About time, eh?!

My mam said people were asking her at the circuit assembly last weekend what had happened to the blog!! Well, here it is!! Every time I thought I'd sit down and blog lately, I ended up doing something else, and then didn't feel like sitting in front of the computer!

So, while it's still not even 7:30am, I thought I'd make the blog today's priority! Hope you are all doing well. I know those of you reading from the States have been through a rough winter and I really hope it is over for you really soon. I apologize in advance for all of the pictures of sunshine and pool-time that you may see in this post!

I'll try not to give too much detail of what's been going on this last month since it would make the post too long to bother reading! Things are going really well though.

We've finally been having some of the friends from our congregation over to the house. We do it on a Saturday after service. I get overwhelmed at the idea of cooking for everyone, so I tell them to have lunch at home, and then at 1pm we'll go eat dessert and swim at the house! It's been a great success. Here are some pictures from the groups of people we've had over so far. If you follow me on Instagram you'll recognize all of these shots!

Jenny (red shirt) and her family are progressive students. They came over on a Monday and we made spaghetti - that's what I always make for big groups of people and everyone seemed to like it despite the fact that I didn't serve rice with it. Yes, people eat rice with their spaghetti here!

Here are two families. Our young pioneer, Jose, and his dad and grandma. And then Maritza and her four girls. We had a fun time with them. Jose and his family were with us in the other congregation so they'd been over before, but we just had grass out back that time!

This is the Escobar family, plus Yader. They're such a nice family, and the kids are such a nice group of young people. All baptized, two oldest boys are ministerial servants, and they're just fun to be around. They brought a ball which we had a great time with! A lot of people here don't know how to swim, including the young ones, so they all hang out in the shallow end or the hot tub!

So, we're slowly working our way through the congregation, hoping by the end of the year to have had everyone over at least once. It's funny the things you don't realize that people aren't used to, like glass doors. Every time someone comes they almost walk into the glass patio doors, since it's just not common here to have a glass door at your house. But this time the young sister in the orange shirt really had an encounter with the door! I had closed it because flies were getting in the house, and she didn't realize and after she got changed to go in the pool, from upstairs I had a huge BOOM! Poor thing - she busted her lip on that door! She must have really been charging at it!

Ok, what else? Oh, since we missed our circuit pioneer session in November we had the privilege of going to the English one a few weeks ago. They had it in the Kingdom Hall down the road from the assembly hall and it was PACKED! I think they were expecting about 130, but since there were some "visitors" like us, they had 168. Charley stood up for the first hour or so, until they went and rented some plastic chairs! It was a FANTASTIC program. All based on the example of Nehemiah. I didn't realize how wonderful it would be to go to it in English! It's only the second time I've been to a pioneer meeting in English in the past 12 years, but it was wonderful. And since it was directed to a bunch of need-greaters then it was personalized to the challenges we face sometimes. We saw some friends we hadn't seen in a while, and made some new ones.

My favorite point from the meeting was what one brother said about distressing times. He said Jehovah didn't design us to cope with critical times, but he has given us the antibiotic to cope with discouragement - the Bible. He reminded us of the need to be deep students of God's Word. I had just never thought of it that way - Jehovah made us to live in paradise, so we aren't designed to deal with what we have to deal with today! Amazing point! That was the speaker in the English circuit who always gives the BEST talks ever!

Another point was from that same brother. He said that regular, unrushed Bible reading gets it into our minds, meditation gets it into our hearts, and then application of what we read is like sending it to our feet!! We've heard the mind and heart parts a lot, but I hadn't heard anyone talk about the feet! Nice way of putting it!

I also liked the phrase "Our outlook can affect the outcome" when talking about facing daily challenges. And a lovely interview with a sister who is serving here with her husband and their little girl who is about 2 I think. They're both pioneers, he's an elder, and she talked about how things didn't seem to be going according to plan at all. They hadn't planned on having a baby, they spent money fixing a car that then got wrecked, they couldn't find a place to live. It seemed like the odds were against them, but here they are, serving down here with their little girl and are such a blessing to their congregation. They're such a sweet family. I really admire those who serve down here with small children.

The multitude at the pioneer meeting. It was such an international crowd!

And then on Saturday we spent the day at the English Circuit Assembly. I wish we could have gone Sunday too, but we just have too much going on in our territory on Sunday's. But it was lovely to be there just for a day. We had a couple of friends who also serve in Spanish stay at our house for the weekend so we had a nice time with them too.

