Friday Night Youth Improving

We have now held our 8th Friday Night youth event...the kids are still coming in numbers over 100 and we think they are finally starting to listen. The distractions are much less and more kids are feeling comfortable inside the walls of the church instead of just listening from outside standing on on a bike.

More kids are being involved in our ice-breaker games and fun times, now that they have warmed up to us and each other. I am learning many more names/faces and the attendance sheets for Friday nights are growing every week.

This week during the fun time Scarleth led some games they had done out in Tonala back in December. Partners trying to push the other off balance without moving feet and try and poke the other without getting poked with hands together. They also played a game with balloons tied to everyones ankles and you must try and stomp everyone else's balloon without yours being popped. Kervin and 2 of his friends did a 1 song rap concert, that they have added verses to since the rap contest 5 weeks ago.

The worship is getting really meaningful to more of the kids. They are singing along and some have flags or dances to go with the praise band. Daniel is doing a great job and Linda is a huge help in having the kids interact.

Tommy spoke on how to be a real man, and what kind of man/husband thwe girls need. The kids are really enjoying Fridays and we hope they continue to improve, as we look for more fun time ideas and more meaningful videos etc for our first hour.

Candelaria WedThursday

Tommy had his leadership meetings with 12 pastors, Oscar, and Tim

Leo ran baseball practice, and I got some things ready for Friday night youth.

Scarleth and Linda got to talk with some small business people: garden, sewing ladies, and goat owners.

Scarleth is feeling fine..they haven't told her yet what they think it was but she says she is better and appreciates all the prayers!

Tuesday off in Managua

We also had Tuesday off to catchup from our first day without a group here since March 1. We have loved having this many groups but a couple days from now til our next group will be a great time to catch up on other things. I have been doing more with my attendance sheets, baseball roster, and friday night planning. I have also been trying to get all the funds and contacts taken care of.

Juan Diego finished college in Managua this past December, but had not moved all his stuff home to Leon. He had to turn his key in to the landlord today and get out whatever he didn't want to be thrown away. So Tim and I rode with him in Tommy's truck to go pack up his apartment and bring everything back to his parents house.

Monday off in Leon

Monday was a day off to just catchup on rest and administrative things in Leon, after sending Jennifer to the airport via taxi at 8:30 in the morning the rest of the day was very calm and refreshing.

I also got to go and visit with Viky and her granddaughters again. We hungout and talked for a couple hours mid afternoon. Eveling got me to help her with her English..mostly counting 1-10. Alhejandra and I drew some pictures and rode around on my bike.

Sunday Call to Order

We had our own small worship time and prayer at Pastor Tommys house this morning...it was a great little 6 person service. Tim played guitar and led us in abotu 3 praise/worship songs...Pastor Tommy shared some scripture...Scarleth, Leo, Jennifer, Linda, and myself sang along and listened. We all prayed for the day and the issues of the week past.

In the village we had a business meeting rather than a church service. Tommy has picked up the service for Sunday nights, but before he did this he had made it clear we need people there at 6 pm sharp. People always come in 45 minutes to an hour late, so by the time we finish a 90 minute or so service, break down, and drive 50 minutes home it is quite late.

Tonight we only had a handful of people there are 6, and Tommy felt it was time to address the issue of being on time. Daniel leads a great worhip time for our first 30 minutes. He is assited by a female voice, and Tommy on drums. Scarleth and I run the powerpoint of lyrics. Most people show up after this is over and listen to the service as a chore instead of really letting the message speak to them.

Tommy shared with them the importance of being there for prayer, worship, and the word...along with the respect and encouragment it shows our team when they come to our services on time. We are hoping by next week, this issue will no longer be a problem.

Much Needed Day of Rest

With the long days during Pinnacles time here, and then the issues with Scarleth it has been an extremely long week. We are all very very tired. And are taking some time off today to try and catchup on sleep and things around Leon. Leo is looking after Scarleth as she is bedridden...Tommy, Linda, and Jennifer are visiting with each other...Oscar has school.

Juan Diego, Tim, and I went to the beach to meet up with some of his college friends in town for the weekend from Managua. We all did some skim boarding and just hungout until dark. It was a great day to relax and meet some more people close to my age.

We came back to Leon, and I got to watch the 2nd half of the Carolina, make that the Kansas game. What a disappointment!

Afterwards, we went to Juan Diego's cousins and played poker for about 4 hours.

Friday's are for Youth Group

Scarleth had an ultrasound this morning and was sent home after, they arent exactly sure what the deal is yet but she is making some progress, please continue to pray for her.

