Greetings to all of you in the name of our Precious Lord and Saviour. I pray that this finds you all doing well and serving our Lord with all your mind, soul, and body.
Each week continues to bring something new and leaves many memories behind when the week has closed. One of those memories was making a new friend. I had to come the whole way to Nicaragua just to meet a young lady, Hannah Stauffer (pictured bottom right with her father Glenn), who lives only a couple minutes from my house on Hopeland Road. And to add to that is that my dad knows her dad and has worked with him on jobs. We live in such a small world! Another happening that gave us some laughs was a truck that left us set along the road...Ooops! One Sunday afternoon we were headed to Leon for an afternoon/evening at the beach when we found ourselves stranded by the road. The problem........an empty gas tank! The gas gauge on the white truck has not worked for a while, so we had no way of knowing that we were running on “E.” We were not far out of Leon, so Richard came with the other truck and pulled us to the closest gas station (pictured top left). We arrived on the beach a little later than planned, but we were able to enjoy the water. It was such a beautiful afternoon and the water was the calmest that I have seen in a long time. Hans was a little cold after getting out of the water, as you can see, but he was enjoying the water as well. After he was all dried off, he soon got wet again. He just couldn’t seem to stay away. To finish off the evening, we made a campfire on the beach and roasted some wonderfully, scrumptious sausages that the Ephrata Menn Seniors brought along. The final touch of the evening was some songs sung by a quartet made up of the 3 senior guys and Daryl Weaver – a teacher. It was a wonderful end to a great day. The quartet also blessed the children’s class with some songs that they learned in Spanish.
Once again, here are some more pictures of the continuous work at Randy & Laura’s house. However, as usual till I send the pictures the house does look quite different. Some of her kitchen cabinets are now on the wall. The top picture was of one of the first cabinets to be mounted on the wall. In the bottom left, Benito is laying the shower tile. The shower is now completely finished, however the water pressure isn’t the best, so hopefully in a couple weeks they well get that taken care of. One afternoon and evening, I went out to the house to help Laura finish up the painting in their bedroom and the kitchen. We finished up around 9:00-9:30 and then got the house partially set-up so they could stay there that night.
As you can see above, it was moving day. Randy & Laura were able to move into their house on Friday. Praise the Lord - the rains didn’t provide too much of a problem and they were able to get the majority of their things moved to the house. They still have several things here in my house that they will move once they have more cupboard space, but they have the necessities in their new house.On the one trip to the house I was on the back of the truck holding a rope attached to Ranchita – the dog, so she wouldn’t try to jump off the truck and run back to the house. They kept her tied for several days and then they left her loose. She stayed around at their new house until the other day when we were all went to Managua. We returned to the El Tererro house to find that Ranchita waiting for us. She apparently ran home sometime during that day. 
However we didn’t have such success with the cat. He jumped out the truck window as we drove down the road.
To add to everything, Laura was making lunch for the men last Saturday and cut her finger while chopping carrots. I was in LP at the time having girls’ class, when Randy came to get me to watch the boys so he could taking her to the clinic in Malpaisillo. The poor little boys set up a wailing when their parents left, but they soon calmed down and I finished the lunch and got them down for naps. I then set to organizing and cleaning up the house. The boys were still asleep when Randy & Laura got back at 2:00. They put 3 stitches in her finger, gave her a tetanus shot, and some oral antibiotics.
At first, it seemed a little strange to have so many children around here in El Tererro, but now it seems like a “new” normal. One day this week, I had the pleasure of a young girl’s (Megan) help to clean my house and get it re-organized, since Randy’s moved to their new house. It is always so much more fun when you have someone to help you with it. I still can’t figure out how a house can get so dirty with one person, though it has started raining so there isn’t so much dust anymore. Little Eva kept me company one morning while her parents were in language class. I was typing some emails and she was sitting on the flour talking to me and playing with her stickers. Baby Owen has a cold, but he is such a happy camper after a long nap. He lays there smiling at everything and cooing. It amazing how much he has been growing since they have come. Babies just don’t stay little And then Riley, Nick, and Hans – a naughty combination. What one doesn’t think of, the other one will. And I have never seen such dirty little boys – they have so much fun and they are so forgiving. One moment they can be so mad at the other one and the next they have totally forgotten what just happened.
On Tuesday Randy’s and Keith’s decided to take the day off and go to Managua. The first stop of the day was the Zoo. I am so much a child at heart – it was so much fun to be there and see all the animals. Just seeing all the animals just reminds of the Creative God that we serve – the brightly colored birds, the elegant peacock, the spotted leopards, the striped anteaters. There is so much beauty around us, but it doesn’t even compare closely to the beauty that will surround us in Heaven. The children all enjoyed the animals as well. We had lunch at Papa John’s before heading to the Masaya marketplace to do some hammock shopping. It was a great day, but everyone was ready to get home.
On the church end, there are encouragements and disappointments as always. On Wednesday night, we had a full church – an attendance of 60 adults and children with 45 of them being natives. I had prepared for 20 children and till all was said and done, there was 19 children in the class. There were some children there that had not been to church in a long time. It was a blessing to see them all again and to spend time with them. I always enjoy teaching so much more when there is more, even though they can get pretty rowdy at times.
Johana was at church on Wednesday night as well. We need to continue lifting her to the throne of grace. She came to church with her veil on, which took us all by surprise because it is the first we have seen her with it on since she had taken it off and had stopped coming to church a while back. However she is not wearing it in the house and throughout the week. She said that she doesn’t need to wear when she is in the house. It is only when she goes to special services, such as a church service. She is so deceived and still thinks that she is not living in sin. She has told us that she has repented and wants to do the things of God. Please pray for her that she would sense her need to submit to the Lord in all areas of her life and that she would realize that it needs to be a total commitment.
Thank you for all your prayers! I would love to hear from some of you again!
Committed to His Service, Andrea
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Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. Some days it can just be ramblings, but I hope it has blessed you! "For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ" Ephesians 4:12. Blessings!