In Nicaragua, it’s getting more difficult to worship God openly. In August, the Nicaraguan government forcefully closed over 1,600 churches and nonprofit groups. Those closures happened in one week. The government accused all those groups of being dishonest about their finances.
Still, even though the Nicaraguan government really wants complete control of the country, God is at work.
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega first came to office during the 1980s, lost the 1990 race, and then was reelected in 2006. In 2011 and 2014, the Nicaraguan government changed the country’s constitution to allow Ortega to keep running for president. His wife, Rosario Murillo, has been his vice president since 2016.
In April 2018, demonstrators began calling for Ortega’s resignation. The government began to target anyone who disagreed with its authority. That’s when churches stepped in to provide safe haven for protesters. Now in his fourth straight presidential term, Ortega sees Christianity as a threat to his power.
There were about 7,227 Nicaraguan nonprofits in 2018. Since then, the government has closed more than 5,000 nonprofits, many of them with religious ties. That means fewer charities, orphanages, food pantries, and, of course, churches.
Mountain Gateway is an evangelical Christian ministry that Britt Hancock founded. The group planted churches in Nicaragua, provided hurricane disaster relief, and organized evangelism events. In November 2023, one of these events drew in around 200,000 Nicaraguans.
“We had the full cooperation and approval of the Nicaraguan government and their backing,” says Hancock.
Until they didn’t.
The following month, Nicaragua’s government arrested 10 pastors. The wife of one of the pastors and two attorneys representing the ministry were arrested too.
The government wrongly accused the ministry leaders of lying about their income. But the pastors watched the trial from a video livestream that had no audio feed from their side.
Those 13 people faced between 12 and 15 years in prison and fines of $80 million each.
Even though Pastor Hancock hasn’t been in Nicaragua for months, the government had a warrant for his arrest too.
Mountain Gateway can’t operate in Nicaragua anymore since the state took everything the ministry had in the bank—about $5 million. The government also confiscated all laptops and records.
Hancock spent months in Washington, D.C., hoping to encourage politicians to speak up about what’s going on in Nicaragua.
On September 5 of this year, Nicaragua’s government released 135 prisoners. Among those were the 13 Mountain Gateway detainees.
“This is the day we have been praying and believing God for,” says Britt Hancock in praise.
by Bekah McCallum in Duluth, Georgia
Why? Evil men cannot stop what God has planned.