Before heading out today we were pretty nervous for how our youth group meeting would go tonight because we hadn't put nearly the time and planning into it that we wanted to. With Pinnacle here we had long days in villages, and then with Scarleth's sickness we have been torn between helping her and trying to plan our fun time, videos, music, and message. Scarleth is our MC and main fun for Friday nights the whole first hour, and she couldn't go. We prayed for the night and decided Daniel could help me MC and we would just do our best and let God take the night in his hands.

We had possibly our best youth meeting yet! Daniel did a great job improvin at MC and Tommy helped us with some great game/fun time ideas. We had 5 girls go behind the dental clinic and 1 at a time had to come through and name different sport balls under towels...but we put Tim's head in place of the basketball and it was hilarious. Darling, one of the pastor's daughters, also planned a blindfolded baby food feeding contest that had some guys pretty messy.

The worship time went great and then the attention for the lesson was hands down the best it has ever been. Tommy let them know that if they wanted to leave after the fun time, they were more than welcome because we are no longer going to deal with side conversations and distractions. Over 100 teenagers-25 year olds listened closely and the night felt like a great success. We are hoping to build off this week.

Please continue to pray for Scarleth, things went well tonight for us, but we hated that she had to miss being out thier with our team. We haven't heard anything new since the ultrasound, but she is home resting in bed.

Pray for Scarleth

Scarleth Chavez, Linda's full-time interpreter and my main help during the fun time of Friday nights has been hospitalized. She wasn't well before we went out yesterday, but said she didn't want to skip a day with our group here. When she got home last night she ended up having to go to the hospital because of a sharp pain in her stomach. She is bloated, and it causes too much pain for her to walk or even sit up.

Tommy and Tim took the 3 men (Heath, Big O, and Stephen) for a fun day in Granada because they will be flying out tomorrow morning and have had 2 extremely long days helping us in 2 villages. They will visit monkey island via boat and do some zip lining through the rain forest of a volcano.

Linda spent time with Jennifer in Leon. They got to catch-up on their personal relationship and also talk about some administrative things. Jennifer and her husband, Larry, are both New Song board members.

Leo and I were going to bus out for baseball practice, but with Scarleth's health we decided to stay in Leon. Leo stayed the entire night before and almsot all of Thursday. Oscar and I stopped by and got to visit her for about 30 minutes around lunchtime. I went and ate lunch at Oscars house and watched a movie with him. It was my first time inside his house and meeting his wife, Jennifer, and youngest child, OJ.

Please pray for Scarleth, they still aren't sure what is going on, and they are talking about taking an ultrasound or possibly her needing surgery.

Wednesday at La Isla

I finally made it back to La Isla for the first time since January. It is the poorest of all the villages we work in, and I am so glad I got to go back and visit. On Fridays about 15-20 youth come from there, so I get to see some people, but not any of the young kids or over 25 year olds. This is Pastor Pablos community and we are really trying to get a church or organization in the states to adopt the community.

We walked around and visited with people and came across a 16 year old mother with a very sick daughter, 17 months old. The baby looked more the size of a 6-7 month old baby, and was in very high need for attention. She has some kind of leg disability, and is in pain all the time. She has hardly any strength, and cannot even support her own head at 17 months! We spent some time praying for the mother and child, and then Pinnacle and Tim got Oscar to make contacts and got the mother money for seeing a doctor later in the afternoon.
We also visited the house of 3 of the youth group sisters, and Pastor Pablo home. I got to meet his 2 sons and wife for the first time. I had some toothbrushes and toothpaste donated from my dentist in Boone, Drs. Mayhew and Conn that I got to give out in La Isla.





From there I headed to Candelaria to meet up with Leo and start our first April baseball practice, Leo’s first paid practice. We got mesh shorts and hats from 2nd hand stores in Leon this morning and now the whole team has the correct clothing for practice. We still need more gloves and tennis shoes or even better cleats. About 3/5 of the boys wear their school shoes for practice.

Pastor Heath led the evening service, and spoke on forgiveness. A message that the villages need to hear every day because so many people there hold grudges toward each other. The smallest things that they need to let go of and move forward they hold down inside and allow it to make them miserable. Daniel played some great praise music and the Pinnacle group got to say their goodbyes. Tim played Casting Crowns-Your Love is Extravagant on guitar and Big O sang followed by an upbeat song Pastor Jose did to close out the service.

Tuesday in Candelaria

Jennifer, Steven, Pastor Heath, and Pastor Tim (Big O) all got in around 9:30 last night and after a lot of delays and layovers they were dead tired. We got up with them this morning and headed out to Candelaria around 10. They all had packed 2-50 lb trunks a piece with clothes, shoes, craft materials, and 5 more brand new sewing machines for the sewing ladies. Freddy drove for us and we organized all the trunks and stacked them in the, starting to become organized, bodega.

