followup

I have received several emails asking how the march turned out. And I've seen movies where, in times of impending disaster, the president goes on air and asks the people for their prayers...only to completely forget about those prayers after the disaster has been averted praising the efforts and goodwill of people. We can offer a prayer of thanks for a very peaceful march in Managua that day. Here is one article from an English language paper in Nicaragua that talks from one perspective about the success of the march: http://www.ticotimes.net/dailyarchive/2009_11/112120092.cfm.

Several weeks ago I accompanied a photographer, Martinus Geleynse, on a few local shoots he had here, one of which was with the CRWRC. We went to part of Nicaragua known as Matagalpa and spend a day and a half shooting still shots of three land banks in a program that is a collaborative effort of Acción Médica Cristiana (a Nicaraguan organization), Partners Worldwide, and CRWRC. It was a really neat time to learn about photography, but also super interesting to see first hand something that I've heard about for so long. This program is seriously changing lives. Development is about so much more than feeding people, giving them clothes, and giving them things. I invite you to watch this two part video we made at the Nehemiah Center about what has been done. It recounts the story of the program and specifically the story of Manuel Garcia and his wife Maritza. I've embedded it here, but you can also watch it in higher definition by right-clicking on the video>choosing "watch on youtube">and then clicking on the small HD button in the lower corner of the video. You will be encouraged and hopeful at having heard this story.



Perhaps you remember Miguel from the video above. Manuel gives him credit for being a large part of his success. Miguel mentors some 50 farmers that are part of these land banks and helps as a motivator, leader, and teacher. About two weeks ago I went back to the same area in the hills of Matagalpa, to do a training for Miguel and some of the AMC office staff. As I've mentioned in other posts, continued education isn't always commonplace here, so the staff was very excited to have the opportunity to learn formally some things that will be very useful as they move forward. I went prepared to train on some pretty introductory topics on spreadsheets and word processing. Since we were only able to cover the spreadsheet portion, I'll be returning again in the future to continue the training more in depth and build on what they've already learned. They had a lot of questions when I left and I could see that the gears were turning as to how they could use what they learned to help them keep better track of their projects and create better reports. Here is a slideshow of some of the pictures we took. Again, if you want to see it larger you can; click once on the slideshow and when it brings you to the next page simply click where it says "full screen" to the upper left of the photo.



Also, another year has finished for NCA Nejapa, where I taught English. Mauro finished his final block on the "cuadro de honor"...or the honor roll. He was quite proud to have completed the entire year missing the honor roll only in one marking period. He continues to excel despite difficulties at home. I haven't seen Breyling as much, although we did go for dinner last week. He seems to be doing alright. He is such a bright kid with so much potential. Now that he has lost his scholarship he will be facing more challenges if he is ever to leave poverty.

So many things have happened that I don't have enough time or space to write it all now. For that reason here's a snapshot right now of what's to come:

• the story of a fund-raising bike ride from Diriamba to Chacocentre (where ever that is!) to see sea turtles lay eggs and the babies make their way to the sea.
• a planecrash in the village of Wiwinak on the Rio Coco transforms the community that AMC has been working with overnight...but not how we would have hoped.
  

prayer items:

- praise God for the good work he is doing in Matagalpa through the land banks.
- praise God for Mauro's continued success, and pray that he and Bryeling will be kept from harm during the next two months while school is out.
- pray that God will continue using me to glorify himself and lift up his people.