We had review day in kid’s class this past Sunday. I always review on the last Sunday of the month, and give away prizes for the kids who can say all of their memory verses. I got some really great prizes, but didn’t think more than two or three would know all four memory verses, but they proved me wrong! Since this was the first time with this group, I was really talking up the review day and prizes, and I guess it worked because all of the kids came knowing at least two memory verses, and Cindy (she’s 4) even learned how to say “Tesalonisenses” (now if I could only learn to say it!).

We also played a review game. I got the board online, and it has different shapes for catagories such as emotion, vocabulary, facts and application. It was kind of hard since the kids have such a wide age range. The older kids kept answering for the younger when they had to think a bit and didn’t answer immediately, but it was still fun.

David blogged this week, so I forgot to mention his birthday. On Wednesday he turned 29! We decided that next year we’ll just start the count over again from one. He had a fun birthday. On Tuesday we went to San Marcos because the ladies asked me to teach their class. We stayed the night Tuesday night and got to have birthday cake with the old gang Wednesday morning. We also had a great lunch with David’s parents, and then headed to Managua for a free day to watch a movie and relax. We needed the relax time after our busy week last week. After we got back from the campaign we didn’t get a break because David is teaching adult class this month and I’m teaching kid’s class, so we had to prepare on Saturday.

On Friday we had another singing class. Did I tell you I’m having a singing class for the ladies every Friday. While we practiced the guys had a game night. It was a lot of fun, but I sure was tired this morning!

I bet these are two names that you’ve never heard of before. Up until a few weeks ago, neither have I. These are two small towns way up in the northern part of Nicaragua. It’s actually where the road ends (So it says on the map). Last week a group of us preachers and three wives, including Kim, went to both towns to preach the Gospel.

It was a very interesting experience. As you can assume the living conditions were very poor in both places and the only budget we had was for food. So, the whole lot of us, plus six from the family that lived there, slept on mats on the floor in a small three room house for three nights.

There wasn’t even a place to shower, so at 5:30 every morning we all walked down to the river and had our public bath (with swim shorts on of course).

Sleeping arrangements in the other town were a little better. We rented a big storage room and all the guys slept there and the couples slept in the preacher’s two bedroom house. And of course there was no indoor plumbing, just a nice plastic out house in the open. However, we were so excited because Kim and I didn’t have to take a bath in the river; we took bathes in their back yard where they did their laundry!

But the good news is that we had five baptisms and made a lot of contacts for future Bible studies. The people are so receptive there, even if they were members of other churches. We came to find out that most of the people had not heard of the church of Christ before. It was not an easy week, but the results were well worth the effort. Be sure to check out the pics from our gallery. The scenery was awesome.

The congregation has been visiting the Nutrition Center that I told you about before. It’s where they take the malnourised kids until they get healthy. It is such a wonderful place to visit. You can see how the kids progress and the difference between the kids who just arrived and the kids who are almost ready to go home. There is one little girl who arrived about 4 days ago who we guessed was 5-6 months old. Turns out she was a year old! She had sores on her head and body and was super super tiny. The worst thing is having to leave after a visit, because all of the kids start crying and you just don’t want to go! I’ve decided to always leave during meal time because the kids soon forget about us for the food. I put some pictures in the gallery if you want to see some of the cuties.

I started teaching kid’s class this month. I left all of my supplies with Patricia in San Marcos, so it was quite a challenge to get started, but I had a lot of fun this past Sunday in my first class. In evening services, one little boy who was quiet in class came up and showed me his coloring sheet he colored at home and gave me a big hug. It was too cute. There are only about 8 kids in class usually, so I sent home coloring sheets and memory verses for all of the other kids of the families who came to encourage them to come to class too. We’ll see how it goes.

This past Monday and Tuesday we had work days at a member’s home, Henri. He has suffered from two strokes and is in a wheelchair. Sunday night a group of 5 guys broke into his home and stole some items. This poor guy lives in a two room house - one kitchen/dining/living room and one bed/wash room. He has, or had, a tv, cd player, fridge, and not much else. They took his tv, but didn’t get much more (I think neighbors heard the racket and scared them off). So we went to share meals with him and help him clean up and wash some clothes. We are working with the lawyer in charge of his estate to move him in with a member of the church who can help take care of him.

Tuesday I got to teach ladies class. It was nice because we were at a member’s home who had a tiny little living room, so we decided to have services in her back yard. She lives on a mountain, so the yard had some big rocks we sat on and it was like devos at church camp. We talked about Proverbs 31:10-31 - the virtuous woman, and all of the activities we can participate in to bring honor to God and our husbands.

Wednesday David and a group went to services in the prison again. I decided that wasn’t a good activity for the ladies since they only visit the men. Hopefully we can start a program for the ladies in jail and then we can participate.

Friday was the Mision Para Cristo’s preachers meeting, and they set up dates for gospel meetings during the year. The first one, during the second week of March, will be in Bocay, which is waaaay out there. So it should be an adventure. Showers are overrated anyway right? Hmmm… Friday night we had another game night at the church.

Saturday David went to Managua for a meeting he was leading about Bible Bowl. They are trying to get a Bible Bowl started with the churches nation-wide. They decided to split up into North, South, Managua, and Leon and those groups will compete and then the winners will come to Managua to compete against eachother. The study is on Matthew, and it sounds like a really neat idea. They are focusing on the youth for this activity.

Sunday was a super busy day! In addition to teaching class, David had their second men’s meeting at 2:00, then we went to a neighboring congregation where David preached at 4:00, and then evening services again at 6:00. No break! David preached in Santa Teresita, the other congregation here in Matagalpa. They have a good group and lots more kids than we do! The preacher gets a tiny bit of support from the Mission, but he supports himself with a small home business. From what I understand, the congregation has paid for their land and building and everything, so it was neat to see how they were successful on their own.

Tuesday we had ladies class again and then held a meeting to get more organized and involved. We elected a group to direct the ladies who will attend any nation-wide meetings and get us involved on a national level. The church has a national ladies day every May and there are other activities for region. It was great to see the desire the ladies have to be involved and organized.

Please keep all of the works and activities in your prayers so that we can be successful. Also keep the church here in general in your prayers so that we will have the strength to overcome any obstacles Satan will put in our way.