Nicaragua Mission Trip

By Nathan Jones

In mid-May, just as the dry summer months abruptly morphed into the rainy “winter” season in Central America, I left the familiar turf of the United States and traveled to an entirely different world. I was headed for Nicaragua, and my purpose in going there was to bring encouragement and support to one of the foreign missionaries that Lamb & Lion Ministries supports. His name is Donald Dolmus. He is only 30 years old, but he has been remarkably gifted by the Lord, and he is providing a great service to our ministry.

The differences between the United States and Nicaragua are at first starkly obvious. Nicaragua is a nation which has been crushed economically under the politically oppressive years of Daniel Ortega’s socialist government, a government openly hostile to the United States and Israel. Socialism has left the people in abject poverty, second only to Haiti as the poorest of the Gulf of Mexico nations. Their people are denied land ownership due to outrageous interest rates, and well paying jobs are rare. Many sell food like rosquillas (similar to pretzels) on little tables on the side of the road to make ends meet.

Signs of economic depression are manifested everywhere throughout the country by the almost total lack of maintained infrastructure — like good roads, water supply and sewage.

When the garbage on the sides of the roads builds up too much, it is burned, producing smoking fires everywhere. Like the worst inner city neighborhood in our nation, their entire capital of Managua reels under high crime and violence, requiring all homes to be encased in wrought iron and barbed wire.

Nicaragua also suffers spiritually under gross apostasy, and there the similarities to our nation are striking. Catholicism in its purest idolatrous practice dominates the culture, and the Protestant denominations are rife with Kingdom Now and “name it and claim it” false theology.

And yet, despite all the hardships the Nicaraguans endure, their people are a warm and friendly bunch, especially Donald. Donald has a lovely family. His supportive wife Linda keeps a good house and his little son Isai is just the cutest little guy. Donald himself has a fairly good job at a local bank, and is a great husband and father.

Nathan and the Dolmus family are pictured above at the airport in Managua, Nicaragua.

In response to his growing dismay over the sorry state of the Nicaraguan church, Donald began using any free time he had available to preach the Gospel. He became fascinated with Bible prophecy and apologetics, and he started translating articles he found on the Internet and began posting them on his website called En Defensa de la Fe (In Defense of the Faith). He’s using his bilingual talents to translate a good number of our ministry’s articles and is repurposing them on his website, extending our ministry’s outreach far into the Spanish speaking world.

From left to right, Nathan Jones, Roger Lopez and Donald Dolmus.

En Defensa’s website statistics reveal that in the Spanish speaking world there’s a deep hunger for learning about Jesus’ soon return. One such person is Roger Lopez, a humble janitor at Donald’s bank who makes only $150 per month, yet he spends what funds he can scrape together to buy materials on Bible prophecy. I got the pleasure of meeting Roger and delivering to him one of Dr. Reagan’s books, God’s Plan for the Ages, which he received with great joy. He showed me his binder of printed Lamplighter magazines, and he told me that although he does not speak English, he uses a dictionary to translate the magazine’s articles word for word into Spanish. Now that’s a passion for God’s Word!

Donald’s church, Camino de Santidad (Way of Holiness), is like an oasis in a desert of doctrinal confusion. The congregation loves their pastor, and they praise his devotion to sound biblical teaching. That teaching showed as the congregation sat so attentively as Donald translated my teachings at the Bible conference I held at the church on a Saturday. I spoke on Heaven and Israel, and then Donald preached about Replacement Theology. The members of the church sat patiently for two hours per sermon, a six hour time span few Americans would endure. They followed up with an in-depth Q&A time and held the most vibrant prayer time afterwards. That church sure knows how to worship!

"Donald translated my teachings at the Bible conference I held at the church on a Saturday."

I left Nicaragua feeling an “eternity” moment. You know, that coming time when all of God’s people — despite origin, tribe and tongue — will dwell together as brothers and sisters in Christ. It’ll be a blessed time where we all share the one thing that unites us — our passion for our Lord Jesus Christ. I got a taste of that in Nicaragua, and I hope you do too in getting to know Donald Dolmus and his wonderful Bible prophecy ministry. Check out his website at www.endefensadelafe.org, and take the time to send him a message thanking him for the great work he is doing to get our materials out to the Spanish-speaking world.

Note: This article appeared in the latest issue of the Lamplighter Magazine, which is produced bimonthly by Lamb & Lion Ministries.