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.