David taught a great sermon the other day titled “Counting the Costs.”  Being the accountant that I am, I loved it!!  He took it from Luke 14:25-33.  His first point is when Jesus says to hate people.  This obviously isn’t literal, see Matt. 5:21-48 where Jesus taught us to love.  It also doesn’t mean we are love others less.  Jesus teaches we must love with sincere love, like He does.  To help us understan we must note “his own life also.”  God loves the sinner but hates the sin.  We must love others, but hate the sin that seperates them from Jesus.  We must not let others seperate us from Jesus or choose others over Jesus.  The second point is the Challenge of Christ - Jesus was honest about the dangers and difficulties of following Him and He wants us to accept them willingly.  Questions we should ask - Am I ready and willing to deny myself?  Matt. 16:24 - Stop who we are, our own desires and just have Jesus direct our lives permanently.  Gal. 2:20 - Die to self so God can live in us.  Am I willing to conform to His teachings?  Matt. 12:43-45 - Not just denying self, but then filling with Christ.  Am I willing to follow Jesus until the end?  Not only when all is good and we are blessed, but in struggles.  The road isn’t only tough, it’s also pleasing.  To conclude it all, we should always remember that the prize is great for those that follow Christ.

The first week of August we had an evangelistic gospel meeting.  During the week we were blessed with seven baptisms, with eight more in the following week.  The most exciting thing is that all seven were at church the following Sunday, and this past Sunday only one of the 15 missed services because of illness.  That is an amazing turn out!!  A lot of these contacts were made by VBS back in June.  The past two Sunday’s our attendance has been 179 and 167.  We don’t fit under a roof anymore!! What a great problem to have.

In July a group from the congregation went with Giovanni’s family and the Guido family to visit Chacaraseca (the Guidos are from there).  The entire congregation pitched in, donating clothing and food, to take to this poor area.  We were overwhelmed with the generosity of the members!  We had so much they couldn’t take it all.  Everyone mentioned that they had received so many blessings from the Edmond mission team that they wanted to bless others.

We are up in Jinotega right now (a city in northern Nicaragua).  David is teaching a seminar for a group of preachers here, working to encourage them in their walk with God.  One point he made that I really liked is that teachers and preachers need to have special time for personal Bible study.  Many think that if they are studying all the time for classes and sermons they don’t need to study any more, but that type of study is focused outward - church problems, weaknesses and needs, and we all need study that is focused inward too. 

Well, it has been forever since I’ve made a post!  And now I can’t remember anything we’ve done!!  Waay back on July 5th we had a party at our house to celebrate ours and Giovanni’s family’s 3 year anniversary of working here.   We had a great dinner that Giovanni made for us and lots of fun remembering all the great times we’ve had in the past three years.  The “original” group came, about 35 in all, so it was also fun to get to spend some time with those of us who were here in the beginning.

The youth went to the national youth day in Managua.  There were over 2000 youth there (I can’t remember the exact number), and they all had a great time listening to a lesson and doing fun activities with the kids from congregations throughout Nicaragua.  We had some larger sized t-shirts left over from VBS so they all painted t-shirts and wore them.  When I went to drop David off where the bus was going to pick them all up you could see a huge group of white t-shirts a mile away.  I think there were about 55 from our congregation and their visitors who went.

We are going to be having a gospel meeting next week, the 31-3rd of August, so please keep this effort in your prayers.  We will be evangelizing in the area around our new location, where we haven’t ever door-knocked before, so hopefully it will be fertile ground!

We were blessed to have a group of 16 come from the Edmond congregation to spend a week working with us during the first week of June.  The guys put cement floors in several members homes.  This is to help with their overall health. 

We held VBS for three days, and the last day we had 212 kids!  This year we worked really hard on being very organized, and it went great.  We were able to give away goody bags to all of the kids full of coloring books, crayons, a toy and other fun things.  We had enough materials left over that we were able to donate them to a congregation in Chacaraseca (northern Nicaragua) so that they could hold their own VBS.

On Sunday we enjoyed a congregational meal together.  We had attendance of over 275.

The team also brought items to give away in care packages for our members.  We gave away food items, shampoo, deoderant, first aid kits, lice shampoo, and other goodies.  They brought lots of little toys that we will use as prizes for Sunday school (kids who say their memory verses, perfect attendance, etc).

Overall it was a wonderful trip.  We are so blessed to have such an involved sponsoring congregation with members who will make a big sacrifice to come and encourage us and the congregation.  This past Sunday, we had 215 in attendance, so we are encouraged and have a lot of work with the contacts made during the mission team week.

I happened to be taking attendance when the 3-5 yr old class was doing such a neat activity.  When I went to take the older classes attendance, I noticed both 3-5 teachers out of their room, and thought “What’s going on?  Who’s watching the kids?”  When they went back in the teacher began to explain that there was a stuffed animal there on the table when she left, and how happy she was it was still there when she returned.  They were studying the 10 commandments and were on “No stealing.”  After talking for a bit about not taking things from others, and how stealing most often leads to not telling the truth, she turned to the other teacher and said “Oh, I need some air,” and they both headed out again for another test.  What a creative way to apply the lesson!  Both these girls graduated from high school just last year, and we are so proud of them!

