Thursday, December 31, 2009
#6 Harvest Truly is Great...
Friday, November 27, 2009
#5 For thy mercy is great above the heavens...
Davy’s youth group left and Richard’s grandparents came-Donald & Lena Mae Burkholder. They brought a small bag along from my parents JJThat was great to get some things from home. Sunday night, November 15th, we had staff church at Krista & Karen’s house. It was a great evening- hearing a message from Dale Eby and just spending time together as staff. We had Tomato Soup, Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Fruit Salad, Honey-bun Cake and Coffee. Twas a marvelous evening!!
Saturday, November 14, 2009
#4 Amidst rain, birthdays and visitors...
Thursday, November 5, 2009
#3 Completion of Language School
Mary - “Buenos DÃas. Cómo está?” (Hello, Good Day. How are you?)
Maria - “Bien. Y usted?” (Good. And you?)
Mary - “Bien. Gracias!” (Good. Thank you!)
Above is how you greet most any person that comes to your house or at church. When I came to Nicaragua, I knew those words, but that was about my limit of making convesation in Spanish. I knew other words, but didn't know if they were nouns, verbs, adjectives, or what. I have now finished 6 weeks of language school in Estelà and have returned to my house.I feel like I learned a lot in those 6 weeks, but there is still a road to trod ahead of me. I will continue to learn new words and be corrected from day to day, but I am looking forward to being able to talk with the dear people here. There are times when it does get frustrating but God gives us the strength we need.
Well the 6 weeks of school are complete and I am now back in my house in La Palmerita. Wow!! does it ever feel wonderful to be home and to be living a normal life from day to day. Now that I am back in the house, there is a lot of work to. The house is always dirty from dust, insects; there is always food to make; and there are flowerbeds to clean, besides I now need to start studying for Wednesday evening children's class. I am kept very busy, and I love it.
The last 2 weeks of language school went very well; however I was ready to come back to the house. The first Saturday of the last 2 weeks, we had classes in the morning at La Casita. We spent the morning talking and learning new words. We saw different interesting things and got to eat some wonderful food.
My favorite at La Casita: Brie Cheese, Whole wheat bread, tomatoes and cucumbers... |
After class ended at 2:00 PM, Dora Elena and her brother Felix (also known as Bayardo) picked us up and off we headed. We didn't know where; all we knew was that it was a great place and Felix wanted to take us there. We drove some pretty bumpy roads and there was dust everywhere. We went to a place known as “Rancho de Don Luis L” We parked the faithful old Jeep and went in and got drinks before heading on a walk. It was fairly easy walking and was very relaxing.
It was gorgeous and you could see for miles upon miles. In the distance, you could see Lake Nicaragua to the right. At night you are able to see the lights of Managua to the left. It was just wonderful to see so far and to view the wonderful creation that God has made. We then walked back to the the Rancho for supper. Wow!!! we had quite the wondeful supper. It was a large plate of grilled chicken, rice, beans, salad, cheese, and fried platinos.
The ride back to the house was much more comfortable as we took the main road back. Felix had taken the other way there just to let us see the scenery. I was tired till I got back. I had a great evening and enjoyed everything. The last week we were there, Felix took us to see his wood shop and construction business. He makes a lot of different things and his shop has a lot of modern tools. He makes wooden baseball bats. He glues different pieces together before turning the bat on the lathe. He also builds house in his business. He is in the process of building a small house beside his shop for a small family to live in. It was a nice little house for a man, lady, and one child.
We came home from Esteli on the bus Friday night and I was so glad to get off the bus and see some familar faces waiting for me at Malpisillo. It felt wonderful to be almost home. We dropped off several other people before heading home. When I got home, there were people here as Laura had invited some of the young people for supper. Rosibel had come up and helped Laura make a Nicaraguan dish for supper and it was really good. After supper, we played a round of soccer. Wow!! It had been a while since I had played but it was great fun. I also had to use my Spanish!! Great experience for me!! The weekend went very fast and before I knew it, I had a new week before me. Monday morning we went over to the church and cleaned it good. While we were there, Johanna's oldest 2 boys came to help. Also while we were there, a drunk man stumbled up and sat on one of the chairs. He proceeded to ramble on – telling the boys, they
weren't doing it right. He just rambled – most of the time making no sense at all. It just makes church cleaning very interesting. Tuesday we headed to La Palmerita – one on a bike and the other on a horse.
