In Matthew 12 Jesus teaches that “you cannot be neutral with regard to me”. We are either with Jesus or against him. Either gather with him or scatter abroad. Today many people expect Christians to visit orphanages or help those in need. But as soon as we try to talk to them about their need of accepting Jesus as a personal Savior, they turn away from us. Social services are important but their purpose is to support the spreading of God’s word. We must stay on the course bringing everyone to salvation in Jesus. We are ambassadors of Christ and God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead – “Reconcile with God!”

ESL students

We had a very warm welcome with our students last week. Many said that they missed our meetings during summer break. We mentioned earlier that several students had rejoined us after the pandemic. Praise the Lord for keeping these souls for several years. This is a true answer to prayer. Continue to pray for the hearts of our students to feel their spiritual hunger through our classes with them. There are young as well as older students. Pray for us to teach ESL classes and preach the gospel creatively.

Fall Plans

Some of you have been praying about the camp and follow up. Three individuals came to our Sunday service! Also, several men expressed a desire to come to our “For All Club”. For this we also praise the Lord.
Please pray for our Harvest Festival this year. It is one of few times a year that we have special services, along with Christmas and Easter. So, this is another opportunity to invite our friends to a special service.

Friends and Family

Tim is now in high school. This year He entered 9th grade. Pray for wisdom and a good understanding in these two programs. Pray that we will organize things well this year.

Thank you for your prayer and support!

You can make tax deductible contribution to Ufa Bible Ministries which is recognized by the IRS as a 501c3 non-profit entity. Make checks payable to:
Ufa Bible Ministries
PO BOX 1761, Columbia, SC 29202

Greater than the temple

In Matthew 12 Jesus revealed to the Pharisees that He was greater than the temple. This indicated another turn, a type-fulfilling turn from the temple to a person. There was a turn from the temple to a person who is greater than the temple. Jesus is the new temple. That means authentic worship is no longer attached to any place. It is attached to Jesus. Now we, Christians from all the continents, make up this universal-wide Temple of the New Covenant. That is what marvels a person here in this mission field, the thought that you can freely come to God, no special places or special people needed.

ESL classes

We start to gradually resume our classes after the summer break. One good sign – we are starting to see some of our previous students whom we have not seen since the pandemic times. This is an interesting work of the Holy Spirit. Please pray for a good beginning of the classes and creativity in the process. Pray for us to preach the gospel creatively.

Summer Family Camp

The camp has become a blessing for us this year, though we had some rough time with the flooding. As the river was rising we had to move our tents on to safer grounds. We had to finish the program and disassemble the tents one day earlier due to the rising levels on the river. This year we are experiencing a great amount of precipitation. It rains constantly everyday. The rivers are full and many roads are washed out. A few bridges have collapsed. So we thank the Lord of Hosts for letting us conduct the camp in the midst of these raising waters. Now pray for the word sown in the hearts of the people. That, with the help of the Holy Spirit, in the proper time it may ripen.

Friends and Family

We are in a planning mode for the next school year. Please pray for wisdom and a good planning outcome. Tim had some special time to spend helping with his Muslim grandmother. She is not perceptive to the gospel but since he is her grandson she had to listen to him. Pray that she would come to Christ.

Thank you for your continuing prayer and support!

You can make tax deductible contribution to Ufa Bible Ministries which is recognized by the IRS as a 501c3 non-profit entity. Make checks payable to:
Ufa Bible Ministries
PO BOX 1761, Columbia, SC 29202

Urgent Prayer Request

We need a financial miracle. Please agree with us in prayer. Today we need to pay our teachers and staff here in Nicaragua and we do not have the finances to pay them. We are behind on our electricity, which could cause our electricity to be cut off any day now. We are behind on paying social security for our teachers and staff, which prevents them from receiving needed medical attention and could cause our school to be shut down if we don’t get caught up immediately. It’s difficult for me to share this, but it’s a reality of where we are financially and we need a miracle. It’s been difficult enough operating here in Nicaragua over the last few years with everything going on in the country, but thank the Lord because He has sustained us and we are still here! However, it has made it even harder for us not to be able to count on the financial support coming in each month that we need to sustain our school and cover the basic operating expenses of New Hope Children’s Foundation.

Here are the current expenses we have pending:

$1,500 – Teachers and Staff Salaries that we need to pay today (August 16th) Our teachers and staff depend on what we pay them to be able to feed their families.

$7,353 – Social Security for Teachers for this year (January to August)

$870 – Electricity bills for February to July

$740 – Teachers and Staff Salaries we need to pay on August 30th.

$3,318 – Balance on our ministry credit card that needs to be paid off on September 5th. We normally use this card mainly for fuel, phone plan, internet and vehicle insurance. However, a couple of months ago, we needed to pay our property taxes that were due and we didn’t have the finances to pay them at that time so we put it on our ministry credit card and haven’t been able to pay it off yet.

Total needed as of right now is: $13,781

-Please agree with us for the finances to cover each of these needs.

-Please agree with us for sponsors for the children in our school.

We currently have 161 students, and all of our students receive a scholarship of some form. We currently have less than 20 sponsors.

-Please agree with us for new monthly supporters.

Over the last few years, we have had several who have had to stop giving for one reason or another, and no one new has come along to partner with us financially for some time, which has caused a steady decline in the monthly support we have coming in. Our donors who faithfully support New Hope each month come to $2,195 which is an extreme blessing but does not cover our basic operating expenses. Please agree with us for more people who will catch the vision of New Hope Children’s Foundation.

I am standing and believing God for a miracle! Will you agree with us?

In Christ,
Charity Ford