THURSDAY TARGET

We went out to Candelaria around noon and stayed through the evening service. Pastor Gilberto had a group of over 25 men, and Maritza had the more or less the same amount of women for an afternoon class of the target day 2. The groups met for 3 hours.

Leo ran baseball practice, and is now taking time before practice to share some scripture and bible stories with the team, along with the required prayer before and after practice.

For the time that the Colons are here: Santa Matilde, La Isla, Tonola, and others in Chichigalpa are being trucked in for the evening service, so the chruch is packed with all ages. Pastor Gilberto led the evening service with Daniel leading worship. Yaihaira and Rigaberto had worship and shared bible stories with over 60 children.

WEDNESDAY TARGET

We went out around the sametime today for target day 2. The Colons had numbers of about 25 each again. Linda and Scarleth took the truck to Chinadega to look and price some tile for dental clinic flooring.

Leo ran baseball practice, and is now taking time before practice to share some scripture and bible stories with the team, along with the required prayer before and after practice.

The coolest part of this for me was the number of teenage boys not on the baseball team that were paying attention and interested that Leo, a 25 year old would share the Bible with them and not just older people or visitors from the US.

I got things setup for Daniel's worship in the laptop, as well as Pastor Gilberto's sermon notes and scriptures. I also did my best to keep the children entertained with a dry erase board because the baseball field was occupied for practice.

The numbers trucked in from surrounding villages filled the church again and Pastor Gilberto spoke on superstitions. The congregation enjoyed his sarcasm and upbeat service about some crazy superstitions people believe. Rigaberto and Griselda helped with nearly 40 children behind the pastors house sharing Bible stories.

TUESDAY TARGET

We went out to Candelaria around noon. Pastor Gilberto had a group of over 25 men, and Maritza had the more or less the same amount of women for an afternoon class of the target day 1. The groups met for 3 hours and shared testimonies and scripture.

In another corner of the church the newest members of the sewing class were meeting. A couple of women who finished the class in early February are now teaching new women. With 2 teachers the total people in the group varies from 10-12 women meeting 3 days a week. It is very exciting to see them growing and independent like the gardeners.

I worked on keeping kids playing outside and keeping the church quiet for the classes, and got things setup for the night service. For the time that the Colons are here: Santa Matilde, La Isla, Tonola, and others in Chichigalpa are being trucked in for the evening service, so the chruch is packed with all ages. Pastor Gilberto led the evening service with Daniel leading worship. Yaihaira and Rigaberto, after worship, shared bible stories with over 60 children.

Monday off with the Colóns

Today is a day off for the entire team. In the afternoon we will go to the beach closest to Leon, Poneloya, and enjoy time with the Colóns. Stay for sunset and dinner, then come back for a full nights sleep.

The next 3 days will be very long in the village. The teaching of "The Target" will have classes all 3 days in Candelaria and then Pastor Gilberto will lead services every night. I think we will be in the villages something like 12-8 everyday, but we are all excited about this teaching, Tim has already done it at Steele Creek in Charlotte, and speaks very highly of it.

The beach was great, and the Colons enjoyed the time with Tommy, Linda, and myself. The tide was really high and a huge stingray had washed up. Some of the locals had skinned it and taken all the meat by the time we got there. Can't imagine what that tastes like, but I guess they like it.

We had a great dinner and good conversation, getting to know each other better.

Pastor Gilberto Begins "The Target"

Pastor Gilberto Colón is the Latino Connection Pastor at Steele Creek Church of Charlotte, NC. His profile on their website reads:
Born in New York City, Pastor Colón moved to Puerto Rico as a teen and remained there for 17 years. Currently he actively reaches out to the Spanish and English speaking Latino community in Charlotte. Teaches and equips in accordance with SCCC doctrine and vision.

He is here with his wife, Martiza, for a week teaching "The Target." He will be leading Sunday night service as well as events Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in Candelaria.

Oscar and Scarleth get to take a break from standing up front interpreting and instead will be sitting with Tommy, Linda, Tim, and myself letting us hear the service in English. Oscar's wife, Jennifer came for the second straight week and she seems to really enjoy her time with us there. They send their thank yous to all the prayers for their marriage problems the past months.

Daniel led worship with Tommy on drums and Darling singing backup. Scarleth and I ran the powerpoint. The worship time was really great, maybe the best praise songs we have had at a Sunday service. Pastor Jose introduced G&M and they said their greetings from US, NC, and SC. Then Gilberto began the first of his 4 day teaching. The service was different for me, but I enjoyed it with Scarleth's help. The villagers were very into it, I'm sure they liked having a fluent guest Pastor for a change. 3 men and a woman all came foward at the end of the service and Pastor Gilberto prayed for each of them, and Tim shared some scripture with them and had the congregation acknowledge their decisions.

