slowing, refreshing

Things are finally starting to slow down. I kept thinking that they would slow down "next week." Well, the 'summer' is here. I put summer in quotations because while for most Americans, that's exactly what time of year it is, for Nicaraguans, the recently begun rainy season marks the beginning of "invierno" or "winter." But because it's summer for the Americans, that means that Many make trips back home and those who stay behind might get a little bit of a rest, too.

What's been keeping me busy since I wrote last? Not surprisingly several things have been doing that. Something I mentioned last time is that we were preparing for the country team evaluation. A group of 5 people came down from GR to evaluate the work of CRWRC and CRWM in Nicaragua. Every 7 years they'll do one. It includes a day of presentations from the country team staff, and then several days visiting partner organizations, communities, and projects that the CRC has been supporting. Some of our partnerships are as old as 9 years, while we also have several pilot projects with new partners. We told them about our mission, our vision, each of our partners. We shared our challenges and success, and in the end, they were able to give us some good feedback and encouragement. That first day was definitely the longest for me. We started at 7:30am and ended at 6:30pm. Presentations all day. I wasn't presenting, but I was responsible for having all the presentations in order and doing any last minute printing.

Last week I finished my first video project after many hours of editing. The final product was for an organization called Tesoros de Dios, which seeks to serve children with special needs and their families. The video will be used by those involved with the program to raise awareness of what they're doing, and will also be shown to groups that come through the Nehemiah Center. I hope to show it at Brookside when I'm back this summer.

I shared another first with Lennin, my roommate. I saw a Kiwi fruit at the store when shopping with him, so I figured we should buy some so he could try it. No surprise that he liked it.

June 9 marked the beginning of a 60 Day Challenge, offered by the youth group leadership at NCA. I decided I would accept it and challenge myself to read the entire New Testament in the time between school ending for the summer and beginning again at the end. I've read through chapter 19 of Matthew how, and it has already been rewarding and the Spirit is calling my attention to many things. It's not too late for you to join! :) Just pace yourself to catch up, and follow the same schedule on the website. Let me know if you're doing it.

A few weeks ago I finally made the decision to invest in a better motorcycle. After several repeated problems and a few new ones, I had had enough. For only $400 more than the original cost of my 200cc Chinese bike, I was able to close the deal on a Kawasaki KLR 650. Now I can be more sure that I won't have silly problems that leave the bike non-functional. I am having some final work done on the Chinese bike while it's still under warranty, and then I'm selling it. The Dama de Hierro (my truck) had it's first major problem just recently. Still not resolved, the problem is that it will not move out of first gear. Looks like it's in second, the clutch still engages and disengages fine...but the stupid thing is not going to get out of first. Don't know exactly what to do with it now, but I'm sure I'll figure something out soon.

At the CRC Latin America spiritual retreat a couple months we talked about listening to the Holy Spirit and feeling his nudges...and then doing what he's nudging us to do. I shared with my small group that I've been feeling a nudge to be a sort of big brother to a few certain students from my two years teaching. This past week I finally felt it was time to move on that and wrote an email to a friend who works with them explaining my readiness to commit. His response was a great confirmation, explaining that the timing was amazing. We'll be meeting early this coming week to talk about what it will look like.

Thanks for reading. I just want to remind you of two little things. If you are feeling led to support me there are two ways you can do that right now. I always list prayer requests at the end of my blog posts, and there is also a link on the left for making monetary contributions. Your support in both of these ways is greatly appreciated. God bless.

Prayer Items

- Praise God for his timing and nudging with respect to focusing on the relationships with my former students. Their names are Breyling and Mauro. They're in 3rd grade. Pray for us.
- Thank God for his great provision. Things have slowed down. The weather has cooled down and everything has turned green. He has offered me refreshment in many ways.
- Pray for wisdom and understanding as I continue to plow through the New Testament. Pray that the Spirit continues to open my eyes to see my life in a new way so that I can continue to work on being a better servant of him and others.