We travelled by bus, either the team bus of the school bus that is used By El Ayudante for the children.

We had one of three interpretators travelling with us all the time.

They only times they were not available to us was during a movie we went to see and in the middle of church worship services.

Any time we went ministering they were near ready to help us understand what was being said by the local people. Nestor, Nadia, and Luis are pictured at the left. There were several times where we had all three of them with us, at the larger VBS programs and when we did home visits and we were split up into three teams. Nadia is a student working on a masters degree in laboratory science, and Luis just graduated from Law School and will be enrolling in medical school. All three interpretators work alot! There are I think two or three other interpretators that work for El Ayudante.

Without having Nestor, Nadia or Luis with us the communcation between us and the local people would have been very difficult. I am getting better every time I go to Leon in understanding the language but speaking it is still hard for me. I have not figured out how to put a spanish sentence together! I love listening to people talk.

Photos by Scott Bondy

Home Visits

To the left you will see rice, sugar, flour, beans, oil, coffee, and matches we purchased to give to the elderly and the very poor in Leon and William Forseca. .

Many of the people we visited asked God for someone to come because they were lonely, or asked Him to provide their next meal. We would ask the different family members about themselves, their ages, how many children they have, how many families lived with them(sometimes two or more families lived together in one "building"). Most people told us that they knew God was with them everyday. One lady my partner and I spoke to stated she loved God very much.

Many of the families asked us to pray for their unemployment situation. In Leon the unemployment rate is 80% and will be going up when two of Ford's auto suppliers close. They also ask us to pray for family situations that they dont know what to do about. The elderly often asked us to pray that their family members who had moved out of Nicaragua, would contact them.

Often we would leave a Santa Biblia with them, which they also appreciated. Our team leader had a donor give him money to buy the Bibles with. It was neat to give out a new Bible to those who wanted one.

Wednesday

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Monday, we went into the poorest of poor. We saw images of poverty that most people do not experience in their lifetime, not even from the outside looking in. The place we went sat right next to a septic field, which meant any water yielded was highly contaminated and by our standards, unsafe for drinking.
One of the translators made one comment that put this into perspective: For their lifestyle, unclean water is still better than none.The homes were made out of scraps of metal, cardboard.

People collected plastic from the garbage dump that they could sell. Yet amidst all of this, a young girl sat in front of her home having a tea party with her tattered doll.

Scott, Mark and I went together with Nester (our translator) into the homes and prayed for the people there. The first woman had two daughters and her husband. She asked us to pray for her family, protection for her home, and health. She had a soft heart. She told us that she had recently become a believer and was attending church with Pastor Felix. (The pastor who took us to this portion of Leon.) We gave her a new Bible as she told us hers was very old. Lynn, another one of my teammates, said that on his way back to get more food packs from the truck, he saw this woman sitting with some friends reading this Bible.My heart was broken while there.

We met this young man named Martin. My guess was that he was about 20 years old. He said that he was a delinquent and had been arrested for stealing and spent some time in jail. When he came home he had promised his mom he would not get into any more trouble and that he wanted to change. He said that some missionaries at the jail had introduced him to Jesus and he wanted to believe in him but didn't want to play games with God. He felt that he had to get his life on track before committing himself. He didn't want to disappoint God. He said that he was tempted by where he lived. He said that about 2 weeks ago he had been hit in the face by one of the guys he used to hang out with for not going back to what he used to do. He said that he wouldn't fight back and they mocked him for being afraid. Scott asked him if he wanted to accept Christ. once again he told us he could not play games with God. He said if he were to die tonight he would go to hell because he is a sinner. Just then, a young man entered the room and Martin told us he could not accept Christ right now. The conversation ended so sudden. We gave him food packs and Scott told him to remember today and the things that he had told us.

Yesterday morning, the men went to the baseball team and ministered to them. They said words of encouragement against temptation. The men came back blessed from this experience. One of them will be updating later to share more about this experience.

One of the greatest joys for our team has been ministering to the children here. As much as I normally have a hard time doing this, I have been blessed ammensely. While the men were with the baseball team, the women went to have a VBS for a local preschool. The preschool had about 48 children there, with a teacher who is an amazing woman. Her name is Romana. And despite not being able to understand her language, there's no question of knowing her heart. She has a beautiful smile. Her students were honestly the most well-behaved preschoolers I have ever experienced. (Nicaraguan or American!) They followed instructions well, listened and were quiet during their activities. The men joined up for us and we did a puppet show for kids, and in response: they sang us two songs! We spent time face painting and playing with beachballs and soccer balls.

In the afternoon the women went to Iglesia de Dios and had a women's bible study with the women there. Dot spoke to them about trusting God, using the story of Gideon. Dot's message encouraged others to share their testimonies of times that we needed to trust in God. Some women there got up and told their stories. Our teammates shared some amazing stories that related with some of the women in the room.One woman told of her alcoholic husband who was verbally abusive and how she trusted that God would restore her relationship and household. She said that it was after trusting God that she started coming to church and even her husband was attending with her.Another woman told that she had a beautiful home and enough money to send her children to the best schools. But after the earthquakes, she lost everything. She came to Leon with only 100 Cordobas (equivalent to about 5 US Dollars) in her pockets. She said that through trusting God and attending church faithfully, she is able to support herself and her family.

