Update From Sarah - Religion to Relationsip Ministries

Dear Friends and Neighbors 10-20-13

Greetings from Nicaragua!

Although we may be far apart, we are near because we serve the same God.

I am curled up snug in my hammock on this rainy Sunday afternoon. Everything is fairly quiet besides John playing with one of his friends and a friend visiting with my parents upstairs.

Chris went a few villages down river to play soccer with the boys. Today is a very exiting day for the boys from our village, because today is the very first day they get to play in their uniforms. Something they always dreamed about but never thought it could come true.

In their words, We’ve always just been running around in our wild hog skins:)

One evening the young men from our village came and asked Dad if they could please, cut, thresh, and carry our rice for us. And then Dad would by them soccer uniforms.

Oh the excitement when Dad said yes!

Through this I believe Dad has gained the respect of pretty much all the young guys here.

The boys of KrinKrin have something that is the envy of nearly every young man here along the river. A complete uniform with their own name.

There are many exciting things happening here.

A few weeks ago my Pastor and wife Cathy, Mike Elwood, and his daughter Harley came and spent a week with us.

This was such and encouraging week for me. Getting to spend time with brothers and sisters in Christ.

When they came they brought along lots of medicines and medical tools donated by many generous people from the States. This is such a huge blessing for us and the people of this village. Right now Mary and Eva are in the States getting more medical training.

Sunday morning the two churches, the Verbo and the Catholic church got together and asked Pastor David if he would preach. This was my first experience translating a sermon. With the strength of God and a great Pastor to work with I believe it went fairly well.

While the team was here they were able to help with the remodeling of the Widow Alma’s falling down house.

I absolutely love my house Alma tells me. I love the kitchen best of all. It’s so fun to cook in my special little kitchen. I no longer have to worry that my little girl will fall through the floor or that all my clothes and blankets will get soaked when it rains.

Some of you have been donating money to provide food for Alma and her family. This has been and is a huge blessing. With the stress level down and the hunger pains gone the yelling and beating that we used to hear so plainly nearly every evening after she would come home from the field are nearly gone. Alma loves her children and her children love her. It is wonderful to see their family drawing closer together.

Exciting news!

One of the young men (Orly) we have been ministering to for a while got saved a few weeks ago. It is so amazing to see his hunger to learn more about God and the bible. In the last month I have spent hours sitting, listening, and talking with him. Listening to the struggles he’s going through, having him beg me for advise and to find scripture to help him.

This is definitely stretching my faith, and growing me deeper with the Lord.

One thing I have really run into that complicates things very much. Now that I speak the language I am having more opportunity to share the gospel with my friends. But the Miskitu language is not a bible based language (if that’s how you want to say it)For example, try explaining the gospel without words like, FAITH, HOPE, GRACE, TRUTH, REPENTENCE, SURENDER, and MERCY. And their lifestyle many times has very little of these in it.Right now rice harvest is in full swing. During the day from dawn till nearly dusk everyone is out in their fields working. Harvesting rice and carrying it back from the field in boot deep mud is no easy job. And if it rains a lot like it has been recently all the rice has to be dried.

Yesterday Me, Katie and John went along to help harvest the Catholic mission’s rice. Both churches here plant rice to help pay for the expenses of the church. It is cool how people from both churches will go help when it is time to harvest.

Early in the morning the ladies will cook breakfast and soon after day break everyone that plans to go help goes and gets their food. After everyone has eaten they head out to the field. The men and boys cut the rice and put it on piles. Others clear a spot and put a large tarp down for a threshing floor. Us girls and the women went all over the field carrying the bundles of rice to the threshing floor where the young men threshed it.

At 3:00 we left the field all cleaned and threshed. I was totally exhausted from carrying the heavy bundles of rice on my shoulder. So stopping at the creek on the way back home for a short swim was very refreshing.

With the harvest in full swing I have also been keeping busy buying rice and having people bring it by for their debts. With the money we have we plan on buying about 20000 pounds of rice this year.

11-11-13

Please be praying for our family as we plan on traveling to Managua this week to renew our residencies. And especially for our Benjiman as we couldn’t get permission to take him with us.

This weekend we moved from one rental house (In Waspam) to another that is cheaper and more efficient for our needs.

Thank you soo much for all your prayers.

In Christ,

Sarah

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply