Praying for the People, Searching for Land, and Life with 16 Orphans

Life in Nicaragua continues to be busy, busy, busy! But the Lord is continuing to move in our hearts and the hearts of our sweet Nica friends. The other day we went out into the community to pray for some neighbors. As we walked into the "homes" of these people I was overwhelmed by their living conditions. I looked up and saw holes in their tins roofs and thought, "If it rains (which it does 3 times a day now) all their stuff gets wet." Then I quickly looked around and noticed that there was nothing to get wet. We laid hands on the women and prayed that the Lord would heal them. The power of the Holy Spirit in those homes was overwhelming. Even in the midst of spanish prayers and whispers that I could not understand I felt closer to the Lord than ever before. It amazes me that in the midst of such poverty and despair, and with so little that the Lord can fill me with so much. It makes me wonder about life in the States. Is the busyness, abundance of stuff and instant gratification blinding me from the many miracles of the Lord? Just a thought. We continued to another house and prayed for another women as she stood and wept in our presence. Again, the power in that place is evident. We will return to the houses again with medicine for the people and simply to sit and visit with them.

We also got the chance to go with Brother Jim and his wife Blancita to San Juan Del Sur. Brother Jim was looking for a house that he wanted to use for another ministry he is hoping to start for men recovering from addictions. The trip took about two and a half hours. On the way we saw volcanoes, stopped and ate lunch in a nearby town, dipped our toes in the Pacific Ocean (it was my first time) and got to visit a remote beach that took us thirty minutes down a very bumpy dirt road to get to. We were thankful for Scotty and Blancita to help translate during our many stops to get directions. It is hard to find a place that has no house number or street name. It was an adventure, but we enjoyed our day's trip!

Life with the kids continues to keep us busy. Scotty is doing great teaching bible in the primary school and music in the secondary school. I am still loving on the babies and helping in the kitchen and the home. I also started helping Ana every day at the feeding center. People come from all over the community with buckets, bags, tins and anything else they can find just to get a scoop of beans and a scoop of rice. This is the only meal that most of these people will get each day. We really enjoy the afternoons when the older kids get out of school. Scotty is usually playing some kind of sport with them either in the gym or in the field. One afternoon, after our english tutoring, we started a game of kick ball with some of the kids. We ran into some problems when Scotty got so excited while playing with the kids that he would yell to me in spanish to do something and I would have no clue what he was saying. I'd yell back at him, "I don't speak Spanish!" It was all pretty funny.

(Where are we in the photo above? Scotty is easy to find.)