May 10-29, 2014

I hit the ground running after my 4 weeks in the states.  I started running errands first thing on Saturday (including seeing my favorite cambista, Luis, to exchange dollars for córdabas), pricing a washing machine, getting groceries, etc.  Jalisa and Sandy came over for a chat and we had a sweet time of prayer together.

It was good to be back in church and I always love the freedom of worshiping and the tangible sense of the Holy Spirit.  Sundays are usually filled with church, lunch out, a trip to the grocery store, then home for a nap and emails and phone calls. 

Since I was able to buy a used washing machine from my neighbors Jason and Issa, I used the difference in my budgeted amount to buy an exercise bike.  I’m so excited and love it.  I don’t always have time to walk first thing in the morning before it gets hot, so getting to ride the bike whenever I have time is great.  Sofia is joining in, too.

I bought more fabric to make the curtains for the living room window and some lightweight covers for the beds.  Still more projects to do, but I love doing them.

There has still be work going on for the house, so I spend most of my time at home.  I have lots of visitors and do a lot of emails and phone calls.  We are having English Bible Study Group 3 times a week, for a small group each time.  This works out better for the students’ schedules and so that they can have more individual time for speaking English.  It’s easy for me, because I’m already here!

Jasmina spent one night here as she was preparing to work in Managua for a week with VOH.  She’ll be back in June for about a month while working.  She is such a sweetie pie.  Sofia and I love having her here in the house with us. 

We had some changes in workers on the house.  I even had to fire someone, but it all turned out okay.  I’m trying to spread the work around so that many can benefit from the employment.  But I will be very glad when everything is done!

My friend Grethel (sister to Estefanie) had a stroke.  She is only 19 years old and has a one month old baby.  It was very scary, but she is recovering at a good rate.  I pray many blessings over her.  I can’t wait to get to see baby Fernando. 

Franklin and his wife Glenda and baby Franky came for a visit.  I just love getting to see everyone’s kids.

My sweet friend Erika surprised me with a visit with her sweet baby Ashly.  I just held that precious thing for hours!  I couldn’t keep from kissing her sweet head!

I love seeing baby Ilia, the daughter of my neighbors, Jason and Issa.  So many precious babies around here!

I found a new smoothie place that I adore!  I will be frequenting that place a lot!  I don’t get out too much right now, with the workers in the house, but soon I will be free as a bird!  In between classes, that is. 

Some friends have come over at various times to visit and to ask for prayer.  I am so thankful that this ministry is here to meet those needs.  How humbling it is to be a part of it.

My friend and fellow missionary, Jalisa, is staying with us now.  It is fun to have another girl in the house.  We all just come and go and do our own thing.  It’s another way that God is using this house for His ministry to others. 

We have started having some English classes that just kind of came about.  It’s been great and I am enjoying them very much.  Some of students are teaching each other.  So many people are hungry to learn.  It’s awesome.  I bought a 4’x5’ dry erase board for the dinningroom/classroom.  My friend James carried it all the way from the Librería (about 10 blocks!)  It’s the perfect finishing touch on that classroom. 

The kitchen was completed and the new work station was delivered.  Now I just need to sew the curtains and then I can take some ‘after’ pics of it!  The decorative stripes are painted on the walls, so those rooms are ready for some ‘after’ pics, too.

I’m ready to start cleaning and organizing the sewing/skills workshop.  (It’s been a catch-all room while the others have been renovated.)  Sewing classes should be starting in about a week.  I’m so excited!!!

Sofia and I are both enjoying the washing machine!  And clothes dry very quickly in the sun and heat.  It’s a dream to do laundry now!  We both love cooking in the new kitchen.  The old counter tiles were broken and nasty.  Now we have new ones and they are very pretty.  A bigger, used fridge and cutting the counter to fit in the used stove has made the kitchen wonderful!  I see many days of happy cooking and fellowships here in the ministry house! 

God is sooo Good!

May 8-9, 2014 Travel Day

Got up early, feeling refreshed!  It’s always sad to say goodbye to Deanna.  I will miss her so much!

It was a crazy morning of last minute errands.  I ended up going to my accountant’s office twice, the bank once, the post office once and a quick stop at McDonalds for a last egg mcmuffin!  After a nice chat with the neighbor and saying goodbye to Deanna, I was ready to go.  Cathy picked me up about 8:45am for the ride to the airport.  I left her with a shopping bag filled with items and notes attached telling what needed to be done with each.  She is such a good friend to take care of these things for me!

Once at the airport, Cathy dropped me off and went to park.  She was ready to take anything overweight back to Deanna’s for packing in the next trunk.  By the time she came to the curb again, a nice guy who does the curbside check ins had insisted on weighing my stuff, even though I couldn’t check in there for an international flight.  I was ½ pound over on the suitcase and 10 light on the trunk.  I usually obsess over getting every square inch and every ounce allowed.  But I was quite happy.  Cathy didn’t need to take anything back.  But we both forgot that she had some baby items for me to bring to Erika.  Great minds…

I got checked in easy and had a nice leisurely visit at one of the restaurants.  OJ and facebook.  Then I spent time just walking the corridors.  Since I spend so much time sitting on the planes, I like to be mobile as much as possible at the airports.  I made some phone calls to family while waiting, too.  My first flight was okay, with the exception of the guy in the seat next to me not only hogged the armrest, his elbow was in about ¼ of my airspace!    I had to lean to the right the whole way, but we made it.  He didn’t even apologize.  Humph.

I love layovers in Atlanta, because I always eat at TGIFridays.   They let me sit there as long as I want, so I prop my feet up and relax.  Then I walk the corridors a lot.  I didn’t get to nap on the flight to Nica, because of a very boisterous toddler.  She yelled when she was happy and she yelled when she was mad.  But it wasn’t too bad. 

