Our neighbors invited us to their farm to see where they grow strawberries, broccoli and more.

I should note that the boys fell in love with our neighbors daughter and spent a lot of time visiting next door!

We went up to Jinotega for their Christmas party and also did a hike up to the cross there.

We also had the year end activity at Lucia Mantia. We had kids class like normal, then a pinata, refreshments, a clown, and gave away Christmas gifts to the kids. It was a lot of work, but fun!

I have to brag a bit on the kids. While so many of the young people from San Marcos just stand around when we go to Lucia Mantia, all of the boys were ready to help.

Chepe helping one of the little kids color

Chepe and Manuel practically taught class for me on Sunday. Chepe said the opening prayer (and loud enough so everyone could hear even!), and Chepe and Manuel switched off leading songs. Then Manuel lead a pray for the class, and then they did a skit that taught the class about not fighting or getting into other people’s arguments. They did such a great job!

On the way to San Marcos from Matagalpa, we stopped at Papa Johns to get some pizza and ate outside since we had a lot of stuff in the truck. Chepe thought the security guard looked sad, so he gave him his soda, and Manuel gave him one of his pieces of pizza.

I have to admit, I was a little worried about having five boys stay with us for a week, but it was great! So proud of them!

Today we went to church and a big group came up from San Marcos to see us. Last night late David told me Israel (Chavo) and his family were coming in the jeep, so I was thinking maybe 10 people max. Guess how many came…16! I don’t know how they all fit, or made it through the three hour drive. Well, I thought I might could manage a meal for 17 people (10 + 5 boys + me + David) with nothing but a two quart sauce pan, a crock pot, and a skillet, but not for 23! Luckily we have a new little restaurant next door and we fed 23 for about $45 - not bad!

Our neighbors are working to keep us from getting bored now that our house is empty, so they invited us to see their farm. It was beautiful. They had fields of strawberries, broccoli, carrots, and beans. They had a little raspberry plant and we got to pick fresh raspberries that were delicious. They also had cattle, deer, geese, and beautiful fields of flowers (huge sun flowers). It was a lot of fun to get to walk around and explore, but it was cold!

Since we’ve been home we are continuing with the kid’s class in Lucia Mantia. We had 130 kids last Saturday and attendance has made it up to 170 one week! I’ve been impressed with how many kids are remembering their memory verses. We’re planning special year end activities for December 19th with a clown, puppet show, and gifts, so it should be great. Pray we can maintain order!

130 kids in Lucia Mantia

Last Thursday David took the youth group (and some adults who wanted to tag along) on a hike to a mountain top overlooking Matagalpa.  It wasn’t too long, but they stopped along the way to do some swimming and enjoy the view.

View of Matagalpa

I really enjoyed this trip, and loved the group we were with, but the conditions were much more difficult! On the way there the river was low, so it was slow going, but the weather was pleasant, so no complaints there. This time we had to sleep in the clinic where we were working, and there was barely enough (and some might say - not enough) room for all of us - 14 people total. But we survived it and had a lot of fun. This group liked to sing - so I was in heaven, though it took me a bit to remember the words in English and how to sing in 4 part harmony!
But it was the trip home that got me! We were ready to go about 6:30, but one of the boats had motor trouble, so we ended up having to split up all its good among the other boats and leave it behind. So we were off about 7:00, and it was raining, and it rained (poured) for about 6 hours, so we were in our rain gear (my worked well and I was dry, others were less fortunate), huddled down to keep the rain off our face all that time. Then it cleared up and we had nice weather the rest of the boat trip, about 3 hours more - or 9 hours on the boats total. Then we transferred to a truck and traveled about 4 hours on a mountain path (I’m not generous enough to call it a road). We did this because the river was low on the way there and we were afraid we’d get stuck on the last leg of the trip by boat. This truck trip was scary! Up hill, drop off on one side, sliding in the mud. At one point we had to get off to lighten the truck and I just took off walking, along with about 4 others. I was not getting back on that truck until the road was safer! We didn’t have to walk too far though, and it was nice after sitting for so long on the boat. After the truck we had 6 hours by bus to finally make it home, for a total of 19 hours of traveling. We stayed in Jinotega Friday night (or Saturday morning, if you want to be technical), and when we got home to Matagalpa about noon on Sat. I went straight to bed! I woke up with a fever and chills. By evening I got my fever down, but I’m still taking it easy! We’re supposed to help with the Jinotega gospel meeting next week, but I’m not sure I’m going to make it.

