Nicaragua is a poverty-stricken country plagued by a history of civil war and natural disasters. In 1998, Hurricane Mitch devastated NW Nicaragua, leaving one million homeless refugees surrounded by death and destruction.
In January of 2002, Pastor Tommy Gable visited this area of Nicaragua with a short-term mission team. His heart was touched by the faith, friendliness, and joy of the Nicaraguan people, but at the same time, he witnessed legalism and a spiritual oppression that broke his heart.
A local pastor named Jose Matamoros asked Tommy for help in starting a new church in the village of Candelaria. Tommy, his wife Linda, and a team of mission-minded Christians from the U.S. eagerly took on this exciting new project and began sending teams to help. Thus, “Church Mission Nicaragua” was born!
In 2004, they purchased land, by the favor of the Lord, through Samaritan’s Purse and then registered New Song as a non-profit in Nicaragua. A mission began to grow up around them!
In 2007, the Gables moved to Nicaragua to live and focus on New Song’s assignment. The mother church planted two outreach congregations in that same year, and Linda started some social projects focusing on health, education, recreation, and micro-enterprise.
Jim Bob “Diego” Norman joined them in 2008 and began picking up responsibilities quickly as the mission rapidly grew. Diego was named president of the mission in 2015 and currently leads the mission with a staff of two (United States) Americans and over forty Nicaraguans.
We currently have five churches focused on teaching the Grace of Jesus’ New Covenant. Our vision is to empower local leadership to impact our communities through education, recreation, health & wellness, and mission teams. These ministries create opportunities to share the love of Christ and make disciples. Our vision is to equip the disciples to create ongoing, sustainable ministries.
