I love my life

It’s true. I love my life. Not in the blasphemous way that I would turn away from God to keep my life. But in the completely-in-awe of how He continues to let me be involved in His work.

So. Lets catch up on the work that’s going on around Jinotega…

The Casa Materna ministry is growing! We now have two in Jinotega with the newest one being dedicated to women who have some sort of complication or long term problem with their pregnancy. Since they are staying at this one longer, the ladies are going to be continuing deeper Bible studies with personal prayer time hoping to build stronger relationships with the women who are there. They still visit some of the Casas outside of Jinotega too.

Very blurry picture of the whole cooking crew. 
These ladies are a joy to be around.

Nereyda, Estella and I laughing in the back of the truck 
on the way home from Yali.

Groupo de jóvenes (youth group) Oh how I’ve missed them. They are growing, and they are hungry. Oh how I’m praising God daily for that! Last week, a church about an hour away, had a lock-in and invited us to join. It was definitely an experience, a little overwhelming for some of our new teens, but they enjoyed it and learned from it. We are planning for a retreat in October. Lots of exciting ideas and possibilities come with these events. Please pray that we are continually pointing these souls to Jesus.

Some of us in the back of the truck.
We definitely had more last week on the way to the lock-in. 

Hijos del Rey (Children of the King) continues to thrive as well. The whole church came together the last Sunday in August to “showcase” what these children have been learning. They sang their songs, preformed their dramas and then we had a short devotional before serving supper for the children, their families and the church-- talk about a lot of rice! It was such a treat to see the church come together like that. The youth group stepped up by cleaning and preparing the building, each family bought part of the meal brought it to the church, the ladies class cooked all the food, our preachers spoke and prayed for all the families present… It was special. We are hoping to do this every 5^th Sunday. You can see a video HERE from that night. Praying God leads this program as we love on His children, His hijos. 

The coloring center has the Bible story on one side
and the picture on the other. 

A couple of friends have started a baseball team. Most of the boys are from Hijos del Rey or the boys whose family works in the market right around the mission. They practice twice a week and have games on Saturday. While they are not the best players, they are precious investments. Oh my. Pray for patience for the coaches and willing hearts for the players as they all learn more about the game and life.

The kids warming up before their game last week.

This week, a group of Texas Tech nursing students and faculty came to serve. I haven’t had many opportunities to work with the medical groups because I’ve been with the church groups at that time. But this week I did. It was awesome. These ladies came with open hearts and eyes willing to serve, learn and roll with the challenges. I can’t tell you all they did; however, I can tell you how they encouraged me. Their sweet spirits and enthusiastic attitude made them a pleasure to work with! I had the opportunity to visit 3 of our schools with them to perform wellness screenings. I even got to help translate a little. There are still so many things I don’t know about Spanish, but it was uber encouraging for me to be able to help someone else understand these children. It was also a cool taste of what it will be like when I know more and won’t need to keep asking the real translators how to say something every 5 minutes. 

Seriously awesome ladies. 

Their last afternoon, after seeing all the primary students (about 150)
they shared their bubbles and made everyone smile.

There are so many other good works happening around this city and country. I’ll keep sharing as I keep learning. Thank you. Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your love. Thank you for your support. Thank you for sharing your excitement about Jesus’ love. Thank you for showing interest in Nicaragua. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to love my life!

Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. 

John 12:25-26