About

Frank’s Story – I was raised just like any other privileged white kid from the suburbs. I had two parents that worked very hard to provide all the things that they never had while growing up. I went to a great school, had a car when I was 16 and always wore shoes that cost well over $100. All these things are what I needed to “fit in” with the kids at school. I chased after this person that I thought I was or wanted to be for most of my childhood and adolescent years. I eventually starting to hang out with guys just like myself – seeking out to find ourselves in all the wrong places. I eventually found myself in the middle of dealing drugs and this lead to not only problems with the law but also a life-controlling addiction to illegal substances. I thought for a long time that this was my destiny – to be an addict for the rest of my life. I was a mess. I was hopeless. I was lost. It was when I hit bottom that I found Christ waiting for me to look up at him and say “I give up”. Christ began to show me who I was in Him and who I was to become. My road has been far from perfect and this is what keeps me focused on Him. I praise God today that He continues to show me who I am in Christ and that my life has meaning and purpose – to glorify God by making disciples of all nations.

Bekah’s Story – I was raised as the daughter of a pastor. I attended a religion school for most of my life, and I accepted Christ as my fire escape when I was nine. He didn’t become real to me until I was in my early 20’s. I believed, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to follow him. I was 25 when I started reading Your Best Life Now and the Purpose Driven Life. People may scoff at the gospel that is presented in the first book, but it was instrumental in bringing me back to Christ. I started attending the Church at Brookhills, and service after service was filled with God’s acceptance and approval. For the first time in my life, I wanted to follow Christ. I was done living my life in a bar, and wanted Christ to be more to me than just a fire escape. The past few years have been an amazing journey, as I have learned who I am in Christ, what he has done for me, and what he wants for my life.

Discipleship – Jesus’ last words to his disciples before leaving them was reminding them that he had been given authority by God. He commanded the disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Trinity and teaching the new converts everything they had been taught by Jesus. He reminded them he would be with them always, and then he went “poof” up into heaven. The disciples did just that, which is how we know about Christ today. Our job as followers of Christ is to be discipled and to disciple. That is our mission in Granada.

Why Nicaragua? – The answer starts with a google search conducted by Frank three years ago. He had this urge to visit and help with an orphanage in Costa Rica. After several months of correspondence with a missionary in Granada, we came to visit the AIM base in October of 2008. We spent a week visiting the various programs in operation here, and learning about the city and Nicaraguan culture. After several weeks of being back, God clearly called each of us to Nicaragua. We weren’t given a time period, so we planned for a year. We’re open to staying longer, if that’s the path that opens up to us.

Adventures in Missions – from the AIM website: “Adventures In Missions (AIM) is an interdenominational missions organization that focuses on discipleship. We emphasize prayer and relationships in our work amongst the poor. Since we were established in 1989, we have taken over 80,000 people into the mission field, some for as short as a week and others for as long as a year or longer. Through our 14 bases around the world, we have year-round ministry to places where “the least of these” are found. We believe that by giving people the opportunity to hold orphans, bring hope to the hopeless, and pray for the sick, lives are transformed. We seek to disciple as Jesus did – our vision is that God would use us to raise up a generation of radically committed disciples of Jesus Christ.”

Church at Brookhills – We have been blessed to be part of the most amazing church, the body of Christ, and we’ve been privileged to be taught by David Platt at our church. He has spent the last three years challenging us to go further in our faith, to do more with the resources we have, and to not settle for anything less than the amazing love we have from our Father. Brookhills was instrumental in getting us to Nicaragua, the church itself as well as members donated over 90% of our funding.