GFC Global Outreach
Nicaragua Mission Trip, June 14-22, 2025
This past June, members of GFC, Miah Roth, Nora Pugh, Tim Bailey, and Dr. Trish Burgess travelled to Nicaragua on a medical mission trip. They offered free healthcare, but even greater—they shared the hope of Jesus through kindness, compassion, and care.
Tim Bailey’s Story
It was an amazing adventure. Every day I left fully drained, yet completely filled. I saw God reflected in every face. It has changed me in ways I could never have imagined. My name is Tim Bailey, I’ve been a member of Grace for eight years, and I just got back from a Global Health Outreach (GHO) medical mission trip to Nicaragua. A little over three years ago, Trish Burgess, the Director of GHO, joined our Small Group, and since then, I have had the opportunity to hear several stories of the mission trips she leads all over the world. I’m not a medical professional, but I felt a strong desire to help, so I signed up to be a “servant.” I really had no idea what being a “servant” would entail, but I trusted that God had a plan.
A few weeks after I signed up, Trish told me, “I see you are on my team. I have plans for you!” And she did! I was “volun-told” right out of my nice, neat comfort zone – in a great way. The first day, I worked at the eye glass clinic; the second I was a pharmacy tech; days three, four, and five, I worked triage taking blood pressures and weighing babies and all this while being assigned to preach for the first time in 20 years and leading a three-day Pastor/Discipleship training course.
By nine o’clock each morning, I was drenched in sweat. By six in the evening, I was exhausted. But I became more alive than I had been in a very long, long time. One of the early church Fathers, Irenaeus, wrote, “The glory of God is a man fully alive.” Each day, I saw and felt the glory of God as we prayed with every patient (over 1200 total), and we were blessed to lead 77 new brothers and sisters to Christ. I saw God in the faces of the people of Nicaragua, especially in the children. Even amidst extreme poverty (the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere) and the very real hardships, there was peace, joy, and love. It was wonderful how the Holy Spirit was working in their lives.
One thing that I hadn’t counted on was how the Holy Spirit was working in my life and in the lives of our team. He was making deep changes in each of us. For me, the words that Pastor Matt preached several weeks ago from Luke 17:10 kept coming back to me (I’m paraphrasing it): “I’m just an unprofitable servant doing what I was called to do.” It was not “look what we’re doing” but rather “look what God is doing.” He was using us to be His hands and feet. In a way, it was an awakening of something I already knew – God’s Kingdom is rapidly expanding, and He chooses to allow you and me to participate in amazing ways. This is our calling – to do what we’re called to do.
