Charley & Rachel in Nicaragua: October 2016

I was surprised to discover recently that a handful of people out there actually miss my blog, so here goes a post!

First a summary of the last few months, then a couple of stories of things that just happened this week that I feel the need to share!

So, we had a fantastic circuit pioneer meeting and circuit assembly with a fantastic visiting speaker from Mexico Bethel. Charley had the privilege of conducting the Watchtower study at that assembly and we had a blast doing rehearsals and then playing a small part in the program. We had a sweet young sister from our congregation baptized too, the first in her family (her brother is a publisher and her dad just qualified a couple of weeks ago!).
Charley had the amazing, unexpected privilege of conducting Pioneer Service School alongside our CO. He hadn't been to the school yet in the new book, so that made for some pretty intense preparation! Jehovah willing he'll be able to go as a student in 2018! I really enjoyed being the wife and getting to go daily for lunch and baking goodies for the class each day!
We made a quick run to Costa Rica to renew our visa and got to spend time with new friends with a fantastic view from their house and the sweetest dog ever!
We also made some new friends that were here spying out the land for a month.
Three classes of CO school came and went and we had a blast in the kitchen as usual! Now we're back to other projects, mostly cleaning, until SKE classes start again next Spring maybe. Really miss working in the kitchen, but it's all sacred service so we're enjoying it all!
Then last month we finally had our Regional Convention. WOW! That's all I can say. WOW! One of our young ones in our congregation got baptized and two older sisters from our previous congregation.
We also briefly had some awesome new friends from Lithuania visiting us.
We've had two new publishers in our congregation in the last month and another student just got married so she's now a step closer to becoming a publisher too.
Three of my studies finished the Bible Teach book and have started, or are about to, in the second book. One of them is already a publisher and had her first assignment on the meeting, the first conversation. I got to be her householder and she did an awesome job!
Oh, and we've been to construction a couple of times in Managua helping with a new Kingdom Hall there.
And we celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary last Sunday. How time flies!
Oh, and we bought a car!!! BEST decision!! Rainy season has been so much less stressful for me this year. Rain and motorbike is just not fun to me! And the story of how we ended up finding the car is a good one, perhaps I'll remember to tell it one day!

That was basically a summary of all of my Instagram posts over the last few months but without the pictures!!

Now for a couple of specific stories.

Last week's Watchtower about progressing spiritually left me with a lot to meditate on and a long list of things to work on! One of those things was improving in my public preaching skills, approaching people in public places and trying to start conversations. It's just not my strong point to be honest. So I decided I'd like to start dedicating an hour a week in this aspect of the ministry. We have the wonderful advantage of having Masaya's Central Park in our territory (hence the congregation name, El Parque). Perfect place for public preaching. So, as it worked out, I ended up by myself Wednesday morning because we had an odd number out and I had two studies, so it was easier for me to go alone. Well, neither of my studies could study, so I went and did a couple of nearby calls, and then planned to meet back up with the group to go door to door with them. Then, I remembered my new goal of spending an hour in the park once a week. So, off I went.

As I entered the park I prayed for courage to talk to someone and wisdom to know what to say to strike up a conversation. I walked around a little but ended up back with the first lady I saw since everyone else seemed to be talking to someone already or had headphones in. So, I sat next to this lady in her early 30's and smiled. I drank some water from my bottle. Got my phone out and pretended to look at something. Then I commented on the weather, how nice it felt since it was cloudy and cooler. She responded and straight away I could tell she'd be inclined to continue chatting. Then I asked about how to sign in to the wifi. And then I honestly don't quite remember how the conversation moved on to spiritual things, but we ended up talking for about 45 minutes! I read a few scriptures, showed her a video, gave her a meeting invitation.

She works in a factory, so she's never at home probably when the witnesses go by. She just happened to be off work on sick leave for two weeks and had been to a doctor's appointment. For some reason she said instead of going straight home she decided to stop in the park and use the free wifi there. She has the YPA book that she got from a public witnessing cart at the hospital one day. She studies it with her 10 and 17 year old kids and she told me what part of the book they're up to! So I showed her the sections for young ones and children on the website and we watched a Whiteboard Animation. Then towards the end of the conversation she told me how she lost her mom suddenly 4 months ago and how hard that has been. She asks herself where she is and if she'll ever see her again. So I asked how we could continue the conversation so that we could see the Bible's comforting answers to those questions. She gave me her phone number (she doesn't live in our territory) and she said she might come to the meeting. Despite having a sister in Costa Rica who is a witness, she's never actually been to the Kingdom Hall before, so we'll see. I sent her a text message today with a couple of scriptures to look up about the condition of the dead. I'll keep you posted on how it turns out. I went back to meet Charley just walking on the clouds after that!! It was such a wonderful conversation. She said that God provides comfort in the most unexpected ways sometimes!

So, I was reminded once again of how Jehovah blesses our efforts when we step outside of our comfort zone and try new things! And also how the angels are so obviously involved in directing us in the ministry, and they can use us if we allow ourselves to be gently pushed in new directions! I hope to make my hour in the park a weekly thing and improve my skills in that form of the ministry.

My other story is about work. We're getting ready for a trip back to the States to work for two months. I already got confirmation a couple of months back that my old job would happily take me on full-time again this year!! YAY!!! That's been such a blessing - having work lined up to go back to in familiar surroundings!

Charley works for Pepsi and continues to be an employee this whole 4+ years we've been down here. He just shows up every 18 months or so for work!! But he texted a couple of the people he worked under last time and got no reply. So this week he sent a few emails and got at least one bounce-back and one auto reply. Well, this morning he said, "I wonder if I should start looking for something else". Literally the second the words were out of his mouth, his phone made a noise, he looked, and he had an email from someone at Pepsi! It wasn't anyone he knows, but they said "Yes, we have work, let us know your availability".

Jehovah once again shows us how he'll always take care of us. So glad to find that Charley will be going back to work again, as he has done each time we've gone back to work! Such undeserved kindness from Jehovah that helps us continue in this ministry that we just love so much.

Well, that takes me right up to bed time, so I'll sign off now.

I leave you with some pictures: