Catching up with Instagram

This post is just dedicated to posting pictures that my Instagram followers have already seen. So, for those of you on IG, don't bother looking at this post!!! I will warn you in advance that these pictures are all completely jumbled and out of order! I'll just put captions with them to keep you straight!

Our parents secretly planned a surprise 10th anniversary party for us with the help of our local need-greater buddies. This is before we left the house to go out for a meal together. The surprise almost fell apart because we were home earlier than we were supposed to be, but they managed to pull it off!! We had a good laugh about that.

I thought Charley was joking when he said one night, "There's a horse in our front yard". Poor skinny little thing was helping us cut the grass. But then the police who ride around on bikes doing nightwatch chased him away, poor guy!

Another surprise from my parents. The lovely Brenda delivered this fabulous arrangement for us the morning of our anniversary. Enjoyed having it around the house while it lasted.

This was the night we had our young ones over to study the Watchtower and play games. We have a good group of teenagers.

Collage of the surprise anniversary dinner. We had some fabulous pizza at Monna Lisa in Granada, about 20 mins away. The picture with a beer in my hand - I wanted a shandy but they didn't have any Sprite or 7UP so one of our friends, Jenny, decided she'd go buy some from a local corner shop. She came back with two bags of 7UP!!! That's how they serve it here out of a glass bottle, but it was funny to have that on our table in the restaurant! THANKS JENNY!!!! Enjoyed the shandy! We are also still enjoying the presents. We got some whiskey, homemade starfruit wine (tastes like sherry, yum), French Vanilla coffee creamer (it's a luxury here!) and homemade chocolate. Thanks everyone!

The day we spent in Granada on our anniversary day. We had some great food, and a chocolate body scrub and deep tissue massage! Wonderful treat!

My new comfy seat on the bike! HAHAHA! Just kidding. Charley was going to care for a brother at the hospital and if you want to sit down you have to take your own chair - the health system here leaves a lot to be desired.

Fun with my study Anai. After we read the story of Moses we did some coloring. I love coloring and counting my time. Doesn't get much better than that!!

Remembering our wedding day 10 years on.

Spent $3.60 on all of this at the market yesterday. I love living so close to the Masaya market.

Visitor we found in our bathtub the other day!

Charley is tiling the kitchen. So far, so good.

Then we found another one the next morning!

My new haircut. I'm hopeless at selfies but I love how it turned out.

And I leave you with a shot of Granada's lakefront with Mombacho Volcano in the distance.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Sums up what we've been up to lately, more or less. We have our convention coming up in a couple of weeks so hopefully I'll have some good pictures from that. We also have to make a visa run soon before the convention. Our 90 days is about to run out, so we have to either buy an extension, or take a daytrip to the border with Costa Rica. I hate it every day 90 days starts to roll around! Amazing how time flies and that we're already thinking about that.

Well, back to the housework. I keep getting distracted!

The person faithful in what is least...

Well, dear friends, I just realized yesterday that it's been a month since I posted anything! You'd think after a month I'd have all kinds of things to say, but I can't think what's been happening!

I do want to tell a little story of a young brother in our congregation. His name is Isaac. He's 11 years old and a very bright young man, but also a little timid. A few weeks ago Nicaragua was celebrating it's independence and the kids are all involved in processions carrying the flag around the streets during those days and wearing banners and stuff. The kids with the best grades are the ones who are chosen to be at the front of such parades. Obviously, to remain neutral at such times, our kids have to take a stand for the truth.

So, Isaac told me a couple of days afterwards that he always gets at least 90 on his tests in school. And his teacher told him he'd be one of the kids to carry the flag, because he's such a good student. He told her that as one of Jehovah's Witnesses he wouldn't be participating in the procession and she told him he would! So, when the next test came around, he purposely got 80 on his test! His teacher guessed that he did it on purpose, but he said he just said Huh? when she asked him about it!!

I just was really impressed by this. It may seem like a small thing, but I know Isaac made Jehovah's heart rejoice that day. He wasn't concerned about breaking his record of high scores in school, if it meant he could be obedient to Jehovah.

