Back by popular demand - haha!

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:

Lots of hard, physical labor at Kingdom Hall construction. No back-hoe in sight!

Lovely dinner out for our 12th wedding anniversary

Carpentry shop at educational center all nice and clean after a hard day's work.
It's a panoramic, and Charley moved, therefore the 5 heads!

Had some more of the friends from our new congregation over

Two new publishers on their first weekend out in service.
(Young girl in white shirt and brother in black shirt)

Awesome new friends from Lithuania at our house

Cleaning the cooler at the educational center - practicing for December in Indiana!

The amazing view from our friends house in Costa Rica

Charley conducting Pioneer Service School

And a very rare selfie taken in the kitchen during CO school!

Few quick pics

Quick post of some recent Instagram pictures.

First a couple of collages showing the progress on a nearby KH Construction project taken over the last two months. Work is almost complete there now.

A group pic of our 17 regular and 4 auxiliary pioneers. All of our ministerial servants are regular pioneers and one of our elders (Charley). The other elder is auxiliary pioneering this month as we had CO visit.

And saving the best for last an amazing picture of my friend Cherub who also serves here in Nicaragua and my hubby. Apparently they weren't liking each other that day at the English Circuit Assembly!

Vamos!

Well I think this blogger app might be a good thing! For those of you who follow us on Instagram it will seem a bit repetitive but not everyone does I guess.

Had a busy weekend as usual. Maybe a bit more than usual. Sadly we went to a funeral on Saturday afternoon. Our dear, 88-year old Bro. Taleno died suddenly on Friday. The brother who gave the talk did a beautiful job of remembering him and giving a witness to the brother's family. He'd been baptized 47 years but nobody else in his family ever supported him. He was such a sweet, faithful old brother. The congregation took care of all his needs and we enjoyed taking him his breakfast on Wednesday mornings. He'll be missed and probably a bit disappointed to discover he missed Armageddon but we look forward to seeing him again!

Sunday we went to a nearby English congregation and Charley gave the talk. The first two times he tried to introduce a scripture he said "vamos", and he said "y" instead of "and" a few times but all in all he did a good job! We enjoyed hospitality with a few of the friends and I even managed to enjoy most of the motorbike ride there and back!

Unfortunately I'm covered head-to-toe in a rash which looks like Zika. It's going around like crazy although I don't think even the doctors can agree on what it is! But it's not too bad. Just a little itchy! So, while I got to spend the day laying around watching movies, Charley worked hard outside and got our water tank connected! Very exciting since we only have one day of running water every third day from the city. Now we'll have it daily!

Well, that's it for now. I leave you with a picture of our water tank!

Just a picture or two

I have the Blogger app on my phone now so I thought I'd try and share pics as I post them also on Instagram. That way you won't have to dig through a mile long blog post once every three or four months!

Below is a picture of a few of us saying goodbye to Shawn who has moved back to the States. Sad to see her go but she'll no doubt be a blessing to any congregation she serves in. We are also pleased to have been able to buy a bed from her, and a bookcase and crock pot and some more fans for the house. Lots of reminders of her around here!

Below that, is an idea of the progress of the nearby Kingdom Hall construction in Nindiri. You can see how it looked May 2nd and how it looked when we went to work yesterday. Really admire the hard-working construction group, especially the amazing wives in the group. Quite an exhausting schedule they keep.

And then one of my favorite pics from our going away party that one of the young ones sent me. I just love this pic for some reason. I miss my Pancasan buddies!

Well, not sure how this app formats things so hopefully this post comes out legible and with the photos actually included and in the order I commented on them! If not, I'm sure you'll figure it out!

Housesitting opportunity in Masaya - June 15th for six weeks

POSTING THIS AD ON BEHALF OF SOME NEEDGREATER FRIENDS HERE IN MASAYA

CONTACT ME FOR MORE INFORMATION OR LOOK FOR THE AD ON NEEDGR8R.ORG

Want to try out Spanish ministry in an amazing territory?

We are serving in Masaya but have to leave for 5-6 weeks at short notice, so we need someone to care for our house and pets (dog & cat) from June 15th .

Beautiful 1-bedroom house in quiet surroundings by a lake and a volcano. On the edge of the city so easy access to all amenities. Good-sized garden with fruit trees. We have never had any problems with crime or the neighbours.

There is a choice of many congregations within walking distance and the territories are small so transport is not essential. Bible studies grow on trees.