We stopped at different homes to visit for a little. Virginia tried her hand at making corn tortillas. She was good at making them. All in all, my day was quite interesting, because I got up close and personal with a huge mud puddle – covered from waist down in mud. What a wonderful feeling!!! a feeling of dread, but so is life. Jump up and put a smile on your face, because it is about 3 hours till you can actually go home and change. It is called a stretching experience, but looking back, I could just laugh. I can only imagine what I looked like flopped in the puddle!! It had to look
humorous. So there is a glimpse of life the last several weeks!! I hope you all got some good laughs.
Thank you for your interest, prayers, & support! God bless!!
First Post of Nicaraguan Updates
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
#2: 3rd and 4th Weeks of Language School
Sylvia and I |
Juancito |
Girls' Class |
Monday, September 21, 2009
#1: First Two Weeks of Language School
Greetings to one and all of my dear friends and family far and wide. Blessings to you as you continue to serve the Lord wherever He has called you. No matter where you may be, God is there. He is the same God of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. His love is never-ending, His mercies are new every morning.
God is has been so great as we have been serving Him from day to day in Esteli, Nicaragua. We left Malpaisillo Monday morning at 9:00 and headed to Esteli. We were not far from Esteli when we got into a traffic jam, due to bands marching in remembrance of Nicaragua's Independence Day. We went around the jam and got some interesting rides through the back woods of the town. Once we arrived in Esteli, we went to Los Pipitos and met Yocanda, who took us to see the available host places. We decided to stay with Dora Elena Gonzales, a widowed lady. We dropped our luggage off there and then we as a staff went to Tip Top for lunch before going to see a waterfall nearby.
At the waterfall on the outskirts of Esteli |
Tuesday morning came and it was time to get and get ready for classes. We had breakfast then off to catch a taxi and on our way to school. We got to school kinda early, so we spent time looking up common things and finding out the Spanish word for them. Tuesday Karen and I were in a class together. That day was spent telling her all about our families. It was quite interesting considering we hardly knew any Spanish. We relied on our electronic dictionaries far a lot of help that day. After break, we took the bus partway down Central Street and stopped at a little bread shop and Yocanda bought some bread to take home and bought us each a muffin to eat. The muffin was very good. We spent the rest of our class period walking along the street with Yocanda pointing out different things to us and telling us the names of them in Spanish. Yocanda took us to our house and we took a nap that afternoon. After supper that night, we spent time studying what we had gone over in class that day.Wednesday morning and it is time once again to get up and head to school once again. We were once again in a class together; this time learning about parts of the body. After break, we walk to the market and spend the rest of the class period walking through the market finding out the name of all the different fruits and vegetables. She bought us each a little purple fruit that you peel back the skin and sucked on it till all was left was the seed. We separated at the supermarket. Yocanda continued on her way home and we went into the the market and picked up a few things that we needed. We walked home and had lunch, then off to bed we went for a nap before getting up and getting ready to go out to supper with Yocanda, Marlene, Steven, and Elizabeth.
Supper at the Chinese Restaurant |
Thursday morning: off to another day of school. We started out the morning in separate classes. My teacher was Yocanda and she started by pointing to different objects in the room and saying the name in Spanish. At break, we spent the time to walk through “Los Pipitos” a facility for handicap children and adults. “Los Pipitos” is located on the same grounds as the school. We were able to see all the different shops that are there – candle shop, carpenter shop, painting shop, and such. The children that are capable work in these different shops. There is a little store there were you can purchase the items that are made by the people of “Los Pipitos”. After break, we were once again in classes together as Yocanda was not feeling well. She left and Marlene took over the classes for the rest of the day. We went over common sayings, words, and greetings for the rest of the class period. After class was over, we got a taxi home and I was not feeling very well so I spent the afternoon sleeping. We spent the evening studying around the table. Friday,we spent half of the class time at school and the other half at La Casita-the little house.
