effectively minister the almost-to-good-to-be-true-news, in word and power, to the people in foreign nations. "Mission trips are the highlight of students’ experience at CBC. It is the time when everything they’ve trained for comes to the forefront and they operate as who they really are—citizens of heaven and Jesus in the earth," said CBC-Chicago Director, Cindy Quarles.

In March, the school sent three teams on three separate trips across the globe with stops in Nicaragua, Uganda and Russia. As each team returned, their hearts and mouths were full of praise and reports of God's amazing love displayed through the students on the field. Lives were changed as a result of each trip.

Nicaragua:

The first team sent out from Chicago ministered in Nicaragua, where they experienced the blessings of street and prison ministry. The Chicago team worked closely with students from CBC-Gardner, Massachusetts, CBC-Indiana and CBC-Colorado, all hosted by Darey and Karen Jolley of Ambassadors to the Nations.

Ministry through provision. Here a CBC student put a new pair of shoes on a little boy. (Click to enlarge)After providing packages with necessities, this Chicago student shares a hug. (Click to enlarge)

Russia:

CBC-Chicago's Russia team shared the love of God with the people of St. Petersburg. Hosted by Mike and Carrie Pickett, the directors of Charis Bible Training Center, the students ministered in half-way houses to people who have come out of a lifestyle of drugs and alcoholism. The team was able to bring hope and encouragement to the residents by sharing their personal testimonies, the Word, fellowship and love.

Chicago students ministered in a local church setting in St. Petersburg. (Click to enlarge)The Chicago team gathered with the CBTC staff and students after a church service. (Click to enlarge)

Uganda:

Chicago's Uganda mission team traveled to the country's capitol city of Kampala where they were hosted by CBC-Uganda director, Leland Shores and his wife Carole. During one outreach, the Chicago students teamed up with the Ugandan students and they traveled an hour north of Kampala to pray for the sick in Nakaseke hospital. Forty-eight people, in the predominantly Muslim area, were born again as a result of this outreach, and 117 of the 150 people prayed for were discharged from the hospital after receiving their healings! Cindy commented, "They pretty much emptied out the hospital! "God is Awesome!"

Here a Chicago student lays hands on a sick child in the Nagaseke hospital. (Click to enlarge) The students saw 117 people discharged after receiving their healing. (Click to enlarge)

Cindy expressed her thanks to all who contributed and supported the CBC-Chicago teams in any way. "Your gifts and prayers have eternal significance. People are the treasure," said Cindy.

CBC Students Minister in Nicaragua

CBC-Colorado students, leaders and representatives, Darey and Karen Jolley, from the Ambassadors to the Nations had a heaven of a good time ministering in Nicaragua. (Click to enlarge)Recently, twenty-three Charis Bible College (CBC) students from the Colorado campus went on a mission trip to Nicaragua. The team, led by CBC instructor, Dr. Delron Shirley, was the third from Colorado to visit the impoverished nation this year. The team had the opportunity to serve alongside missionaries Karen and Darey Jolley, founders of Ambassadors to the Nations, These young ladies hold up their new and much-needed dresses.
(Click to enlarge)a ministry which serves in some of the poorest countries in Central America. Much of the students' time was focused on ministering to the children of Nicaragua.

The Ambassadors' Sponsor a Child program allows participants to support an individual child, or an entire family, on a monthly basis. All money received through this program is used for food, clothes, water, medical and schooling needs. Some of the CBC students had the opportunity to personally meet the children whom they have been sponsoring through the program. It was a joy for them to have hands-on involvement in distributing the needed supplies to the children and families they have been supporting from a distance.

A small but life changing moment.
(Click to enlarge)The student missionaries also went into the local schools and presented Gospel-centered dramas and puppet shows, and then blessed the children with coloring books as well as new shoes. As part of the shoe distribution, the CBC students imitated Jesus' selfless act of washing His disciples' feet (John 13:4-17). The team washed the children's feet and prayed over each child before placing the new shoes on them. It was a small blessing for the children, but the act had a life-changing impact on the students.

The CBC team also held open-air meetings as part of their outreach efforts to the villages throughout the area. One such meeting was held on an island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. People came from neighboring islands in canoes and rowboats to see the puppet ministry, and hear the Gospel. People came from neighboring islands in canoes and rowboats. (Click to enlarge)At other meetings, people filled the streets and crowded around the ministry teams. At several locations where the students ministered they also offered free medical clinics. Prior to seeing the doctor, however, each patient received prayer from a CBC student, and many students reported instant healings. Students were overjoyed by the miracles they witnessed while operating in the power of God.

When the crowds became too large at some of the outreaches, it was impossible to minister to each person individually, so the prayer team formed a line and had the people seeking prayer walk past; the team called it a prayer tunnel. The students laid hands on and prayed a blessing over each person as they walked through. The team used what they called a "prayer tunnel" to accommodate the large number of people seeking ministry. (Click to enlarge)Delron and the team believed that their prayer tunnel had the same anointing that Peter’s shadow had as he passed by people in the book of Acts.

Ambassadors to the Nations help to improve the living conditions through the building of suitable housing for the people to whom they minister. CBC students were able to visit several housing projects where new homes had been built. The new houses, which were constructed with sturdy cement brick, and were complete with electricity and plumbing, replaced old shelters built with scrap metal, random pieces of wood and sheets of plastic. One home that had just been completed was given to a teacher from one of the schools. An example of the crowds that gathered to see the missionaries from CBC. (Click to enlarge)Before moving into her new residence, the teacher lived in a “home” with a tarp roof and had to walk a village block to use a bathroom.

Delron estimated that the CBC team touched at least four thousand lives through the supplies distribution, medical clinics and open-air ministry; however, the impact on the students lives was just as great, as they witnessed so many responding to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.