a little of this and a little of that

Wow!  It is hard to believe that I have been back in Nicaragua for over a month now.   Where has the time gone...and to think that I always talk about how things are slower in Nicaragua. :-)

Well here is a little recap of the last 4 weeks.

CFCI board with the Nicaragua team

The day after I arrived Christ for the City's International Board meeting was hosted in Managua.  This was a great time meeting all of the board members and their wives.   We traveled all over introducing them to some of the churches and people we work with here.  Our CFCI team of 3 drivers had a rigorous schedule of airport pick ups and drop offs as well as bus station trips too.    Overall it was a great week and everyone had a great time.  I got to see some old friends and make some new ones.

The next week I attempted to gather my belongings from the various placed they were being "stored" for me.  I'm staying with an awesome missionary family, the Robinson's  who have been so gracious to take me in until the end of may when I go to house sit for another family.

Here is our team Pollo Verde "Green Chicken"  I think we did really smell like green chicken too!

Ultimate Frisbee is something I have enjoyed playing since moving to Nicaragua.   This year the guys organized a trip to Costa Rica to play in a tournament there.  So Friday after noon 13 of us piled into a 15 passenger van and drove 6+ hours to Arenal, Costa Rica.   We played well as a team and learned a lot more about competitive frisbee.  I was the only girl from our  team in Nicaragua that could go so we picked up a few more at the tournament.  They were great to have on the team.   The Green Chickens won 3rd place.

Next we had a team from Grace Church come to work in Rivas and do pastor training.   We had a terrific week with about 45 pastors sharing different topics with the men and the women.   I was with the women for the week and the teachers shared about a Biblical view of femininity.  We had lively discussions and a great time encouraging and loving on these women throughout the week.  

As a bonus my good friend Mary Ezzell was also a part of the team and we had lots of opportunity to catch up on life.  God also provided an wonderful opportunity for us to share how He has restored our relationship after several very difficult years.  It was a great testimony of God's faithfulness.

In between all of this great stuff I have also started a Masters program online.   Part of the requirements for my new position with NCA is that I get my Masters degree.   So far it has been a great jump back into the learning and school environment.  I definitely a little rusty in the paper writing area but I'm slowly getting the hang of it once again.   This is a giant leap of faith as I wait to see how God will provide for me to continue studying.   However I know that He is always faithful.

Things are moving along for the school in Matagalpa.   We just developed a job description for me and are beginning to make connections to other organizations that are working in education.  Our biggest need is for a director.   Please pray that God would lead us to the right person for this position soon. 

Ken, Mary, Julie, Jimmy and Rafa 

***This blog post was written about 3 times as the power kept going on and off and erasing my entries.   I guess this means welcome back to Nicaragua and sorry if it is not the most detailed version. :-) ***

Promised Pics

Here are some pics from the run last weekend. We all look a little wet not just from sweat but it rained during a good portion of the race too. :-)


Here we are the night before the race. We were told there was a meeting to start at 6 so we showed up a little early and I guess it started at 5. It was pretty long and boring so we were glad that we showed up late

Aimee and I after the race


Laura and David Parajon joined us for the race too. They are the parents of one of my former students. It was fun to run with them.

On the Run

I have really picked up and enjoyed running since moving to Nicaragua. I started partially because I enjoy it but also because there are a lot of other ways to get a workout in consistently. There is a small group of gals that I go with a couple times a week. Amy and Myra are great and we enjoy several routes near where we live.

This weekend Myra and I participated in a 15K fun run in Matagalpa. Matagalpa is in the north of Nicaragua and is where the majority of the coffee that is exported to the world is grown. It is beautiful and much cooler than Managua. There were eight of us in all that caravanned up and enjoyed the ride. The race turned out to be a little shorter than 15K but was still breath-taking (in more ways than one ☺) We ran through a coffee farm. It was a very well organized event. We were all really impressed. Each runner got a really nice shirt and a medal.

The fun run was actually part of a larger event where 22 runners were running a double marathon! Can you believe it 50 miles. The course was difficult but I can’t imagine running 50 miles. Someday I would like to run a marathon but I am not sure if I will ever add a double marathon to my TO DO list.

I’ll add pics later. I didn’t get any on my camera so as soon as I get some from the others I’ll post them.

Only on a Mission Trip

So in my line of work I see a lot of people come to Nicaragua for the first time. They are amazed at so many things and often times have lots of questions. They are faced with a language barrier, cultural differences and lots of new foods to try. Gumby is known as a pretty flexible guy right! So we have a Gumby Award that is given each day to team members who show flexibility.

Well with the Emmanuel Team a week and a half ago Gumby went on a little adventure. There was some pranking that went on during the week between the boys and the girls. Watch the video all the way through and you'll see who won. :-)