May 2015

May was another crazy busy month with many challenges and much joy. 

Since I was going to the states for a planned trip (Dr apts, med tests, personal business, taxes, etc.), we used the first part of the month being busy making items to sell in the states.  The ladies were making items to sell in their own names, which is the plan, but they surprised me by giving me some items they had made for me to sell to support the ministry.  I was so humbled and blessed by their gifts.  They make so little from the sales sometimes, but they wanted to give part of that back to the ministry.  How awesome is that to see them honoring God with their talents!

Our women missionary Bible study drew to a close for a few months.  The ladies wanted to keep meeting to pray for each other until the next study starts after ‘team season’.  We did that for a few weeks, but the responsibilities of being a missionary when people come down from the states overtook the ability to meet regularly for a few months.  But we keep in touch via facebook group and pray over each other and our families.

Sofi had some health issues and had some tests run.  She’s a little anemic and mostly overly tired and stressed.  Bless her heart, she is caring for the baby (with some part-time help for when she is in classes), helping take care of the house, helping with admin stuff for the ministry, going to class, etc.  She is feeling better after changing her routine to a more manageable pace.  We both have to pray for God’s guidance in not over committing.  And we watch over each other, too.  It’s funny to have her tell me to put the computer and my work away and rest.  But we are good for each other!

Jasmina came to stay for a week, while working as a translator for a medical team here in the area.  She is getting a good medical education!  We love having her here.  She calls me Mom.  I love having so many kids!

My 2 weeks in Rogers AR went by quickly and were jam-packed with appointments, meetings, meals, love and laughter and fun.  I was so blessed by so many people.  I got to go to both the English and Spanish church services at my home church’s old location.  I love that church group there.  I got the chance to buy on discount items for the ministry, go on a road trip with a friend to attend her grand-daughter’s college graduation, dog/house-sit, switch between 3 vehicles, juggle meetings, enjoy friends (and even fell asleep while sitting up talking) and just had a great time!!

Sofi and Victoria rode with our friend Eyner to pick me up at the airport.  I sure missed them both while in the states!  I called them every night.  It was so good to see them and hug them!  Victoria grew so much in 2 weeks! 

The day after I returned, the class had a small party for me and to celebrate mother’s day (which in Nica is on May 30).  It was fun.  Our fridge died and we borrowed a cooler from a friend for a few days.  Luckily, we had not had time to buy food, so we didn’t loose much from the fridge.  We got it fixed a few days later.  Appliances just don’t last long here for many reasons.

A friend gifted us with a carrier harness backpack kind of thing to haul Victoria around with us.  She loves it!  Sofi loves it!  We are so blessed with it!  We all can go on walks and run errands and go out to eat.  So much fun!

While in Rogers, I got to meet with a lawyer friend, who helped to file the papers to incorporate LGM as a legal non-profit.  Yay!  We are on our way to the 501©(3) status.  It will be a long, hard road, but it will be worth it and I’m thankful for the people God has brought along side the ministry to make it all happen.

It’s all for His Glory!  How wonderful that Jesus provides us with the gift of salvation and eternal life and that we also get to have an abundant life here serving Him!  He is awesome!

April 2015

Can you say HOT????   It’s the hottest month of the year in Nicaragua.   The end of ‘summer’, which is 6 months of no rain.  The air is soooo dry!  The breeze, when there is one, is like a fan blowing air from an oven over your body.  I like to freeze juice in a cup and eat it with a spoon on these afternoons.  Even the Nicaraguans are sweating!  LOL

We continued with classes, except for Holy Week, when everything closes down.  Sofi’s half sister from Managua came to visit for a week.  She’s 15 and thinks being with us will be exciting.  She soon (the first day) got incredibly bored.  Our life is centered around being a family with a new baby and our ministry.  She was expecting running the streets a lot.  I talked Sofi into letting me babysit one afternoon for them to go out to eat and to the movies.  Sofi and Scarleth inventoried the supplies in the sewing/craft classroom.  We cooked some special food.  They ran some errands.  Not too exciting for a teenager.  But it was nice to have her here.

Our missionary friends, the Heddings, hosted a bunch of us missionary families for a cook out at their house.  So fun.  There were kids running all over the place!  We got to see friends we don’t see often, and we made new friends.  Sofi noticed at one point that she was the only Nicaraguan there, but soon, our friends Jason and his Nica wife Issa came.  Sofi was the only one who noticed we were all Gringos.  We look at everyone being the same and love Nicas just the same as anyone else.  It was interesting to see this through her eyes.  We had lots of good food, played games and had fun.  Victoria was just a few months old, so it was fun to take her out.