With Laura & Dillenis who spent the weekend with us. The other picture is of the Theocratic Ministry School. The variety of accents is so much fun - US, England, France, Nicaragua, Australia, and the list goes on!

Natasha serves in Granada English. She's such a sweet sister, and right now she's up in the mountains for a month serving in seldom worked territory in Spanish - go Natasha!!!!

Just last weekend we got to go help out at the construction in Managua again. I say "again" thinking that I blogged about the previous time we went, but looking back, I didn't! Well, we went three times to help with the construction, although I only went twice. Here are some pictures from those two times then.

Charley and I were up and down that ladder sanding down where they had welded the rafters, since the painters were coming along spray painting them.

As you can see it's come a long way since the previous time we went. It's pretty much done now, just outside work to finish and the bathrooms inside.

The floor got a good cleaning because a water pipe burst and they found the hall full of water. So we spent the morning getting all that out and get all the materials off the floor.

The older brother in one of these pictures has been in the truth about the time I've been alive. He lived through the war in Nicaragua and the ban. He's seen a lot of growth. It was lovely to hear his experiences.

So, maybe one of these days we'll get to see the hall completely finished and furnished. It's so nice to be able to help out. It's hard work, we did a lot of shoveling in the afternoon to mix concrete, but it's worth the aches!

We also had a great night a few weeks ago at a party for Brenda's parents. The friends danced Marimba, and then we danced the night away. It was a great time!

Brenda and her parents with the Marimba crew!

Service is going really well. Sometimes I have the tablet on me and get to show the Caleb videos to the kids in our territory, and those in the congregation who often haven't seen them either. These boys below were quite entertained by the videos!

Aren't they cute little rascals?!

I've had some great experiences lately. I got two studies from the Good News brochure moved over into the Bible Teach book and they're really enjoying it. One was surprised how easy the book is to study. I also have a couple of calls that I've been working on for months who are now more regular and we actually sit down and consider the brochure. And a new study called Carolina who practically asked for a study on the return visit. She has a store in the front of her house, so the first time I talked to her we had to keep pausing for customers, but we did a paragraph from the Good News brochure. When I went back she invited us in, and this third visit last week we did half of Lesson 10 in the brochure and she said how she's dying to know more about the Bible. She wanted to take a course but she couldn't afford it, so she said she figured that if God wanted her to learn, he'd find a way for her to do so!! So I said, well, here we are, and it's free, and in your house, at the time that works best for you! This week we'll finish that lesson, and then I already showed her the Bible Teach book and said I'd bring her one this week. There are so many people in our territory who still want to study. Sometimes it's just a case of offering.

For others it's all about the timing. I had the privilege of going on a study this week with one of our pioneers. This girl, Raquel, is so excited about her study. She grins all the way through it and it's so contagious! She said she always would say "I'm busy", but then one day she thought to herself, "I could make time if I really wanted to". So the next time a witness went by, she accepted a Bible study! It was such a lovely reminder of why we keep working the same territory over and over again. You just never know who will decide to listen.

Well, I said this post wouldn't be as detailed as usual, but I think I failed!!! Once I start writing I start remembering stories to tell!

Charley has also had some good experiences lately and has some good, new studies. So we're keeping busy. And we've started putting out a public witnessing table now on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and I think maybe we'll add another day. It's been going well but I haven't had the tablet with me to take a picture of that.

We had to go renew our visa yesterday. I always get nervous when we go because they can decide not to give it to you if they feel like it! But we got another 90 days, so we're good until May, at which point we'll probably go to Costa Rica for a few days and make a vacation out of it. At the mall where the immigration office is we got Subway sandwiches for lunch, and a dozen donuts that I got a special offer online.

And here is another group of friends that came over to swim for a bit. Nicole (far right) is serving in the congregation we were previously in. Her sister, next to her, was visiting for 6 weeks, and the other two are young sisters who are currently living with Nicole. I love how people here get in the pool with all of their clothes on! 

We have some good times coming up. Circuit Overseer's visit next week, and a friend from Indianapolis arrives for a couple of months this Sunday. She'll be serving further north where it's cooler, but I'm sure we'll manage to persuade her to spend at least a few days with us too! 

Well, time to get some meeting preparation done. And maybe time for a cup of coffee, and another donut - breakfast of champions! 

I'll try not to let another month pass before the next post. Take care!