The kitchen at La Casita |
Sunday morning we spent time in the park studying the Sunday school lesson after which we went for a walk before coming back to the house for lunch. The park was very busy at that time of the morning. There were people everywhere and it was very interesting to watch every one of them. There were several people there that had battery operated cars for the children to ride. They were kept quite busy all morning. The children were in the glory riding in circles that some forgot to watch where they were going and would almost run into the stage, a bench, or a unobservant person. There was also walking vendors that would stop at the park to adjust the items that they were selling, such as the guy in the photo to the right. His goods were all out of shape when he got to the park, so he spent quite a bit of time reorganizing them nicely.
Selling toys in the park |
I thought that coming back to El Terrero this weekend would make it hard to go back to Esteli on Monday, but I can't wait to get back and get back into school. I want to be able to talk the language and in with time, the Lord will give me the utterance and knowledge to speak Spanish. I can definitely say, I am starting to understand more than I could 2 weeks ago.
We had decided to come home this weekend, so Thursday, I asked Dora Elena (our host) what time the express bus leaves for Leon. She didn't know but, the dear sweet lady called the bus terminal and asked for us. We met our teachers on Friday morning and walked through the organic market. It was 10:00 till we actually got to school, because we took a bus from the market and spent 30-45 minutes on it till it dropped us off at the school. We spent the morning in class and then got a taxi back to Dora's for lunch and a quick nap before grabbing our suitcases and getting a taxi to the bus terminal. We got there in plenty of time, but also go good seats. We were seated on different seats because I was getting off in Malpaisillo It left at 3:00 on Friday afternoon and I was excited to be going home for the weekend. I was so happy to see the white truck with the blue tarp sitting at the end of the road in Malpaisillo. Jason and Virginia came to pick me up.
However, the weekend was different from what I expected it to be. When we got home, I noticed that Laura had a candle burning, but didn't really seriously think of it, until Virginia said that we have been out of electric since Thursday evening. I thought, “oh wow”! This could make for an interesting weekend cause I needed to do some washing. It all worked out though, Randy would start the generator every so often, so we were able to do 2 loads of wash on Saturday. We did not get electric back till Sunday morning, while we were at church.
We had back to Esteli tomorrow morning. I will meet the bus at Malpaisillo at 5:00 and
we have about a 2-hour ride from there to Esteli, so Lord willing we will be back in Esteli
tomorrow.
Blessings to all of you!
First Post of Nicaraguan Updates
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Joyful Heart Chorus Mini Tour
#1 (Are you Dressed for the Wedding) We started to sing that song Sunday morning and I got ""holy goosebumps" I was so excited. I think back now on the events drawing to it. Sat morning, I went to Clay Bookstore for Mom and I kinda did a little shopping of myself. A book caught my eye, (now I wish I had bought it), but I will get it for tour. It was called "Thy Creator is Thy Husband" That thought struck me like never before. Then Sunday morning, Jordan walked out halfway through the first half and me being the big sis I am got kinda worried. It felt like a huge weight settled on my shoulders and Bev told me later she saw the instant change come over me, so she sent Doug out to check on him. Jordan had got kinda dizzy, so he went out right after we finished a song and drank formula and Gatorade and came back in and finished the program. I of course had myself worried sick till the intermission, but he was fine and I thought you know what " he is old enough to take care of himself and I can let him do it" and the guys told "hey go out if you don’t feel good that way you don’t collapse up front" When we went back in for the final half, I had a peace I never had. I don't know if my face radiated it or not but the 2nd half was so awesome. It was like God was telling me to "Let go and Let God"
#2 (We are Not Alone) Sunday morning Doug shared about the man and the footprints and Sunday night as we were singing that song it just all fell into place "we are not alone" when we look back and see just one set of prints we are not alone. That is when he is carrying us. How awesome is that?
#3 Prince of Peace, Control My Will -
Prince of Peace, control my will; Bid the struggling heart be still; Bid my fears and doubtings cease, Hush my spirit into peace. Thou hast bought me with Thy blood, Opened wide the gate to God; Peace I ask, but peace must be, Lord, in being one with Thee. May Thy will, not mine, be done; May Thy will and mine be one; Chase these doubtings from my heart, Now Thy perfect peace impart. Savior, at Thy feet I fall, Thou my life, my God, my all; Let Thy happy servant be One forevermore with Thee!
This song has so much meaning. Am I one with Him. All I can is the Lord is awesome in all He revealed to me this weekend. I am on fire for Him.
I can hardly wait to see what all God will continue to do in my life. We serve an awesome God.
He is coming back!