#20 Falling Rock, Truck Problems, Nature Lessons...

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.

     And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? Revelation 6:15-17

    As we traveled to Waslala the other week with the WATER students, we came upon the fallen rock above. There was a dirt path going around this rock as it had fallen and covered the road. As I looked at that rock, the above Scripture passage came to mind and I thought of those that the passage talks about. When Christ returns, will you rise up to meet Him or will you cry for the rocks to cover you? Each one of you know the answer to the above question. I just pray that you might think seriously about it. His coming is drawing nigh...Are you ready?

    One of the usual things that we do when the WATER students are here is to take them on a 3-day trip to Waslala. Waslala is about 6-1/2 hours northeast of Leon. Those of us from El Terrero met the Leon staff around 8:30 on Tuesday the 20th in Malpaisillo. We then began our trip headed towards Waslala. The first part of the trip went rather well and we stopped for lunch in La Dalia around 12:00. From there on we had gravel roads to Waslala. Our first stop after lunch was to check out the rattling noise from the back of the truck. The guys determined that problem to something with the brakes. We then continued on, only to be stopped a little later to tie the tarp down due to the approaching storm. As the guys got out to put the tarp down, they heard a hissing sound from under the hood. The radiator was getting hot, so now the search for water. We found water and took care of that problem as good as we could, only to realize that the rear tire was flat. As the guys were changing the tire, it started to rain. We finally got back on the road and stopped one more time to put more water in the truck before we got to Waslala. We arrived in Waslala around 4:00 instead of the prospective 2:30-3:00. But praise to the Lord, we arrived safely. Wednesday morning the guys took the truck to the mechanic shop in Waslala to get fixed. However, that was not the end of our truck problems. When we wanted to leave Thursday morning, the truck would not start! We tried pushing it several times, but to no avail, so we called the mechanic. He arrived sometime around 11:00 and quickly got the truck running. By 11:15 we were on the road headed for Leon. We stopped once to grab a bite to eat, and then kept going. Praise God! We had no major truck issues on the way home and arrived in Leon with about an hour to spare before church.

    I enjoyed our time spent in Waslala and was so glad to be able to spend some time with Pablo & Euni and their family. It was a very refreshing and renewing time for me. The girls rented a gym to play volleyball after we arrived Tuesday night. We played till 6:30 and then went to Pablo's for supper. After supper we all gathered around and sang for a while. It was so wonderful to sing with everyone and to learn a couple new songs. Wednesday we met for breakfast at 8:00. After breakfast Euni & I walked down to the store to buy some flour to make bread. Then several of us girls walked out to Janie's store to look at fabric. Around 10:30 we went for a hike. We walked through the stream up to a waterfall. We stopped along the way several times for Pablo to show us something. In the picture below he was showing us a bird's nest - I think a flycatcher, but don't remember. He gave us a little history about the nest and also how they make them. There were eggs in this nest which is rare for this time of year.

                       

     From there we continued upstream to the waterfall. I just love the outdoors and spending time surrounded by God's beauty. We spent some time in the water and also under the falls. The falls proved to be a great back massage. We then sat down and ate our lunch with the sounds of nature in our ears. Some of the people climbed to the top of the falls and took in some the beauty at the top of the falls. After lunch we hiked downstream, some of us falling into the water. Once we got back to Pablo's, some played volleyball before it was time to get ready for church that evening. They had Prayer Meeting at the Waslala church that evening. We sang for a while and Delmar had a devotional before we split up in small groups to pray. We had supper once we got to Pablo's and then we had several games going - Rook, Skip-bo, Dutch Blitz...Pablo's girls came up to Jacinto's house and spent the night with us. We sat around and talked for a while before heading off to bed. Thursday morning we met for breakfast at 7:30 and then we girls went to Naomi Lee's house before heading to the Waslala Market. We spent some time there before we headed back to Leon.

     On Friday the 23rd and Saturday the 24th, we staff along with the WATER students had a children's Bible school in Rota and in Leon at the guys' house. Friday afternoon found us in Rota. The class did not start till 2:45 instead of 2:00. This year our theme was "The Creation". For our first 2 stories, we used the flannel graph board and put on the cloth pieces as the story was read. However the flannel graph was forgotten on Friday so Jennifer used a whiteboard and drew for us. We then did half of the craft with the children. The craft was a book with 8 pages. It had a cover and and page for each day of the creation.  After doing some of the craft, we continued on with the next story - a question & answer type of story. The final story was done as a skit. It was the story of when Adam & Eve sinned. Everyone did their part so well. After the skit, the children could finish their craft and then they were dismissed. Saturday morning we repeated everything at the guys' house here in Leon. We also did the skit for the children of La Palmerita on Wednesday afternoon and for the Leon congregation on Thursday night.

    Monday the 26th found some of us staff, along with WATER students and the visitors, heading to Granada for the day. We left Leon around 6:30 with a full truck. The cab was full as well as the benches. We had someone also sitting on a bucket. We arrived in Granada around 9:30 and had a brunch at a restaurant there. The food was excellent. I had a BLT sandwich with some of the best bread on it. We then went on a boat ride around Granada and saw different islands. We got off at one of the islands to see and old fort. Alicia & I are sitting on the wall of the fort in the above picture. We stopped by "the monkey island" It is a small island that has a number of monkeys on it. We then went to the Masaya Tourist Market and the Masaya Volcano before stopping for supper at TGI Friday's. I had never been to Granada before but it just reminded me so much of being at the ocean with my grandparents. The boat ride reminded me of going fishing and clamming in Delaware. I had a wonderful day with everyone, but as usual after a busy day, I was ready to get home.

    On Tuesdays, Laura is now having classes with Lydia. Lydia responded to the invitation on the last night of our revival meetings in La Palmerita. She is young mother from 3rd Street. She has 3 boys - Yelder, Melvin, and Yorbin. Her oldest son Yelder has some mental issues, some due to the fact that he has the same dad as his mother. She has been living with the father of her youngest 2; however he is a drinker and has not been the nicest lately. Some nights she has been going to Johanna's to get away. During revivals she had told him that she might accept Christ and that they would need to separate. Please pray for her as she takes the steps necessary to serve Christ victoriously. She does not have an easy path ahead. Pray for us, especially for Laura, as she relates to her and answers questions that she may have.

    Thank you for all your prayers and support. They are felt each and every day. May God richly bless you for all that you do.

Serving our Risen Lord in Nicaragua, Andrea

#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