Then Big O, Jennifer, Scarleth, and I met with some of our potential youth leaders about howto do some better things for Fridays to help with attention and getting more of the youth involved. All the pastors from Tommys leadership meetings met with Pastor Heath, Steven, and Oscar. During this time the Gables had meetings with the engineers for the Dental Clinic and some possible future projects like the stage.

We all took a break mid day to drive to Chinadega for lunch at RostiPollo and to prepare for our evening meetigs. We also went and looked at a property with a few buidlings under constrution that Tim's group or Pinnacles group in July might use. It is only 15 minutes or so from Candelaria and has a huge center room with a room full of bunk beds and 3-4 showers on each side, for men and women.

Big O led a group of about 25-30 youth aged Candelarians with Scarleth translating. Pastor Heath and Steven had a group of about 25-30 older church members with Oscar and Franklin translating, and Jennifer and Linda each had their own small groups of about 5 elders. The night was very good to say the least, the breaking up for different messages was much more effective and having the members of each group in a circle where they could stay focused on the speaker helped too.

Lazy Monday in Leon

We had planned to have a halfday to catch-up on computer work etc until the group from Pinnacle Chruch of Waynesville, NC arrived around 2, but they were delayed. They didnt actually make it to Leon until 9:30 tonight. Scarleth and Leo rode with Freddy to get them and Oscar did his finance day for NewSong.

Once we heard they would be late the Gables took a family beach day, and I did some computer work and cleaned my room. I had a lunch meeting with Preston and Sandra about the things they need me to help about getting their house setup and kept clean from now til their return the first week of July. They have some beautiful furniture in the house now, and I can't wait to see what it will look like after another week of their hard work in early July.

In the afternoon, I went and visited my lady friends at the post office and shipped out some shirts. I am trying to get their internet back working, I found out last week they have been without it for 3 months. It is a DSL connection and I have everything working on their end, but Enitel needs to fix the line and will not answer phones or call us back. From the post office, I went to see my other favorite Leon women at Comedor Viky.

I eat there almost everyday either for lunch or dinner. They have great unbelievably cheap Nica food and cold fresh fruit drinks and the sweetest wait staff ever. The owner is Viky, probably about 50 and her daugthters and nieces are the waitstaff. What I love there as much as anything are her granddaughters. They have morning class so when I go in for lunch they are always stopping by for lunch and waiting until their mom gets off work. Evenling is 12 and my favorite little girl, not in the villages, is 4 year old Alhejandra. While I had some orange juice and pineapple juice, I talked with the girls and their mother. They told me their favorite colors and what they enjoy at school and in their free time.

I found out where they live and rode my bike there later in the afternoon. I took Evenling a pink jump rope because she told me it was her favorite color and sport. I had a clapper for Alhejandra and a hair kit for them to share. Viky showed me her entire house and I found out they have a DVD player. Tomorrow night Wednesday evening I will go there and watch Finding Nemo with them in Spanish.

The rest of the evening I got to do more computer work and chat with some friends, a few that I haven't had any conatct with in 6 weeks, so that was a blessing. Jennifer and the men from Pinnacle got to La Pasada del Doctor around 9:30 so we breifly met the team and let them get to sleep, they have been up for about 19 hours today!

Hope all is well, sorry I havent been able to update in past few days with country visiting and other timetaking events. We will be in Candelaria from about 9-6 tomorrow to make up for some days missed and to let the team see the schools.

Sunday at the Volcanoes and Horseback Riding

We had a nice included breakfast at our hotel and then we drove to Mom Bachu volcano and nature preserve. It has 2 craters and you can hike both of them, we did the smaller of the 2 in about an hour, the other takes 4.5 hours. We didnt see any crazy wildlife, but the views were unreal. It was really cool seeing the lake from up there when just the day before we were looking at it from the boat and cutting in between all the islands it made from its last eruption.

From there we drove to Catalina and rented some horses to ride down into the lagoon. We were told it was a round trip down and up of one hour, but it actually took just under 3 hours! Needless to say all 3 of us and the horses were exhausted after. On the trip we saw a couple monocongos monkeys. It was cool seeing the monkeys the day before on the island, but these were just climbing around the trees, could have been anywhere else and were yelling at us and watching us ride.

We drove back, well Tommy did 2.5 hours and I slept sitting up almsot the whole way back to Leon. When we got back, Linda had already returned from Costa Rica...about 4 hours before planned so I headed home and let the family grab dinner and spend some time alone.