Maybe the next one will have pictures!

So, almost 3 months have gone by and what a lot of changes both on a personal level, and on an organizational level. We live in such exciting times in Jehovah’s organization. And we’re just doing our little bit to try and keep up with the chariot.

The projector that we bought on our last trip has been such a wonderful blessing for the congregation, and not just our congregation, but the projector now lives at the hall so all three congregations benefit from it. I mentioned in my last blog post that we showed the August broadcast. The turnout wasn’t all that great though. So in September we had it right after our Sunday meeting and almost everyone, including students, stayed to watch it. That was all it took! Of course, Nicaragua was featured in the September broadcast, and just 30 minutes down the road too, so that really was exciting for the local friends. I think the August turnout wasn’t that great partly because so many just didn’t understand what this “broadcast” thing was all about! But once they saw September, now they’re always asking when the next one is, and you can just feel the buzz in the hall every month when it’s time! Jehovah really is richly blessing his people in these last days and providing just the encouragement we need. Up until now the song at the end of each broadcast was in English, with Spanish subtitles. But imagine everyone’s surprise and excitement when November’s song was SUNG IN SPANISH!!!!! Very thrilling! Not sure if that was just a one off since they were making an appeal to inactive ones. We’ll have to wait and see what December brings.

I also mentioned our little trip away to Managua to the English congregation where we got to spend the weekend with a couple of Geordies serving there. We had a FANTASTIC time with them! So very encouraging to see the “not-so-young” making such sacrifices to serve so far away from home in such a very different culture. The first thing they said when we walked through the door was, “do you want a cup of tea, kettle’s on”. Ahhhhhhh I felt like I was back home, except for the sweltering heat!

In October we had a lovely Regional Convention. We had a peak of about 2400 which is pretty much the max amount that will fit in the assembly hall. On Saturday we had 30 baptized, including a couple in their late-50’s from our congregation. Charley had the privilege of giving two talks and did a very nice job, although I may be a little biased on that score! Between the two talks he also had 4 participants, 3 of whom are in our congregation, and two of whom I don’t think have been on an assembly program before so that was exciting! Charley interviewed our dear sister Francis who was in the hospital a while ago with the threat of getting her leg amputated. In the end they only took off three toes, but it’s a long, slow recovery. She also suffered the murder of her husband about 18 months ago, and since they didn’t have children, she’s been left alone to support herself. Of course her spiritual family has taken care of her, and her example of faith is of great encouragement to us all in the congregation and circuit.

Also in October the youngest son of the family that we were first came to visit here in 2010 got married. I got talked in to taking his wedding pictures and it was so nice to spend the day with them all. It’s like being with family when we’re with them since we know them from back in Indy. Also, the next day, another of their son’s, and his wife, graduated from the first class of SKE held here at our Educational Center, behind our assembly hall. It used to be the Nicaragua branch, but now has been repurposed. There were 22 graduates, including 4 single sisters. It was my first theocratic school graduation ceremony live, so it was all very exciting!

We’re also enjoying the privilege of working on Thursday’s in the Educational Center kitchen. I’m not sure how much of an asset I am, but Charley has experience from his Bethel days, and I’m learning to make myself useful! I really enjoy it. We worked for a few months in the assembly hall, and now since about 6 weeks ago we’ve been in the kitchen. There is currently a class in session, so we get to see the students briefly for an hour after lunch when some come to do their work assignments in the kitchen.

And it’s funny how sacrifices always lead to unexpected blessings. At first, I wasn’t just super excited about the idea of volunteering one day a week at the assembly hall/educational center. But we decided we should go ahead and apply. Of course, I’ve really enjoyed it, and as a result of it we are living in a lovely new little house!

As I mentioned in my last blog post the house we were living in went up for sale. It took a little longer to sell than expected, but last weekend we made the move. The house we’re in now belongs to the couple who take care of the assembly hall. I don’t think they’ve ever actually lived in it, but they built it to have available whenever they may need it. Now, if we hadn’t started working there, (and if I didn’t talk such a lot), they would never have known of our need, and we’d never have got the chance to live in this house. It hasn’t been a week yet but we’re pretty much settled in and absolutely loving it! We live right next door to the owner’s fleshly sister and her family, who are also witnesses. And in true Nicaraguan style not a day has gone by that they haven’t brought us something to eat or drink! And they have dogs who are really sweet, but pretend to be vicious when people they don’t know come, which makes us feel safe. And it’s at the end of a dirt alley where there aren’t really any other houses, but lots of trees, so it’s sooooooo much cooler than the other houses we’ve lived in here. It’s smaller, but we feel so at home in it.