Yahaira did another great job with the kids. She taught the story of Daniel in the lion's den with the Spanish Bible Stories DVD as an aid. She keeps the attention of around 30 kids from ages 3-13 in the Pastors house for over any hour after worship Sunday nights. She is such a servant and blessing to us everyday she goes out. She let us know yesterday that with some of the support Sarah of IHBC has given her she wants to take some English classes to be a better help to us when we have teams here and also just easier to communicate with our team!

Recovery Saturday

After going out for a full day Friday sick, I was dead tired and slept in pretty late this morning. I felt better when I woke up but still extremely weak and dehydrated. I spent a lot of time talking with my mom which is always a great part to any week/day. Tommy left this morning to pick up Pastor Gilberto of Steele Creek and his wife, Martiza.

I headed to Linda's around 1 and she got to play mom for me. I ate and drank a lot of things she knew would get me feeling better that she has used raising her 5 children. Jaunita then fixed me a full lunch and I was glad to eat my first meal in about 40 hours.

The rest of the day went fine for me and I just rested and did attendance/computer work that didn't take a lot of energy while the Gables spent time visting with Gilberto & Martiza.

After being confined to my bed more or less the whole day I got pretty bored, and since I haven't gotten to do anything fun with my hair since having to cut it before the Michigan game I went to visit Scarleth and let one of her roommates, Maria Elena, who does hair professionally brighten it. I almost have it as white as it was when I was growing up but not quite. Anyways I'm sure it'll be fun for the kids, and M.E. enjoyed having someones hair to do.

Loving Fridays

We have decided as a mission team we want Friday Nights to be our absolute main focus. We feel like changing the attitudes of the 15-25 year old kids and young adults is very important for making a more permanent change here. We have had 8 Friday Night services before today, and the kids are enjoying the fun time, games, worship but some are not focused enough the real word and important part of the evening. We have averaged a little over 100 people from 3 villages in these 8 weeks. The attention is getting better, and more people seem to be getting "fed" in the last 2 weeks.

I woke up sick today..not really sure what with but I feel like I could pass out anytime...it is really hot and I can't hold down any food or even water. I didn't want to miss Friday though so i went out and I am glad I did. Today was another step-up and we are very excited on how it is coming along. We had some kickball and soccer games going before dark and started with our prayer time around 6:50. The past 2 weeks we have opened with a big group prayer to start the service and it has been very meaningful to both our Christian members and non-Christian members.

Scarleth led the fun time with a blinded folded partner blowing up a balloon until it pops game and then a 3 person sitting on each others laps race with different heats and then a final winning team. I did my best to stay low key and just run the laptop in hopes to not get any sicker. Kervin and his buddies did another Christian rap song and they are calling themselves "Gladiadores de los Cristo" which translate as "Gladiators of the Cross" and Kervin freehanded their logo in class this week.

The video time and worship time were very upbeat and entertaining and then Tommy spoke with Enrique translating. With Fridays going until a little after 9, then breaking down, packing up, and driving back to Leon it is putting Oscar home to late because he has 6 hours of Saturday class. Enrique, who served with us during IHBC visit came with us this Friday and hopes to do more with us in the future. He is the full time interpreter for Vision, and they do most of their work in Batel where Yahaira lives. They have a group here for the next 2 weeks so he knows he won't be with us the next 2 Fridays, but other than that he thinks he can serve us more.

We had somewhere around 10-15 youth requesting NIV Spanish Bibles at the close of tonights service and had some left from Jeremiah's visit here so we got to distribute those and I felt like that was one of the best parts of the night and of all youth events so far. Hoping to sleep off what I am hoping is just some kind of 24 hour bug.

Big Group in Candelaria Thursday

This morning Oscar and I got to the Gables early to call ACC and catch-up on some finance things. The NewSong website is now accepting online payments and I needed to learn how to put those into PowerChurch from Susan so that I can then teach Oscar the program. The online payments are really picking up and it is very convenient for moving them from there into our system. The adopt a family is picking up as well...$35 a month covering the children that are in school with their school needs and some food. We are hoping more of that project will be online soon. I taught Oscar the processes for putting all the checks that come through ACC into PowerChurch and while he gets comfortable with that I am still going to cover all the online.

