Prison & Seminary, Every Day for His Glory

You all will be happy to know that I have been spending abundantly more time enjoying the work and delight of doing ministry much more than I have been writing about it. God is good as always, such a Giver of Joy. Blessings to you all, Jacque

Please support Vida Joven 5K Fundraiser

Hi everyone, 

I pray God has been blessing you this spring with the joys of new life that he brings. We are working hard here getting ready for a fundraiser for a lot of the youth that I work with at the Jicaro Project. If you wouldn't mind, could you please take a minute to read the letter below and consider supporting these precious youth? They are working so hard for the sake of Christ, reaching out in love and humility to their peers, and winning hearts for the Kingdom! They have been working ceaselessly planning the race this year, and we are not seeing a lot of responses from businesses here, who have been affected, as everyone has, by the economy. Please pray for them as they have set their hope in God to provide for their clubs this year. I know He will work it ALL out for our good. If you know anyone who has been touched by Young Life, please consider sending this email along. Thank you so much for your time, Jacque

Dear Friends,

It’s almost time for the Granada, Nicaragua Vida Joven club’s annual 5K Fun Run to raise funds for the year to come.  This year we are celebrating our 6^th anniversary of the Run with a city wide race on April 5^th, supporting five existing clubs and two more in planning.  Obviously, Vida Joven is  thriving in Granada.  Our target for this year is $8000.  Thanks to the generosity of friends like you,  last year we were able to exceed our goal of $7000.  As you know, the Fun Run is the principle event to support the Granada clubs.

The clubs are hard at work planning this year’s run.   This is an exciting year for us as we have asked the leaders of the five current Vida Joven clubs in Granada to actually plan, organize and execute the race.  It is an enormous task, but we have seen so much growth in the leadership as they take the initiative to make this year’s race a success.  We’ve come so far since the first race, and Granada has been blessed by the many Vida Joven clubs in the city producing a generation of Christian young adults who are now leading their younger friends and neighbors toward Christ.

Here is your chance to lend your support.  You can easily contribute via PayPal on the official race website:  www.5kgranada.blogspot.com.  You will see plenty of photos from previous year’s events.

Thank you for your help, for your prayers and your care for the youth in Nicaragua.

Sincerely,

All of us involved with supporting Vida Joven in Granada, and El Puente.

Praise our Shepherd's Name!!

"To Know and Follow Hard after You"

Lord, let us be children with one pure and holy passion, to know you as our God, to fear You, walk with You, love You, and serve you with all our hearts, souls, and strength. Be glorified in us, in Jesus' Name, Amen.
~  Deuteronomy 10:12-13  ~

Sovereign, He is God

Trust in the LORD, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

Delight yourself in the LORD, 
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the LORD; 
trust in him, and he will act.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.

Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;

~ Psalm 37:3-7a ~

Delighting to Know Him

Happy April, All! I know this update is for March, but April just snuck up on me so fast! Thank you to all who responded to the last post and donated to the Vida Joven 5K! I appreciate your willingness to help. We had a great event and even made our goal. Here is the latest update from March. I hope it fills you with Joy to hear a short testimony to the faithfulness of God to lead His Body in triumphant love. Love you all! ~Jacque

Git'yer runnin' shoes on!

Hi everyone! I hope you all are coming into a lovely March and a wonderful Spring season! We are working hard right now on the 5th Annual Vida Joven 5K, which supports the local Young Life (Vida Joven) Club, and it's 4 satellite clubs. Vida Joven has been working here in Granada to raise youth to be strong leaders in their families, communities, and countries. Granada's club is the only club without funding from Young Life International, but God has been faithful to provide people with great talents to find ways to sustain the club and its activities, reaching over 200 youth all over Granada on a weekly basis.


The 5K is 1 of the 3 funding sources for Vida Joven, along with an annual Bazaar and theJicaro Project, which many of you are familiar with. Our goal this year is to raise $7,000, and that is made possible through local Granada businesses and individuals, a matching donor from the USA, and 5K Teams who raise funds through running their own sister race alongside ours. Our event is March 16, 2013, and we are looking to have a great turnout, upwards of 300+ students, as we had last year. 


The El Puente team, Don, and I are working hard here in Granada to gain support from local businesses, which will then be matched by a generous donor in the States. Our team has already raised $1,200, all from businesses here in Granada! We would like to extend an invitation to you to participate in the event by visiting the Vida Joven 5K website and donating through PayPal or by check to sponsor runners and help fund the efforts of Vida Joven Granada. 

Thank you so much for considering! 


Jacque Straka

...from the Overflow of Love in My Heart

"Bless the Lord, O you his angels, 
you mighty ones who do his word, 
obeying the voice of his word! 
Bless the Lord, all his hosts, 
his ministers, who do his will! 
Bless the Lord, all his works, 
in all places of his dominion. 
Bless the Lord, O my soul!"

~  Psalm 103:20-22  ~

Feliz Año Nuevo!

Happy New Year! Praise the Lord for His Mercies that are new every morning, especially the morning after 6 months and no blogging! Praise Him for forgiveness and grace, too! Thank you to you all who still wanted to be updated but had the patience to wait so long. God is good, that is about what it takes to sum up the last 6 months. He is merciful and kind, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. I love Him so much! I hope to send a prayer letter out soon because I know and you know how much we need it, but as for now, here is a pretty little update that really doesn't share much but hopefully gives you a little taste of the Nica life, the abundant joy of walking with our Magnificent Triune God (blows our minds how that works out!) who Knows All, Is All, Gives All, and Does all for His glory. We love Him and hope that you are blessed to know Him more deeply and intimately through sharing in the testimonies you'll find here. If not, you get on us to share more, because you need to taste and see just how GOOD HE IS!
Love y'all, Don and Jacque

Mercies New Every Morning

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;^[b]
     his mercies never come to an end;
 they are new every morning;
     great is your faithfulness.
 'The Lord is my portion,' says my soul,
     'therefore I will hope in him.'"

