March ’12 Highlights (Photo Blog)

    This month I was able to complete my home visits in Santa Matilde. I have been working for an entire year doing home visits in our outreach villages and compiling bios for each of the 300 children in our school sponsorship program. I have really enjoyed getting into the homes, meeting the families, hearing their stories and dreams for the future (I love visiting sweet children like Brian and his momma- pictured left). It’s been a lot of work, but I have loved it!
    I have now finished home visits in all four of our villages as well as the student bios. I know that there are still many things that I would like to do in order to enhance our sponsorship program, but I am so elated to have crossed this first major hurdle. Praise Jesus!!!

    Whit and I celebrated International Women’s Day by having a sleepover with some of our favorite girls. We had the BEST time together!! The girls decided that everyone would bring one food item so that we could make dinner together. We started the evening cooking a Nicaraguan dinner (Gema and I pictured right peeling plantains to make maduras) which consisted of gallo pinto, Nicaraguan cheese, maduros (sweet fried platains), tortilla chips, and torta de carne We cooked and ate together, laughed a lot, and danced for hours (The girls pictured below left dancing and laughing together). These girls LOVE to dance to any and every kind of music! They also wanted to spend some time in worship and prayer together. I love to see them seeking the Lord and seeing how their hearts are being captured for Him. They called everyone together and began to worship and enter in to the presence of God. Afterwards, they were praying together that the youth and the church as a whole would really give their entire lives and hearts to the Lord! These are such beautiful young women and I am so blessed to share my life with them!!

    We were blessed to have a great team of World Racers here with us this month, Ruah Elohim. This team is really hilarious! They have the most distinct personalities! Unfortunately Nicaragua was a shorter month for them and we only had them here in Candelaria for 2 1/2 weeks. They have done a wonderful job working with the youth: teaching on Wednesday nights and planning our Friday night activities. They have also been helping to teach Sunday school in Nuevo Amanecer and visiting families in Candelaria. The girls have been working with Whitney going to visit the women in Santa Matilde (Kathryn, Lydia, Liz, & Ada pictured right with some of the kids in Santa Matilde). I have really enjoyed our time working with these wonderful folks! They have such beautiful hearts. They even threw us an awesome party on our last night all together complete with brownies, cake, awkward family photos, and lots of dancing. (Unfortunately something happened to some of my picture files and I lost all of my pictures of the whole team together.)

    I was able to sneak down to Granada on my days off as the World Race squad was there debriefing before heading to their Nicaraguan ministry sites. I have been so anxious for this particular squad to make it to Nicaragua because my friend Lindsay Dobner is leading their squad (Linds and I pictured left together in Granada). She lived with me my first five months in Candelaria and has become one of my best friends in the entire world. I have missed having her in my daily life! I didn’t know if I would get to spend much time with Linds since she has so many responsibilities with her squad, but the Lord just blessed my heart so much letting Linds and I have an entire afternoon just the two of us. We went to lunch at Garden Cafe and then out for coffee. We talked for hours about life, what the Lord has been speaking to us, and how He has been moving in our dreams. It was just such a good time with her!! 
   Then the Lord blessed me even more and Linds was able to come to Candelaria for an entire week!! It has been SO good to have her back here. We have been hanging out in the evenings having sleepovers and talking about all that the Lord is doing in and through each of us. I took her to visit Anthony’s grave so that she could grieve that loss since this is the first time that she’s been back to Candelaria since his death. We have also been able to just spend time with the youth together (Linds and I pictured right visiting the girls at the Garcia house) It’s been great to hang out with her and minister with her again. I have really enjoyed this week together and am thankful that the other squad leaders allowed her to have that time. It has been such a blessing!