A big group of young people from Long Island, NY is here for the week with a group that Scarleth used to work for before coming on to NewSong full time. She still does some things with them and is good friends with some of their hosts. They have about 50 high school aged kids here and 10 chaperons. About 10 of them went to Candelaria for our 1PM-6PM afternoon. Some helped Leo in baseball, and others visited homes, and learned about what Tommy and Linda have done and are doing here. They want to dig some latrines in the villages.

Oscar's brother also went out with us with his clippers. He enjoys cutting hair for fun and is between jobs so he had some free time and wanted to do a service in Candelaria for the boys. He probably spent 3 hours cutting at least 50 kids and a few adults hair..mostly the baseball boys.

With the progress of the medical/dental clinic, Linda is having a lot of meetings with the architect and looking at ways to hook the garden well into the clinic. She is also trying to balance all her other small business projects. Roger, the agricultural engineer went out with us from Leon to help her with some decisions for the garden and got her some things ordered for putting in a watering system.

Scarleth and I spent time with the New York group and also did some of our odd job attendance, powerpoint of Daniels music, and Friday night youth planning.

Wednesday at Santa Matilde

On Wednesday we had our morning staff meeting at the Gables and then headed out to Candelaria for baseball practice, Tommy's leadership meeting, and Linda's drama meetings. Linda met with some young women from Chinadega who are committed there to doing a couple hour drama practice 5 nights a week. They are hoping to teach Linda some things for drama and in turn hope she can help them coordinte some dance.

After I got done doing the admin things for baseball and turned baseball over to Leo for the day, and sat in on some of Linda's meeting I biked over to Santa Matilde because I feel like I don't get see anyone from there enough. I only see about 20 people a week and even then its just the ones that come for about 4 hours worth of youth Friday.

I spent most of my time visiting with Carmen, the Sunday School leader for Pastor Walter's church there and mom of 2 sweet little girls. Both her younger sisters live with her and her husband, Luis. All 3 sisters enjoy time serving in youth group. I visted with them a little over an hour and then went with her oldest daughter to the houses of some of my other youth girls from there. I got interviews done of Darling and Osmayda for this Friday in our "getting to know other" section of Friday videos.

Luis biked halfway back to Candelaria with me to show me the through the woods shortcut path. I had time to visit a few of my youth friends there, most of which have class til 5:30 each day before heading back to Leon.

2 Wonderful Days Off!

The place we went was Montilemar Beach Resort and it was perfect. Monday we just hung around the pool and enjoyed a few of the many, many activites they provide. Tim and I played some ping pong, chess, volleyball, and visted some parrots. We had a great dinner and then saw a show with a little dancing and some trivia of name that movie, name that song, and name the artist.

Tuesday morning we had breakfast down by the ocean and then Tim and I went back to sleep for about 3 hours. We spent the rest of the day at the pool, playing volleyball, and visiting with other people. We met a few people there on honeymoons and some other Americans and Nicaraguans on vacation as well as the staff.

It was the perfect chance to get relaxed and refreshed for a great week to come. The website for where we went is here. The site is not very well done, nothing like the real thing, but it will give you an idea.

Monday and Tuesday Off

The Gables and are I headed to a resort about 90 mins from Leon for the next 2 days..I am out the door right now and will hopefully update last weeks posts with more details and pics when I return.

The resort has hammocks, pools, and great food..and MUCH MORE accoring to the Gables. I at first said i wasn't going to join them. I want to update a lot of webpage stuff and keep working on my attendance sheets and library. I wanted the Gables to have some family time, but they have talked me into the importance of needing and taking a couple of true days off!

I am really looking forward to relaxing and honestly not thinking about work a bit for 2 days. I hope you all have a great couple of days, and i hear there is snow in Boone..cant say i miss that a bit, but I do love and miss all of you!!!

Best Sunday Yet!

Last Sunday's meeting worked out wonderfully. The villagers responded well to the respect us and get here on time for church talk. We had a decently full church at 6 o'clock and started the service by with a great worship time led by Daniel on lead vocals and keyboard, with Tommy on drums, and Darling singing too.

After worship, Tommy invited anyone who needed prayer to come foward. A couple people came foward and within minutes the entire church was at the front being prayed for and praying for each other. There were many people in tears and a lot of hearts touched.

From here the children were dismissed to the pastor's house for a lesson with Yahaira. She showed a Spanish DVD of Bible Stories and then did some activities that the children really enjoyed.

In the main service, Tommy REALLY preached 1 John chapter 2. The sermon was very moving for our Leon team and the villagers alike. Jennifer, Oscar's wife went with us and said she really enjoyed the service. Pastor Jose reminded everyone to come back on time next week and we are really hoping to build after what was easily the best Sunday night service we have had yet!