Lord, Let Me See The People
Lord, let me see the people. There’s so many now in need.
Lord, let me take a message. Let me plant a seed.
There’s someone now that’s hurting. They’re broken deep inside.
Oh lead me sweet, sweet Spirit in your love let me abide.
Lord, let me see the people. Lord, let me see the people.
Lord, I’m just a steeple pointing to the sky.
Let me go where they are hurting. Cry when they cry.
Lord, let me see the people. Lord, don’t let them die.
Lord, let see my neighbor. There’s so many that I love.
Lord, let me be a blessing. Lead me Holy Dove.
There’s a baby somewhere crying. There’s a broken-hearted lad.
There’s a mother that is missing and a home that needs a dad.
Lord, let me see the people. Lord, don’t let them die.
As different events took place in the past several weeks, this song came to mind many times when I was wondering “why.” It is my heart’s desire to see the hurting ones and to be there for them. The last verse matches the story of the little boy on the top-right in more ways then one. Many of you may recognize him from many other emails. He is Yeral, the middle son of Johana (Just a refresher for some of you that may not know her – she is a young mother that has had contact with the mission for several years. This past June she was baptized and received as a member of the La Palmerita congregation. However she no longer is faithful and has been living with a young man.) On Tuesday, the 15th, we ladies all went to La Palmerita for our normal day of classes with different ladies. While Virginia was out inviting children to an afternoon of activities & games, she found out that Yeral was running a high fever and one of the ladies made it sound as if he was seriously ill. Johana had left on Saturday the 12th, and left Wilbur-11 & Yeral-10 in La Palmerita. She told them she would return on Sunday the 13th. However on Tuesday, she still had not returned. After our classes, we decided to go see if we could find Yeral. We found him in the neighbor’s black plastic shack. When Virginia called his name, he responded calling my name. We found him in the back corner on a cot. He was running a fever and seemed a little delirious. After talking it over, we decided to ask him if he wanted to go to our house. Without any hesitation, he said “yes.” He told us that he had a headache and fever when he came home from school, so he had walked to the clinic. They had given him some pills but he still had a fever. His fever was 102° - 103°, so we gave him a Tylenol and some juice. We brought him over to our house as Randy’s were headed to Managua. It took him a while to relax and so we asked him if he wanted to listen to some music. He was out in 10 minutes. He slept for several hours and he still had a fever when he woke up. We gave him an Ibuprofen. When he woke up at 9:00, he seemed much more himself and was hungry. We prepared some supper and then he went off to bed. He had no fever the following morning, so Randy took him back to La Palmerita so he could go to school. Wilbur told us that he did not go to school, because he started running a fever again. Johana returned sometime Wednesday afternoon. As I helped take care of him, I asked myself how she could leave her sons like that. They are so young and still need their mother’s love and care. Please pray for Johana that she might she her need to recommit her life to the Lord and be the godly mother for her boys.
To the left are numerous photos that were taken over the course of the month. The top-left picture is of Melvin and Yolisabet. This picture was taken the day of Melvin’s birthday. Yolisabet is some relative of Melvin – I don’t know exactly how. The center picture was taken on a Wednesday evening. We have been having rather small classes once again. Some times we don’t have more than 10 children. This particular evening our lesson was on Bartimaeus. My friends brought a cute little craft to go along with the lesson. The top-right is of my 2 girls in my Saturday morning class. It has been great to once again have class and to interact with the girls. I look forward to those classes very much. We are studying through the book “Lies Young Women Believe & the Truth that Sets Them Free.” I am hoping that a few more girls will start showing up for class. The bottom-right is Johnny and his two sisters. The one on the left is Connie and the one on the right is Blanca. Once in a while they will come to church. Connie is the mother of twin girls that are a little over a year old. Blanca has been invited to the Saturday girls’ class and I hope to see her soon. The bottom left picture is a morning that we spent cleaning at church. It took us several hours to clean everything good, but once it was done it looked so much better. We took all the benches and table out into the grass to wash 
them.