So pleased to share an update from Granada, Nicaragua. I hope you are abundantly blessed and encouraged in your own adventures! Enjoy=)

the Walk of the Worthy

"so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, 
fully pleasing to him..." 

~ Colossians 1:10a ~

We're learning a lot about prayer right now, specifically praying through Scripture and allowing the Word to guide us in seeking and asking of God. Below you will find updates in each of the main areas of work in Granada, and below those, prayer requests for each. Please feel free to pick and choose what you'd like to join in prayer over. We hope that you delight in it as we are, asking God for that which He already hopes and longs for, and pours out in abundance over us. Love you guys!

2011: Growing Up

Happy New Year! We are so very thankful for all the God has done in us this past year, and so thankful for those who are sacrificing their own time and money to support us in prayer and finances. We would like to shower you with the blessings of sharing in all that God has blessing us this past year. So, be blessed!

The Bread of Life

Sorry for taking so long with this one. It happened a while back, but I really wanted to share it with everyone because it has touched my heart and grown me in my love for Jesus and my understanding of the Gospel. If you've seen a change in me lately, the reason is written below. Thank you, Jesus, for never letting me go...


Dan Clark is one of the members of the team we helped lead in August. He graciously recounted the story for all of us involved, and I added some parts to clarify what had been spoken in Spanish. Thanks, Dan!


On Saturday, August 6, 2011 everyone was given a choice to go to the Laguna, Zipline or participate in a ministry opportunity. Deann, Pam, Brett, Jacque and I chose to do ministry. After lunch we discussed the various groups of people to reach out to and different ideas on how to do that. Then we prayed for God to guide us to the right people and the right place. We also prayed for God to prepare the hearts of whomever with whom we were lead to share the truth.

We decided through God’s leading to go to the park and make balloon animals on the steps of the gazebo to provide opportunities to share Jesus with children in the area. We sat down and began to make the balloon animals. Kids quickly gathered and were really excited. A couple of the kids got a little demanding and had a hard time keeping their hands off the balloons and pumps. One of these kids was the one with whom I felt the need to share Jesus.

365 Days...They only happen once a year.

Some of you may have seen Don's 365 Project pictures on Facebook or on his 365project.org homepage. The Project consists of taking a picture each day, which we thought would be one of the most effective ways to keep you in touch with what's happening here.

This is his photo from June 22nd, just another 1 out of the 365 days of living God's adventure for our lives. Don shared a story on this picture's day that I thought was a great glimpse into what God is doing to raise us up and to walk us right into his heart.

El Guayabo and Semana Santa

Friends and Family,

Well, the months of March and April have flown by, and I can’t believe we are looking at May just around the corner. I hope that all of you who are planning on graduating do well on your exams, and I know that you are all excited for summer.

You Know You're on the Mission Field When...

I thought we should share a few of our day-to-day happenings, just in case some of you needed a nudge to head out into the field soon. I'm sure these should do the trick. I'm also assuming some of the others who have lived or visited outside the U.S. can relate, as well as those focusing on missions at home. Here we go...

You know you're on the mission field when...

Woops…..been a while, aye?

Wow, sorry we’ve checked out for the last month. At least you know that means we’re hard at work! I’ll try to update you on the first half of December in Nicaragua and then our amazing time in the States (shout out to you state-siders=).

The beginning of December wasn’t too eventful, although that may just be because it was over a month ago. We went on a missions trip in-country with the Vida Joven (Young Life) Chapter at El Puente. We were 2 of the 18 people who went on the trip to visit the small community of Chacalapa, about an hour and a half to the southwest of Granada.

Love. The Gospel at Work.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were yet sinners [stealing, drunk, seductive, angry, frustrated, short-tempered, inconsiderate, ill-mannered, annoyed, untrusting, vengeful, impatient, lustful, unforgiving], Christ died for us.  Romans 5:8

When do you love? How far will you go to love? How long will you love?

New House, New Home...New Everything

Three weeks down. We tend to think the work of God can be set aside for you to transition and get settled and learn a little of the language and culture, but our God is not a God of this world, and for that I am truly happy, whether uncomfortable at times or not.

Last we checked in, we shared how God was already answering our prayers for discipleship and protection and good health and for a strong ministry to join in serving Nicaragua. God, always faithful, continued on by capturing my heart in the most unlikely way: challenges. I have to be absolutely honest and say that the last 3 weeks have been hard.

Arriving and Settling in for the Ride

I am pleased to share that we have arrived. We are home. It's been such a blessing to be here for only 3 days but to feel at home, in the exact place God has planned for us. I feel so deeply loved by His provisions, His answers to many prayers, and for the adventure we are on. The concept of adventure entered our mutual vocabulary with our first trip to Granada last summer, and it has been on my mind ever since. I started praying then for my own ability to be bold and courageous because it was in Granada last year that I realized that my husband is very much so....and I am not.

Transitioning.....I love the peace.

Well, we are into the first leg of our move, staying in Texas and enjoying time with family before we head out on the second half and down into our home in Nicaragua. God has been blessing us with fun, relaxation, and renewal as He prepares our hearts for stepping into His Kingdom work.