All drivers (public buses and vans, truck, etc), have been on strike for the past two weeks.  They are restricted as to how much they can charge, and gas prices have been increasing so much that they demanded action!  The government promised that friendship with Venezuela would bring lower gas prices (and general solutions to all problems), but up until now Nicaragua has been receiving the same prices as everyone else.  The drivers asked that the government freeze gas prices, and yesterday the goverment agreed.  We’ll see how long that lasts…

On a personal note, the buses and vans decided that the highway that covers the area in front of our house would be a great place to take their stand for the past two days.  They said there were 163 drivers lined up along the highway there with their vehicles.  Needless to say this was a little stressful as stories of past strikes include popping tires, burning cars, mustard gas, and even deaths.  Luckily it didn’t come to this in our area!  I told Tigger to attack first and ask questions later!!

You can see he’s really aggressive!  =)

Sunday, May 4th we were in church services and Giovanni was giving the annoucements.  He started listing birthdays and anniversaries of baptisms, and I started thinking, “Hey, isn’t our anniversary soon.”  So I lean over to my mom and ask, “Did we get married May 4th or 5th.”   We decided it was May 4th and it was our wedding anniversary!  David didn’t get me a thing!!  =)  But, our anniversary happens to coincide with the trip we have to take to renew our visa here in Nicaragua (every 6 months they kick you out of the country for 3 days).  We headed down to Costa Rica.  David planned the trip, and he decided we should go white water rafting.  I wasn’t paying much attention because while he was planning I was planning for my parents visit.  The day before we leave I look online and see these pictures of people with helmets on.  Why do they need helmets for family fun rafting I wonder.  

I first have to say the rafting company was the most organized, well managed company I have seen.  I can’t think of one complaint.  They picked us up from San Jose where we stayed.  On the way to the rafting base they guide keeps us entertained with stories and info about the area, natural reserves, good spots to take pictures, etc, and tells us how the day will work.  At the base they serve a delicious hot breakfast (to make sure no one gets hungry on the river).  We head to the river and the guide goes over safety rules.  This is where I start to wonder again.  What to do if your raft flips?  Safety rope?  Correct foot position?  Sign this that frees us of responsibility?  Hmmm…

Well, it turned out great!  The water was low, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.  The river has 5 class 4 rapids but only 3 were rated 4 during this season, and they weren’t too hard at all.  The river we went on is rated 4th in the world!  About half way through the trip we stopped to have lunch.  Again I was surprised at how organized these guides were. 

All the guides spoke at least enough English to say, “forward, back right, high left, get down!!”  We didn’t flip or anything, but I think it was because we had an awesome guide, because we saw others flip, run up rocks, etc.  In several spots the water was slow and deep enough that we were able to get out and swim.

We had a great time and we are planning to go back when the water is just a little bit higher and test our luck on that.

For the continuation of our trip, I learned that I am never eating fast food again!!  We eat an occasional burger, but with the nearest fast food place being 40 min away, it’s not so fast anymore.  But Costa Rica has KFC and Taco Bell and temptation won.  I have never felt so awful!  It’s amazing how our bodies get used to, and un-used to, that kind of food.  We still managed to get some shopping done though.

The first of May our congregation was able to participate in a national ladies day in Managua.  I’ll have to get the final count of ladies, but I heard there were 1,600!  The guest speaker was addressing the issue of sexual abuse, and gave advice on how to help those who have suffered from it (what to say and what not to say).  We also did an exercise where we listed many things like people we love, a time we helped someone, things we think are beautiful, etc.  This was to help us get our self-esteem from and identify ourselves with the good things in life and not the problems.  The lessons were followed by lunch and several activities.  What a fun day!

We are so excited thhat the church is finally enjoying a location of its own!  Two weeks ago the congregation walked together from our old building to the new place and then enjoyed a small devotional of thanksgiving to God for blessing us with this great blessing!  Then the congregation got ready for a week of hard work as we moved our roof structure (our temporary building) from the old location to the new.

Everyone worked fast, because the very next Sunday we were ready for services!

I don’t know how my mom manages it, but each time we move locations she is always here and always teaches the first ladies class in the new spot!  She gave a great lesson on prayer, using examples from the Bible on what to pray about and trusting in God to answer our prayers.

We were so excited to have my parents visit us!  We took a few days off and had lots of fun.  We went to Volcano Masaya, and active volcano about 40 min. from home.  They had a volcano museum there, and we were able to read about the history of the volcano, what causes volcanos and more.  It was really neat and I have to say I was impressed by the museum.

After the volcano, we headed over to Granada, one of the oldest cities in Central America.  There we took a carriage ride around the city and we were able to see the lake, cathedrals and many other interesting sites.  We saw the oldest cathedral in Central America, and also went to a museum that had information about the natives from the area and the growth of Granada.

I thought that was a neat photo David took!

We also visited Catarinas, a beautiful spot that overlooks a crater lake, and the tourist market in Masaya. 

After that we relaxed!  We had such a great time!  I’m already planning a fishing trip for the next time they visit!