#11 Time...How it flies

This post was an email update that was sent out during my time spent in Nicaragua from 2009 to 2011. I started posting them here when some of my friends who had not received them, wanted to see and hear about the work there. You can access the entire list here.

Greetings to all of my fellow labourers, where ever the Lord has placed you today. The Lord I serve here in Nicaragua is the same Lord that you serve. He has placed us all in different places. Each and every day there is something that will remind me of a different attribute of God. The picture to the right was taken one day when we were driving to León. As I marveled at the power and force needed to make whirlwinds such as this one, I thought of the power of our Lord. We serve an all-powerful Lord.

Time has continued to move along here in El Terrero and La Palmerita. Each day is filled with so many different things – some are new things and some are just the same regular. It has been 2 weeks since we said good-bye to Vera Hoover(Randy’s mother) and Colleen Stauffer(Virginia’s sister) It was a blessing to have them here and spend time with them. It was especially wonderful to get to know Virginia’s sister as she lived in our house while she was here.

On February 19th, we spent the day in Masaya and Caterina. We started the day by going to the Masaya Volcano and spending some time there. From there we went to the Masaya Marketplace. I always enjoy just walking through the market and seeing all the things. The part I like the best of this marketplace is the stand that makes fresh fruit juices. I get one each time I go and they are so refreshing. When we left the marketplace, we headed for Caterina, making several plant shopping stops on the way to buy some more plants for around the houses here. Then came the place I love the most – Caterina. It is such a gorgeous place and so pleasant. All around there, there are groups of men with instruments and they all want to play songs for you. We actually played one group to sing 3 songs for us and I enjoyed it very much. It was a rather calm group of older gentlemen and it was very relaxing. We spent time walking around – through the gift shops and just enjoying ourselves before enjoying a very good supper. I had the plat pictured below. It was a piece of beef with a Jalapeno sauce, with rice, salad, fried plantains. It was so good and filling. I enjoyed myself very much that day, but was very tired till the day was over. On the way home, I crashed on one the benches in the back of the truck and slept most of the way home. It was nice and cool and felt good. On the 22nd, we had a pizza supper with Hector and his family. On the 25th, we took the women back to the airport and spent time in Managua.

Dinner at Catarina

Musicians at Catarina

We continue to have services in Rota on every 3rd Saturday. We hold services in the home of one of the families. There is both a Jehovah’s Witness church as well as a Catholic church there in Rota. We have now begun to hold illiteracy classes there. As of now, there is 3 faithful students. Just pray that God would continue to open doors and make us aware of different ways we can minister to the people of the community. If I remember correctly, there are approximately 30 different homes in that community. When we walk through passing out Antorchas(a small Spanish magazine) or extending an invitation to the service, I see so many children and my heart goes out to them. At times, there are children that do come to the Saturday evening service and sometimes there is not.

As most of you know, I come from a family that loves to butcher and every year we get together for a 2-day butchering event. Well, I didn’t know how much I would miss it until I was here and they were there butchering. Well, Hector – our neighbor man, was planning on butchering a pig and came up to see if we would like to buy anything from him when they butcher, so we decided to buy some meat and just for the anyhow, I decided to ask him if I could buy bones, and he is like “what do want the bones for” Now how do you explain what scrapple is? But we were able to explain it to him and we bought bones under the condition that we would let him taste it. I spent Wednesday, the 3rd, cooking the bones and Friday, the 5th, we made the scrapple. It was quite an experience for me as I have never made scrapple over a wood fire. At home we always used propane, but we wanted to keep the heat out of the kitchen, so we did it outside over a wood fire. I had so much fun making it and for some reason it is always more fun to taste it after you worked so hard to make it.

This week has been a busy, but different week. Randy’s, Richard’s, and Jason flew to Belize Monday morning for several days of Central America Ministers’ Conference. Dwight & Heidi moved into Randy’s house Sunday night and Wednesday night we all went into León. We girls will be staying in León until sometime Friday. Friday evening we then need to run to La Paz Centro to meet them coming back from the airport and pick up Randy’s and Jason.

I would like to introduce you to Rosibel. She is my young neighbor girl. She is 16 years old and I enjoy spending time with her. She is at our house numerous times through the week. She is part of the Evangelical church nearby. Please pray that I might make a positive influence in her life as we interact.

Thank you for all your prayers and support. Thank you for your concern and interest about the work that I am involved in. I feel the love and care of those I love. God bless you and shine bright for the Lord in the next weeks.

Love, Andrea