The cat is not domesticated but an ocelot in a large cage. Full instructions provided.

Putting up the sails for Jehovah's winds of change

Well, it's been almost three months and it never ceases to amaze me how time flies and things change!

Last time I blogged we were getting ready for Memorial season. We had a lovely Memorial. Charley was supposed to give the talk but unfortunately he got REALLY sick that day and for the first time ever, he missed the Memorial. The speaker from our sister congregation who was going to be giving the talk at the Memorial after ours very kindly volunteered to step in, much to the relief of our other elder as he wasn't exactly prepared to step in last minute! We literally realized a couple of hours before it was time to start that there was no way Charley was going to make it! We think he had Zika, which had him down for about 10 days. Ironically the only day he was so sick that he couldn't get out of bed, was that day! Of all the days in the year!! Oh well, he's made a full recovery and is just fine now. He doesn't like the attention so dont' tell him I blogged about that haha!

So the Memorial was tinged with a little sadness for me, being there without Charley, but I was very happy to see about a dozen people there who Charley and I had invited. And for our congregation of 85 publishers we had an amazing 298 in attendance! Not sure how we fit them all inside the Kingdom Hall, but we did. This was our first indoor Memorial since we moved down here. I have to admit there's something special about having it outdoors and being able to see the full moon, but it was a lot less work to get the inside of the hall ready this year!

Some of my studies at Memorial (they all arrived before me!)

Hall starting to fill up for Memorial

Ready to head out, alone!

The week after that was originally the special talk, but that was postponed to the following week since we had a Headquarters Representative Visit to the Central America Branch (located in Mexico City) and so we enjoyed a wonderful program recorded from Mexico. We had some technical difficulties about 2 hours into the program, but we managed to listen to the rest even if we couldn't all see the speaker! Lovely talks. Izak Marais gave a great talk about dealing with anxiety. Just taking one day at a time, or sometimes, just one hour at a time. It was very encouraging along with some interesting videos about the opposition our brothers faced in Mexico trying to build a Kingdom Hall, and the violence that our brothers in El Salvador have to deal with as they go about their ministry.

Back in August 2015 we had a flight voucher getting ready to expire so we booked a trip to visit my sister-in-law and her husband in NM and then a week in NY. The only dates we knew there was something special going on was the Memorial, and then the special talk. So we booked it to leave a few days after the Special Talk. Of course, then came the Branch visit, which changed the date of the Special Talk to the following week, and then we get our announcement of circuit assembly the week after that! It was too late to change our arrangements, so we just had to miss the Special Talk and Circuit Assembly. At least we had managed to go to the English assembly back in January so we didn't miss the program.

We had a fantastic time in NM and NY. My sister-in-law and husband are serving in an English congregation but also helping get the ministry going in the Tewa language. There are various reservations where the Tewa people live, although they don't allow door to door ministry there. But they are finding other ways to reach them. A brother in the congregation is fluent, and so they had their first talk in Tewa in April. Some from the territory came and it was a real success. It was so nice to see them and Charley's parents again, and to learn more about this newly opening field, and also to enjoy Jehovah's creation in a new part of the country that we hadn't visited before.

The view from my sister-in-law's house

The family at Bandilier National Park

Beautiful view at Bandilier National Park

My mother-in-law trying out cave-living!

Charley's sister and her husband

Part of the reservation where they live

Kingdom Hall platform. The congregation was very welcoming. They even had a little get together for us and interviewed us and saw pictures of life here in Nicaragua. Very encouraging time!

Looking out over the Rio Grande

Hot springs right by the freezing cold Rio Grande (ask Charley, I didn't get in the river, just the hot pool!)

And of course a trip to Bethel is always a fun time. We went to Walkill and Brooklyn. Got to spend some time with friends in Bethel who we hadn't seen for years. And said our goodbyes to Brooklyn Bethel! Also visited Charley's old congregations in the Bronx and spent some time with some of the friends there. Also enjoyed a beautiful stroll around the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens (it's free on Tuesday's if you're ever there). Got there first thing in the morning before it got busy, and then headed to Bethel to see the Bible exhibit that wasn't there yet last time we had visited. Also got to sit and hang out with an old brother in Bethel who doesn't have the health to work anymore, but comes to the lobby every day and shares experiences and photographs from his years in International Construction. That was a TREAT for sure! Wonderful to see such faithful older ones. And we were able to do the second MET tour - Integrity. Had a great tour guide. Super interesting tour!

