We arrived in Nicaragua on last Wednesday. It was nice leaving XNA at 3pm, which meant that we had to be at the airport at 1pm. That gave me good time in the morning for washing the last of my dirty clothes, washing the sheets on my bed, finishing some communication and leaving.
Kaylie and her mom picked me up for the ride to the airport. We arrived and the guy at the curb helped us with a cart for our extra tubs. He asked if we were with people who had just arrived. I described Sherry and he said that was them. I think he recognized the tubs of supplies. It was so good to see Mike, Sherry and Manuel.
We had a good flight, except for Manuel throwing up on the t-shirt of his bear, Caleb. Thankfully, Caleb didn’t get anything on him. ☺ We met Mary in Houston and jumped on our next plane. No problems on the flight to Managua. All of our tubs and suitcases made it and we were so happy!
German met us at the airport and he was looking great! He had lost 27 pounds since March and looked very healthy and happy. We jumped in the van and headed to the team house. We got in and unloaded our stuff and got settled for the night.
Sherry fixed us breakfast and we started getting things pulled out of storage to get the house set up. We also had to start packing the stuff we would need for the week in Jinotega, where the Crusade would take place.
Kaylie and I took a nice walk around the neighborhood and Sherry and Mike went for a run on Friday morning. Mary and I walked the beach a little Thursday evening, but the sand was very soft and we sank about 6”, so we only walked half of our usual route along the beach.
Kaylie and I moved into the little room outside the big house (just across the patio/driveway), where I will stay from now on and will share it with Beth and interns when they are in Nica. Otherwise, it’s my humble abode. I love it!
Saturday, we took off for Jinotega, about a 3 hour drive. Mike took the other van to Managua to pick up some of the team coming in. German dropped us off at the camp and then headed into Managua for more of the team and got back to the camp about 1am. Then Manuel (driver) brought a group in that night late, too. There’s about 50 people here. The camp is nice, by Nica standards. It’s much cooler here in the mountains. The Nicas are freezing to death because it gets about 60 at night. It’s been rainy during the day.
We’ve had a good time serving so far. On Sunday, we split up into groups to go to 10 churches in the morning and 10 in the evening. Today, we split into 2 teams for Fiestas, 1 team for radio and television, 1 group to visit schools. We don’t have services tonight (Nicas usually don’t have church on Monday nights) so we got to come back to the camp for dinner and stay here. Some people had testimony time and worship in the dining hall. Kaylie, Mary and I came back to our cabin to prepare the supplies for the Fiestas tomorrow. The rest of the week will be full of more Fiestas, Conferences, Radio/TV spots, School assemblies, Street Evangelism and Crusades. It will be a very busy week.
There are a few different churches represented on this trip. Lots of different personalities. I still haven’t learned everyone’s names. I doubt if I get them all down by week’s end, either. Lots of God’s children to see in Heaven.
We had over 250 salvations today in the fiestas and street witnessing. There was a lot of rain and mud, but God was glorified and Jesus accepted by many.
We don’t have cell service or internet here at the camp. We can get cell service when we go down the mountain into Jinotega. I try to catch up on emails and facebook when we’re in between fiestas and lunch. I’ll be trying to type up my blog notes and post them when we get back to the team house on Thursday night.
I know I have forgotten many things that I would probably have written, but I just didn’t have the time to stop and write. I’ll try to be better about that. Maybe I’ll just reflect on this week a little later.
I’m tired and ready for bed and it isn’t even 7:30 here yet. Time is so different here. You just go and go and follow what the plan is and don’t think about time too much. I always get mixed up on what day it is. It doesn’t matter as long as we are getting God’s work done and sharing Jesus with as many people as possible.
I’m so thankful to be here serving my awesome God. I am so blessed.
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