I put pictures in the gallery.

Church Services in Pantasma

Door-knocking was hard work! We were all shocked with how many people were drunk - all day long, any time of the day, eyes red and can’t walk straight drunk. It was also very, very hot! But we worked hard and all the suffering was worth it.

Gospel Meeting in Pantasma

Israel (Chavo for those of you who’ve been on the mission trip) and Eddy came up from San Marcos to go with us. They were shocked by the conditions we survived in for the week (and the conditions were way better than others!). We had 11 members from Matagalpa join us on this trip, and it was encouraging to see the members getting involved.

Evangelistic Group in Pantasma

BICA is organized as a two year school.  They have teachers come in for one week at a time to teach on a subject.  There are classes for the students wives too.

One week of every month is spent helping a congregation door-knock for their gospel meeting (congregations line up to get on the list!).  They evangelize during the week, and as their contacts decide to become Christians, they spend time with them to share beginning Bible studies about their responsibilities as Christians.  The gospel meeting help alone has had a great impact on the church in Nicaragua.

Each student is assigned to a congregation for weekend work.  In order to be assigned a student, the congregation has to commit to having a member to pair up with them that would like to be taught how to successfully evangelize.  At first, the student leads the door-knocking with the member there to learn and train.  When the member feels confident, he takes the lead in evangelism.  This is done every weekend from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon.

BICA offers an optional third year of vocational training.  Since BICA does not encourage dependence on US support for their graduates, they prepare their students to work a secular job as well.  In addition to training they provide their graduates three months living, tools of the trade and anything else they might need to get started.

Last year, the BICA students started a congregation on the Island of Omotepe.  They did the door-knocking and preaching and teaching at the congregation until a full-time preacher could be found.  The congregation there is now established and going strong.

There’s a lot more that could be said about this great program, but - What is David going to do?  George Hall is the director of BICA, and for quite a while he has been in need of and encouraged by BICA supporters to find an assistant, and David is that man.  Anyone who knows mission work knows that job descriptions are usually something like “Do whatever needs to be done whenever it needs to be done - from preaching the gospel to making hospital runs” but I’ll try to explain a bit of what David will be doing.  First David has to spend time getting to know the BICA program - their vision, their goals, their methods, their organization.  Once he’s familiar, he’ll be able to work with George and each of the schools individual directors to make improvements and identify needs.  He will also spend time each year visiting the schools and teaching in the classrooms.  David has a great advantage here because he speaks the language and knows the culture (at least Nicaragua’s), so he will be able to hear first hand how the staff and students are doing and teach without a translator.  David will also occasionally lead mission teams to the schools to help with door-knocking campaigns and other school activities.  Finally, David will be spreading the would about BICA to congregations in the states and help to find the support that they need to accomplish these great works.  To sum it up, David will be George Hall’s assistant and do whatever is needed to help BICA be successful. (so he’s either assistant director or assistant to the director  =)

I can only speak for Nicaragua, but here we have seen the need for strong, knowledgeable, mature leaders (not that there aren’t any here in Nicaragua, just that there aren’t enough), and that is exactly what the BICA program is working so hard to produce.  Unlike a lot of Bible schools, I have been impressed with the fact that BICA doesn’t just teach Bible knowledge.  In addition to Bible knowledge, they teach leadership and organizational skills, and they also provide the experience (preaching, teaching, door-knocking) to their students while they are still in school so that upon graduation, the students are ready to go out and work without further training.

We’re really excited about this new direction that our work for the Lord is taking us, and of course we didn’t make this decision without lots of prayer for God’s guidance and blessings.  Please keep us and this new change in your prayers.  I guess it feels like a HUGE change because we will be moving back to the states (probably the Edmond area, though my mom and sister are both in competition for us to move to their towns).  We’re excited to be closer to friends and family, though we’re sad to be leaving the people we have come to see as family here in Nicaragua.  I’m a little worried about being able to adjust back into US life (the last time we were in the states my mom sent me to the grocery store for two items and I almost had a breakdown when I couldn’t find anything- why do those stores have to be so big anyway!?!), but we are excited to share our experience more personally with members in the US and hope to be able to encourage everyone to consider often their brothers and sisters in other parts of the world.

