Little Bit of This and That

In the midst of a busy summer my family has decided it is the year to get married. :-) In May it was my little brother and in June it was my Mom.

I traveled to Colorado for a quick week to see my family and take part in my mom's wedding to Mike. It was a themed wedding that took place in the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs with a beautiful view of Pikes Peak behind them. While it was wonderful to share in this special time with my Mom it was hard to say good-bye to my siblings again. While there are so many wonderful things about living and serving in Nicaragua I would have to say the one of the hardest is being far away from family.

Carylla, Don, Mom, Bethany and Marnie

Father's day was also special for me too this year because I got to spend it with my Dad. This was the first time in maybe 8 years that we were in the same country and state. We had a big BBQ with the family and it was wonderful.

Now I'm off to work with another team here in Nicaragua. I'll be back on the 7th. Please pray for safety, connections with Nicaraguans, energy and a meaningful time for all.

Laughter does a Heart Good

From Seacoast 20 somethings 2009

Now the Seacoast 20 Somethings team has come and gone! They were a lively group of 11. We loaded up the bus and headed out to work with Iglesia Estrella de Belen in Villa El Carmen. The team stayed with wonderful host families. The evenings were filled with lots of broken Spanish, English and lots of laughter. Many team members brought down games like Jenga and UNO to play with their families at night. This was a hoot! Our house was up late laughing many nights as we tried not to wake the baby while building the Jenga tower.

The team was involved in lots of different ministry during the week. Soccer games in the community, VBS program, house visits, church services, youth games, soccer tournaments etc. As we went through the schedule laid out for the week I was reminded that laughter is a universal language! Infants, adults, youth and the elderly all love to laugh. We all do it in differnt ways but there is something so freeing about a good hearty laugh. Laughter is a bond that can unite people across lanugage barriers, economic differences, cultural differences and disabilities.

From Seacoast 20 somethings 2009

Allison is a sweet little 4 year old who has Downs Syndrome. While one might think that there is not a lot that could bring laughter to such a difficult situation as her quite the contrary is actually true. She lives life in its simplist form. She jumps with glee at the sight of bubbles being blown into the air and water balloons.

From Seacoast 20 somethings 2009

From Seacoast 20 somethings 2009

Loose Screws

New Things Learned!
Car trouble inevitably follows me wherever I go and whatever vehicle I seem to be driving. Thankfully I seem to learn a lot about cars in the process and get to see God work in incredible ways.

On Tuesday I took my truck to Jason, a missionary mechanic to replace the clutch that was going out. There was a little bit of a time crunch because the truck is needed Friday to go out to the boonies for a medical outreach. Jason assured me that he could get the truck done no problem by Friday at noon. Wednesday night I was babysitting Jason's two kids and he told me that he was having a lot of trouble getting some bolts loose. He spent 4 hours working on them and in the process broke a few tools. He assured me that they had a plan and that he was still going to get it done in time and not to worry. I wasn't worried but did submit the need to the Lord in prayer.

I shared the situation with the staff at Christ for the City and we all prayed about it on Thursday. Jason told me today that he went in on Thursday morning and was able to get the bolts loose in about 20 minutes. God loosened the screws and allowed Jason to get the job done. It is impressive to see the details that our God attends to in each of our lives. Jason told me that he was worried that things were not going to go back together very easily. Today as I picked up the truck Jason shared that everything went back together really easily. Praise the Lord for His mighty hand over the screws, mechanics, tools and people in His service.

A little side note. The tools that broke were under warranty in Canada and will be replaced too!

Please pray for the medical outreach this weekend and for the Seacoast 20's team that is coming in on Sunday. Nathan and I will be gone with them all week. It's going to be a fun and adventurous week.

From blog photos

Here are some of our summer interns loading up the truck for the medical outreach

From blog photos

The coming Tsunami

In our office we jokingly refer to the summer flurry of teams as the summer Tsunami. Well it is almost upon us and has already sucked a few of us into a rapid pace.

First of all I give thanks to God for a very productive and relatively peaceful few weeks of work in the office. It could only be the hand of God as many of you who have been here know how quickly and crazy things get. I have been able to get lots of things organized for the Short Term Missions department as well as make lots of plans for the upcoming teams that I will be working with.

On Sunday the first team arrives. Nathan and I will be working with the Seacoast 20 somethings team for a week in Villa El Carmen. It will be a week full of sports, sun and making new friends.

Please pray for the following:

• New relationships to be formed between the church members and new believers in the community

• Safety in planes, buses and cars

• Health (we'll be staying with families at the church Estrella de Belen)
• Energy
• A teacher training that I will be leading right after the team leaves
• Financial support- may the Lord continue to provide all that is needed
  

Thanks for following along with me on this journey!