    I started teaching English classes in our outreach village of Nuevo Amanecer this month (pictured left teaching my class in Nuevo Amanecer). Some of the parents had asked if I could come to the church and teach English classes because many of their children would begin studying English this year and really needed extra help. My Saturdays finally freed up as I finished all of our Adopt-a-Student home visits which allowed me to begin English classes every Saturday afternoon. The kids are so excited to be taking these classes. I love biking over to the village. I love seeing the kids’ enthusiasm to learn this new language. I love to hear their laughter as they attempt to say different words in English. I’m trying to push them to practice their conversational skills more (we definitely still have A LOT of work to do in that area). School mostly teach through rote memorization and so they kids do great repeating words back to me, but struggle to respond to even basic English questions. Jovanny has volunteered to help me with the class each week and to run conversational review classes anytime I am unavailable or out of the country (Jovanny pictured right helping with conversation practice). I’m so excited to see him step in and help with these classes!! He has done a great job so far challenging the kids in their conversational practice and helping improve their pronunciation. He is going to be a huge help to me in this new endeavor. 

   Two years ago when I first move to Nica, Linds and I started forming friendships with the boys that work selling necklaces and such at the beach. We would hang out with them, talk and joke together, and often sneak them some of our dinner. We always visit the same beach so we have been able to build consistent relationships with the staff and the kids that work in the area. It’s one of my favorite parts of going to the beach. There are two teenage boys who always come and seek me out just to talk and hang out. I sit with them on the beach each time I’m there visiting talking about their lives, school, dreams, etc. This month I was able to spend a lot of time just talking and hanging out with them. They are always asking me to buy some of their jewelry and I’ve promised that if I leave Nicaragua, I will buy necklaces from them before I leave. The last time I was at the beach, Wilbur (the one with the striped shirt) asked if he could listen to my ipod. Both of the boys spent so much time listening and singing along. They decided that they really love to come and listen to Michael Jackson… haha (the boys pictured above left listening to and singing Michael Jackson songs). After I let Wilbur listen to my ipod for about an hour, he handed me a necklace and told me that it was his gift to me (Linds and I pictured above right with our necklaces from the boys). I love building these relationships!

   We have been blessed to have Joey visiting with us the last couple of months. He had planned to come for just two weeks and then arrived in Candelaria and decided that two weeks was just too short! He ended up staying almost 2 months and is praying about returning to Nicaragua (Joey pictured left with Whit and me). Joey could be such an asset here. He has a heart for worship and loves people deeply. He is constantly talking to everyone he sees and pouring out the Lord’s love to them. He has helped to lead worship with our staff and with the youth. He built relationships with so many of the youth guys, children, and families in the community (pictured right with Emerson). He also has a desire to live a life of integrity and to see the youth walking in increasing holiness. His last night in Candelaria he, along with one of the World Race girls, taught our Wednesday night youth group. He  really challenged the youth to begin demonstrating the Lord’s love by loving and forgiving one another.
   Please be praying for Joey as he has returned to Florida. Pray for his transition home. Also, pray for him as he seeks the Lord’s direction and wisdom about timing and decisions for returning to Nicaragua.

    This month I have spent so much time playing with my kiddos in the
neighborhood. Their favorite game is for me to just chase them around
the church and then tickle them once I catch them.
I’m not sure why they love it so much, but they do! That’s what they
ALWAYS ask to play. Playing with my beautiful neighbors and hearing
their laughter just fills up my heart so much (Sweet Makeyling, Julissa, and Franco pictured right)!
They restore my joy!! It’s been good to have so much time to play with
them this month. These are the kids who would always come with Jayson to
play with me every day. After his death, they didn’t come around much.
Just this month, they have started coming back and asking to play again.
I had really missed my sweet afternoons running around with them.

    I had the best surprise this month when Jasmina and Katalin came back to Candelaria to visit since they have been living in another village near San Cristobal for the past two months. I have missed them SO much!! I have been hoping to see them again soon. I was in Sunday school and Jasmina walks in with sweet Katalin Adaya in her arms. She came looking for me so I could spend time with them both. It was such a gift to my heart!! I got to spend mostly the entire afternoon cradling sweet Katalin Adaya in my arms (pictured right with baby Katalin) and chatting with Jasmina. Katalin has grown so much in the past two months! I loved having the whole afternoon with my girls!! I am praying that they will be able to return to Candelaria soon. Jasmina told me that they might be returning as soon as mid-April. Hopefully so. I want to spend more afternoons with this beautiful baby girl!