God's Word, a Sound System and a Crusade - Part III (Saturday)

(A post from Bob). 
On Saturday morning, we went to the market in Jinotepe with Rosa and Shalom (Pastor Aburto's wife and 1 year old daughter).  We took a bus (an old recycled "Blue Bird" bus made in High Point, North Carolina) jam-packed with folks.  You get used to not having a lot of "personal space" in Nicaragua.  I realized Saturday how often there are scripture references and statements giving God glory all over Nicaragua. You see these on the t-shirts people wear (Jesus is fiel--Jesus is faithful), on the buses people ride (Si DIOS conmigo, qien contra mi?--If God is with me, who can be against me), on the cars people drive (Gracia a ti Senor--Thanks be to God), on the walls where people wait for rides, many places.  The market is filled with sights and sounds that are both foreign and familiar.  You can buy almost anything at the market, but we were there to buy fruit--lots of fruit!  Cantelope, watermelons, mangoes, pineapples, oranges, and plantanes.  All us had bags of fruit to carry back home!  Fruit is so plentiful and inexpensive (a huge watermelon costs less than $1) that they make juice out of almost everything, including cantelope (which is a taste sensation).  This superabundance of fruit remnded me of Psalm 1:3:  "[The man who delights in the law of the Lord] is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither."  Nicaraguans enjoy the blessing of fruit all year becaue of the climate and conditions that are nearly perfect for growth.  What if we all thought about how this applies to our own "fruit producing" (Galatians 5:22-23)?  The better the conditions and climate the better the fruit!

When we got back from the market, it was time to unpack the sound system.  Delivering the sound system was what first got us thinking about this trip.  You see, our church agreed to purchase the sound system for the church at Las Esquinas to meet a need of theirs.  Though their church is small, the acoustics are terrible and the noise around the church, even on Sunday, is a huge distraction.  Also, Pastor Aburto has SUCH a heart to reach the lost and he has many ideas about how to use the sound system for outreach, pastor training, leader training and more.  If you've ready Created to Be Help Meet then you know about the different types of men.  Pastor Aburto is the classic "Mr. Visionary."   The price of getting the soud system to Nicaragua was prohibitive and the chances of it ever making it to Las Esquinas were slim.  Most likely someone along  the way would decide they wanted to keep it for themselves.  We take so much for granted in the US. 

Unpacking the sound system was an event!  We got out the three large suitcases that contained the sound board adn two speakers.  The "unpacking team" was Pastor Aburto, Gabriel (his 14 year old brother), Elizabeth Daley, and me (Bob).  There were also several folks who looked on!  Elizbeth and I were in charge of unwrapping.  We were careful to save as much of the bubble wrap as possible.  Recycling is a necessity!  Things get reused several times in Nicaragua.  Pastor Aburton and Gabriel were in charge of setting up the system to make sure it worked.  Within 15 mnutes the system was unpacked and ready to be tested.  Through God's grace, it worked the moment we plugged it in!  I prayed right then that this sound system would be a conduit for God's Word to be proclaimed to many!  Pastor Aburto could not stop smiling.  He said he could not wait to use the sound system at Iglesia Las Esquinas the next day!  I thought about the abundant generosity of God's grace that He would allow the Daleys to be part of delivering His sound system to His people in Nicaragua.