July 2026 Conchshell Chronicles

The Conchshell Chronicles

The Journal of Seek The Lamb and the Rio Coco Cafe Ministry

Seek The Lamb hosts the First Young Life Leadership Conference!

This past month we hosted  the first Young Life Leadership  Conference in our renovated     Discipleship Center in Waspam Rio Coco Nicaragua. The sessions focused on our relationship with Christ and our outreach to the communities on the Coco River.

 

 

This is the first of many gatherings at our building which  we constructed in 2008 and has been used as our office and training center since.

 

 Thanks for all you  who prayed and contributed to the new roof!

 

We are reaching the next generation after 37 years of primary, secondary and adult education along the lower Rio Coco in Nicaragua, one of the most isolated regions in all of Central America.

OUr team leaders are Nutie and Tom Keogh who are doing such a good job in leading this project! Nutie is an award winning recording artist and worship leader and Tom is fluent in the Miskito language and teaches Bible seminars on the Rio Coco. 

 

 

Our Downriver Community loves these two who have worked for decades among these isolated villages.

Pray as we begin the process of starting Bible Clubs with Young Life in these downriver communities.

 

Lamb Bleatings

Personal Relationship

Laura  Bagby

 

I have pondered long and hard over what my life would be like if 50 years ago I did not accept the challenge of asking one pertinent question,

“GOD, IF YOU ARE THERE, SHOW ME and who is this JESUS that ends this prayer I am doing every morning and every night?”

My very strong Buddhist Auntie Lillian showed up one day with a friend who was a person that could read minds and see things she couldn’t have known. Eileen was her name and because she said a few things that no one could ever see or know, I took note. They said they were Christians and had a personal relationship with Jesus who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

I was fascinated by the spiritual realm because I saw into it and had no understanding.  I saw evil manifest itself through humans. We burned incense in our house and  essentially worshipped evil spirits thinking they were our ancestors that needed our help to get to the other side wherever that was…We worshipped a box thinking that god (kamisama) was contained there somehow.  We did palm reading and lots of superstitution...none seeming to have too much purpose and lasting meaning.

My Auntie Lillian was no longer mystic, vague and   confused. She had an aura of peace, purpose, love and joy. I had been searching for “more” but never knowing how or what I was looking for.  The more came as I “religiously” said the Lord’s Prayer that she had given to us.  My Auntie was inspired and connected to a Force I did not know or recognize.

 I began to wonder, “Who is this JESUS?”...THE WORDS, IN THE NAME OF GOD THE FATHER, GOD THE SON AND GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT? What was the meaning of it? One God, One Creator who made everything for a purpose to serve on this earth.  Every created thing has a divine purpose.  “God if you are there and if you made me to be here….what do you want? Who are you? Why did you make me for?”  I felt like my     answers came like a slow drip...bit by bit and I put one foot in front of the other to examine what History said about Jesus Christ and the relationship I could begin with the triune God. I investigated through books and kept asking God for answers.

The Bible says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal Life.” John 3:16

I began to realize that God had a special love and plan for me and my life. I began to feel the pleasure of His love for me and how much He cared for the details.  I enjoy having  personal relationships with people, but this relationship I    accepted into my heart transformed every part of my being. The darkness subsided.  The Light and Love God gave to me was very specific and pulled me into a world I had never known .  The reality of His existence became more personal and intimate.  Now the prayer is, “God show me who you are and what you want to do .  I am here and want to line myself up with you for your plans and  purposes. Help me to see what they are and how you   want to execute your way.”

INSPIRATION: The sudden spark of creativity or motivation that reconfigures your mind, making new possibilities feel  necessary and attainable.

Inspirate: meaning to breathe into...connecting you to an intangible force that connects you to fresh ideas, fuels your intrinsic drive and pushes you toward action.  I Love being  inspired by my Eternal all powerful Creator God and having a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP with the Perfect Designer and maximum Inspirational force. “Thank you for reaching out to me, Lord long ago and for inspiring me along.”

I want to also thank all of you for inspiring us in our faith walk by your gifts and prayers for us as we walk out the design of God and what He wants to accomplish in and through our lives and the Rio Coco Café ministry. We continue to live by faith as volunteers and believe God provides for all that He wants to do in a not-profitable café ‘business.’  Thank you for the ways He has used you to help.  Thank you our Maui Ohana for sending us your ALOHA WEAR to help with our fundraiser for RIOALOHA 100% HUMANIC!  Laura

What a blessing you are! MAHALO!

 

 

 

 

Wisdom Paved The Way

Michael Bagby

At the Constitutional Convention where our founders designed the form of our present United States government (May 25 to September 17, 1787), George Washington serve as the convention president and sat in a chair with a half sun with rays painted on the top.

