Pray for Nicaragua

This weekend will prove to be an interesting one in Managua. There are two marches planned for downtown. One in opposition to the government and another for in pro of the government.

A few weeks ago the six members of the National Assembly approved the potential reelection of Daniel Ortega in 2010. According the the constitution he can only hold office two nonconsecutative times.

Pray for peace between the two parties as well as wisdom for the government on all levels.

Fun Rides

Aimee and I are planning to participate in another fundraiser bike ride to help a small foundation near Managua. The ride is Thanksgiving weekend. We are excited about it as we help with some of the logistics.

We decided that it would be great if we could make it out to see the 52 kilometer course in order to help ourselves and others train for the event. We asked our friends Dave and Joel to take us out on their motos. The graciously agreed. We spent a nice Sunday afternoon riding around on the motos. We ended up not even coming close to the course due to some miscommunication. :-) Oops we'll just have to plan another ride.



Here's Doze and I as we head out on our trip

We encountered some rather muddy spots. Here we are taking a look at the map after we took a little spill on one of the bikes. The question was will the road get better or worse if we continue? We ended up turning around at this point and heading back to higher ground.

Here is Aimee and Dave suited up for the wet, rainy ride home.

Dengue.....

Dengue Fever seems to be running rampant through Managua these days. It is a mosquito borne illness that can turn into a dangerous version pretty quickly.

Morgan a great friend from Iowa is down in Nica visiting and traveling around. When she is in Managua she has been staying with us. On Sunday she started feeling really sick and had a high fever. By Wednesday she hadn't improved and was getting dehydrated so I took her to the hospital. She has now been there for 3 days as we wait for her platelet levels to begin to rise. She is starting to go a little stir crazy. :-) She says that this is the longest she has ever been confined within four walls in her life.

Please pray for Morgan. We pray that her platelet levels would rise today for her blood test in the morning. Also pray that no one else gets this nasty sickness. The count of people I know that have had it in the past 6 wees is over 10.

Thank you!

Thanks for praying this week. We have been able to reach some decisions for one of my students. God has been faithful and has been gracious to not only give us peace about the decision but also grace when talking to the parents too.

It has been decided that NCA is not able to provide the services that my little guy needed so he is looking for a new school. Please continue to pray for the family as they seek out the best options for the little guy. Also, his twin sister is staying in my class which is a great thing. Pray for her she experiences this school day separation. I am thankful that I will continue to see the family and hopefully my little guy too. :-)

God is so faithful.

Prayer Request

I have shared with some of you that I have had some kids with special needs in my class this year. It has been a challenge to meet their needs and still help the rest of the class move forward. A decision is being made this week for one of these special need students. I ask for prayer for all those involved in the decision. Also for the students, parents and teachers. May God's grace fill our mouths and thoughts as we sort out this issue. Thank you!

Coming Soon! Mouse Tales!

Love of family

 

Living in Nicaragua comes with some sacrifices but many blessings. While I am far away from my own family God is so gracious in providing other families to fill in some of the needs that arise. While working with Christ for the City teams I have stayed with many, many Nicaraguan families. Some have touched my life in deeper ways. One of those families is the Espinal family. There was a very special bond that formed during the week I stayed with them this past summer. Fortunately they live in Managua and are only a drive across the city. A few weeks ago they called me and wanted to celebrate my birthday. We were finally able to connect up on Saturday. We went out for quesillos! Yum! Yum!
Afterwards we went to a beautiful lookout outside of the city. The kids are teenagers and so the afternoon was filled with jokes, songs, and lots of laughter. We transformed our visit to the lookout into a photo shoot. Here are a few fun pics.

 

From left to right: George, Carey, Giovanni, Evelying, Jorge and Ninfa is the photographer.

 

Turning 30!

When I was younger I used to think that thirty was kind of old. Now that I have just turned 30 it doesn't seem that old at all. As I reflect on my thirty years here so far I revel in all the things that I have been able to do and see in such a short time. While any other year I may have felt the old bug a little more but this year I think I have done more "living life" things than ever before, biking across Nicaragua, training for a marathon, celebrating my mom and brother's weddings etc. I feel very much alive!

From Sep 19, 2009

From Sep 19, 2009

Last Saturday started out like any other day. Some of the girls from the missionary community and I have joined a city volleyball league that plays downtown. We had two games that morning. We thought we were just going to be there for 2-3 hours but it turned into 5 hours. Rightly so our team name is the Sunburns. After 5 hours in the hot Nica sun we were all a little rosy. We lost both of our games but went to a third set in both of the matches. We hope to do better this coming week.

From Sep 19, 2009

That evening we went out to Nagarote the home of the delicious quesillos. Quesillos are a corn tortilla with a form on Nicaraguan cheese, onions soaked in vinegar, sour cream and salt. All of the ingredients are rolled up and put into a bag. You tie a knot in the bag and bite a small hole in the other end and eat the quesillo out of the little hole. They are amazing and only cost about $1 US. Afterwards some wonderful friends planned a birthday party for me. I received gifts of 30 things that I might use. Some examples were 30 coffee filters, 30 Q-tips, 30 craisins, 30 pieces of stationary, 30 piggy banks. (yeah that's right I guess that I should start saving up for my retirement, one piggy bank full for the next 30 years.) It was lots of fun and I felt so blessed to have such great friends and family.