December 30, 2010

It's late and I'm tired, but I want to post for today while it is still today. :0

Got up early and prepared for the day. I had to miss the devotions this morning to take care of some emails for projects back in AR. I did get to eat my cold oatmeal. The smell of the cook's breakfast is to tempting, but I know I need to be sticking to my oatmeal for now.

We went to the Concrete Pit to do an early morning Fiesta. It went really well. It's the 3rd time we have been there, but the first time for a Fiesta. Having a small team still offers challenges to cover the parts for the drama, but Danilo and German helped out, too, so that most of the team could street witness. Mary was Sinbox Sally and I got a video of her performance. It was great until Pacheco was portraying a Pastor and leading her through the Salvation prayer. They both got so tickled that they almost couldn't finish. Pastor Miguel was not looking too happy about it. But they finally made it through. Everything went fine after that. I told Mary I was going to blackmail her with the video. :)

Then we went to another new area called Antenor Sandino. We had a fairly good turnout there. Little Hope, who is 7, was Sinbox Sally and did a good job. Pastor Miguel was his silly self with the kids and they all love him. It isn't the same without his son Eliezar, who is working fulltime to support a wife and baby on the way. Beth and I always called Eliezar "Sapito" for little toad, because we called Pastor Miguel "Sapo" for toad, because they did an action song about a Sapo. Anyway, I miss Sapito. I got some good pics of kids, especially the babies, who I love. It was a very successful morning of Fiestas with 163 salvations. We had 94 salvations yesterday.

We then stopped at On the Run for a quick bathroom break and to get drinks. Then we went to La Unión for what Mary and I thought would be a quick stop to pick us the items for the next 2 day's meals. It was almost as bad as a Wednesday, which is worse than a Saturday! Anyway, there were no carts or wire baskets to be had when we walked in. They were all being used. There were people everywhere! We got tickets at the chicken meat counter and at the beef meat counter and then stood in line at the cheese counter. We had 30+ people ahead of us in the beef line (and we only needed 3 pounds of ground beef) and about 15 people ahead of us in the chicken line (all for just 3 chicken breasts). While in the cheese line, Mary noticed some wrapped chicken breasts and ground beef packages nearby. They had today's date on them, but they were handy. So we chucked the tickets for the meat counter and got the packages. After waiting about 5 minutes in the cheese counter, we found out that they were out of the kind of cheese that the cook had asked for. We decided to get the cheese and crema at 'the house of cheese' on the way home. So we took our little wire basket, that Mary had gotten from somewhere (I hope she didn't hurt anyone and take theirs away) and took our items to the front to check out. It was packed up front. We finally got through. The team was patiently waiting in the van. We stopped and got the crema and cheese and then headed for home to eat lunch, which was waiting on us.

After a good lunch of chicken spaghetti (Nicaraguan style), rice, beans, slaw and tortilla, we all decided to walk on the beach for a little while. Actually, 2 of the guys ran, but they're crazy. We found some interesting sea shells. I hadn't been on the beach for about a week, so I enjoyed the walk.

After some computer time, I got a quick shower and dressed for church tonight. We had to eat dinner at 4pm so we could leave at 4:30 to drive to the church. We weren't terribly hungry since we finished lunch at 1pm, but it was good and we filled up our tummies before heading out for a long evening.

It took about 45 minutes to get to Nagarote, once we picked up the translators and German and Pastor Miguel. The church was big and nice. The music was fantastic. I sat by myself so that I could listen to the Spanish without being in earshot of the translators in the congregation. I also enjoyed consentrating on Chet and Pacheco's team of Pastor and translator. They were preaching a message tonight!!! It was really good.

On the van ride home, there were jokes being told. Few were very funny. But the fellowship was fun. We got home right about 10pm and everyone retired to their rooms. As soon as I get this post done, I'm going to sleep. We have another busy morning tomorrow of Fiestas. They are in new places, so that's always interesting to see the effect of the team on the area. We also are going to visit a man who we met today who needs some help with something about glasses. I didn't get the whole story, but I'm sure it's an interesting one. Then we get to have lunch, rest time and then we will spend all evening in 2 back-to-back church services. It was be great and we get to ring in the New Year here in Nic! yay!

I'm enjoying the team and getting out to do the Fiestas. I always love going to the different churches. I'm glad there are service somewhere almost every night of the week. A lot of variety and a lot of lovely Christian brothers and sisters. I'm so thankful to my Lord and Father for all They share in this life. I pray They are glorified in everything we do!