Heather, Pioneer school and Chepita

The highlight of the past few months for us was a visit from Heather.
Even when you really love where you are and how great your life is,
things can become routine. It was a real shot in the arm to have
Heather reminding me how incredible our lives in Nicaragua really are.

She was able to visit almost all of our Bible studies, including this family. Maria Luz (the mother) has been inactive for years. She didn't know how to read until she met Jehovah's Witnesses. Her study began as an excuse to continue her reading lessons but within a few months it was enough to help her get her zeal back to the point of attending and commenting at meetings. This month she'll also be turning in her first service report in 9 years. Two of her daughters are also progressing well.

Heather showed tremendous linguistic skills in both Sign Language and Spanish. Here she's supervising a Sign Language lesson at a small "boarding school" for deaf children. There are about 14 children that come from inpoverished families. In most cases they only see their families once a year. After visiting them on Saturdays we take 4 or 5 of them with us to the Sign Language bookstudy.

Of course a trip to Nicaragua wouldn't be complete without some sort of close encounter with wildlife. The night before Heather left we went on a sunset tour of Volcan Masaya which included entering a bat cave one by one and spending a few minutes in the dark with thousands of furry, flying creatures that, thanks to their incredible sonic abilities, don't collide with your face.

Speaking of wildlife if anyone knows what this little creature is let me know. In my experience it's the only insect I've seen that seems to have a head on both ends.

Going back a few months, we wanted you to see a picture of Andrew's pioneer school class.

I've also included a picture of

what can happen in hot weather when

you run out of plain white undershirts. Unintentional advertising.

Some free advertising for Design;) We're still willing to run a central american office by the way;

The tract campaign went well. I was even able to do a little riverside witnessing. Fortunately we had some 4X4 help to get to the other side.

Last but certainly not least we wanted to slowly start introducing you to more people in our congregation. This is Josefa Dominguez (better known as Chepita). She's the adopted grandmother of everyone I know. A 70ish going on 20 chipper addition to our service groups. She's still a regular pioneer and backbone of the congregation. We just didn't realize what a cardshark she is until I caught her in the act at a recent congregation party.;)

That's it for now. Miss everyone loads, hope to hear from you soon.

Heather, Pioneer school and Chepita

The highlight of the past few months for us was a visit from Heather.
Even when you really love where you are and how great your life is,
things can become routine. It was a real shot in the arm to have
Heather reminding me how incredible our lives in Nicaragua really are.

She was able to visit almost all of our Bible studies, including this family. Maria Luz (the mother) has been inactive for years. She didn't know how to read until she met Jehovah's Witnesses. Her study began as an excuse to continue her reading lessons but within a few months it was enough to help her get her zeal back to the point of attending and commenting at meetings. This month she'll also be turning in her first service report in 9 years. Two of her daughters are also progressing well.

Heather showed tremendous linguistic skills in both Sign Language and Spanish. Here she's supervising a Sign Language lesson at a small "boarding school" for deaf children. There are about 14 children that come from inpoverished families. In most cases they only see their families once a year. After visiting them on Saturdays we take 4 or 5 of them with us to the Sign Language bookstudy.

Of course a trip to Nicaragua wouldn't be complete without some sort of close encounter with wildlife. The night before Heather left we went on a sunset tour of Volcan Masaya which included entering a bat cave one by one and spending a few minutes in the dark with thousands of furry, flying creatures that, thanks to their incredible sonic abilities, don't collide with your face.

Speaking of wildlife if anyone knows what this little creature is let me know. In my experience it's the only insect I've seen that seems to have a head on both ends.

Going back a few months, we wanted you to see a picture of Andrew's pioneer school class.

I've also included a picture of

what can happen in hot weather when

you run out of plain white undershirts. Unintentional advertising.

Some free advertising for Design;) We're still willing to run a central american office by the way;

The tract campaign went well. I was even able to do a little riverside witnessing. Fortunately we had some 4X4 help to get to the other side.