Sister-in-law x 1 Aunt x 2

Some of you have asked me if I'm in the States. I was for a week. I had many great reasons to go to Texas for a quick visit.

On May 16th my little 23 year old brother got married. Don and Jesselyn were planning on getting married next year but decided to move the date up in order to have the wedding at the Rennisance Faire that they go to every Spring. Things worked out just as they had dreamed.

A special toast to the Bride and Groom from the King and Queen of the Faire

All of their family was able to come, they were able to design the ceremony and cake the way they wanted and it all was beautiful. It rained the morning of the wedding but stopped just as the wedding was getting underway. It was wonderful to see both of them so happy.

Jesselyn has a 3 year old son named Gabriel and we had a blast playing together. I went over to the newlyweds house for dinner while I was home and Gabriel and I hit it off right away. He is super excited about Ironman right now and really wanted an Ironman costume. He was told that he needed to wait until his birthday in October to get one. Well being the creative, fun, Aunt that I am we made our own Ironman suit out of boxes from the new pots and pans Don and Jesselyn got as wedding gifts. :-)

The next big reason it was a wonderful quick visit to the States was to meet my new nephew Corbin. He was born in November and I haven't been back yet to meet him. My sister could only make it down from Colorado for the day of the wedding so you can imagine who was holding the baby the whole time.... ME! That's right Tia Carylla was soaking in every minute with my sweet little Corbin. I have to admit I think that he is by far the cutest nephew in the world. I guess I may be a little bias.

Carey, Mom, Scottish Corbin, and Marnie(Corbin's Mom)

Oops! I'm baaaaaaack!

Yikes! I'm not sure what has happened to the last month and a half but lots has sure been keeping me hopping. I know I'm a little behind on keeping you up to date. Hmm let's see I worked with a medical team in Rivas for a week, did another teacher training, said good-bye to Julie our intern, received a team of two that did some training for our staff, moved out of my old house, went to the States for my brother's wedding, met my new nephews, visited my home church in Killeen, and whew lived to tell about it. :0) Now if that wasn't the longest runon sentence there ever was.

Ok so a lot has happened. Today I want to share about the teacher training that Julie and I did the last week she was here. We feel so privelaged to have had the opportunity to work with the terrific teachers at Colegio Hosanna Sur. Esperanza the director continues to be an encouragment and is helping us know how to better meet the needs of the teachers and students at her school.

We continued on our topic of classroom managment. The teachers were given opportunites to pen the rules and consequences that they want to use in t
hier classrooms. Mixed with fun games and lots of role-play teachers left with a plan to put into action in thier classrooms.
The following week when I went to visit the school many of the teachers had taken the first step and had their rules displayed on their walls.

I am continously grateful for the friendships that have developed with these teachers and the ways that God is blessing both their lives and mine through this experience. Praise the LORD.

Perspective

Perspectives. We all have them and they are all different.

Last weekend I went with some friends to some islands on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua. As many of you may have heard me say before the Atlantic coast is like a different country. There are a lot more darker skinned Nicaraguans and Spanish is not the primary language. The east coasters speak a Creole English. The English they use is sometimes hard to understand but very fun to listen to. While many of them speak English I also learned through making friends with Jenny at the corner store that they had Spanish classes too while they were in school. Although not everyone speaks both. I often found myself confused as to what language I should speak. I would start a sentence in Spanish because that is what I am accustomed to and then end in English because I wasn't sure they were understanding me.

This was a neat experience. Aimee, Kate and I went on a walk up to a look out one morning and we passed by a school. I was amazed by the things I saw on the walls in the classrooms. It appeared that learning was really taking place. After seeing so many Nicaraguan classrooms that are sterile environments filled with caos and lots of confusion it was encouraging to see. While learning is a definite positive thing not all learning is correct. Here is the sign that was on the door to one of the classrooms. What do you think it says?

Can you read it? Welcome to Second Grade! I am pretty sure that this teacher has taught her class that this is the correct spelling. There were several other things on the wall in the classroom that indicated that this was the case. Now, while one could get hung up on the fact that these students are learning how to write and read English incorrectly I have to say that I am happy that they are actually learning to read and write at all. There are many others who will not have the same opportunities as these kids. While it may not be the best at least it is something.

Seeing this sign further motivates me to help Nicaraguan teachers learn more and be more effective in their classrooms. They have such limited time to impact the lives of their students not only academically but spiritually and emotionally too.

Here are some other pictures from the beautiful Atlantic coast as well.