work and play

Just got a chance to do some updating on the ol' blog.  Uploaded a bunch of photos to share with you, along with captions, so you know what you're looking at.  If you want to skip the first two paragraphs ands skip to the slideshows below, that's fine.  They give a little background.  The rest of the blog is not represented in the photos.

This year Semana Santa was the week of March.  As I've done the past two years, I attended a CRC Latin America retreat for missionaries, which was in Nicaragua this year.  It was pretty interesting, and I'm glad I went.  We spent the first two days reflecting on the Holy Spirit, and how we see and feel evidence of his presence and guidance.  I found it really good to reflect on these things myself and to participate in the group discussions.  The third day we learned about the "7 Practices of Effective Minstries," which I found a little less relevant to my situation.  One thing that did come out of the third day was a CRC-Nicaragua blog.  I'm not sure if the others want it to be a public thing... :)  but I put a link on the side.  It's nothing major, but it will hopefully be for us a way to keep track of small and large successes or "wins" from week to week as we meet to share them.  You might find it interesting to pop in from time to time to see what we've done (or, rather, what has been accomplished through us).

During the next few days of Semana Santa, I and 4 friends rode our motorcycles down some of the worst roads in Nicaragua...  All the Nicaraguans seem to know that it wasn't a good idea, but we somehow missed that before we went.  Sometimes 6-8 lanes wide, this dirt road had no smooth path even for motorcycles.  200 miles and 9 hours later, we arrived in San Carlos at 4:30pm, and were able to find a hotel before nightfall.  We had dinner and arranged the next morning's boat trip 30 miles down the San Juan River to see El Castillo, a fort built to protect the tradroute from pirates centuries ago.  After a 1.5 hour ride there and back and about 45 minutes at the castle, we were back on the road beating a path for home.  Because of the amazingly rough terrain, by the time we got home, everyone had encountered problems with their bike.  Only two of the five bikes arrived with lights (it was dark well before we got back).  My bike was missing the battery box and battery; the rear blinker covers were gone, and the brake light was broken; a few main supports on the chassis had broken; bungee straps held the front wind deflector and the rear fender on, and my rims were smashed and dented from pounding them back into shape with a rock.  Others suffered broken exhaust pipes, broken chassis, electrical problems and no front brakes.  What a trip!  I will not soon forget it. :)

Back at work, I've been getting stuff done.  We have comleted several of our Partner Profiles, telling about the local partners of the CRC in Nicaragua.  If you're interested to see them, leave a comment and I'll post them or some of them here on the blog.  For me, they are highly interesting and informative.

Another interesting thing I did was a training at ACJ (Christian Association of Youth, an affiliate of YMCA) on how to use a document we created to keep records on their programs for evaluation purposes.  I went and spent a morning explaining how to fill in the initial information and how to update it every quarter.  It's supposed to be a way to track a program (numerically speaking) over the course of 3 years.  I really enjoyed it, especially when we got into some discussions about what kind information can we keep track of and how to do it.  It was a really good experience, and allowed me to get to know the good folks at ACJ a little better.

I just met today with a different ACJ person and heard that the water project (see this picture and following) we participated in and funded with two teams (one from Holland, MI, and the other from Hamilton, ON), had been finished by the community.  That means that a community that previously had a deficiency in clean water now has clean water piped all the way into their homes.  That ought to be on the next CRCNA-Nica blog of wins!

Next week I'm going with one of the Trinity Media Program students to do some filming in a village outside Santa Lucia for about 5-7 days.  The idea is to live with them for three weeks (I'm only there for week 2) and put together a video telling the story of the community.  It will definitely be challenging as I'll be the main (only) translator.  I really look forward to being there and getting to know the community's story, but I have a few fears about being able to translate well enough.  It's going to be pretty important to translate quickly and accurately as the filming occurs so that we can get the best video and ask the right follow-up questions.

Thanks for reading and staying up to date with me.  Thank you for your support through prayer and financially.  If you want to help financially, there is a link on the sidebar where you can do that online, or contact me.  If you're interested in praying, below the photos are  a few things to help you know what to pray about.

Click the slideshow to get to some larger photos, and where you can watch the slideshow much larger.

Photos from two days in San Andrés helping with a team from Canada:


Photos from the bike trip to San Carlos:


Prayer Items:

- Pray that I continue to improve with my language skills, and that the trip to San Buena Ventura and shooting the film will be successful.

- We've received an offer from some very able knowledgeable computer-wielding friends that want to contribute their giftedness and collective resources to the Lord's work here.  Pray that we will see an opportunity for them to do that here in Nicaragua in a way that will further the reach of the gospel in the computers/technology area.