back in nicalandia

It's been nearly two weeks now since I arrived back in Nicaragua, and it's gone pretty fast. Before coming back I told everyone how excited I was to be starting, and what the Nehemiah Center was all about. Then I arrived back...and was hoping that all I had shared and looked forward to would start just as I had said it would. It's an interesting situation to be in, really, because I know it's easy to build something up, in my own mind, almost expecting that it will be the perfect job. Now that I'm starting, I will face the real challenges, real frustrations, and real working situation, and I'll find out if it's really what I thought it would be.

It might have been slightly more difficult returning this year for some reason. I really enjoyed my time at home this December. I imagine that the longer I'm away, the more I will realize what I'm sacrificing--especially in terms of family--to be here in Nicaragua. One year's not bad. Two is managable. Three? Four? I'll find out, but I'm guessing it probably won't get easier.

Readjusting to life here also was slightly more of a conscious thing that I anticipated. Things quickly became normal, but the first two days a few things struck me. When I arrived at the airport here, I was off the plane quick and one of the first through customs. This was my plan since I didn't want to get stuck in the line to get out of the baggage claim area, and I wanted to get home and settle before it got too late. I ended up being the last person out of the area because one of my bags didn't show up. Already frustrated, I began to notice things like the many employees standing around and chatting...but only one employee at the front of the missing bags line. Once on the road again, the somewhat hectic driving and the fearless pedestrians seemed to have gotten worse since I'd been here. I'm sure they hadn't really. The following day I ran into more frustrating differences when I spent about an hour buying two wireless routers and a power stabilizer...something that should have taken 10 minutes. That's another story for another blog. The important thing is that after a short while back I was feeling well-adjusted and back at home.

My first few days at the Nehemiah Center were a little strange. As I started to figure out my role and where I could start to insert myself, things seemed a little slow. Since then they've picked up a lot, and I can see how I will be kept pretty busy. I spent much of the last two weeks working with computers, software, and networking things. The next three weeks will be intensely related to Santa Lucia. Every three years, the Nehemiah Center does a major evaluation with each national partner. Next week will be the evaluation with Asociación Cristiana de Jovenes (or YMCA). They are the national partners that the we work with and support in Santa Lucia. Monday will be at their Managua offices. Tuesday, Wednesday and maybe Thursday we'll be in Santa Lucia visiting families and communities benefiting from our support. And Friday will include review recommendations from the week, reaffirming our relationship and projecting what it will look like during the coming years, if our goals and mission still line up.

I will probably not be coming back for the final day in Managua, but rather that will mark the beginning of a three-week stay in Santa Lucia. I'll be co-hosting a team that Thursday and Friday with another long-time Nehemiah Center employee, and then the second week after that (Feb 4-7) I'll be hosting a team from Holland, Michigan, in Santa Lucia all by myself. They'll be working on a well, and possibly some watershed projects. The week after that, a team will come down from Immanuel CRC in Hamilton, Ontario, but I'm not sure yet if I'll be running that team. Pretty interesting considering I didn't think I'd have much to with teams. But given my relationship with Santa Lucia, it makes sense that I'll be involved with teams there.

Haven't done much with the Media Center yet, as the people and equipment haven't arrived. Unfortunately I'll be in Santa Lucia when that really starts to come together, so I'll be a little out of the loop for a while. Hopefully it'll be easy to jump back in when I arrive back in Managua.

Thank you to all of you who expressed a desire to continue your support, both financial and prayer support. I hope to be making my budget viewable online so that you can see each month where I am in my support raising. I really don't know at this point how much of what I hope to raise will come in. I trust the Lord will move in you hearts to give me just what I need. I'll do my best to keep you informed of what's going on with that. Probably in about three weeks I'll have the budget published online with a link from my blog. I'll let you know when that happens.

Oh! I just remembered something. I made my first goal in the last soccer game that we had! It was very exciting. Sidney made a pass from the left-center of the goal about 30 feet out and I put it through a crowd of people and just out of the keepers reach!

Prayer Items:

- pray that my work continues to be meaningful and that I might see some of the benefits that the Lord is producing through my efforts

- pray that my time in Santa Lucia is rich, that I learn a lot, and that I am able to do well with the team that's coming at the beginning of February