FIRST NATIONAL CONGRESS OF THE NICARAGUAN BAPTISTS

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Published: Tuesday, 13 November 2012 17:54

Approximately a year ago, I had the privilege to teach the National Pastors’ Conference of the Evangelical Mennonite Convention of Nicaragua. It was a glorious opportunity not only to teach the ‘Christ-Centered Evangelism’ study to these brothers; but also, to see many Mennonite pastors return to a personal commitment to do “God’s work; God’s way; for God’s glory”! Over the years, I have had numerous opportunities to teach this study to hundreds of Nicaraguan pastors for many different denominations. However, I had not yet had the opportunity to teach any of our many Spanish workbooks to a conference of Baptist pastors! Of course, since I am a Baptist evangelist, I had been interceding for an “open door” into the Nicaraguan Baptists. During the Mennonite convention, I met a pastor named Manuel Garcia, who is a Baptist pastor; and also, the professor of the New Testament at the Baptist Seminary in Managua. Pastor Manuel had been sitting on the front row at the Mennonite Conference, all week long! A Mennonite brother in Christ had invited him to attend the conference. Near the end of the week, Pastor Manuel approached me and said, “I have been interceding about a burden that the Lord has given me, to hold our first National Congress for the pastors of the Nicaraguan Baptist Convention. I have been praying for God to send the man to come and teach this conference. Bro. Ed, would you pray about being that man?” I told him, “I don’t have to pray about being the preacher for this conference; for I have already been interceding that the Lord would open this door into the Baptists of Nicaragua! This is an answer to my intercession.”

Revelation 3:8 rings in my heart, as I have just returned from teaching 14 sessions at the 1st National Congress of the Baptist pastors of Nicaragua. There the Lord Jesus declares, “See I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it.” I am so grateful to God for this new door of opportunity to proclaim the Word of God to these precious Baptist pastors, from all over the nation of Nicaragua. I had the joy of teaching one of my Spanish workbooks entitled, “The Biblical Path To An Effective Prayer Life” at the Baptist seminary in Managua. Friends, it was quite a miracle that I would be teaching at this seminary; for in the late 70’s, the curse of liberation theology began to in-filtrate the Nicaraguan Baptist convention, through some seminary professors. There were many pastors who had been contaminated with these false teachings. But in recent years, many of the Baptist pastors have been returning to the truth of the Word of God. Pastor Manuel is one of those pastors. He had been praying for God to open an opportunity to have a national convention for all of the Baptist pastors. He had also been praying for God to send a conservative Baptist preacher from America to be that teacher at this conference.

Pastor Manuel did not realize it, but, simultaneously, I had been praying for an “open door” into the Baptist convention. So the very fact that this conference became a reality was an amazing answer to both of our prayers! The Lord not only opened the door to teach, but He also provided approximately $10,000 of funds for us to supply all of the meals, the workbooks, and the bus expenses for all of the pastors to come to the seminary. That abundant supply was also provided as an answer to prayer and the loving generosity of brothers and sisters like YOU

The Nicaraguan pastors gathered from all over the nation to sit under the Word of God, for these sessions that occurred over 3 1/2 days. The heat was so oppressive; and there is no air conditioner in the seminary-meeting hall. But the Holy Spirit gave me, my interpreter and the pastors great strength and wonderful concentration in all of the sessions. I took the first 4 sessions to teach about “Confidence In Prayer”. The pastors sat intently listening to every sentence. You could literally sense the Holy Spirit steadily building a deeper confidence in the Lord, as we progressed through each session. When I would give personal testimonies in my life and ministry, of how the Lord built our confidence in Him, through miraculous answers to prayer, the pastors would break into spontaneous applause, for the glory of our God and King! I then moved to 2 sessions, in which I taught on “Praying In The Spirit”; and then 2 more sessions concerning “Persevering In Prayer”. As I shared the testimony of my father’s conversion after 26 years of persistent evangelistic intercession, there was weeping and rejoicing throughout the hall! During the last 6 sessions, I taught on:

• The Importance Of Praise And Thanksgiving In Prayer
• Confession Of Personal Sin In Prayer – 2 sessions
• Intercessory Prayer – 2 sessions and
• Our Personal Petitions

Of course, there is neither the time nor the space in this newsletter, to even begin to share all of the testimonies from the pastors, in relation to how the Lord worked in their lives. I will only say that the entire group of pastors re-sponded, by sharing many wonderful testimonies of how the Holy Spirit mightily applied these essential truths to their lives. Most of the pastors were seeking extra workbooks, so that they could make copies and teach these truths to their congregations. This is always a great joy and encouragement, when the ones that we are teaching exhibit a pas-sion and purpose to pass on these truths to their flocks. There was a unanimous call from among the pastors for me to return next year; to teach the study on ‘Christ-Centered Evangelism”’ This certainly appears to be a glorious and mi-raculous door that the Lord has opened; and I want to continue to walk through it, as long as He keeps it open! I am so grateful for many of you who were personally involved in intercessory prayer for this conference, during these days.