I arrived in Managua and got right through immigration and baggage claim.  I had reserved a room at the Best Western hotel across from the airport, so they had a representative there at baggage claim to get me.  He helped with my luggage and getting out of the door.  The shuttle driver took me across the highway and I got settled into my room.  My friend Jalisa was arriving on a flight about 1 hour after mine.  We were going to share my room.  The hotel clerk said I could ride over to the airport to meet her.  She didn’t know the shuttle was coming, so she arranged for a friend to meet her to help get her suitcases across the highway.  Wil surprised me at the airport waiting area.  I had hired him and his van to pick us up the next morning from the hotel and I was afraid that he had the info mixed up.  But it was all cool and he had great fun surprising me.  I did know that I was back in Nica by the immediate sweating!!  Oh yeah, home!

Jalisa and I enjoyed our room.  It was very comfortable.  A/C, TV (which we didn’t watch), comfy beds, one last hot shower…  We had a wonderful time catching up about our trips to visit family and friends.  We had some good prayer time, too.  We got up at our leisure and had the wonderful free breakfast.  Wil picked us up at 11am and we went to PriceSmart for some stocking up on food items and other stuff for my house.  We then stopped on the way to León for lunch.  Breaking up the trip really helped with my motion sickness problem.  It was such an enjoyable day and the best trip I have ever made from Managua to León. 

Sofia was so glad to see me.  It was good to be home!  I loved the work on the house that got done while I was gone.  It was soooo good to be HOME.  I slept like a baby in my Nica bed after a nice cool shower. 

What a wonderful 4 weeks in the states.  What a great time of sharing about Living Grace Ministry and what all God is doing and revealing here in Nica.  What sweet blessings I received from loved ones.  What renewal and refreshment I feel from that trip.  God is Good.  I am not worthy.  But I am so humbled, blessed and thankful.  To Him be all Glory!

April 26-May 7, 2014

Many more days of visiting with friends and networking for the ministry.   On Saturday, I got to have lunch with a friend from El Dorado AR, to discuss details about the jewelry making classes and just how wonderful God is in general.  It was fun to get together.  On Sunday, I spoke to 3 more Life Groups at FBCR. 

Many, many more errands during the weeks.  So thankful to have the use of the car from Vickie and Michael Brown.  They are my angels!  Among more visits (and meals) with friends, I also got to get my haircut by my dear friend Carolyn. 

I spent another day with Nana Ruth while she underwent some medical tests.  I like being able to visit with her in the waiting areas.  Too bad she has to go through the discomfort and expense of the procedures just so we can have some quality visiting time!  Lol 

I get months of meds at a time when I visit the states and sometimes that carries over into the time for checkups to refill meds.  I got a call from the Pharmacy saying that my Drs office wanted an appointment.  Thankfully, they got me in the very next afternoon.  And God worked it out that the appointment was just before a meeting that I had scheduled for the same town.  Yay God! 

When I was at the doctor’s office, they asked about my drivers’ license, since the one of file expired the month before!  Oops!  So, the next day I went to renew my license.  I also registered to vote, since I hadn’t done that since before I moved to NYC.  I got to visit some friends having a yard sale to send their kids to Nica.  I stopped by a couple of times over the weekend.  It was fun to visit with them.

I had an especially sweet visit with my friend Lisa, who owns a cupcake shop!  Besides getting to eat a yummy cupcake and some unsellable cookies, we had a wonderful conversation.  She has quite the ministry going on in that place.  I’m very proud of her and wish her many blessings!

My routine blood tests revealed the usual stuff… high cholesterol, high triglycerides, etc.  This time my fasting sugar count was edging up and my calcium was high.  Dr. Bob said it was time to take serious my annual claim to ‘get healthy this year’.  So I guess I’ll apply myself a little more. 

I had some more wonderful meetings with people working on various parts of the ministry.  How blessed I am to have these angels coming along side me in God’s ministry in Nica.  The website is being worked on and I also got to meet with someone who is my guru for the sewing/skills classes and ministry.  Awesome!

Debbie’s Pharmacy has always been so good to work with me on getting multiple month’s worth of meds to take to Nica.  They really worked hard this time, as I needed to bring 8 months worth with me.  I appreciate them so much!

I had lots of mailing and shipping to do… Thank yous, Mother’s day gifts to family, Nica goodies to friends from a special Skype Bible study in different states and a 40 lb suitcase of books to some fellow Missionaries.  I finally got all of the shipping done the day before I left the states!  Lol

The last day was filled with last minute errands, like another routine doctor’s appointment, bank, PO Box check for the last time, drop keys off to my mailbox-sitter, upgrading my phone (and then getting help from a friend because I couldn’t figure it out), making phone calls, etc. 

I didn’t start packing my trunk and suitcase until late Wednesday evening for the Thursday flight.  Besides packing what I take with me, I needed to pack away most of my stuff in Deann’s guest room (where I live in the states) so that people can use the room in my absence.  I was sooooooo tired and I have to admit a little stressed.  I always have way more than I can carry down on each trip, so I partially packed 2 more trunks to be carried down in July by a young friend who is going to come and work with me.  Once I was done packing, I didn’t allow myself to second guess anything. 

I was going to spend some quality time with Deanna that evening, but she was out and about with friends from church and came home at bedtime.  But we did have some great quality time throughout the 4 weeks that I was there.  I’m so thankful for her!

I had a great night’s sleep and felt very content with all that God had allowed me to experience in those crazy 4 weeks.  He is faithful!!!