#15 LP Vaccination Day, Birthday Party, Staff Trip...

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 you from El Tererro, where the grass is turning green and the plants are starting to look nice since the last rains that the Lord blessed us with. We have been blessed with several very nice rains in the last week. As it was raining, the thought came to my mind - that of how the dry, parched ground received the rain. I pray that our lives as Christians are not dry and parched, but that it is ever open to receive the Word of the Lord and then as we interact with other people that our witness/testimony may be as rain to their dry, parched soul. 

                       

On Friday the 23rd, Virginia & I spent the morning in La Palmerita. We took the nurses from the clinic along as it was time for vaccinations in La Palmerita. I enjoyed the morning very well, as I was able to visit it with many friends. It was great to see all the children that came and their mothers as well. I also got to see some new babies. it was interesting watching all the expressions when children and adults received their vaccinations. The above picture is of the children coming home from school. One of the boys on Center Street takes his cart to from school. Their classes end around 12:00, so after the cartload went past, there was soon a number of people at the rancho as mothers were bringing all their children. I was glad I got the opportunity to go along. On Sunday morning, we then took the nurses to El Tererro #3 to spend the morning vaccinating there.

                                                                    

On Saturday afternoon the 24th, we were invited to La Palmerita for the birthday party of Banessa. She turned a year-old. The people for the Evangelical Church in Techunami had a small service before they served us the birthday meal. While they were singing, they left the children hit the piñata. I was kept quite busy snapping pictures of family and friends. The young girl that I had featured in my last email one of the older sisters of Banessa. When we placed the cake in front of her, she had so much fun touching it. It was so cute.

FEATURED MOTHER!!

The young lady pictured at the top right is Alba. She lives on the bottom half of 1st Street. She came from a nice size family. She is 17 years old and just had a baby boy. She does not come to church regularly, but some of her siblings come from time to time. I talk to her from time to time and desire to get to know her better. Please join me in praying for her!

This past Sunday afternoon till Tuesday afternoon we spent our time at Selva Negra as a staff trip. I enjoyed the time, especially the time that we spent each morning in the chapel singing. On Monday some of us climbed to the top of Selva Negra. I am so glad I did it, but wow it was a hard climb. Coming down you just slid in the mud. I was very muddy till I got to the bottom. I enjoyed being able to spend time with the staff and get to know every one better.

       

Blessings to each of you as you serve in your field! If you think of it, I will be starting a young girls' class this weekend. Keep each of us in your prayers. The girls as they come that their hearts might be open and me as I strive to portray God's Word to them clearly.

Until the next time, Andrea

  

#14 Truck problems, Climbing Cerro Negro, Piglets, and much more....

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 Christians far and wide! I pray that each and every one of you are having a wonderful day serving our Lord in your own personal way. God continues to show Himself in so many ways and areas. We truly serve an Almighty God, who able to far more above what we ask or think. Well, the last 2 weeks have flown by so fast. When each day is full and busy with so many things, the days seem to go so fast.

     

    Since I wrote last, there was 2 groups of people here. Larry & Karen Weaver and Lloyd & Faye Zimmerman, both from the Pleasant Valley congregation, arrived with the Pleasant Valley (PV) Seniors on the 6th to spend a week and Keith & Christine Nolt from the Open Door congregation arrived on the 7th with a group of Horning girls. Keith's were here in Nicaragua for a week and the girls spend 2 weeks here and left on the 21st with Dwight & Heidi Fox. The seniors spent most of their time in Leon; however they came out on Thursday - the 8th, help with some work projects. The men spent the morning repairing the pasture fence and put a floor in the tool shed. The girls spent their time in our house - painting. Thank you so much ladies!! It looks so nice. It was great to see Lloyd & Faye Zimmerman. I have known them for years, but don't often get to see them.

          

   The group of girls spent their first week here with us in El Terrero; most of the time painting, but we DID have a great time. They also planted a garden for us and it is looking beautiful. We got a nice amount of rain on Sunday and everything shot up; even the weeds. On Saturday we went to Estelí to take the girls out and see some places and do some shopping. For me, it was a great day to visit familiar places and talk to people that I haven't seen since I came back from language school. We parked the truck along the main street there in Estelí and I told everyone I would meet them for lunch in an hour and I started on my way. It was fun to be able to walk down the streets and through the park, taking in all the familiar sights and smells of the place that became my home for 6 weeks after I arrived in Nicaragua. The first place I went to was Dora Elena's house - the lady who hosted while we were in language school. She was so happy to see me. She looked and me and said she thought I would never come to visit her. I explained to her why I had not got there sooner and told her about the prospective visitors in the future and the possibility of bringing them to see Estelí and visit her. She wanted to know about all the things that have happened in the months since school and I wished I had all day to sit there and talk to her. As I was leaving, she told me that I should get a bus to Estelí and spent the weekend with her and relax :) For lunch we went to the Chinese restaurant that I came to enjoy very much, even though we only ate there 2 times during school. After lunch we went to the waterfall outside of Estelí. It looked quite different from the last time we were there, but I enjoyed it. We then returned to the city for the girls to do more shopping. I then spent that time in Mocha Nana Café, a little coffee shop that Karen and I frequented when we lived there. I enjoyed my old-time favorite Frozen Mocha. On the way back, we stopped in Malpaisillo for supper.

    On Monday we met the Leon group in Rota and went to Cerro Negro to give them the experience of climbing a volcano. I went along as I was almost 2 years since I had climbed Cerro Negro. I took it nice and slow going up as it was pretty hot, but till I got to the top, I was so tired and decided to sit there and relax while everyone was snapping pictures. When it came time to head back down, I got up but I felt so weak and I wasn't sure why. Needless to say in a couple seconds I lost my breakfast. Right away I sat down again and thankfully Karen Weaver had crackers in her bag which she gave to me as well as some water. I sat there and relaxed for a while before I felt good enough to go down the volcano. When we left the volcano, we kinda got confused as which way to take and we got the wrong way. Once we got to familiar roads, we headed for Malpaisillo but then the truck started heating up. We got within a mile of the place and the truck just gave out so we got all our things and started walking home. Thanks to several girls, who willingly carried my backpack for me as I was still feeling weak and tired. I got home and went straight to bed and slept for 2 hours. It took about 3 days till I was feeling myself again.  

 On Friday the 16th, Charlotte gave birth to 9 piglets. They are all growing nicely and look nice and fat. One little one has already escaped the pen, but was quickly rescued and put back into his pen.

 We received a nice heavy rain on Sunday afternoon. La Palmerita actually had hail. Our front yard was covered in water. On Monday morning there was still a couple puddles which Nicholas enjoyed very much. He fell several times and looked like he was enjoying himself so much.

The young lady below is from the family known as the Cheles in La Palmerita. I believe there is 8 or 9 children in the family. Every now and then, one of them will show up at church, but they are not faithful attendees. The youngest girl in this family, Vanessa, has been so sick lately but she is getting better little by little. 

Blessings to each of you as you serve our Lord!

Love and prayers, Andrea

#13 Rain Showers, Beautiful Sunsets, Naughty Children

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.

Wow!! Time does surely fly and it has come to me that it is time to inform you all once again of my life here in Nicaragua. We have had a few rain showers in the last few days that felt wonderful. We have also had naughty children in class, but they seem to remember some things amidst their naughtiness. Blessings to each as you serve our Lord, where He has place you!

#12 Smoke, dust...the list goes on

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.

#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

#10: Dust, Insects....but God is faithful!

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.

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#9 Changes, happenings, blessings....

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.