Hello all! I truly pray that as you read this blog you know how thankful I and the kids/families here in Nicaragua are for you, your prayers and support. I am living a charmed life as far as I am concerned. To be on the receiving end of of your prayers and donations given towards our children and families in need, and being the one who gets to bear witness first hand the direct impact it makes is a blessing that I find difficult to put into words.
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Below you will see a few pictures of a house we recently reconstructed. This home belongs to the Luna Valle family and the kids you see in the pictures hopefully some of you will recognize as being enrolled in The Isaiah Project. Well, about a month ago we ran up against some attacks from the evil one who was trying to spread lies in order to place distance between myself/the staff at the Project and the Luna Valle family. Upon becoming aware of what was transpiring I felt troubled in my spirit and wondered what could be done to resolve and heal what had taken place; well, I didn’t have to wait long for the Lord to answer 
Within a few days of praying about it the Lord shared with me that He wanted us to rebuild their home, which was in probably the worst shape of all the homes of our kids in the Project at the time and the rainy season was quickly approaching. So, I am happy to report that as of last week we finished our work on the home and the family now has a roof that protects them from our Nicaraguan downpours, a cement floor, a toilet and shower of their own, and really . . . just something that more reflects a home. I am still not fully aware of what God intends to do on a spiritual level through this work of His, but I am praying that it has shown the Luna Valle family, which are not believers, His unconditional love for them and that it they can know that I, we, you, truly love them and care about them in word and deed. By the way, I have also posted a video on the “media” page of the website if you’d like to get a better view of how it all looked once we finished the construction.
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Another victory that I am elated to report is that of the academic performance of our kids up to this point in the year. Lets just say that I am more than pleased at how our kids have fared. When we started the project last year the phrase that I heard from just about everyone, including the tutors, was “well . . . at least I or he/she didn’t fail the class or the year”. As you can probably guess, I was not pleased with the minimal expectation of effort this type of statement underscores. Since last year we have been fighting to expel this mentality from all of our kids’ minds, trying to show them that they are capable of so much more than they have ever believed possible, but although arriving at their full potential was possible, it would require more sincere effort on their parts. 
I am happy to let you know that the first report cards of the year were great! We had only one student who received a failing grade out of the entire 34 students; this is a statistic more highly appreciated when you understand that last year at any given academic evaluation we would have over half of our students failing at least one class. Not only did we have an almost clean slate of passing grades, our 5 high school students you see in the picture on the left that have been chosen to go to a more challenging, yet privileged private school that will offer them a better education, made the honor roll at the same time. Praise God! Alex, the boy on the right, is already known as the brightest student in the school and Nohemi, the girl second to the end on the left, was in danger of failing out of the last year, needless to say that now we no longer have that concern
We also put on a little celebration for the mothers of our kids the end of May as Mother’s Day here falls on the 30th. I gotta say, anytime I get to partake in any of Patricia’s special event cooking its a good deal for me . . . mmmmmm. The kids performed several dances, read some poems they wrote, and gave their moms some crafts they made for each mother and/or grandmother that is the primary female caretaker in their lives. To me it can often be a somewhat difficult lesson to teach our kids, that is to respect and show unconditional love to our parents at all times. Obviously the primary reason I give for this is that God requires it, no questions asked, but it can be a bit more difficult to explain this to kids who have parents that more often than not do not behave in a manner worthy of the responsibility and blessing of the calling. Nevertheless, its a step of obedience that was passed down to me from my parents and I strongly desire to have that be one of the things these kids can learn from me that sticks long-term. Of course I had both of my Nicaraguan motherly figures at the event as well in Patricia and Yelva to thank them personally for doing their best to stand in for my mom . . . although I think Patricia would tell you I am a bit hard-headed and too serious for her liking 
Lastly we have also had several changes in enrollment recently that I would like to share with you. Sadly, Christopher and Leyla will no longer be enrolled in The Isaiah Project. Christopher decided to leave the Project due to time constraints, as he has become very active in the local church with the youth and a/v team. While we are sad to see him go, we are also happy to know that he will still be spending his time in a profitable way surrounded by believers. Leyla will no longer be with us due to her parent’s desire for her to be raised in a strictly catholic environment. As I believe most if not all of you know we are not catholic, but evangelical Christian at The Isaiah Project and therefore we do not teach certain doctrines that Leyla is learning in her local catholic church. Her parents explained to me that they were concerned that she was learning conflicting religious doctrines and practices and they feared she would be confused; so sadly they decided to pull Leyla out of the Project. There are no hard feelings as much as I would have liked to see Leyla stay with us, this was her parent’s decision and if this is the way they feel then so be it. However, we are still in close contact with Leyla and will continue to pray for her as the Lord leads.
This little cutie is our newest child to join us in the Project. Actually, Julielsca has been eating with us since the beginning of the year as we allowed her to do so since her three brothers and sisters are in the Project and we didn’t want her to feel left out. She has quickly won us all over with her little scruffy voice, sweet hugs, and big smile and when we realized we were going to have a couple spots open up we all immediately thought of Julielsca. Actually, beginning in the end of last year when I first met Julielsca I immediately felt a warmth in my heart for her and now I know why God placed her on my heart so. We are more than happy to welcome Julielsca into our family and pray that she feels God’s love through our service to her and her family.
So . . . as the title of this blog entry states, we gotta celebrate the victories in this one precious life God has given us. The struggles and set-backs can overwhelm us if we allow the evil one to place them in the forefront of our minds, clouding our vision and frustrating our purpose. I have learned in my short time with The Isaiah Ministry that it is essential that I not only recognize the good work that God has done in each individual involved in the Project, but that I also take time stop and thank God for what He has done. While it is unmistakably important for us to have vision for the future, we can not let our desire for how we long our futures to turn out to cause us to brush over what God has done in the past and is doing in the present. I have much to be thankful for, as God is ” . . . confirming the work of my hands.” (Psalm 90:17) And although good grades and good behavior are nice and encouraging victories for us that we can celebrate, that is not my purpose, or our purpose at The Isaiah Ministry. We want souls. I want souls. I want to see kids filled with the Holy Spirit, broken and repentant over their sins. I want to see children taken hostage by the knowledge of Christ’s sacrifice and love for them. This passion for Jesus and desire to live obediently according to His Word that He birthed in me 5 and a half years ago, I want to see this very thing in each one of them. That is the greatest victory there is to me, and so we press on in eager expectation.
God bless and keep you.
Michael