There have also been a couple of construction projects going on that we’ve been to on numerous occasions. One Kingdom Hall is now finished, and the other will be done before the end of December I think. It’s hard, physical work in the sun, but it’s always a fun time working with brothers and sisters from different areas.

Our congregation also continues to grow. My study, Sonia, became a publisher at the end of September. She is doing really well and already conducts a Bible study with a lady she found door to door. Her little boy, Max, also loves the ministry and always looks so cute with his hat and briefcase! She also gave her first talk on the TMS this week. I was her householder and she did a GREAT job! About a week after she became a publisher, another lady, 70-year-old Miriam, was approved too. Then two weeks ago Pablo became a publisher. He used to have really long, long hair and a beard, but it’s all gone now and he looks really happy to be part of the congregation. He even went to the construction project this week too. And then just this Tuesday night, Isaias was approved to be a publisher! So we’ve had 4 new publishers in just the last 3 months!

Well, I’m sure there are many more stories I could tell, but I think that’s more than enough for now. I don’t think blog posts are supposed to be this long, so if you made it to the end, you’re a true friend! 

"...test me out, please..."

So, since my last post we've been back to the US to work and we have been back in Nicaragua for almost a month already. 

Our trip to the States went very well, although work seemed to take up most of our time on this trip. This is the first work trip we'd done since Sept-Nov 2013 and we worked more hours in less time. I felt like we didn't get enough time with our family and friends, but we at least got to see most of them for a little bit.

When we were planning this trip we were trying to decide how long to work this year. We still have some savings, so we weren't completely broke yet, but looking to earn about a year's worth of expenses if at all possible. At first we talked about 2-3 months, but then we felt we were relying too much on ourselves and decided to put Malachi 3:10 into action. So, six weeks it was.

It truly was amazing to see how Jehovah lived up to that promise. After all was said and done, and we got back and did our calculations, we earned as much in 6 weeks, and perhaps even a little more, than we did in 10 weeks in 2013. Charley had two particularly busy weeks at Pepsi. And my old job had a big project going on (even some at work said they thought a higher power was at work in the timing of this trip!) and they gave me full-time work for the entire time we were there. And with the sale of the tract holders, and the generosity of our dear friends and family, we were able to earn enough (if we stick to last year's budget!) to last another year down here. Plus, me working full-time meant I had very little free time for shopping, so that saved us money too!! And I was able to stock up on new service clothes thanks to a fabulous sale a friend of mine had the day after we arrived (all the sweating down here makes you burn through your tops in a year). And my sister-in-law loaned us her amazingly economic car so we saved a fortune on gas too!

So, once again we saw Jehovah's hand at work in our lives. I'm sure we'll be seeing it again in these upcoming weeks or months. Unfortunately, the house we live in is up for sale now, and in the first week on the market two people came to see it already. The brother who owns it just isn't going to be able to come back and serve here, and they want to help out elsewhere, so the house is an unnecessary asset for them now, which we totally understand. So, we'll see what happens! But we've already had two offers of places to move to, so we're not worried. We know that Jehovah will take care of us. I'm actually rather impressed with how calm I've been about this whole thing! The Rachel of 5 years ago would have been panicking, but I've learned such a lot being down here, and from Charley and his endless patience and calmness, that I'm really not worried about it at all!

If anyone is interested in buying it and renting it to us though, let me know!! Haha!!

Thanks to everyone who bought a bag while we were in Indy. All of the bags were sold and with the funds we bought a projector for our hall and even have some left over for some other Kingdom Hall expenses. We've shown the August broadcast, and hope to be showing the September one this Sunday.

We ended another service year thankful to Jehovah for the privilege of serving him full-time. We spent the last day of the year at the Laguna Beach Club, our local "beach" with some other need-greaters and their visitors. All nine of us there that day are in full-time service, and we calculated 135 years of full-time service between us all, so that was pretty cool!

