January ’16 Highlights (Photo Blog)

   I made it back to Nica just in time to ring in the new year. I love my New Year’s traditions with Rosita and her family. Rosita and I were able to bike up to the entrance of Chichigalpa to buy fireworks for our New Year’s doll. Back in Candelaria I built a giant scarecrow-like doll with the Vega family. I spent my evening at the park with our team from Concordia University and then finished out the night at the Vega house ringing in 2016 with fireworks, sparklers, and the burning of our New Year’s doll. I’m thankful for another year in Chichigalpa. Happy 2016! 

 

   This time of year is the absolute craziest time of year for our sponsorship program. It’s a month filled with back-to school prep for all of our little sponsored loves. Backpacks were bought, mountains of school supplies piled up in our living room, and we had help buying uniforms for each child and packing backpacks. I love to see our kids’ excitement when they get their new uniform and backpack for the school year! 

 

   This was also a month packed full of short-term teams. We started the month off with a team from Concordia University (pictured above) and another from Boone, NC. They were followed by a vision team out of Charlotte, and Stan and a team to help with the baseball kick-off. We had a great month working with all of these kind, hard-working teams. It has been such a blessing to reconnect with friends from other places and to make new connections through these teams. 

 

   One of my favorite parts of this month was being there for opening day of our new baseball league. Jeff has been working so diligently this past year building the fields, finding coaches, creating teams, and running scrimmages. I absolutely loved the addition of our baseball Saturdays during the scrimmage games. This month each of the 12 teams received their new uniforms. The kids were SO excited!!! Each team was celebrated and presented. Opening day was great fun! Now we have baseball games every Saturday from 9-4:30. Looks like there will be a lot more exciting baseball Saturdays in my future.  

 

   This month we also had the honor to dedicate the new church building in Nuevo Amanecer. This has been a dream on Pastor Bismark’s heart for such a long time. The Lord used the vision team to help bring it to pass. I loved being there to celebrate alongside this precious congregation. I believe that the Lord has BIG things in store for this church in their community.

 

    I have been jumping for joy as we started the second floor construction on the Abide Home. I love to see this house taking shape and stepping closer and closer to becoming a home and a fulfillment of a promise spoken over my life. It’s such a beautiful process! Please be praying for the Abide Home, for me, and for Anna and Lance who are coming to help with the home. Right now there is so much that we are still trying to figure out and to hear from the Lord about timing for Abide. Please pray with us. Pray for healing for Anna who is recovering from an accident. Pray for additional sponsorship workers so that I am able to transition out of my current roles. Pray that we will hear from the Lord about when to take the next steps with Abide.  

 

    Over the past two years since we met, I have becoming increasingly more thankful for this wonderful family. We met the Ruiz family two years ago when they came to visit us in Chichigalpa (thanks Krystle Gray for connecting us!) and then moved here almost a year ago. It’s been so great for my heart to build genuine community with people outside of our area of ministry. This friendship has poured into me more than I could explain. This month Cadence and I had an abundance of quality time with these incredible friends filled with spontaneous beach days, babysitting the kiddos, and lots of late night chats and laughter over wine around their kitchen table. I’m so thankful for friendship and Kingdom community.