Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America and is one of the poorest countries in all of Latin America. Years of instability and corrupt governments have left the country with neither industrial-based support, nor any large scale agriculture productivity. Unemployment is around 40% while 65% of households are headed by single mothers with more than one child. These numbers translate into a vast number of poor people with inadequate housing, malnutrition, and very little real hope. The children always suffer the most. We have been in Nicaragua full time since 1995 working to evangelize through new church planting. Three churches have been started with the help of committed Nicaraguan co-workers. A big part of our job is helping the Nicaraguan leaders equip the churches to reach out as Christ reached out to a people tangled in vices and ground down by poverty and hopelessness. So far we have helped the new churches establish ministries such as a Christian elementary school, an agricultural loan program, and a technical vocational shop. Each church has unique open doors of opportunity and we want to help each new church equip itself to meet these challenges. We try to help them balance caring ministries for hurting people with the proclamation of the Gospel. Both were important parts of Jesus’ earthly ministry and an emphasis of the Apostles’ (Gal 2:10). As time goes on we see that one part of the ministry reinforces the other in many ways. For example, when a congregation needs a church building, the apprentices in the vocational training shop are able to weld trusses and work with us on site to do necessary steelwork. Over the years we have seen the Lord use us and those that work with us to meet needs and advance the Kingdom. We are spiritually and financially accountable to the eldership of the Harvester Christian Church. The church acts as our sending organization which has proven to be an effective and Biblical way to carry out mission work. Their vision and confidence in us over the years has been a great encouragement. (Acts 15.22)

Who We Are

Nicaragua Work Ministry Sites

Managua: Children’s Outreach Fund center, New church in Ciudad Sandino, Sewing Cooperative
Tipitapa: Little Benjamin School and Bible Institute
Masaya: Children’s Outreach Fund center
Granada: Church work Bible Institute extension site and Arco de Bronze Elementary school
Acoyapa: Bible Institute extension site and vocational training
Nueva Guinea: rural churches in 4 communities
San Carlos: target city for new church planting
Somotillo: Bible Institute Extension site
Alamikamba: Miskitu tribal evangelism and River Transportation Project

Google Earth view of our work sites

History of the Work in Nicaragua

Here is a brief capsule of what we have done in Nicaragua over the years in sort of time line, sort of narrative form.

1991: Habitat for Humanity, housing projects in Esquipulas and Bluefields

1993: Agua Para La Vida, potable water projects outside of Rio Blanco

1995 - 1997: Church planting and development work in communities outside of Nueva Guinea, RAAS. New churches in Yolaina, El Serrano. Community seed banks and agricultural extension, medical work

1998 - 2002: Vocational Training and Construction Projects. We carried out a wide range of construction projects associated with the Managua Christian Church including schools, clinic and hospital. Vocational work focused on training young men in the basics of welding and metal fabrication. The training was carried out in an apprenticeship setting were they earned as they learned. The vocational shop eventually took on such diverse projects as mass production of fuel efficient wood burning cook stoves, aluminum cargo boats for river transport and many types of prefab building components. Some Highlights from this period include:
      1998 - Hurricane Mitch and associated relief efforts
      1999 - Marcus and Ann get married
      1999 - The Little Benjamin School in Tipitapa is started
      2000 - First of six large aluminum cargo boats completed in vocational training shop
      2000 - Tipitapa Church started
      2001 - William Pearson born

2003 - 2005: During this time the Tipitapa school grew to over two hundred students and began to offer full primary education from Kindergarten through sixth grade. Also during this time we formed, trained and inserted a church planting team into the city of Granada.
      In June 2004 we began to visit the Miskitu tribal communities in the east coast of Nicaragua beginning with a relief effort for villages affected by flooding. We have continued to visit the area doing evangelism and survey work for future projects.
      Amelia Pearson was born in September 2003.
      During this period we also had opportunity to initiate pilot projects in biogas and biodiesel production.

June 2005 – 2006: Home leave in USA. Marcus made several trips back during this time to oversee continuing projects

2007 - Present: Currently in process are the following projects:
      - Expansion of the Tipitpapa School to include High School
      - Establishment of a Bible Institute for training preachers and leaders
      - Establishment of a new Christian Elementary School “Arco De Bronce” in the City of Granada