The biggest highlight from January is finally breaking ground on the Abide foster home. It has been such an incredible blessing to see the Lord work and move to begin to bring this dream to reality. I love going to the land to see the progress each day. We now have water at the land, have the foundation plotted, and are beginning to fill it with concrete. I cannot wait to see this home take shape. My heart longs so much to see this become and home and to see the family that will form to help care for children. "The One who calls you is faithful, and He will do it." -1 Thessalonians 5:24 If you would like to give towards this project, you can make a tax-deductible donation through our website http://abideinlove.org
On that same note, I was so blessed this month to have Anna and Lance Aksamit visiting with me. The Aksamits will be moving to Nicaragua in the spring of 2016 to help full-time with the Abide home. We have been planning and dreaming together via skype for such a long time, but it was wonderful to have a few days together in Chichigalpa walking through the community, being with the kids, and dreaming together standing on our land. I love these two so much and I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to do life with them.
The first few days of 2015, my friend Andres was able to come and visit from Chichigalpa. Andres is one of the first kids that I met when I was here on the World Race and he and Anthony were honestly the reason that I decided to move back to Candelaria. He moved to Costa Rica to live with his mom in 2011 and I haven't seen him since then. It was so wonderful to have a couple days to visit with Andres and to have the chance to ring in the new year with him, Rosita, and Gato (pictured above).
On January 2, Yessica celebrated her 9th birthday. I had a chance to celebrate with my sweet hijas having them both over to my house to watch princess movies (their favorite!), bake birthday cake, and open gifts. I treasure time with these precious girls and any chance to pour into their lives. I'm so thankful for the sweet relationship that the Lord has given me with them. I love them so much!
January has been filled to the brim with visiting teams. We were able to host five different short-term teams this month. It has been a blessing to serve alongside these amazing folks. We have had teams that came to paint the church alongside our Nicaraguan church family, host dental trainings for our New Song dentists, provide free dental extractions to our community, host baseball clinics for our upcoming baseball league, and help Cadence and me with our sponsorship prep for the new school year. We were also able to take several sponsors to visit their sponsored students and to help connect people to new families and children to sponsor. We have loved working alongside so many familiar faces and new friends during this past month.
This month with all of our teams visiting I was able to spend so much time in homes being with our precious families. I love this relational ministry more than anything else that I do! There is no better way to spend my afternoon than just being in a family's home praying with them, laughing with them, and just sharing life together. My heart loves being present with families and loving them with the love of Jesus. So thankful for a month filled with precious faces (like Griselda, pictured above).
A big part of my month has been spent with my dear friend Lilian and her precious daughter, Yubelkis (pictured above). Lilian was battling cancer last year. Thankfully her cancer is now in remission, but she continues to suffer pain. I have been visiting her to pray, read the Bible, and talk about life. I love my afternoons sitting on her bed chatting with her. I have also been helping with some of her medical care and appointments trying to figure out the cause of her current symptoms. I love this family so much. Please continue to pray for healing for Lilian.
Sadly this month we had to say goodbye to Emily Robie after her year serving with us. We miss her so much already! Emily did an incredible job working with Cadence and me in our sponsorship program, pouring her heart into the community at Nuevo Amanecer, and working on graphic design projects for the mission. She has an incredible heart for people, loves well, and walks with so much wisdom and compassion. We had the sweetest going away bonfire for her in Nuevo Amanecer where the community had the opportunity to pour out so much love to her before she headed back to the States to be with her family (pictured above).
Also this month, the Lord added two new members to our little family. Neither one of them are brand new faces, but we are thankful to have them back here as part of our New Song family. Jeff Beale (pictured above top) moved to Chichigalpa December 31st and will be serving with us for at least two years running our sports ministry. The sports ministry will begin with a 6-12 year old baseball league. Barbie Coupe (pictured above bottom) is also back with us serving for at least three months (although I believe it will be longer than that) working with our community health workers, clinic outreach, and continuing her heart for evangelism. We love having both of these wonderful people back with us in Chichigalpa.
January is always to busiest month of the year for Cadence and me as we are prepping for the new school year. This year our kiddos are headed back to class on February 9th. This month has been filled with uniform, backpack, and school supplies purchases. We also had to fill all of our backpacks and take them to each village to deliver to all of our sponsored students (sponsored students from Nuevo Amanecer pictured above with their new backpacks). I absolutely love handing out backpacks and uniforms and sending our kids off to school ready to learn. The kids are always so excited to receive their items and to start a new school year.
