Dear friends,
Greeting you all in the name of our precious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I pray that your walk with the Lord continues to grow deeper and more personal every day, which is what is happening here at our house. All praise and glory to God.
Most of our time these days is consumed with learning the Miskito language. Our classes are two hours in the mornings from 9:00 to 11:00 of intense teaching, of new words and how the words change with different applications. Then studying the rest of the day trying to make sense of what was said.
We are learning that the language is more simple as far as having fewer words, like we had heard, but that every word has 18 ways to say it, depending on who its talking about, what tense, and whether it’s a positive statement or a negative statement. Like changing the last half of the word can make the difference whether it’s my wife or your wife or someone else’s wife, I have a wife or don’t have a wife, if you or they or someone else has a wife or doesn’t have a wife etc.
So far in the nine days of studying we have learned around 150 words. But if you expand that it can be up to 2700 words. So our brains are starting to feel kind of like mush. But the Lord is helping us to keep our focus on Him and remember the reason we are doing this is to glorify Him, and so we can help these people who seem to have no hope.
We praise the Lord for the teachers He has chosen to teach us, Marcos and Ruby, a 70 year old Miskito couple. We also praise him for our faithful prayer warriors that continue to pray for us as we face the challenges ahead of us. Like yesterday when that spiritualist (witch doctor) walked into our house uninvited and tried to cast a spell on our family. By standing firm in the faith, not giving way to fear and knowing that the Holy Spirit who lives in us is stronger then the spirits he was using, we are convinced that they have no power over us or our house.
The way things work here are starting to become more normal for us, like getting rain almost every night and usually one to four times in a day, with sunshine in between the rains. The thing that is probably the hardest for us to get used to, is having to buy everything from the store. A few days ago we bought about $80 of vegetables, which wasn’t more than we could go to the garden and gather any day, from about April through November. It seems like it takes a lot of money to live, even though things on average aren’t that much more expensive here then they are in the states. We are so looking forward to getting up to our community where we can have a garden again.
A few days ago we met with our translator person from Kring Kring, the area where we are hoping to end up at. He is now working on informing the people about what we need as far as land for the ministry, and then about the middle of Oct. Chris and I plan to go up and see what the Lord has worked out for us.
Another big Praise to God is that all of our residency papers have been accepted for review. In the first part of Nov. we will find out if they accept our request or not.
Our shipping container and the truck are stuck in customs, and will be for at least another month, but it’s not something we worry about, because it’s just material things that we can live without, if the Lord doesn’t have need for them here.
Thank yall for hanging with us for these 3 month while we learn the language of the Miskito people. We love yall, and may God bless you. Eli, Leah and the family
Oh I was so happy to get the update, sure sounds like you are adjusting very well. But like always say things are easier with the believe and trust in the lord. He will give you no more than you can handle. Glad everyone is doing fine. So you are not at your final destination ?
I do not have a mailing address for you, I would like to send a package pretty soon and would appreciate if you give me a mailing address.
If there is anything specific that I could send, please feel free to tell me. I would be more than happy to send it.
Our prayers are with you and your family.
Take care
Love to you all
Margit & Art
Thank you Margit! No, we are not at our final destination yet. We are staying at a ministry with an orphanage for the first several month, to learn the language and get our house built up river first before we go to the village up river.
We do not have mail or package service here in this part of Nicaragua, so if you want to send something for us, send it to our coordinators so they can send it with the next people who come to see us. Make sure there are no perishables. We will get a list of things together soon and put it on the web page Ministry Needs. If you are sending it by mail, sent it to the address on the website, but if it is UPS, send it to; Gary Doyle 15950 Mercer Ln. Houston, Mo. 65483
We love you!!
Eli, how wonderful everything sounds! Yes, foreign language can make you crazy but I know you’ll all do well in the end….especially the kids! They pick stuff up easier than we older folks do! It all sounds so exciting and yes, the witch doctor has nothing on you and the Holy Ghost! Yay! Blessings upon blessings to you all! Sheila
Greetings to all of the Lees!
It is wonderful to hear what is happening and how God is working. Everything seems to take time, and God has His perfect timing. What a witness to God to not be effected in fear by the witch Dr., so soon after your arrival. What a Joy to walk in faith!
I have so many questions and I will only ask a few… Are the vegetables the same as we grow here? Will you have a winter season of sorts? What is the land like, in regards to gardening, in the area that you will be living? Are there other believers for you to worship with, in Waspam?
You are in our prayers. It sounds like such a big undertaking to learn the language. God be with you, Bless you and Keep you,
We Love you all!
Cheryl
Some of the vegetables are the same here, but some are different. No, there is no winter here, only a few month of dry weather during your winter. The soil is very different here, kind of a course soil that allows the water to disappear pretty quickly. Landscape is generally pretty flat in these parts.
Yes, Waspam has some believers, here in Puerto Cabezas has many, but the the further you go up river the fewer they get. The community where we plan to go has a few, according to translator we talked to from there.
Thank you so much for your prayers!
God bless you all for your courage and perseverance and obedience to His calling.
We love you and think of you constantly xo Blessed our lives touched and crossed paths xo Huge hugs and love xoxoxox
Thank you Nori! We miss yall tremendously!! Love and hugs to you too!!! 🙂