The people here, despite great obstacles and terrible circumstances trust God faithfully and have a strength unlike any other.

While the women were at the bible study the men were doing construction. When they returned from their building project, they were covered in cement. From experience, I'd say that makes for a pretty successful work project ;)

The rest of the evening we spent as a team. We packaged more food for the homes in the area, and packaged hygiene products as well.

Thank you so much for your prayers while you are here. We have been greatly blessed by the experiences here.

Written By Lauren.

I could not have expressed anything Lauren wrote any differently. Please keep us in your prayers as today is a big day for us.

Tammie

Our Teams Top Ten Reasons...

We've arrived here in Leon, Nicaragua safe and sound.The flights went without a stitch, and the flight staff and airport personel were extremely helpful and cordial to us along the way.Already God is showing us that it does not matter how many miles you are away from home to experience community as His church.

We've encountered many people in our travels that are also following God's calling to step outside our comfort zones and follow Him out into HIS world. We follow a great big God, and I think we're beginning to see that He truly is everywhere!God has already blessed us greatly on this trip.

Our flight into Houston arrived on time, and blessed are we that we flew into a gate that was in the same terminal as our departure. This was a relief, as we did not need to run to our gate! We even had a little time to spare and some of us got some snacks to eat.

Even all of our luggage has arrived here safe. We were able to spend some time unpacking this evening and organizing all of our supplies. We relabelled all of our luggage to be certain we knew where to find all of our supplies.

Tonight we spent time together reflecting on God's grace in bringing us to Nicaragua. God is already speaking to our hearts, telling us that He will be stretching our comfort zones and teaching us to rely fully upon Him.Which brought us to a discussion of why we are all here, in Leon, as a team.

So to conclude this entry, here is a top ten list of reasons why we are in Nicaragua. Some are selfish, some are compassionate but all of them are honest.

Reason #10: It was -10 degrees in Michigan when we departed. The arrival in Nicaragua brought us a 84 degree heat, that is pleasant with breeze and sunshine.

Reason #9: Those of us that have been here before missed the white pineapple and love the taste of beans and rice.

Reason #8: We're set on overcoming our fear of four-inch wingspaned moths.

Reason #7: We love people. And that's what we're going to be doing: spending time with others.

Reason #6: We all believe that God has placed this team together for a distinct purpose. Be it solely to hold each other accountable or encourage one another. Or because we can function together in great ways.

Reason #5: We're not perfect and God is still working on us and still revealing to us new things.

Reason #4: Some of us need a break from reality and routine to bring us back to our first love, Jesus Christ.

Reason #3: Christ is our love and he has called us to serve one another.

Reason #2: God is the perfector and reason for our faith. As such, we must search and follow Him to wherever He has called us to find Him. And this time, it's Leon, Nicaragua.

Reason #1: We don't know all of God's purposes and we're ready for the adventure!

Please continue to be praying for us as we work with the people in the neighboring communities. Tomorrow we will be attending two local church services. We will also be taking the children of the El Ayudante protection center to the movies and spending some time and sharing lots of fun with them!

-Lauren

3a.m. will be sooner than I think...

I was able to get home from work earlier than most fridays. I finished at the church then went right over to the food pantry. I finished early enough I decided to come home rest and nap. I am tired!

My bag is packed. For some reason I remember being able to get more into it. Course the weight limit has changed, what one can carry as far as hygiene items has changed also.

I am not sure how much my bag even weighs. I put clothes in it for a week hopefully it wont be too much.

I didnt get all my normal stuff done that I had intended to do for Gary and the boys. It is all good though, they know how to shop for groceries and cook frozen dinners if they need to do such.

I helped Lauren get the music folders together. She needed those printed up, hole punched and placed in folders.

Prayer Card

Above is our prayer card we went out with our support/prayer letter. You can click on the image and print it up. Keep praying for us while we are gone!

In previous trips to Leon we bought supplies to feed around 200 people, the supplies per person were around $3.00-4.00. The food bags we supplied contained, oil, flour, matches, beans, rice, and laundry soap. As a measuring cup, one about the size of a McDonald's large drink cup, was used to measure rice and beans with. This would feed a family of five I believe.

We went on the same day as Pastor Felix would be at the garabage dump to deliver a devotional lesson and a lunch for each person who was there.

For lunch each person was served a piece of fish, rice, veg, and a tortilla. I noticed some did not eat their food right away, they took it home with them for later.

We also handed out packages with candy and gave each child a beanie baby. The kids faces would light up over such an insignficant gift, it was nice to see some smiles. The first time I went to serve in this ministry I got mobbed by the kids. They were soooo happy to get a treat. It was fun. I laughed til I cried with the kids, we all had a good time.

There will be some time where we will get to relax in between ministries. For some of us it is important that we have this time as it helps to recharge. Lauren is reading a book, I tend to nap in the afternoon after lunch.

I have been asked how do you it when you go there with the stuff you deal with concerning your health? I take care of myself as I would at home. I take my medications along with me, I rest when I need to and if I really have to I will stay behind. Sometimes I dont like having to stay behind but there are times I need to. Just as I would need to do so at home in the evening. I could push myself to do everything there is to do when we are in Nicaragua but I would not be doing myself or my teammates any favors. Fibromyalgia is not something I like to mess with, if I push myself too far I find that my body just does not want to go after a while because it is just too fatigued.