Cruz and Gabriel got married on Saturday. Everything went really well, and Cruz looked beautiful in my wedding dress! I’m going to put all of the pictures together to pick the best ones and then I’ll get them online for you. I was in charge of the flowers, food and cake cutting, so it was a busy busy time, but it was well worth it. Tons of people gathered together to make everything go smoothly. I also made Cruz’s sister’s flower girl dress. It was a challenge, but it turned out great. Friday night after chopping veggies and arranging flowers I passed by Cruz’s house to drop them off and make sure everything was good and two of the bridesmaids were upset that their dresses didn’t look good. Turns out they decided to wash them before the big day and they were wrinkled, so I stayed up ironing dresses Friday night too. But, when you see the pictures you’ll see how great everything turned out!

We found a house in Matagalpa and signed the contract last week. It has three bedrooms, living, dining and kitchen. I think the kitchen is big enough for our table so then we’ll put the computer in the dining room, but we’ll see how it all works out. The two extra rooms are for David’s weight bench and church storage and my sewing room and church storage, so we’re going to fill the place up. I told Juan Pablo I need my handyman’s help because it looks like the bathrooms and floors have fairly new tile, but the kitchen doesn’t and the grout is missing in lots of places and it is yucky! So hopefully JP can make it to fill that in for me. In the house we’re in now he did the same in the kitchen and bathrooms and helped me seal the bottom cabinets too, so this job should be a piece of cake! This house is right on the highway in the city, so we will be super fancy with a phone line! There is a cable line too that David claims he needs for football games (I have an allergy to paying for TV, but I can’t argue against his football!). Hopefully we’ll be able to get internet (I can’t see a reason why not with the location), and 220 so my dryer can work again (it’s been very bored for the past year!). There isn’t really a yard, just a little patch of concrete in the back, so we’ve decided to keep Tigger and let Stormy stay on the farm. I will miss my gardening, but sacrifices must be made. We’ll see how we do living in the city. We were looking at a house even more in the city, by the main market road, and I just kept thinking, “Let’s get out of here” the whole time. Too many people and cars and movement.

Yesterday we had David’s parents over for Christmas dinner. We had turkey and dressing and mashed potatoes and all sorts of goodies. Augustina forgot the cranberry sauce, but David made sure we took a trip over to their place today to pick some up! I also made dump cake and chocolate chip cookies (and not the whole wheat flour, honey kind I usually make, but the bleached white flower and white sugar yummy kind). I called my mom and sister and got to talk forever because the cell company had a special going for Christmas.

Merry Christmas!!

Come January (the 4th to be exact) we’ll be moving up to Matagalpa, Nicaragua to work with the congregation there. After much prayer we decided that the congregation here in San Marcos is ready to continue on its own. So we started looking for new areas, and we talked with Benny and Donna Baker from Mision Para Cristo who work in the Jinotega region, including Matagalpa. We discussed a lot of ideas, and decided to start off working with the congregation there in Matagalpa to help them organize, evangelize and teach. David will also be working with the group of preachers supported by Mision Para Cristo giving monthly seminars and visiting their congregations. There are 24 congregations total, and most are new congregations just getting started. We are excited about this new work and hope that you will keep us in your prayers. Especially that we find a house, we haven’t had much luck so far.

Matagalpa is in northern Nicaragua, about 3 hours from Managua. It is in the mountains and the city streets are up and down, so we’ll be getting plenty of exercise! The congregation there was established in 1985 and their preacher, Julio Acerro has been there since that time. They have about 55 adults and 45 kids that attend services. Matagalpa is a pretty big city, with over 100,000 people. They even have a Payless!

