Friday, December 21, 2007

Surfers on Mission


Last night Surfers On Mission, with the help of Serve and Surf out of Palm Beach, did an outreach to the local surfers in Masachapa. Well, maybe I should start from the beginning because it’s neat to see how God works. A few weeks ago while Dane and I were surfing at playa Quizala, a place we hardly surf, we met a surfer, Jorge, the only other guy out that day. We asked him a bunch of questions just trying to get to know him. We found out that he lived not too far away in a place called San Rafael del Sur. He is one of about 30 surfers in that area. They are all from poor families and between them they share 25 surfboards, along with wax and whatever else they need for surfing. As we talked to him, we had this great idea to have an outreach in his area, showing the Christian surf movie Noah’s Ark and have things to give away. This guy was stoked about this and we got his phone number and said we would contact him. That week I contacted Myker, a friend from West Palm who was coming to Nicaragua the following week with an organization he started called Serve and Surf. I told him about meeting Jorge and what we wanted to do and he said he would bring things to give away. A surf shop in West Palm gave him a bag full of t-shirts, rash guard shirts, a bag of wax and a couple of leashes. When he arrived at the airport in Managua he met two surfers leaving the country and one of them wanted to sell his surfboard, very cheap too, so Myker bought it to give away. What a blessing! Next we had to find a place to meet and the neatest little restaurant, rancho style, right on the ocean, opened their doors to us and so we were all set to have the meeting. As things go, I found out that a guy who was going to sing for us was unable to come, bummer. Then one of the guys with our local Surfers on Mission who does a lot of our translating was unable to make it, double bummer. Well, a missionary friend and surfer, Randy was willing to help. He has a video projector and dvd player he uses in his ministry and he offered to let us use it. Things started to look good. The night of the meeting Randy and I, along with my daughter Sarah and her friend Amanda, drove to Masachapa, an hour drive full of excitement. Randy set up his equipment and we arranged everything for a great meeting. Some of the guys, three to be exact, came around 6, the time the meeting was to star,t but no one else was there. Were these the only guys that would be coming, bummer. We thought we would show the special feature on the dvd called the surf video. Right from the beginning we started having trouble with the dvd player. It would run for about 2 mins then stop for 5 to 10 seconds. And this happened all the way through the special feature and it was very annoying, bummer. Well, 6:30 and still only 3 guys. Then out of the darkness a whole group of guys came including Jorge so we began the meeting. I shared about who we were and that we wanted to bless these guys in the name of the Lord. Then Randy started the movie Noah’s Ark and believe it or not, it didn’t stop one time through the whole movie, thank you Lord!!!! After the meeting Randy shared about having a personal relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ and the guys were really touched. Lastly we had a drawing for the surfboard and a young guy won. He was so touched and he shared how he had recently given his life to the Lord and that he felt this was God blessing him and it was. All in all it was a great meeting. Not as many showed up as we thought but God had everything under control and to Him we give all the glory and praise.

3 comments:

LoganFam said...

great story of God's miraculous workings Mark. Isn't so much fun to watch Him control it all. Bless you there.

Craig

Unknown said...

Man I can't wait to hear more about what God does with the team down there now!

milton said...

well...I'll try this again. I would love to help you guys with missions. I'm not sure exactly what that might look like but God does! Thanks for being a faithful family...