Bismark, a friend I met years ago at one of the fabric stores, made a sign out of Styrofoam with the LGM logo on it.  It was a nice surprise.  I love how God brings friends along in different circumstances.  I’ve continued to buy fabric from Bismark for the last few years.  He gives me a good discount.  And I also stop in to say hi many morning with I’m on my daily walks.  He will do piece work for us by paining fabric for us to make into hats and bags and such. 

Well, I finally had a health issue here in Nica.  I have some bad molars that give me trouble.  They have very old fillings in them and the teeth are cracked.  I have babied them for many years.  One broke in two a few months back, and since it didn’t hurt, I ignored it, except for not eating on that side.  Well, it got infected down inside and I mentioned it to a friend.  She immediately called a dentist that goes to her church and before I knew it, I had an appointment for the next day to pull the tooth.  Ack!  I was nervous!  But I knew that I needed to get something done, so I prayed like crazy and went to the appointment.  The dentist was very sweet and spoke some English.  Her equipment was from the 1950’s, and she had to unplug one of the fans to plug in the xray machine, but she was sanitary and used clean gloves (not all dentists here do) and she went to work.  I HATE having dental work done, and having that done here is scary.  But God was faithful and got me through it.  I ended up having to go back in a few days to get more of the infection scraped out of the gum, and they about killed me with antibiotics, but the cost was only $7.50 (including the xray and meds in my jaw).  I made a new friend in Escarleth, my dentist.  I ended up having to go back a few weeks later when I broke another bad tooth and had another extraction.  That one cost me $8.00, since they had to numb it twice because it was taking so long.  I have to say, you can’t beat the price here!  And now I have less teeth, but the ones left seem to be in decent shape for now.  Thank you Lord!

April 20 is Sofi’s birthday.  Since we went all out on her babyshower in December, we were keeping Christmas and birthdays to a minimum this year.  We had some yummy treats during the morning class and then Sofi, Victoria and I went out to dinner on the following Saturday.  I gave Sofi a nice study Bible and she was so thankful.  She has a bi-lingual Bible for when she learns more English, but getting the study Bible was special for her.

We have said for a long time that we wish that the two tiny rooms in Sofi’s area of the house (towards the back and away from the hubbub of classes) were one bigger room.  All the other bedrooms in the house are bigger, but are not as private.  Then one day we just decided to knock out the adjoining wall.  We can do whatever we want to the house, and since there is no electricity in that wall, and it’s just cement block, we could tear it down for now and easily put it back in the future if the Landlord wants.  So, we hired Sofi’s half-brother, who does construction, to take on this project.  He gave us a good discount and got the work done in 2 days.  What a difference that made!  Now Sofi and Victoria have a nice sized room, where the air from the fans can actually circulate.  It feels three times bigger, not just doubled.  It has room for Sofi and Victoria to each have a bed and share the room for years to come (the custom here).  We were very thankful for this upgrade!

A fellow missionary, Sarah, has experience in starting opportunities in Uganda for women to learn to make things and sell them.  She has talked with me a lot about our ministry and our goals.  She is working with us on getting a co-op started with our ladies.  Sarah is very creative with design, and paints, but also, wants to learn to sew and do other things.  She fits right in with us!  We’re glad that God brought her along to share her talents.

One day I was sitting in the classrooms in the front part of the house.  I heard my name being called from the street.  (you keep your front doors open here until you go to bed)  I looked out and there was a friend from long ago walking around calling my name.  (Addresses here are more like directions, and our address translates to 1 ½ blocks from San Juan Park.  Of course, there are many houses that fit that description, so you go to the general area of that block and call on people.)  Anyway, it was Christopher  and his wife Evenling looking for me.  He was one of the first translators I met went I came to work with voh in March of 2010.  He was one fo the first kids to call me Mom, too.  I had not seen him and Eveling since their son was born 4 years ago.  They have been living and working in Managua.  What a wonderful surprise!  They are both lawyers here now.  He is teaching some English on the side and asked if I would help him with some resources.  It was soooo good to see them and he has stopped by many times since to visit.  I’m glad that God brought them back into my life.

We actually had a little rain on a couple of days in April.  It was unexpected and quite a joy!  However, our electric went out for a bit, which is not unusual, and we muddled through.  The hardest part about not having electric is to not have the fans.  But it came back on soon and the rain didn’t last long, but was refreshing.

All in all, April was a good month.  I love the ladies (and some guys) who come to classes.  I love getting to talk about Jesus.  I love to get to work with my ‘half of my orange’ Veronica (like 2 peas in a pod Nica style).  God is awesome and we are so blessed to serve Him.