We decided to do a daffy supper with the church members and the ones in instruction class from both congregations on the 5th Sunday night of January. It was held at Randy's house and we were in charge of coming up with place settings. It made for an interesting time of preparing. We had a supper of garlic bread, spaghetti, and a lettuce salad. We had some very unique place settings, such as an ice cube tray with a straw for water, a dish with mixer beaters for plate & silverware, small dish with a knife, large Utz popcorn container for water... We all got some great laughs trying to eat our food or watching someone else with their setting. We served dessert on normal plates. After supper we had several games going – Dutch Blitz, Uno, and maybe some others – I can’t remember. Most everyone was a good sport and did their best with what they had.
We were invited to the 1st birthday party of Marcia. Marcia is the daughter of Maria Luisa – a lady from Malpaisillo. Maria Luisa attends church in La Palmerita on Wednesday afternoons. She made a cute pink dress and hat for Marcia to wear at her birthday party. It was a typical Nicaraguan birthday party, complete with music, food, and a piñata. She served us plates of party rice with a tortilla and a soda. One thing that the Nicaraguans tend to do is throw the little chicken bones in with the food they are making. 
I was aware of this and was trying to watch out for bones.
However a little piece got missed and I soon found myself with a chicken bone stuck in my throat. It took a little bit, but after a while I was able to get it dislodged. I had a sore throat for the next several days. There was a nice amount of children and they all were having great fun trying to break the piñata. After the piñata was broken, they came around and handed out little bags of candy and crackers to each of the guest. They then served a small piece of cake to everyone before they left.
On the 19th of February, three of my friends – Karen Gingrich, Audrey Martin, & Michelle Landis, arrived to spend almost 2 weeks here in Nicaragua. I was blessed to have them here and we made so many memories while they were here. It was great to be able to spend time with them and catch up on their lives and the things that they are doing this year.
On Friday the 11th, we girls went on a day trip to Managua and surrounding area with Nathan Miller’s family. We started out the day by going to the CAM base, then to Mount Zion Bookstore, before heading to the Masaya Marketplace and Volcano.We also did some fabric shopping in Masaya. We had a great day and all had red noses & arms from riding on the back of the truck that day. We 
finished off the day with a stop at Pizza Hut in Managua.
While the girls were here we also spent a day in Leon. We went into Leon of the 5:45 bus. Delmar invited us to his house for a good breakfast before we started our day. We then emptied our backpacks at Nathan’s before heading to San Juan to do some more fabric shopping. For lunch we went to a small Nica restaurant , before catching the bus to Nathan’s to rest before we went to the beach. We headed out to the beach around 3:00 and just hung out for a while before heading back to Leon. We stopped at the taco place and bought take-outs for supper.
One day we cleaned all the kitchen screens and windows. Everything gets so dusty & dirty right now. Some evenings we would sit down to some games of Dutch Blitz or Skip-bo or maybe we were just having fun sharing past happenings or laughing at comments.
The Friday before the girls left, we planned an afternoon of activities for the children in La Palmerita. We were going to start at 1:30, however it was later till we got started due to transportation problems. Randy’s had gone to Masaya with his folks so we were without a truck. We decided to take 3 horses and 2 bikes. It took me some time to catch our horses and get them saddled up. Randy’s horse refused to allow me to put the strap around her tail. So we saddled her as best as possible before heading to Angel’s for the 3rd horse. They saddled up Rojo and Michelle mounted up. As soon as Virginia let go of the horse’s head, the horse went crazy and tried to throw Michelle. She was able to stay on the horse, but had a very sore foot for several days because he ran her up against the side of the house. It was 1:30 till we ever left the house. We arrived at church shortly after 2:00 without further problems. There was a few children there, but soon a few more showed up. We played water games with then, tied a balloon to their feet, and had a water battle. Most everyone was drenched after we finished the water battle. When it came time to leave, we all saddled up and prepared to head out. I had a tight rein on Randy’s horse when we were riding to church; however on the way home she wanted to run and I couldn’t hold her back. We weren’t far from church, when she came to complete stop. Flat-out running + instant stop = laying in the ditch, covered with dust. I had to wait a while before I could even try and mount her again. I was able to make it home without further incident. Some of us were sore for a couple days afterward. It was a great day in all and it was great to be able to spend time with the children.
Anyway that is a slight overview of the past month. It has been a busy month, but the Lord has been with us and has given us strength for each day. Thank you for your prayers and continue praying. Your prayers are felt in each and every day.
For those of you who may not have heard, I will be in the States between April 20th and May 5th. I hope to see and spend some time with some of you.
God bless each of you in your work!
In His Service, Andrea