Last but certainly not least we wanted to slowly start introducing you to more people in our congregation. This is Josefa Dominguez (better known as Chepita). She's the adopted grandmother of everyone I know. A 70ish going on 20 chipper addition to our service groups. She's still a regular pioneer and backbone of the congregation. We just didn't realize what a cardshark she is until I caught her in the act at a recent congregation party.;)

That's it for now. Miss everyone loads, hope to hear from you soon.

Hiking where the need is great!

This entry is dedicated to our very special friend RYAN! He came over for a month and made the most of his visit. It was great to see things through his eyes and share in his enthusiasm. Thank you Ryan!

[caption id="attachment_49" align="alignright" width="136" caption="Ryan and the infinite puddle"][/caption]

We were proud of him for deciding to come on the most extreme rural day of the year. It happens only once a year for a reason, its a 8 hour hike over two of the highest peaks in the region. It´s hard work, crazy hard... some of the time you´re actually happy you decided to go on it. In fact it has become somewhat of a rite of passage. The friends have stories of how each needgreater and special pioneer has coped with the hike, normally pretty nasty and embarrasing stories of dehydration, fainting, and near death. Nothing better than making fun of the gringos!

About three major communities in our territory can only be accessed on foot or by horse, La Cal, Las Mesitas and the one we´re going to this Thursday, can´t remember the name.

It was great fun! The views were amazing, and the cheerful company of the brothers and sisters made it a memorable day. Once you get there (3 and a half hours later) everyone rushes to get a house. There are only 20 in the "town centre" (i.e. a rocky lane that winds round a deep valley). Fortunately you can stay for up to an hour and a half at a door.

Andrew was assigned with Ryan and we had some fine conversations with 4 householders that really appreciated us taking the time to visit them. One of the greatest challenges is that most of them can´t read which makes it hard  to provide quality training when you only visit once a year.

However one of our last doors was with a young woman, the sister of the local teacher, that was amazing. She was quick and enthusiastic and promised to study the Teach book we left her. We taught her how to study the book, asked her to jot down any questions she may have, and gave her the address of the KH.

Ryan showed us how its done at his doors with well prepared presentations. Amazing how much Spanish Ryan, Shane and Vanessa have learnt in a month.

We also try to preach to every single person we meet on the way. Some of them take this route every day to buy and sell produce in the market.

Our Friday territory is also a great hike to look forward to. Half the territory hangs onto a mountainside. Mainly wood and plastic houses that struggle to stay up. Below you can  see Jason, Shane and I at a door in that territory.

We miss you all! Please keep up the letters and emails we love them.

Hiking where the need is great!

This entry is dedicated to our very special friend RYAN! He came over for a month and made the most of his visit. It was great to see things through his eyes and share in his enthusiasm. Thank you Ryan!

[caption id="attachment_49" align="alignright" width="136" caption="Ryan and the infinite puddle"][/caption]

We were proud of him for deciding to come on the most extreme rural day of the year. It happens only once a year for a reason, its a 8 hour hike over two of the highest peaks in the region. It´s hard work, crazy hard... some of the time you´re actually happy you decided to go on it. In fact it has become somewhat of a rite of passage. The friends have stories of how each needgreater and special pioneer has coped with the hike, normally pretty nasty and embarrasing stories of dehydration, fainting, and near death. Nothing better than making fun of the gringos!

About three major communities in our territory can only be accessed on foot or by horse, La Cal, Las Mesitas and the one we´re going to this Thursday, can´t remember the name.

It was great fun! The views were amazing, and the cheerful company of the brothers and sisters made it a memorable day. Once you get there (3 and a half hours later) everyone rushes to get a house. There are only 20 in the "town centre" (i.e. a rocky lane that winds round a deep valley). Fortunately you can stay for up to an hour and a half at a door.

Andrew was assigned with Ryan and we had some fine conversations with 4 householders that really appreciated us taking the time to visit them. One of the greatest challenges is that most of them can´t read which makes it hard  to provide quality training when you only visit once a year.