Charley finished up his 10th consecutive year as a regular pioneer, so now I've had him as a pioneer partner just over half of my pioneering career. We also had a wonderful circuit visit after we got back. Unfortunately, due to changes in the circuit, it was our first and last visit from that particular couple. But we're glad we at least got to know them and hope to keep in touch since they're not too far away. They were super cool, really enjoyed our week with them. And he got our SKE application forwarded on to Mexico, so we'll see if anything comes of that. In the meantime, there's plenty to do here.

We also had another ministerial servant appointed - 2nd one of our young ones appointed this year. So, now we're rather spoiled with SEVEN ministerial servants in the congregation. They are a HUGE help to our body of elders, since the body consists of two!

We'll be off to Managua English congregation in a couple of weeks. Charley is going to give the talk, and we're going to stay the weekend with a Geordie couple (from the NE of England) who are serving there, so really excited about that! It's the closest we'll get to a trip home to England anytime soon!

Well, that's the last 2 1/2 months in a nutshell. It's good to be back into the swing of things, with new goals for this service year, primarily that of dedicating more time to our studies to help them make spiritual progress. Going for quality rather than quantity. 

Hope you're all having a good start to the service year. When I get some pictures uploaded I'll make a separate post of those. For those who follow us on Instagram, you'll have seen all the pictures already.

Goodbye for now!

Sale!!

Just a quick post for those of you in Indy.

I'm having a sale tomorrow on my parent's front porch from 2-6pm. Selling bags and tract folders, both handmade in Masaya, Nicaragua.

Bags are $15 and I have about 30. Tract holders are $4 and I have hundreds of them in about 15 different colors/shades.

Here's a picture to give you an idea. If you're reading this in an email, you can hit reply if you need the address or any other details.

Introducing........Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner

Well, another month has flown by. Just 5 more weeks and we’ll be in Indianapolis seeing all of our family and working. Looking forward to the seeing people part – the working part, well, it has to be done!

Since my last post we’ve been as busy as ever. For a month now we’ve been going to the assembly hall on Thursdays to help with maintenance and cleaning. I have to admit I wasn’t too excited about the prospect, but I’ve really been enjoying it. Twice now we’ve got to paint, which I like, and clean windows which was kinda fun too! This last week was the first week we didn’t get to work together all day, but it was nice getting to know the young sister I was working with who has been going weekly for about 18 months now. And they have a mango tree on site with HUGE mangoes. The assembly hall overseer’s wife picked about 3 dozen on Thursday so we got to bring a dozen delicious mangoes home. I’m loving mango season this year – really got addicted to them!

Working at the assembly hall, cleaning out bat poo, and then painting the frame for the suspended ceiling. Behind the assembly hall is the former branch, which is now an educational center. The first Nicaragua class of SKE is taking place right now, with two more to come this year.

We were also thrilled this month to get JW Broadcast in Spanish. It’s so exciting to know that so many others are getting to enjoy it now. Nobody (except one family) in our congregation have internet, and I think only two families even have a computer, so we had a couple of families over to watch the May broadcast. They thoroughly enjoyed it. And now that’s it available to download in JW Library it becomes portable, which is even better!

We don’t have any way to watch videos easily in the Kingdom Hall, so, on this trip back I’m bringing some handmade Nicaraguan bags to sell, with the idea that the funds will purchase a projector. Yes, this is a shameless plug for selling bags! I’ll also be selling tract folders that a brother makes. Closer to the time I’ll post on the blog and Instagram to let everyone know when and where they can come buy them if they want to.

Watching the May broadcast on www.tv.jw.org

This month also meant a lovely 5-day trip to Jinotega to visit our friends, Aaron and Tasha, who are serving up there. We used to be in the same congregation in Indianapolis and I’ve known them both for years, since before they even knew each other, so visiting them felt almost like a visit back home. We really enjoyed the days spent there. There are four congregations in Jinotega, in the city, but each one has an enormous rural territory too. Aaron and Tasha, along with about 3 others, are working a couple of small rural communities every week and have a ton of studies out there. They had the first Memorial in the area this year and 50 attended, including one lady who walked an hour and a half each way to get there, walking home by herself in the dark. Since then they’ve had Sunday meetings and every week at least a couple of studies from the territory have come. So Charley gave the talk in the group on Sunday at 2pm, then we hopped on the bus to go to the 5pm meeting with the congregation in the city.