Telling this story reminds me of his little sister, Jael. She is 8 and also really shy. She is a publisher already, but gets nervous about talking or reading out in service. I showed her the new video, Jehovah Will Help You to be Bold on Tuesday morning. Her mam told me yesterday that as they walked to the meeting on Tuesday evening Jael suddenly said, "Mam, I'm going to talk out in service now, because Jehovah helped Sophia to speak up, so I can too". I was so touched that just seeing that little video once, had such an impact on her. What a beautiful gift from Jehovah these Become Jehovah's Friend videos are.

Speaking of gifts from Jehovah - you know what I'm going to say! tv.jw.org!!!!!! WOW!!!!!! I spent Monday morning in front of the computer laughing and crying my eyes out and thanking Jehovah over and over again. What an AMAZING gift. We are such a blessed people. There just aren't even words...

This past week or so has meant a lot of phone calls between Charley and our other elder in the congregation. Our congregation "grandpa", Brother Taleno, fell in his house and fractured his pelvis area. He's been in the hospital a week now and today they're going to Managua to get a part that will be used in his surgery to fix it. It's been a nice opportunity to see the love of the brothers, since he has to have someone with him all the time in the hospital. Hospitals here leave a lot to be desired, at least the local, public one does. To receive proper care someone has to be there with him, take him his food, and if you want to sit down for the shift while you care for him, you have to even take your own chair!

So, the brothers in our congregation, and neighboring congregations have been taking turns spending 6 hour shifts with him in the daytime, and a 12 hour shift at night to make sure he's okay. He's doing well though. They don't like to let people in to visit, so I haven't seen him, but Charley says he's handling it all well and is in good spirits. The doctor says the operation will see him up and about pretty quickly, so hopefully that is the case. It's times like this that you realize what wonderful healthcare is so easily accessible in the developed world. But everyone is doing what they can to help, including pitching in to pay for the part that is needed for his surgery.

Service has been going very well. My attempt to keep my number of studies down so that I can give each of them proper attention has worked out pretty well. I still have a dozen studies, but it's less than I had before, and I feel like I'm able to care for them better and my service days don't consist of just running from one study to another! 

Well, what else? Just been busy with the usual mostly. We've added some personal touches to our little house, pictures that I've taken over the years, and still have a couple of other projects lined up to decorate a bit more. It makes such a difference having those personal touches. I feel like this place is our home now, not just a house!

Oh, yeah, funny little thing. The friends tried to have a surprise party for us, but their lack of communication meant it didn't end up being entirely a surprise! We were still a bit surprised though because we thought it was for our anniversary, just a little early, but when we got there it turned out to be a "welcome" party!!! That tickled me because we've been in the congregation since it was formed over a year ago!!! Haha, the friends are so appreciative here. It was a nice gesture and I danced until I could hardly walk! And it was a perfect opportunity to give out all the lovely gifts that so many friends gave us at the International Convention. Everyone loves all their bookmarks, and postcards, and other little things. And the kids were delighted with their new toy cars, and toothbrushes, and the big bag of candy was devoured in 10 minutes by young and old alike!!! For any of you reading this who gave us something - thank you so much! Your brothers and sisters in Nicaragua send their love and thank yous!

So, yeah, anniversary. It's our 10th anniversary next Thursday! Can't believe how quickly it came around! Our first decade - we survived it and actually thoroughly enjoyed it! We were going to go to Little Corn Island, which is a beautiful isolated island in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Nicaragua, but the place we wanted to stay turns out to be closed for maintenance until mid-November, so it might end up being a trip we'll do for 10 1/2 years of marriage! 

But we are planning on treating ourselves to a day off next Thursday. We're going to have breakfast in Granada at a place called Kathy's Waffle House that does American-style breakfasts!!! And then go to Cocoberry Spa for a chocolate body scrub and 60 minute massage!! And then maybe pizza at our favorite pizza place in Granada, and some kind of chocolaty delight at Hotel Dario. I'm so excited about our little splurge day!!!

