I can see why Jesus made one day a time for rest. As busy as he was his body had to be wore out mentally, physically and spiritually. Today is our rest day before the girls on the trip head home. We will travel to Granada today to see an amazing volcano and do some shopping. To be honest, in the past I had not really cared for a day off. I figure I am spending all this money coming here I should get every minute out of it I can but this week has been so draining that even I need a rest day this trip.
It was been an amazing week for us. This is the first time I have gotten more than 2 minutes to write so I am going to bring you up-to-date.
At the beginning of the week as you remember we were delayed getting here. Still don't know why by the way but it happened. That made things really rushed and schedules much longer than planned.
We had 5 soccer games on Sunday. It was exciting to see them play and to get to know them. That's when we realized people were stealing the cleats. That made things really difficult for us for the rest of the week.
As I mentioned last night we went to Coffradia on Monday. It was amazing the reception we received. I have never seen anything like it. I can't wait to post the pictures of it. They are so thankful for the garden projects. Some of them have tomato plants 4 feet tall and peppers everywhere. They are making enough to sale them and eat them. They are truly loving it. I can say this is a huge success there. Mostly the woman are working together. The men are always in the fields working so it's up to them and I think they kinda like it that way.
On Tuesday we went to a new community. As soon as we got there it was obvious another group had been there. Kids has Crock shoes on and they were clean. That tells you something. Almost all the kids were in school, that tells you something else. We just didn't feel led to continue there so we sent my friend Evert on a search for another community.
Each day we had 2 or 3 soccer games in the afternoon and it was extremely hot this year making it hard to sit through 3 or 4 hours. Not to mention there was no bathroom around. Games were getting intense. Teams were starting to fight for all there rights. Literally...
We quickly found we would need a cop to hang out with us so we went to the police station and the Captain gave us one each day and on the final day he gave us 3.
On Wednesday we went to the next community called Sa Bieta (Say Beat ah) This is a prodimatially Catholic area. We visited with the community leader and about 27 families who had agreed they would be interested in signing up for the garden project. Immediately you could tell this community needed help. The kids were not in school, their clothes were rags, their shoes were bad and their houses were pretty bad also. Good signs of a poverty area. They were very friendly and nice. We took pictures of all the kids who could not afford to go to school. It is my desire to get them sponsored so they can start school in February, the beginning of the next school year.
Thursday was the longest day ever for me and the group. We went back to Sa Bieta and gave out tools, seeds, irrigation systems, clothes, toys and jewelry for the older ones. They loved getting the little match box cars and some baseballs. The parents were very pleased to get the much needed tools. Some of them have tried a garden before but have no tools so it just didn't work. All of them just kept saying, we are willing to learn, please teach us. Very willing hearts.
At the end of the day Alisha saw we had gospel bracelets. I had not planned on giving them out at this village but thought why not. I walked them through the colors on the bracelet and then shared with them about how important it is to have your name in the Lambs Book of Life. I felt led to pray over them and give them a chance to receive Jesus as their savior. I expressed this is no a decision to make just because you think it is going to please me, do it because you desire to live forever with Christ and you want him to be your savior. Over 50 people respond, all of the adults, many young men and many older children. It was amazing. You could tell this decision was something they desire and not just "let's make Angie happy".
The local church will be working with them, they have an awesome place to have church. A huge tree at the leaders home.
We left and immediately had to go to the final games of the tournament. It was a very nervous time for all of us. We stood the entire time from 1 to 5. It had not rained on us the entire week until NOW. It came a huge thunder storm. God moved the thunder and cooled everything off. It was great.
That night was the banquet. Over 180+ people were in attendance. A dance/evangelism group was the star of the show. They rapped, danced and preached. It was really nice. They truly stole the show. We were out of power for over an hour so it caused things again to be rushed and we ran out of time. We raffled off a lot of shirts and balls but not near as many as we could have.
The guy in charge of the group preached and had over 50 of the boys receive Christ. It was worth all the hard work and all the frustrations. I can't wait to show you pictures.
Yesterday we located 10 of the girls from the orphanage. It was so wonderful to see them. They were so happy to see me. I am so glad they didn't forget me. 5 of them are in an orphanage about 1 hour from Somotillo, one girl is in a community about 30 minutes the other direction and 4 of them live with their mom in just 5 minutes from the first 5. It was so sad to see them for me. To see them dirty and their hair all tangled up was sad. They all seemed happy to some degree but I assure you it is not the same as living in the orphanage.
Today was our rest day. We went to Montombo which has the highest volcano in Nicaragua. It was amazing to be so high up. Unfortunately by the time we took the hour ride up the mountain it was so cloudy we could not see anything. We had to walk through the rain forest for over an hour. It was quite an exciting thing to see. We also went to the Maysa market so the new girls could bring home a taste of Nicaragua.
Please pray for Alisha and Erin as they travel home in the morning. They have to go to the airport at 5am. That's really early after a long day and both of them are not feeling well. Actually as I write this Terry, Logan and I are all feeling like we are getting a soar throat and we have a cough. Please pray God's healing in our bodies.
Tomorrow we are suppose to have Carmen and Isamar for the day but you know how this "dad" is. I am not sure if he will or not. We will see. Pray we have a great day with them.
On Monday please pray at 12:30 as we will be meeting with the director of Mi Familia to discuss our adoption options. We would like to pursue at least one of the girls from the House of Rose. The problem is we are being told the last 5 are a total package.. There is no way I can handle 5 girls in my house all under 7 years old.
I'll keep you updated on how that meeting goes.
Again, please pray for our health and the girls health as both of them are not feeling well tonight and will be traveling home tomorrow.
Last thing is Oscar. We got to see him for a few minutes this week and will see him again tomorrow. He is doing well with all the drugs going in his system. We are waiting on the results of the blood tests. We hope to hear something tomorrow. His mom called today to say one of the test had to be redone. We'll deal with that tomorrow I guess. He is excited but scared. One of the girls in the hospital had her surgery and her body rejected it and sadly she passed away. He told his mom that her kidney was the best one and his body would not reject it. I told him to keep confessing that and we will all agree with him. I will see him tomorrow at the hospital.
God Bless and sorry if this does not sound right. Didn't have time to proof it.
Angie