Four preachers from the churches in the North joined the trip to evangelize and pray with the patients. We were blessed with six baptisms, and another group is going again in October to do follow up.

The mission team from the states was a medical group, and David translated for one of the doctors and I worked in the pharmacy. Boy did David have a hard job. In this area, some speak Spanish, but most speak Misquito, so David had to listen to the English doctor, translate to the Spanish translator, who translated it to Misquito for the patient, and then do it all over again backwards for the patient to the doctor. There were four doctors and a dentist, and we saw over 200 patients a day.  I really enjoyed working in the pharmacy (I don’t want to see people’s medical conditions!).  This was a great group to work with too!  The dentist had been on 40+ mission trips to all over and it was interesting to hear him talk of his adventures on the Amazon, in Palestine, Vietnam, etc, etc.

The ride home was even more of a challenge.  This time we were traveling against the current, so it took 12 hours on the boat, and then we added the 5 hour car ride to Jinotega.  It made for a very long day!  On the boat ride home, we had sun, we had rain, we got stuck.  Just a taste of everything to make sure it was a full adventure!  I put more pictures up the gallery if you want to check those out.

Homes made of plastic are the norm in Lucia Mantia

In July, Santos, a member of the church who lives in this neighborhood started reaching out to the youth of the area through boxing lessons. Many of them starting coming to church on Sunday mornings and David starting visiting them to have Bible studies.

Brother Santos

During the month of July, David was in charge of teaching Sunday Bible class, and he focused on the works of the church and our responsibilities as Christians, mainly evangelism and outreach. The members began to brainstorm and decided they wanted to meet every Saturday morning to work. We started with six groups of three. Half evangelized in Lucia Mantia, and half visited members. After a few weeks they decided to focus on Lucia Mantia, and we spent several Saturdays evangelizing and inviting families to services.

Evangelistic Team

Last week we decided we needed to give something to the community, so we held a kids class. The men asked me to prepare for 15-20 kids. When we arrived many of the members kept wanting me to go with them to invite kids (no one knew we were going to have class in the community), but I was hesitant. They were worried about too few kids, and I was worried about too many! We ended up with over 80 kids who learned about creation - how special we are, how God cares for us, and how we need to care for His creation. We also did several crafts, including an activity sheet for the days of creation (full of stickers, glitter and drawing), drawing the garden of Eden, making star cereal necklaces, dolls for the creation of humans, and leaf imprints on paper with crayons. Needless to say it was a loaves and fishes situation!!

Star necklaces

Carmen passing out activities

We look forward to being able to do more work in this neighborhood!

We had 15 people (preachers, wives, and students) working in this month’s evangelistic effort. We had four nights of gospel meetings and four days of door knocking. It’s a shame that time limits us to only work in one small part of the town. But, we are prayerful that many of town’s people will have heard of the work we did and of the presence of the church there. The unique situation of this congregation is that several years back, they had baptized several people, but for one reason or another they all left. So, we were basically establishing the church.

La Dalia is a small town about an hour and a half north of Matagalpa. The town serves as a commercial hub that connects a bunch of smaller towns further out in the mountains and farms with the bigger city of Matagalpa. There’s a lot of movement and as a consequence people take up residence for a short while and then move on, which was one of the reasons why some of the members are not there any more. The other being that there was not a full-time preacher there up until a few months ago. Rene Rocha with his wife and child, moved there to begin working full-time trying to recuperate the old members and make new ones. This month’s evangelistic effort really gave him a boost, for him personally and for the work.

This was also my first time to preach during a gospel meeting. In Latin American countries, there’s a big difference between preaching in a regular service and preaching in a gospel meeting. A typical gospel meeting usually requires preachers that are very loud and long winded. So, this was a new experience for me because I am neither loud nor long winded. Maybe I just need more practice at it. It was a fun experience though and I hope to be able to do it again.