Our congregation is making a special effort to help the three young kids of the young lady who passed away of a brain tumor earlier this year, Hilda. Last January we had our first annual hiking trip and Hilda joined us. This January we are hoping to expand our trip, inviting members from congregations throughout the south and Managua, and we are dedicating it to Hilda’s kiddos. Every participant will give about $1.10 to the kids, and we are hoping to have total between 100 and 200 participants. So, I thought, wouldn’t it be neat to get you guys involved. In the states they have races with sponsors to raise funds, right? So, I thought that some of you might want to be a sponsor. We are only going to do sponsors for members of our congregation, about 40 people. It’s about a 30 km walk, so you could pledge 25 cents a km (just an example) and give a whopping $7.50. That wouldn’t hurt you too much would it? But multiply it by the 40 people sponsored and we would be able to give Hilda’s kids $300, in addition to the money given by the participants themselves, to help with school supplies (school starts late February here), uniforms, food, etc. So, we need 40 people to commit, and you can pledge whatever you want - $1 total, 10 cents a km, etc. The walk is on the 3rd of January, so I would need to know by then. If I forgot some info or if you have questions, write me an email so I can answer them and let everyone else know too.

I think I’ve mentioned it several times, but I’ll say it again. Cruz and Gabriel are getting married! On December 20th. If you’ve been to Nicaragua and know them, or if you haven’t and just want to be nice, why don’t you consider sending them a wedding gift. Several already have, and I appreicate that. If you do, just send a check to Edmond (see contacts page for info) with Nicaragua - Cruz and Gabriel in the for line and we’ll make sure it gets to them. If you would rather me buy them a gift with the money than just give them cash, you can write me an email and let me know.

Thanks!

I just don’t make it to the internet cafe as often as I should. So let’s see what we’ve been up to since my last post. The youth group went to an area wide activity in November. They have services and then play. Our soccer team made it all the way to the chamionship game and then lost. So, David now says he’s going to “practice” which really means he’s going to play soccer with the youth. They have the church’s nation wide olympics this month, so I guess they do need to “practice.” =)

The last week of November we went to Matagalpa to help them door-knock for their gospel meeting. There was one baptism the day we were there, and a really good turn out for the meeting. It was hard work! Matagalpa is in the mountains and the roads are up and down! We took the evangelistic team, a group of 13, with us.

Sunday we had a department wide church service in Santa Teresa. There were at least 19 congregations represented with 500 adults and 200 kids. It was a lot of fun. We had to get there early because we were working the reception desk. That was good because we got to see everyone as they came in, rather than trying to find friends in the crowd. Luis Garcia gave a great lesson about how we should be know for our love and encouraged us to love one another.

Saturday Cruz, Carolina, Johanna and I graduated from our sewing class. It was pretty serious, with diplomas and everything. Carolina and I were supposed to each give a short speech, so I had mine all written up and ready and asked her what she was going to say. She said she wasn’t sure, but since she talks a lot she was just going to say what came to her. Hmm, thought I. So we go up together to the microphone and had it all worked out real organized for the “thanks” we were giving (taking turns), then I gave my words of encouragement to the ladies and then when it came her turn she just said “Gracias.” I thought, “That nerd, I knew she was going to do that!” It was probably for the best. Who wants to listen to long speeches anyway! I need to take some pictures of the work we’ve done and put them in the gallery. We made over 50 dresses for all of the girls of the church with cloth my mom gave us. We are hoping to give them out next week so they can all have pretty dresses for Cruz and Gabriel’s wedding.

Finally, all of the political unrest is finally over! They took forever the count the votes for the mayors and one party got busses together everyday to drive around causing trouble. They stopped right outside our house on the way to Managua. At first I thought I was fine because I had two big, mean pit bulls to take care of me. Then I went to the door and saw Tigger shaking in his boots. He doesn’t like firecrackers and they were shooting them off from the busses to intimidate the people. The crazy thing is that here are all of these guys, that as they stop on their way to Managua have t-shirts covering their faces and are gather rocks, and they say these are the heros of the nation who are standing up for their vote. What a joke! They damaged lots of cars in one of the malls, and even stole one, and there wasn’t a police in sight (even though the news cameras were there) and they said they were doing this to demand a fair election. By damaging personal property? Right. So here’s my theory. The newspaper said that 62% of the people didn’t think the election count was valid and 50 something % said they thought there should be a reelection, but who is really going to demand a reelection knowing that they are going to be out with rocks, etc. all over again. So, they did that to be able to say whoever they wanted won and no one is going to fight it. Worked I guess.