Well, that's all for now. Hope you're all doing well and enjoying all the latest treats from Jehovah and his organization! That new song, 138, man, made me cry!

What a shout of praise to Jehovah

I just had to share this article from a Zimbabwe newspaper online about the International Convention recently held there. Friends from Indianapolis went and had an unforgettable, moving experience there. 

After you read this article, https://www.newsday.co.zw/2014/09/11/came-saw-made-zim-richer/, check out the Twitter account of the Minister of Tourism who is extensively quoted in the article. 

Here's the tweet of the visit he paid to Brooklyn Bethel. Click on it to see the pictures better.

Courtesy Call on Jehovah ' Witness NY Brooklyn HQ: Thank you for choosing Zimbabwe as Global Convention venue. pic.twitter.com/5D4eziBAhL
— Walter Mzembi (@MzembiW) September 10, 2014

I hope you enjoy reading it and seeing the pictures as much as I did. 

What an amazing organization we belong to. Just another reminder of how grateful I am to Jehovah for allowing me to be a part of it.

Introducing.........(drumroll)......the new Rachel

So, a new service year is already 8 days old, and it's been a great first week.

Pioneer School - what can I say?! It was FANTASTIC. It was my third time going, first time in Spanish, and I loved every minute of it. Jehovah keeps sending me, hoping that maybe this time I'll put something into practice! The new format of the school is wonderful and there were so many good reminders. So many things I need to work on. I like to think I came out a different Rachel, and hopefully I can maintain that for longer than 3 weeks!

I got to attend with some old friends, but mostly made lots of new friends. And we all will be at the same Regional Convention in November so it's going to be wonderful to catch up and see how everyone's getting along three months after school, and I'm just looking forward to knowing more people at the convention and meeting their families too.

Our instructors were just wonderful. We had our Circuit Overseer, and a brother who has been a missionary with his wife in Nicaragua for 14 years now. They just graduated from the Bible School for Christian Couples back in November last year (they never went to Gilead), so I like to think he used some points learned in the school with us. 

There were two pioneer school classes, and Charley had the privilege of being the School Coordinator, so he was there every morning making sure they had what they needed for the day and running little errands. That kept him busy while he was still finishing up his service year. I'm proud of all his hard work. He got his time in on the last day of the year! 

Here are some pictures from pioneer school:

My view from the back row. They seated us by height, so I was the very last one!

Henry, Francisco, William & Gilberto

Xochilt, Abigail, Martha & Ana Rosa

Scarlett, Karla, Felipe (CO) & Daysi

Maryoli, Nohemy, Matilde & Amalia

Aldo, Nelson, Frederick (instructor) and Victor

Brett & Cathy and Roberto & Eliveth

Kathia, Maryin, Sara & Victoria

Tania & Cristian and Hector & Eveling

Luilly & Kenia, Jose and Francisco

Yamil & Flor, Anielka and Catalina

Lunch overseer and his two helpers who came and helped serve lunch every day for the two weeks that the pioneer school classes were held.

This was what an older brother said when asked to comment on the school! He said, I'm just going to say one word, Tank You! It sounded like one word when he said it I guess!

Missionaries, he was our instructor

The official class photo

We all got our pictures taken individually, or as couples, with the instructors too

We had quite a few couples in the class, as you can see in the photographs, which was really encouraging to see. Charley went last year, so maybe next time around we'll go together if he's willing to wait another 5 years!

Hmmmm, what else? So, the day after Pioneer School ended Charley gave another talk (second one since we got back) so I got to see three sisters from my class again! It was a nice little congregation, we enjoyed visiting them.

So, the year started out really well. At the Laguna Beach Club!!! September 1st was a Monday, which is most needgreaters day off, so a group of us went to enjoy the relaxing atmosphere of the lagoon. It's such a beautiful place. It started raining though, so I never got a picture of us all there!

As far as service, I have a revised schedule, and so far it's working out well. I decided during school that part of my reforming myself would have to include giving some studies away. I just had too many to be able to dedicate the necessary time to preparing and caring for each one of them. So I've been working on reducing them this week, leaving some with the sisters who took care of them while I was gone.