March 2015

Another month of busyness and blessings!  Every week the classes are more and more fun as more people come to learn new things and get to hear about Jesus.

Along with regular everyday life, we had a few extra items going on.  Sometimes, I don’t know how God fits everything in.  I feel like such a slug at times, and other times, I’m so overwhelmed by what all is going on.  I have to remember to depend on God, who is the Master planner (and created time, by the way) and to get out of His way and be obedient to Him!

Our friend Cristhian was in the hospital for a few days.  As I’ve mentioned before, the health care here is awful and the hospital is the last place anyone would want to be!  You can for your patient yourself; food, meds, etc.  His father was with him part of the time, but he was alone most of the time, because his parents both work.  Sofi took some food and meds to him from us.  We called as often as we could to keep him company.  Thankfully, he was released after a few days.

A friend of a friend contacted me to bring some donated clothes to us to distribute.  We were very thankful, although, the clothes were very much picked over.  We salvaged a few things and then passed the rest on to those in bigger need.  We did get to bless some people with the suitcases, though.  These are used for keeping clothes in, since many people don’t have furniture for that kind of thing.  We were thankful that we could do what we could.

My friend, Freddy, came to me with a project.  He is currently recording medical terminology from a huge book.  He asked if I would help with the English recordings.  We try to find time to go to a little recording studio and pronounce the words.  I’m getting an education!  This is a long process over much time, but it’s fun and I got to meet some new friends who have blessed me!  I’m looking forward to continuing this project with Freddy!

A Gringa friend has a little baby, who uses a pack n play like us.  She asked if I could make a mosquitero (mosquito net cover) for her, similar to the one I made for Victoria’s stroller.  I know have the appropriate pattern prepared to make these.  Fun!

I had a meeting with another missionary about us providing sewing classes for some ladies in 2 barrios that his ministry works in.  We agreed to have a six week class for the leaders, and then they can teach the others.  I love getting to network with other missionaries.

Through yet another ministry, we taught classes to women in a special barrio for six weeks.  It was fun, but our time was really stretched.  We’ve realized that we need to stick to teaching classes here at the ministry house and inviting the others to join our scheduled classes.

There are 2 seasons in Nicaragua, summer (no rain) and winter (rainy).  March and April are the end of the summer season and it is very HOT and dusty!  When the sugar cane fields and peanut fields are harvested, it creates huge clouds of dust.  This blows into the city and wreaks havoc!  Since the houses are all open to the outside, we get covered in dust that is in the air.  Some days you cannot even see 10 feet in front of you.  We had a couple of really bad days in March.  We pretty much stayed in my private rooms (the most closed up) and slept there, ate there, watched movies, worked, etc)  So crazy!

My birthday was very low key this year.  I didn’t even tell anyone about it.  Sofi say it on facebook, and a few of our friends surprised me with food and a cake.  It was fun.  But I don’t see turning 58 as any big deal.  Now, I might have to celebrate turning 60 in a fun way, though! 

Sofi started classes to finish her last 2 years of highschool.  Since she has the baby, she cannot go to regular school.  The classes she attends are for review to pass exams.  They are very difficult.  But she is determined to finish her education and I applaud her for that!  It’s no big deal to just quit here, so I am proud of her ambition.

We were blessed to receive an old, industrial style, overlock sewing machine from the mother of a friend I met at the recording studio.  It used to be a treadle machine and someone stuck a motor on it.  It needs a complete overhaul, but Anibel, who teaches our advanced sewing classes (and is a tailor by trade) looked at it like it was a sports car!  We are very thankful and blessed to have it.  Once it is up and running (and we are trained on it), production is going to skyrocket!  Yay for the ladies!

I worked on 2014 taxes for hours and hours and hours.  Blah!  Not my favorite thing to do!  But a necessary evil in this world.

The most enjoyable thing to happen in March, was to have a visit from my ver special friend, Oliver Martinez!  He came down with a team to work with another ministry, and planned to spend his free day with me.  He is one of the board of directors for LGM and a very dear friend.  His visit was like a breath of fresh air!  I needed his prayers, encouragement and excitement so much!  He got to meet a lot of the people here at the ministry.  Even though it was not a regular class day, some of the people came over anyway to meet him.  He loved the ministry house and seeing how God planned for us to be here.  I took him around town and he had a few meals with us.  It was an amazing day!  He shared some of what God is doing in his life and we got to encourage each. 

God has been so good to us.  Ministry here is not easy, but it is such a blessing to get to be here and be used by God for His purposes.  Obeying and glorifying Him is all I want for my life.  I know I fall short in so many ways, but He is faithful to provide, equip, encourage and sustain.  He is awesome!