August 4-6, 2013

As I mentioned yesterday, the last team left on Saturday, the 3rd. The team house was put back to normal. The interns and I got the chance to run around town a little bit on Saturday morning. Other than that, we worked and rested a lot.

On Sunday morning, we all attended church there at the team house. It was nice. Then we rested and then went out for dinner.

On Monday morning, I rode to the Managua airport with the Interns at 3am for their return to the states. I get car sick easily, so I took a couple of ginger pills and ate a piece of bread and drank a fresca as preventative measures. After dropping the kids at the airport, we left for the drive back to León (about 1.5 hours). I was laying down on the second seat since Edmundo’s wife Dina was riding up front. We didn’t even get across the city before I got sick. I jumped up and tapped on Edmundo’s shoulder saying (in Spanish) that I was sick. He asked (in Spanish) if I wanted to go to the hospital. I told him (in Spanish) I needed to vomit. He understood that and very quickly pulled over! We were back on the road after about 15 minutes and I fell asleep on way home. I was soooo glad to get back to the team house a little before 6am. I laid on my bed and it felt so good that it wasn’t moving or vibrating or anything. Ahhhh. I slept until 8am and felt so much better. The bad thing, was remembering that I was going to have to make the same trip again in less than 24 hours!

I packed a few items to bring back with me and relaxed the rest of the day. Mary, Charlie and I went to eat dinner to kill some time. I went to bed early and caught a few hours sleep until 1am when I finally gave up and got my shower and got ready to leave. Buster was barking off and on all night, so a few hours I was awake.

We left for the airport at 3am and I gratefully rode in the front seat. We had Nelson as our driver and it was a breeze! I got checked in and stopped in the restroom. Charlie and Mary lost me. The airport is not big. Charlie posted on facebook that they had lost me. It was funny. They found me at our gate (there are only 5 or 6 gates in the whole airport). We had a few hours wait and by the time we flew off, I was ready for a little nap.

The travel all day was good. In Atlanta, Mary, Charlie and I split up, since I was going to NWA and they were going to Little Rock. I got through immigration, customs and security and went right to TGIFridays for lunch. I always eat there when at the Atlanta airport. I had a wonderful meal of steak, loaded mashed potatoes and broccoli. It was great!

When we got ready to board the plane to NWA, after many gate changes, we were told that the plane might need a tire change. But we weren’t delayed too bad. It was a good flight.

Michael and Vickie Brown picked me up at the airport and gave me their car to use while I’m in Rogers. They are such angels to me!

I got home and was greeted by LucyAlice the cat. She usually stays to herself and especially away from me. But she had been home by herself for 2 weeks while Deanna was in Las Vegas with her daughter and Jet the dog was staying with his doggie cousins. The first few days home was very quiet and I needed it so much!

Now it’s time for relaxing, renewing, refreshing and revelation. I’m looking forward to God showing me many things as I spend lots of quiet time with Him over the next 3 weeks.

He is faithful and I love Him so much!!

July 27 - August 3, 2013 Bethel BC & Trinity

This is a week for a new team. However, Teresa and Stewart have been here many times. It’s great to meet new people!

Trinity BC is still here until Wednesday, so they are getting to work with the Bethel team at the beginning of the week. The Trinity team also got to do some ministry work on Saturday and then joined the Bethel team for churches on Sunday.

This is the last week of back-to-back teams for the summer. There have been 9 weeks of teams! We are really getting tired, but love working with everyone. It was great to see Teresa and Stuart again. I hadn’t seen them for a couple of years. They are so sweet.

I ran a lot of errands, did some price research, met with friends and took care of some project prep at the team house. I stayed pretty busy while the teams were out working. I had a lot of computer work and was very happy to end a huge project. I got the chance to tie up some loose ends for the future. I gave away some clothes to some of the workers. I love getting things organized and planned. I loved being able to spend some time with friends since I was going to leave Nica on Aug 6 for 3 weeks in the states.

The team worked hard during the week. They served in 9 worship services, held 6 fiestas, made 2 school visits, held 4 days of VBS, 1 awesome women’s conference, 2 feeding center visits and 1 day of construction. There were a total of 508 salvations. Over the last 2 weeks, there were 2 visits to the jail and a few salvations were from there. Also, over the last 2 weeks, 2 of our pastors (Yadir and Saturnino) received motorcycles from sponsoring churches. What blessings for these guys! Now they are learning how ride them!

The Interns have worked hard and have gotten a lot of work done at the team house the last week. Zach was a crazy man when it came to organizing and setting up storage. It was awesome! All leftover prizes/gifts were processed and packed for the next teams in Oct and Nov. Everything in the 2 bodegas (storage units) were sorted and organized. It was beautiful! All towels and sheets were washed and put away. All donated clothes were washed and stored. A great end to the summer!

The last team members left early (3am) on Saturday the 3rd. It sure was quiet at the team house for the first time in 9 weeks! Buster laid around and slept all day long. He really misses the teams, though. He sure likes the attention from all of the visitors!

God was very busy in Nica this summer and we were very blessed to be able to be a part of it. He is faithful!

July 21-27, 2013 Eastside & Trinity

This week and next will be kind of strange in that we have a team from Trinity BC coming to serve half of this week with Eastside BC and half of next week with Bethel BC. It has really made the time go by fast, since instead of 7 days of normal schedule, everything changes after about 4 days and then again after 4 days, etc. It’s fun though. It does make it hard to remember who is on what team, however!

Mary’s daughter Teresa is here with the Trinity team. I know that Mary loves having her here. They look like twins and you rarely see one without the other following along. It’s very cute! Teresa is so sweet. I’m so glad to get to know her better.

We did the usual church service visits with teams. I know that the VOH church plants have loved having the teams come every week to share testimonies and messages.

Overall, this week the team did 6 church services, 9 fiestas, 1 conference, 4 feeding center visits and saw 464 people accept Christ. A couple of the team members stayed back for part of a day with illness, but were fine after a short while. The heat can take a toll on a body quickly.

I spent some quality time with the interns and we ate out a couple of times. I did a lot of emails and worked many hours on the feeding center sponsor tracking reports. I also got some time alone walking downtown and getting a haircut. It was a good week.

Everyone is getting tired as we have week after week. But it’s all good. We are happy to serve.

God has been talking to me in many ways and through many people. Some don’t even know that He is working through them at the time. He is faithful!

I’m excited to see what all He has planned for me in the near and far future. I love serving Him!!!