Nicaragua July 25, 2010

Sunday

I woke up wide awake at 2:30am and tried to read myself back to sleep. I was more concerned about keeping my reading light from shining in someones eyes. I finally gave up and laid there until I went back to sleep. Woke up at 5:30.

We're getting ready for church this morning. People in and out of our room for the bathroom. The girls are wearing their new dresses today. We are splitting into 3 groups to go to three churches. It will be fun.

The church our van went to was along the roadside. They walked us a little down the road to their new building that is under construction. They started it 7 years ago. It has 4 walls made of blocks, but no roof or floor yet. They are excited to get it finished, but don't have a clue as to how many more years it will take. The service was really nice. They asked if anyone from our group could help with the children's class. No one from the team volunteered, so Bethany, Kaylie and Kearsten went to help. They enjoyed it. The team did the message and testimonies. They prayed for everyone in the church. There is an interesting dynamic within this group. Chico, Iris and Joe were our translators for church.

We came back for lunch and then left for La Paz Centro for a 3pm service. The church wasn't open and we drove around until time for the evening services. Mike had arrived and he and German caught up with us in La Paz Centro. We drove to León Viejo (Old León) to look at some historic stuff, but a huge thunderstorm came up and we couldn't get out of the vans. We drove back to La Paz Centro and stopped at the house of one of Joe's friends to use her bathroom. Poor dear, I don't know if she realized we were bringing 30 people into her house. She was very gracious. The steps outside of the house were very slippery and Chico insisted on helping me to the van. I get treated so well in Nic. I love it.

We split into 3 groups again and went to 3 churches. Our group went to a church with only 6 members present. The rain had made the floors wet, so they were mopping as we went in. A couple of the girls sang, Tina gave her testimony and then Tom gave the message. It went fine.

When we got back home, the electricity was out. We had hamburgers and chips by candlelight. We went to bed really hot and sweaty. I hope the electricity comes back on soon. I'm getting up at 4:30am to plug in the big coffeepot so that Mary won't have to come down stairs just for that. I hope I can go back to sleep easy after that. Oh well, I need to be up about 5:30 anyway.

I found out that I will be going home on Aug 7 now instead of the 21st. The Speigles are busy with their other ministry connection and don't work with Voice of Hope now. I'm sad to not have those extra 2 weeks here. But it will be okay to go back home. It will save me some money, I can take care of my IRS opportunity and start working on the projects for FBCR for fall. (we have a big block party in Sept, getting the free meals project started, getting people in place for Thanksgiving meals, Christmas blessings, and Christmas Food Baskets, and a coat drive, etc.) It's all Kingdom work and it's all good. No matter where I'm serving.

I guess I should try to go to bed now. So hot and sticky. But Nicas feel this way all of the time. I'm blessed no matter what.
Thank You Lord.