#19 Fear Ye Not!

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: Post One of Nicaraguan Updates.

Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it? Jeremiah 5:22 

 

    I continue to enjoy each of the classes that I am teaching. Right now the attendance is somewhat smaller and so we have been just having one class of children on Wednesday and Sunday. Right now my class is studying through the life of the Israelites. I am one that struggles with coming up with craft ideas, but thank you to Christine Nolt, we had a very well-fitting craft for the lesson that we had on the 10 plagues. The children just loved making the frogs and one of the boys even has his craft pasted on the wall in his home. The lesson for today, 7/18, is about the children of Israel crossing the Red Sea, so I took our empty cake mix boxes and cut them apart to make a river bed with walls. We are going to be gluing popsicle sticks on the bottom for the dry ground, as I am not sure were I could come up with dry sand as everything is wet around here. We are then going to use pipe cleaners to make little people. (Later - we made the Red Sea crossing this morning and I enjoyed it so much. I was afraid my class wouldn't go long enough and I would be finish before Timo was finished preaching. However, he was finished preaching before, my class was finished.)

    Girls' class last Saturday, 7/10, was attended well again. I had 4 girls and we had a very good class. I have now started a point system to hopefully motivate each of them to learn their memory verse, come to class on time, and bring their Bibles. We will see how it all goes. We also had a small birthday party for 2 of the girls, so we had cake and chips. I am anxious to have yet another class and to spend time with them and to learn more about each of them. I just pray that I might be a blessing in their lives and they might be able to see the love of God shining through me. They all are at the critical age and it is just my desire to be able to give them a ray of hope in the darkness of the evils of this world.

    Magdelena is one of the young girls who comes to my Saturday classes. She has several older and younger brothers and and an older sister. She lives on Center Street and will sometimes be a faithful attendee at the Sunday and Wednesday services and then it may go several weeks till you see her again. I have been trying to spend time with her when she is at church. So often when she sees me coming, she will take off running and giggling. Just pray for me as I try to relate to her, even though sometimes I wonder if she really knows that I do care.

    We now have our WATER student with us. Her name is Alicia King from Belleville, PA and it has been great getting to know her. Having her here has been a new experience and the first week, it took me a little to find enough to keep her busy. However the 2nd week flew by and as we step into the 3rd week, I have a feeling that one will go just as fast. She has been helping out so much with housework and baking cakes & bread. She also did most of the cutting and preparing for the craft that we will be doing with the children's Bible School this weekend in Rota and by the guys' house in Leon.

                               

    Rainy season is upon us here in El Terrero. We are being so blessed with rain and rain brings big mud puddles. This rainy season has brought me many first-time experiences. The first Monday after Alicia arrived we decided we were going to attempt to into La Palmerita. I had a number of pictures to pass out as well as medicine. We were able to get to the entrance, but we soon ended up pushing our bikes and soon our flip-flops came off as it was too hard to walk with them on. We were able to go up 3rd Street from the bottom, riding our bikes. We stopped in with Johanna and gave her a good laugh before heading on our way. We headed up Center Street and we had to wade through muddy water that came up well over our ankles. We gave some people some good laughs that day. When we returned home, there was no electricity so we resorted to the cow pila to wash up a little. It was a first-time experience for me as well as Alicia.

    Friday night coming home from revival meetings, we kinda got stuck in the mud. We all got out of the truck and tried pushing it. That was to no avail, so Richard went to look for a tractor. After several attempts, they got the truck out. The mud was very slippery and there were ruts almost knee-deep at some places. We girls then loaded on the back and Randy attempted to go through but in a different rut. We were almost stuck, but we girls started getting the truck rocking and we were able to get out of the muddy hole. The nest morning we got up at 5:00 to wash off all the mud in the truck. It still looks pretty clean as it has rained several times since Saturday. We had to go the long way around to get to church Sunday afternoon, as it had rained pretty heavy before church. Thanks be to our Lord, who protected as we drove to and from church for each night of revival meetings.

 

    A rainy season project is crocheting rugs. We ladies are taking all our worn-out dresses and cutting them in strips and Virginia has been crocheting rugs. This is a good activity to do if we are out of electricity and it is raining and we are stuck in the house. She has made 2 rugs from one of her old hammocks and also a rug from some of Laura's dresses. She is now working on a rug from my dresses. So many of our rugs have worn out and it will be nice to have some more here again.

    One activity while the WATER students are here is to take them and climb Cerro Negro - a volcano between El Terrero and Leon. We met in Rota at 9:30 last Friday morning and a group of 7 of us headed to Cerro Negro. This year there were no guys along on WATER - just 2 girls. Alicia King is living with us in El Terrero and Jennifer Weaver from Bonners Ferry, ID (formerly from Lebanon County, Pa). We spent the morning climbing before heading to the beach for the afternoon. We finished the day with supper at a restaurant by the ocean. 

    This past weekend we were blessed with very challenging messages brought to us by Timo Schrock from the Kusili congregation in Waslala. I met several new people from La Palmerita at the meetings. The church house was filled up most every night. Just pray with us we relate with each of the people that came to the meetings as we strive to interact with them and answer questions they may have.

 

Jesus is coming soon!! Are you ready??

 

Blessings to you as you serve!

Committed to Him in Nicaragua, Andrea