Washington's Chair

National Park Service Public Domain

In the 12 years after the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775 there had been many hardships, with many divisions between the States. The struggle against the British Empire, with the mightiest army and navy in the world, had cost many lives and personal fortunes. With an uncertain future, delegates from 12 of the states met to form a workable central government that would provide a more efficient administration while protecting the rights of the citizens and the sovereignty of the individual states.

As the Preamble declares:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

It was an incredible process, and things moved slowly, with each state often expressing differing opinions on how to proceed.

Finally on June 28^th, Benjamin Franklin offered this suggestion:

I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proof I see of this truth that God Governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?

 We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that “except the Lord build the House they labour in vain that build it.”

I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better, than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing Governments by Human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest.

I therefore beg leave to move-that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this City be requested to officiate in that Service.

The atmosphere changed after Franklin’s speech with Washingtom noting “A spirit of accommodation was happily infused into the leading characters,” which opened the door to peacefully working through their differences. Members of the convention later used these words to describe the effect of that critical moment in our history: “miracle, finger of the Almighty, finger of God, Providence, or superintending Power,” to describe the feeling and momentum that pervaded in Independence Hall.

As a result, they were able to finish their work on September 17^th, providing us with an extraordinary, never-seen-before-in-human-history structure of government that has in some form been the model for all democratic societies since!

What was the key to the wisdom of our Constitution? It seems it was the moment that the members turned to the God of Creation to solicit His Wisdom in their decisions. Many knew these verses from Book of Proverbs:

My child, listen to what I say, and treasure my commands. Tune your ears to wisdom, and concentrate on understanding. Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding. Search for them as you would for silver; seek them like hidden treasures.
Then you will understand what it means to fear (understand the awesomeness of) the LORD, and you will gain knowledge of God. For the LORD grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest. Proverbs 2:1-7

Wisdom is personified in the Bible. It is an individual.

Does not wisdom call, and understanding lift up her voice?
On top of the heights beside the way, where the paths meet, she takes her stand;
Beside the gates, at the opening to the city, at the entrance of the doors, she cries out:
 “To you, O men, I call. By me kings reign, and rulers decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, all who judge rightly.” Proverbs 8:1-4, 15-17

‘Heights’ are what the city values most. In ancient Athens it was the Acropolis where the philosophers gathered. In Corinth it was the Temple of Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love, where men and women went worship and to have sex with the temple prostitutes. In New York it is the skyscrapers, the places of business. In Los Angeles, it’s the ‘Hollywood’ sign on the hill, and the associated morals and lifestyle of our present generation.

‘Where the paths meet’ is the marketplace, where we conduct commerce. The ‘gates’ in ancient cities are where the city council met. The ‘entrance of the doors’ are the individual homes where families dwell.

Wisdom is crying out to our culture centers, our marketplaces, our governments and homes.

“Let me in! Let me guide your decisions! My way is the logical fabric of God’s Creation, it is what works best for humanity!”

The Apostle John identified Wisdom Personified:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh, and  dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth John 1:1-2, 14

The Greek term for ‘Word’ is ‘Logos’ which refers to ‘the active creative force of God and the Wisdom of God’. Jesus Christ is the Creator and Wisdom of God.

We can know Him. We can talk to Him. We can receive wisdom and divine power from Him.

This is what happened at the Constitutional Convention after Dr. Franklin suggested daily prayer for guidance in the proceedings. It happened! God provided us with a unique form of government that is the foundation for the greatest civilization in human history! This is why Dr. Franklin said on the day they all signed the Constitution:

I have often looked at that picture behind the president without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting. But now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun.  B. Franklin

Is it time to petition God for Divine Wisdom for our societal issues?

Is there any other source of wisdom that actually works?

 

Seek The Lamb Giving

How Can You Help This Month?

1) Help us with the funds for the solar panels on Utila. Electircity is the most expensive in the Western Hemisphere at 47 centa a KWH.

2) Help us repair the Waspam office roof. We nbeed to add hurricane supports.

3) Support one of our Seek The Lamb missionaries;

To make a secure tax deductable donation please go to:

 Seek The Lamb Giving Page

 

Rio Coco Beans Coffee

One of our most delicious fund raising efforts was starting a coffee roasting business in 2004 by selling Nicaraguan coffee. In 2008 we purchased our Diedrich 12 kilo roaster, in which we slow roast our high altitude hand picked specialty coffee.

After starting with coffee from Nicaragua, we discovered Ethiopia coffee and now roast two from Yirgacheffe in the south and Guji in the north.  We added coffee from the Pacific region as well: first from Sumatra, then Timor, Papua New Guinea, and Java. We met coffee farmers in Honduras and began roasting coffee from Copan, Marcala and Siguatapeque. Later we found some delicious Colombian coffee, as well as a Mexico Chiapas.

Stop by our webstore and purchase some of our coffees. If oyu join our coffee club, you will get 15% off and you can change or cancel your roder at any time.

Rio Coco Bean Store

 

Aloha and thank you for being with us!