Canyon teen, Trenton Stafford, just returned from a ten-day trip to Ometepe Island, located in the middle of Lake Nicaragua, Nicaragua.  The island was formed by two volcanoes and has a population of about 30,000.

Stafford, a long distance runner in the Aftershock Distance Club and a student at American Heritage Academy, joined a team of workers on a short-term mission trip from the Canyon Bible Fellowship.  They completed some construction projects at a Bible training center on the island.

The team made a table by hand, from local resources, for meeting and dining purposes.  They installed a hot water heater and constructed several window screens to keep out bugs and mosquitoes.  They also helped pastors with various duties on their local farm.  When they weren’t busy with construction, the team went out into the villages to share their faith in God.

“I had never seen fireflies before,” Stafford commented.  “Nicaragua was different from Arizona in every conceivable way.  The people were really amazing.  They welcomed us in and made us incredible food.  We had the opportunity to talk to may people about Jesus.  I shared my testimony and the love of Jesus with the locals through the help of a translator.”

While in Nicaragua, the team had the opportunity to interact with a network of churches called “Iglesia Biblica Petra.”  This network was started by an Arizonan pastor, Jared Cox.  All these churches came together in Managua, for a huge worship celebration to celebrate their 15th anniversary, and the team participated.  “The music and singing were amazing,” Stafford said.  “It was exciting to be included as part of their church family while we were working.”

Canyon Bible Church of Verde Valley is committed to both local and global missions.  We are part of a local network of churches called the Canyon Bible Fellowship, which gives us the opportunity to send folks from Cottonwood out as missionaries around the globe.  I was so excited to see a missionary go out from our church, and it’s even better that our first missionary was my own son.  We hope to send out many more missionaries from our church in the coming year.

– Pastor Mark