The two meetings - above with the group, then below in the Kingdom Hall

I really fell in love with Jinotega. We’ve been before, but this was the first time we’d had chance to go out in service. We did a long day on Tuesday with them, doing their return visits and studies in the small communities of Santa Carmela & Las Latas. It surprised me how many people live out there, but Aaron and Tasha can’t stop to talk to everyone door to door, otherwise they’d never get their studies done. The weather is a lot cooler which we also really enjoyed. And the town has most of the conveniences of a bigger city, but without the hustle and bustle of a big city like Masaya, where we live.

This past weekend was our pioneer session with the pioneers of the circuit and our circuit assembly. There were 289 in attendance at the pioneer meeting. Lots of encouragement to keep up with Jehovah’s celestial chariot. It was an encouraging day. Then we all stayed afterwards to help clean for the circuit assembly. Ours was on Sunday. We had about 1920 in attendance and 6 baptized. None from our congregation this time. It was so nice to see almost everyone from Pioneer School and catch up with them. Seems like everyone is still hanging in and pioneering.

All but one of our regular pioneers. Two of them just started this month.

A couple of points I really liked from the circuit assembly. The CO made a good point, that we shouldn’t confuse our freedom to make decisions, with the right to decide what is right and wrong, a right that only Jehovah has.

The brother who gave the baptism talk used an excellent illustration about a butterfly. He told a story about a man watching a butterfly trying to get out of its cocoon. It was struggling to get out of a tiny hole, so he decided to use some small scissors to cut it open. But the butterfly came out with a big, swollen body and small wings and all it could do was go around in circles. He said the fight they make to get out, is what forces the fluids out of its body, into its wings, making the body smaller and the wings big and strong. But since the cocoon was cut open, the butterfly couldn’t do anything.

In the same way, he said, newly baptized ones will face challenges, but they have to be allowed to work through them, otherwise they’ll be weak spiritually and just go around in circles. He said that we have the help of the elders, but Jehovah hasn’t given them the scissors to cut us out of every tight spot we find ourselves in. They will give us scriptural advice, but we have to fight, and if we do, it will make us stronger spiritually.

The only pictures I took at our assembly. Don't we have the cutest little girls in our congregation?!

Well, that gets us all up to date again! We have friends coming to visit next month, so before we know it we’ll be heading off to Indy, where we will hopefully see a lot of you. 

Oh, and the title of this post. Here is Gordon. If you google his whole name, as spelled out in the title of this blog, you'll understand why we chose that name for him. He's our new pet!

Some photos now

Ok, so our internet is behaving better today so here are a few pictures that I wasn't able to include in my last post.

Here is a collage of our dear little Rosely who got baptized in February and auxiliary pioneered in March. She's 12, although she looks a lot younger, but in many ways she is very mature for her age.

And here are a few other pictures from our circuit assembly that day.

Now some random pictures!

We ran out of dogs in our territory!

Roxana's first official day out in service. She's about halfway to getting auxiliary pioneer hours this month!

With my cousins, Wendy & Stuart. We haven't been in the same country together for 10 years. We still aren't in this picture obviously, but we thought we'd at least get a photograph together. I'm not as tiny as I look!

And this is my cousin Wendy's little girl, Josslyn, in her newest Nicaragua dress that my mam took back for her. Isn't she an absolute doll?!?!

Now for some pictures from the Memorial.

Some shots from all the prep work the day of the Memorial.

We were kept well fed with snacks and then a sister showed up with lunch for everyone, right when we were about to give up and go home to eat! Also notice the brothers carrying a cactus they cut down. They're using their belts!! 

The night of the Memorial just as it was finishing. 473 in attendance for 2 congregations

Some of our studies and faithful ones at the Memorial

Now I leave you with the link for the photobook I made of my mam and dad's month they spent here.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Dust you are...

So, it's been three months since I last posted. I can't believe it's been that long! I blame it all on Instagram, entirely!

So, 2015 is going well. My last post was a review of 2014 so I guess that barely even counts as being a 2015 blog post! 

In January we enjoyed a visit from my mam and dad. They spent a month here, two weeks of which they spent with the English congregation in the nearby city of Granada. They got the full Nicaragua experience this time - power outages, no water, parasites, the list goes on! That's what happens when you stay past the 14 day mark!! But they bore it all well, and overall they still managed to enjoy the experience. If you would like to see pictures, here's a link below to the photo book I recently made for them. Well, there might be a link below if our internet doesn't decide to work properly. If not, I'll blog it another day!

