December 31, 2010

Last day of 2010. I'm so blessed to get to spend it here in Nicaragua. I love being here to begin the new year.

Today we held 2 Fiestas. Both in areas that we have not worked in before. Alfonso Cortez and Ruben Dario neighborhoods. Both fiestas went well. We were running out of candy after the first fiesta, so we took up a collection and bought some more at a little pulperia (local one room store) to get us through the second fiesta. You can't have a fiesta de caramelos without the caramelos!!! There were 173 salvations today. Everyone seemed very happy to have us there. The team enjoyed working there, too. I tried to get lots of pictures, especially of the babies! I love the babies!

We stopped off at the Pedrera neighborhood again today so the guys on the team could visit with someone who was needing to get an eye exam. Yesterday was our first time to do a fiesta in that neighborhood. When the kids saw our van pull up today, they got so excited and ran to get their friends. Pastor Chet, Jase and Pacheco were the only ones who got out of the van to visit the man down the street. The rest of us stayed inside the cool van. Some of the kids kept waving and one girl mouthed something to me, but I couldn't figure out what she was saying. I got out of the van to talk with them. She was asking my name. One of the other kids said Biki!! I was surprised they remembered me from just one visit. But I guess I do stand out somewhat down here. :) Anyway, I explained why we were there and that we were not doing another fiesta today. I got them talking and laughing and singing. I grabbed my camera from the van and took some pics and video of them singing. It was so fun. After about 15 minutes, the guys came back and we left. One man had asked me for a Bible and a lady said that she was Christiano. The man had to leave, so when we were ready to depart, I got 2 New Testaments out of the van and gave them to the lady (Ana) to share with the guy (I forget his name now). I really enjoyed just getting to talk with the kids.

We got back to the house for lunch about 12:30pm. We had meat and veggies, rice and beans, slaw and tortillas. It was yummy. Then we had plenty of time for resting and even a nap.

I worked on the computer some, called my sister to see what her latest report from the doctors was, read a little, then took about an hour nap. It was wonderful! Then I woke up and worked on downloading pictures from my camera. I need to upload them to facebook, but it takes a while with the slow internet, so I'll probably work on it tomorrow and Sunday.

We got ready for church and had dinner (canalones - YUM) and then headed into León. We stopped at Eskimo for icecream. Mary and I haven't been there in over a week! We were ready!!!

We headed over to the church a little early. Danilo said it was only about 10 minutes, so we could wait some more, but we were done eating our icecream, and the team could be talking with the congregation instead of just sitting at Eskimo. It's a good thing we went ahead and left, because it took 20 minutes to get there with all the roads being closed down for New Year's celebrations. Lots of piñatas, balloons, tables & chairs and 'viejos'. There is a custom here to stuff clothes to look like old men, kind of like scarecrows, for new year's. They represent old. You set them at your house or a party, then at midnight, you explode them with fireworks. As we were driving home from church tonight we saw many different ones sitting out as people were getting ready to celebrate.

Church service was nice this evening. We went to Jericho church where Pastor Calderon (the main cooking team for our feedings) is the pastor. They asked that our team preach during the 2 hour service between 7 and 9pm, when they were going to celebrate the Lord's Supper. They were also going to have 2 other services back-to-back until the new year. Tony preached the message and Pacheco translated. It was good. Pastor Miguel and his wife and youngest daughter, Hasiel came, too. German and his family met us there. The Lord's supper service was nice. I was very moved to celebrate Jesus' sacrifice and love for me on this special night in this special country. At the end of the service, Pastor Calderon and his wife came forward to be prayed over by the church. They held hands and kneeled and people raised a hand toward them and prayed blessings over them. It was lovely.

At church, I ran into one of the guys who worked at a feeding. He speaks English and gave me his email address and name for facebook. I haven't taken the time to contact him and he also apologized for not contacting me yet. It was nice to see him again. We promised to write.

After church, we came home about 9:30 and sent Danilo and Saturnino home to celebrate with their families. The men of the team are our guards for tonight. :)

By the way, Jeremy wasn't with us tonight to translate because he was at his church being anointed as a pastor. We had thought about going there after our service ended, but decided to come on home. The roads were crazy with closings and it would take a long time to get there, get parked and go into the already in progress service. I know a couple of the guys on the team were disappointed, but it just wasn't practical to go. We will be seeing Jeremy on Sunday and Monday, so they will get to congratulate him then. I, too, wish we could be at every important celebration for the everyone one of our VOH family here, but it's just not possible. They know that we love them, though.

I'm so thankful for all that God has allowed in my life for 2010. It amazes me to revisit some of the experiences that He has brought me to and through. And, oh, the people He has brought across my path. He is glorious. He is so generous with His blessings. And I know that I have not given Him the honor and glory that He deserves.

I don't usually make new year's resolutions, but my desire for 2011 is to love God more, show Him reverence and honor in more of my life, share Him more with more people, love and encourage my fellow Christians, saturate myself in the Word more, and work on my Spanish so that I can share Him in 2 languages. God is my everything. He's all I need. I'm so blessed to be His child.