Page 12 - News Autumn_winter 2025 fv

SWG didn’t need to be asked twice! The Education
Minister wrote to SWG, asking them to go into every
public school and give 1.7 million children a Bible.
It was a huge challenge, and SWG felt that the way to
achieve it was to share the Gospel first, then give a Bible.
The Education Minister agreed.
SWG decided to divide the country into a grid system,
approaching the churches that were near the schools.
They trained the churches how to share the Gospel. They
gave them magazines and the details of the local schools.
And the churches went into the schools and distributed
Bibles to 1.1 million children in two years.
But there was more to come! Pastors who are close to
the government like Dr. Oscar found out what SWG were
doing and opened the Federación de Iglesias Evangélicas
Nicaragüenses (FIENIC) door to them. FIENIC is the only
evangelical alliance in the country. They have asked SWG
to give a million Scriptures to their congregation.
Going forward, SWG will continue with the school
programme until all 1.7 million children have been
reached. Importantly, they have also accessed "Thru the
Bible (TTB)" resources, which include commentaries and
Bible Study material. They will also continue working with
the churches.

SWG are training more people to run Spark Clubs for
young people, which fits in with the churches and the
school programme. At same time, through FIENIC, they
are giving the adults the Scriptures they need.
Despite these setbacks, God continued to work and
in 2018 another strand of the story began. Through
mutual connections, SWG was introduced to Dr. Oscar
Sobalvarro, a heart surgeon who had given up his medical
practice to begin ministering full-time. Dr. Oscar had a
vision to bring the Gospel to an indigenous group called
the Miskito. The Miskito suffered so many of the usual
blights that indigenous groups suffer from – government
neglect, extreme levels of unemployment and rampant
alcoholism (especially among men).
Having seen the SWG HOPE magazine, Dr Oscar asked
them to produce HOPE magazines in the Miskito
language to help evangelism efforts with this tribe.
Later in 2018, the Miskito HOPE was launched and gained
significant support from local pastors and missionaries.
Little did SWG know the effect this would have on its
future in Nicaragua.
At the start of 2022, when Covid restrictions were lifted,
Giorgio flew back to Nicaragua to see if the work could
be resurrected.
While he was there, he met the Minister of Education
who told him that the respect SWG had shown for
their culture had been recognised. She opened a
HOPE magazine and pointed at the beautiful pictures
of Nicaragua. “This shows our country in a good light”
she said. “We’ve noticed you haven’t been involved in
the student unrest, and you use our printers. You are
investing in our country. And you’ve invested in the
forgotten Miskito people too. We’ve been watching you
all these years and we know we can trust you. We believe
the only way we can bring truth and reconciliation to
this country after the civil unrest and Covid is to provide
every school-age child a Bible. Will you do that?”

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