We also enjoyed a trip to San Marcos English group this last Saturday. Charley gave the talk there. He's given lots of talks since we got back, yes!! He spent the whole talk thinking in Spanish he said, so he struggled to get his thoughts out in English sometimes! But he did really well. We took a couple of friends, including Cherub who is back in Nicaragua again to serve up north. Two young, Danish sisters had us over for dinner afterwards and we had a great time, good food, good company. That's one thing we love about going to visit the English! They tend to do hospitality. Not that we're in it for the food! But it's nice to get to spend a bit of time with some from the congregation afterwards. That's not a habit in Spanish. In fact, usually the speaker just comes on his own, gives the talk, then leaves. So Saturday was a real treat! I took pictures, but on another friend's camera, so I don't have them yet!

Well, we're off to eat pizza with some friends now. Our friend, Veronica, is leaving Nicaragua to search out other fields, so we're going to spend a little time with her this evening.

Hope you're all doing well and enjoying the new service year.

Welcome back...now get to work!

Well, it's hard to believe it but we've been back 10 days already. Time, as usual, is flying by.

For those of you who don't follow on Instagram (racharley1016) I'll update you on what happened on our trip home. We went to Indianapolis airport on Monday afternoon, August 11th. When we checked in the computer asked if we wanted to volunteer to get moved on to a different flight, since it was overbooked, so we said Yes. But you had to bid how much you wanted, and we bid $500 thinking they'd never give us that for a flight from Indy to Atlanta.

Anyway, we got our bags checked in and everything and off we went to the gate. To cut a long story short, they asked if we'd be willing to fly out the next day, since leaving any later from Indy that day would make us miss our flight out of Atlanta to Managua. So, they rebooked the whole trip for the following day and they gave us EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS Delta flight credit each for doing it!!!!!!!!!!!! I almost fell over when she offered us that!!!!!!! Especially since we'd said we'd do it for $500!! WOOHOOOOOOO!!!! So, now we have our next two trips paid, since we still have a credit voucher to use from last year!

So, mam and dad had to come back and pick us up again! We celebrated by going to the Claddagh Irish Pub for fish and chips, which we hadn't had chance to do on this trip. So that was a nice extra!! 

So, on Tuesday we really did leave, and the flights weren't full. The flight to Managua was so empty that we got to move to the exit row (mega leg room) and have a whole row to ourselves. It was an uneventful trip home. One of our suitcases had a bit more of an eventful trip than us though - see picture below!

We spent Wendesday unpacking and organizing and cleaning the dusty house! It wasn't too bad though since the substitute CO and his wife had stayed at the house for two weeks while visiting nearby congregations. Wednesday evening we went grocery shopping - why did we wait until the evening?! It's rainy season! So, of course it hadn't rained all day, but as soon as we got to the store it started pouring. We waited it out a while, then just went for it. Then Charley had to dress up in his waterproofs to go get my Pioneer School book.

So, pretty much Thursday through Tuesday I did nothing but stay home and study for pioneer school while Charley went out in service.

This was my view for six days!!

It was sooooo nice to go to our first meeting back down here on Sunday. Great to see our Nica family again, and they seemed pleased to see us. And in true serving-where-the-need-is-greater style, Charley was asked to give the talk that day! 

There hasn't been much rest since we got back, but we did lots of resting in the States, and that's what we're here for, to work! Charley also has spent this week overseeing pioneer school, making sure everyone has what they need, so that's been a nice privilege.

And this week we have CO visit, which is why I tried to get most of my studying done last week. We have a substitute, a different couple to the other ones that stayed here, but we've enjoyed the privilege of having them stay here and getting to know them better. They're special pioneers in a rural area not too far from here, and we've really enjoyed their company.

Here are a couple of pictures from the week so far.

These two brothers were interviewed Tuesday night about what it was like to preach here back in the 80's. They were both baptized while the war was still on, so they had to preach just with one partner, no literature, and a little bible in their pocket that they got out if they found real interest. Very encouraging interviews.

