I lost my spiritual ‘son’ today

Although he was my ‘son’ spiritually, he was so much more advanced than I could ever be.

JOSE NAPOLEON VILLALTA
!PRESENTE!

QDP Napo!

So. I lost my spiritual ‘son’ today. I put son in quotes because although I had the opportunity to introduce Napoleon to Jesus, he blew past me spiritually. Napoleon Villalta died during his morning prayers around 4 AM today . This is an except from my writing ‘Gleanings from the dump’ about when we first met. Basically, without Napoleon taking us into the dump that day, The Chureca (dump)ministries would have never happened. We are on our 4th generation there now. Read more here in https://docs.google.com/…/124pWYATsWP…/edit

Napoleon Villalta and our first trip to the dump…

A few years after the Contra wars in Nicaragua, Winnie and I had some toys to give to kids in Managua. We were giving presents to the kids in the Managuan churches but they were already getting lots of gifts. We were getting pretty disappointed at the sense of entitlement we encountered. At that time, Operation Christmas Child-Samaritans Purse was still operating in Nicaragua. They have since left, in all reality. At that time they were giving aways thousands of presents to the churches.

Someone recommended, ‘ You should go to the garbage dump, no one goes there to give stuff away’ so we decided to visit. We were surprised to find a thriving community of about 250 families there. We were told by others not to go because there were no roads, only mud and decades of sharp metal objects buried underneath. We were told that the gangs there were ferocious. At that time there were not ministries there, nor any one even going in there that we knew of.

We got a taxi driver who was willing to drive us into the dump. His name was Napoleon Villarta. Napoleon was a sandinista soldier during the war. When he saw me, he said to himself ‘this big fat yankee would have been an easy target during the war.’ He was kind of surly to us. When we asked him to take us to the dump, he got angry and called us crazy. He almost drove off. I said, ‘you’re supposed to be a commie,, you should love and help the poor’. He reluctantly agreed, and charged us big time for his services. When we got to the dump, we were stampeded. and we got stuck in the mud. It was mighty bleak there for a moment, and Napoleon was glaring at us. He lost his temper, and his muffler in the process but God was glorified.

After we had given everything we had away, the happy garbage dump kids helped push us out of the reeking, stinking, burning mud with huge billows of gut-wrenching smoke typical of a garbage dump. I remember seeing thousands of buzzards, a man cleaning a buzzard he had just killed to eat. As always, the memory is brought back when I smell the familiar pungent smell of burning decaying garbage and death. I also remember hundreds of ecstatic parents and children, and most importantly, Napoleon accepting Jesus into his heart that day. Napoleon is now a leader in OANSA Nicaragua *AWANA USA* and a member of Verbo Church.

He actually encouraged us now to be better Christians. I look at Napoleon as a spiritual leader in his church and in his community. He was an elder at Verbo and is the father of many spiritual children.

It was nice to have an elder of the church you go to that was once your spiritual child.

Our hearts have been with the ‘diamonds’ we have gleaned there ever since.

Gleanings from Napoleon..

Don’t listen to the world. Not even to the well meaning people. They will tell you not to go. They will tell you that there are giants and monsters there. You will miss the blessings of God. People there are waiting for you to come. If you listen to the negative people, you will miss a blessing, and other’s will miss a blessing as well.

Napoleon’s life was changed when he stopped listening to the hate propaganda, and then God filled his heart with love and Truth.

“Lord, help me to listen to you and not to others. Help me to be a conduit of love to go where you are not being thought of nor considered. Thank you for your love and salvation, not only for me, but for others…. Amen”

PLEASE  HOLD NAPO\S WIFE, GLORIA AND THEIR KIDS UP IN PRAYER

Love You

Dean AndWinnie