However one of our last doors was with a young woman, the sister of the local teacher, that was amazing. She was quick and enthusiastic and promised to study the Teach book we left her. We taught her how to study the book, asked her to jot down any questions she may have, and gave her the address of the KH.

Ryan showed us how its done at his doors with well prepared presentations. Amazing how much Spanish Ryan, Shane and Vanessa have learnt in a month.

We also try to preach to every single person we meet on the way. Some of them take this route every day to buy and sell produce in the market.

Our Friday territory is also a great hike to look forward to. Half the territory hangs onto a mountainside. Mainly wood and plastic houses that struggle to stay up. Below you can  see Jason, Shane and I at a door in that territory.

We miss you all! Please keep up the letters and emails we love them.

Matagalpa Circuit Assembly

This last week has been both busy and great fun. Shane and Vanessa moved to our congregation (a great couple from Jenny´s old congregation in Virginia) and we´ve had our Circuit Assembly at Matagalpa our CO and DOs visiting our congregation.

Our Circuit assembly was held at the cancha Brigadista, a basketball court in the very centre of Matagalpa. The entrance is decorated with drawings of Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega (current president and victor of the Somosa revolution) and Fonseca, local hero and "scholar" of the revolution. This year Jenny and I were assigned to cleaning which gave me an eyeopener with what that involves in our area.

Friday was our pre assembly cleaning day, a full clean up that included, chewing gum scraping to parking lot cleaning. The only problem with the venue is also the hardest part of the cleaning department, the toilets. That is the "one" urinal for the men and the "one" toilet for the siters. Unfortunately the many signs we placed in the mens toilet clarifying that is was ONLY a urinal were not always adhered to, and well... that "expanded" our job description.

To deal with the volume of bros further private toilets of a neighbour were contracted. The house must have been as old as Matagalpa, and still displayed dozens of bullet holes scattered along the adobe walls. Below you can see both the bullet holes and Jenny waiting to use and clean the facilities.

The effort bros made to get to the assembly was an inspiration in itself. Some travelled for two days, walking for one, spending the seasons savings just in transport.

Jenny and I were happy to see six studies at the assembly, which made a great effort themselves.
A highlight for us was to have Shane and Vanessa, their enthusiasm, pioneer spirit and raw love for the brothers is very encouraging. They are going to do so well here.
Shane was quite an attraction as you can see in the pic below.

Matagalpa Circuit Assembly

This last week has been both busy and great fun. Shane and Vanessa moved to our congregation (a great couple from Jenny´s old congregation in Virginia) and we´ve had our Circuit Assembly at Matagalpa our CO and DOs visiting our congregation.

Our Circuit assembly was held at the cancha Brigadista, a basketball court in the very centre of Matagalpa. The entrance is decorated with drawings of Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega (current president and victor of the Somosa revolution) and Fonseca, local hero and "scholar" of the revolution. This year Jenny and I were assigned to cleaning which gave me an eyeopener with what that involves in our area.

Friday was our pre assembly cleaning day, a full clean up that included, chewing gum scraping to parking lot cleaning. The only problem with the venue is also the hardest part of the cleaning department, the toilets. That is the "one" urinal for the men and the "one" toilet for the siters. Unfortunately the many signs we placed in the mens toilet clarifying that is was ONLY a urinal were not always adhered to, and well... that "expanded" our job description.

To deal with the volume of bros further private toilets of a neighbour were contracted. The house must have been as old as Matagalpa, and still displayed dozens of bullet holes scattered along the adobe walls. Below you can see both the bullet holes and Jenny waiting to use and clean the facilities.

The effort bros made to get to the assembly was an inspiration in itself. Some travelled for two days, walking for one, spending the seasons savings just in transport.

Jenny and I were happy to see six studies at the assembly, which made a great effort themselves.
A highlight for us was to have Shane and Vanessa, their enthusiasm, pioneer spirit and raw love for the brothers is very encouraging. They are going to do so well here.
Shane was quite an attraction as you can see in the pic below.