This is not too clear because I only had my tablet on me, but this is the pioneer meeting with the CO. A few had already left, but I think we have about 15 auxiliary pioneers this month, which is really encouraging.

It was raining after the pioneer meeting, so we decided to dress up Charley and the CO in our waterproof outfits that we just brought back (thank you Menards!) so that they could drive the bikes home and us girls would take a taxi. As it turned out, it was hardly raining much by the time they got dressed up, so we rode home with them too. I was hiding behind Charley as much as I could and managed to not get very wet at all!

Well, I think that's it for now. I will share something I noticed when I was in the States that I thought was funny. The first shower I took back in Indiana, I started scrubbing the bottom of my feet really hard, like I always do. And then I looked at them and realized that they weren't at all dirty. Just one difference between living here and there! I have to scrub them here! Anyway, just thought that was funny, even if you didn't!

Oh, and we enjoyed a day where there was no water from the city, which is usually every other day, but it's not a problem because we have a water tank. However the water tank is below ground, so it has a pump to get the water out. Well, Sunday the electricity went out all day so we had to electricity or water! It was a nice "welcome home"!!! So we (as in Charley) had to get water out of the tank with a bucket, then we took bucket showers.

Well, sounds like the guys just got home from the meeting. I hear the whir of motorbikes outside. So I'll sign off now!

Picture overload!

I had chance to sort through my pictures from the Spanish Regional Convention, so if you care to look at them, here they are!

Oh, but first I have a cool story to tell. During the invitation campaign in Spanish I talked to this very polite young dad who sounded very interested in attending the convention. So, yesterday we were out around there and I saw there was a car outside. So I went to find out if they'd gone, and to offer them something released at convention. His wife was home, and it turns out they went!!!!!!! They were only there about an hour, but hey, they went!!! After they got out of church around 1pm, she said they headed down there! So she accepted a publication, and the sister I was with is going to return on Saturday with her husband! Yay!

We were tied into the International Convention in Atlanta for some talks. The three biggest conventions were Indianapolis, Houston & Atlanta, all had over 25,000, but Indianapolis was the biggest!

Dear friends from Columbus, Indiana Spanish

These young ladies grew up so fast!

Mark & Mitsuko serve in Guatemala, but they're in the States at the minute. They stayed with us for the convention.

Charley's sister and hubby invited us to dinner with some ex-Bethel coworkers. Jason & Xiomara are now special pioneers in Kentucky, and just had the privilege of going to the Bible School for Christian Couples last year. 

Saturday morning, ready for a day of learning

I was so excited to see these girls. They used to live next door to my in-laws, and now one of them moved back to Puerto Rico, so it was exciting to see her back in Indy for a bit.

Claudia is in English but very kindly came to work at the convention

With my buddy Cherub. She's moving to Nicaragua at the end of the month!

The section where the 470 baptismal candidates had been sitting!

The baptism pools were busy most of lunch!

With some dear Argentinian friends. Back in the day we were in the same congregation and it had been a couple of years since we'd all seen each other. 

Wendy & Yuliana from East Spanish

Saturday we ate with these lovely friends from Columbus, OH at a Turkish restaurant

So excited to see Holly again. It had been YEARS since we'd seen each other. I love this picture. We were so well coordinated, accidentally!

Rachel & Daniel with their adorable kids, Elijah & Liliana

Such a joy to see little ones learning to give back to Jehovah

Brother Malenfont was the Governing Body helper who gave a few talks, streamed from Atlanta. He is such a good speaker and his Spanish is also very good.

Almost 32,000 on Sunday. 

Just over 700 attended the meeting for the School for Kingdom Evangelizers

Got to see Iris. She served for a time in Nicaragua, so it was nice to finally meet up again

Convention theme - reminding us to put the Kingdom first, not sports!!

Just six missionary couples that were in Atlanta

Some of the signs in Atlanta. The one at the bottom says "Look for us in paradise" and it has a bunch of arrows pointing up to the people holding it!

God's Kingdom Loading - 99%

Sad goodbye to Lucas Oil Stadium. What memories we had there during July & August!