Newark Airport

FINALLY got to meet Sophia and Caleb!

Walkill dining room with a couple whose congregation Charley was in back in his Bethel days

We even got a personal tour of the slaughter house at Walkill! 

Hiking near Walkill

Charley triplets on the Bridge across the Hudson

Taking a break on our hike with our friends who serve in Walkill.

Charley's old Kingdom Hall in the Bronx

These kids were 6 and 10 when Charley was in the same congregation with them! Now the son is in Bethel. How time flies! 

Enjoyed some wonderful hospitality from these dear friends in the Bronx.

Ran into some old friends unexpectedly! Fabulous views from 90 Sands residence building

Buildings that used to be Bethel, now sold and being repurposed! So strange to see!

Our trip away also meant that I missed being present for a very exciting occasion. One of my bible students got baptized at the assembly that we missed. I'm so very proud of her and it's been such a joy to see her make spiritual progress. It was a very emotional day for her, so it was probably just as well that I wasn't here, otherwise we might have flooded the assembly hall with tears!! But my good friend took lots of pictures and a video that she sent to me that night so I got to enjoy it from afar! This is my first study here that I've been able to see through to baptism, so it was so sad not to be there but in a way it helped prepare me and her for the separation that was to come. (see next paragraph!)

Since we've come back we've been reassigned to a new congregation. The CO talked to us about it before we traveled, and then it was confirmed when we got back. We had been in our congregation since it was formed almost 3 years ago and it was very difficult to say Goodbye. We're still close by, in the same city, same section of the circuit, but it was still tough to leave. Our new congregation has welcomed us with open arms. They had a need-greater couple in their congregation since it formed three years ago too, who were also our very close friends, but they had to head back to the States. That left the congregation with just one elder, who was just recently appointed, so off we went to support them! We're still settling in, getting to know a new part of our family and finding our way around the territory. The couple who left passed on studies to us so that's helped with the transition. We all miss the other couple so very much, but such is life in this ever-changing world.

So we've enjoyed over the past two weeks a welcome party at our new hall, and a goodbye party at our old hall. I'm all partied out now!! 

Some of the friends at our new congregation

They danced Marimba for us

And the kids sang the Life of a Pioneer song

At our going away party with our old congregation. And I finally had an excuse to wear my Indian tunic!

Since the last post another SKE class came and went too! We again got to enjoy helping with their special lunch the final day of class. This time it was an Hawaiian themed event. I got to be a waitress again and felt a lot less nervous this time since we'd done it once before! We didn't go to the graduation this time, but enjoyed being a part of the lunch that day. 

SKE Hawaiian lunch complete with pina colada in real pineapple cups! 

So, now we have the wonderful privilege of cooking for the School for Circuit Overseer's and Their Wives. I'm not sure if that's the proper title, but you get what I mean! They just started arriving on Thursday so we cooked, but only half of them were there. The school starts today so this coming Thursday we'll get to see them all together. One of our previous CO's is in the class so it was nice to see them arriving. And I met one brother who is a CO in El Salvador. So they have come from across the region to the school. The course lasts a month, and I think there will be three classes, so we'll get to see a lot of CO's come and go! Charley has been covering on Tuesday's too in the kitchen while someone else is out of the country, so it's been a busy time, what with that, and the move to a new congregation, and some other privileges that he has coming up that I'll blog about as they happen! I've learned a lot from Charley about never turning down assignments. "No" is not in his vocabulary and I really admire him for that. 

There's also a new hall under construction in the next town along from us, so we've been a couple of times to help out. It's always fun to get to help and spend time working with friends from around the area and the hard-working construction group who make such sacrifices to help get Kingdom Halls built all over the country.

At construction in nearby Nindiri

Well, that's enough for now. Hope you're all doing well. "Talk" to you again maybe in September?! Enjoy Regional Convention season and remember not to talk to me about it until after September 25th! This is the first year we've had to wait until the new service year to get to a convention, so we'll see if we can make it through without hearing anything!! I've heard it's incredible, so we're really looking forward to it. The way time flies it'll be September before we know it!

I leave you with some other random pictures from daily Nica life!

Transportation solutions!

Our banana (or plantain, not sure yet)

Nica air conditioning!

Saying goodbye to bible studies in our old territory

Everybody loves a Become Jehovah's Friend video!

Lunch with some of the sisters in our old congregation