Hmmmm, what else? We had a circuit assembly in February which was very nice indeed. One of our young ones, 12 year old Rosely, got baptized. Then in March she auxiliary pioneered, and I think she was talking about doing it again this month. She's really doing well. It wasn't that long ago that we spent some time in service together learning how to do return visits and start studies. She's moved on since then - she has about 5 bible studies now mostly with little girls, and the one we started together with a young woman around 20. I need to program some time to go on her studies with her, see what I can learn. This is where I was going to post a picture, but our internet is not cooperating this evening. I've made a note for a future blog post to include a picture of her!

In March we had a wonderful visit from World Headquarters Representatives. They were visiting Mexico, which is the branch that oversees the region, and we got to enjoy a recording of the special meeting they had in the assembly hall there. It was wonderful. Also made a note for a future blog post! And it was almost entirely in English and interpreted into Spanish, so that made it that much more amazing!

And of course, our Memorial was a lovely occasion as it was around the world. There's a lot of prep work that goes into an outdoor Memorial here, even if it is out the back of your Kingdom Hall. Again, photos to follow in a future post. There was a lot of sweeping, installing lights, platform backdrop installation, sound system, renting and cleaning chairs, etc. During the process I realized how much I've got used to things here. Two years ago when we had the Memorial in the same spot, I got there in time to help sweep the dirt. I couldn't figure out where to start, or how to know when the dirt was clean. This year, I immediately started raking and sweeping and was like, man, this dirt is dirty, and then an hour later, ok, now the dirt is clean! It suddenly dawned on me - I'm Nica now!!

So, we had two congregations with a total of about 150 publishers and were happy to have 473 in attendance. Our coordinator gave the talk, his first time giving a Memorial talk. He did a very nice job. We had a few studies there, not as many as last year, but still a few, including one of Charley's studies at his very first, and hopefully not last, meeting.

Tomorrow Charley has the privilege of giving the special talk in our congregation so hopefully we'll have a good turnout from that too. I have a couple of studies in particular that I hope may make the effort to come. 

So, now we're in April, the hottest month of the year. It's called dry season, but I think anyone down here would agree that dusty season is a much more appropriate description. When I got done with service today, one of my little friends was picking the dirt out of my hair as I sat and drank a glass of water. And that's in the city. Get out into a rural area and the dust is just EVERYWHERE. Can't wait for May to come, which is the start of "winter", also known as hot with rain. Charley suggested maybe next year we should make our US visit right after Memorial to escape from the heat here and enjoy some US Spring weather. Sounds like a good idea!

And one last thing, I have to talk a bit about my little Roxana. I've been studying with Roxana for about a year now, or maybe a bit less, or more, not really sure! Her aunts and uncles are witnesses, but her parents are not. She lives with her mam who at one time studied, but doesn't now. If you follow me on Instagram you know that Roxana was approved to a publisher and join the Theocratic Ministry School at the end of March. I wasn't entirely sure if she understood the importance of it, but she's proved me wrong!

So far this month she's been out 2 or 3 times a week. And she probably would be out daily if she could find someone to take her! Today she did really well. She placed three tracts complete with introducing herself and me, asking the householder a question, reading a scripture. She was nervous and a bit awkward at first, but she's doing so well. She's 9 by the way if you didn't know that already. 

On Tuesday at the meeting she said she needed to write down an hour on her report for Monday, which I thought was odd, since there is no group on a Monday. I asked who she went out with. Her answer - Rosely, her 12 year old cousin who I mentioned earlier. They went to conduct a bible study together!!!!! I was so impressed!!

I've also been encouraging her to do what she can to support the worldwide work and congregation expenses. She had some money the other day she suggested she'd donate, but it got spent on candy before it ever got near the hall! But the next meeting, without me even mentioning the subject again, she excitedly pulled out some money from her bag and told me she was going to put it in the donation box. It just warms my heart to see her working so hard. Looking forward to her being my householder in May or June - waiting for the next School schedule to come out.

Ok, well I'm done praising Roxana for now!!! We have hall cleaning this week so I've been teaching her to do that too since not many of our kids have the habit of helping out. We're going to clean the windows on Sunday if I don't forgot to take some cloths to the hall since they all seem to have vanished this week!

We have also been hosting a couple of Puerto Rican sisters visiting for a couple of months. They are friends of the owner of the house we live in, so they came to experience needgreater life. They seem to be enjoying it, and we've had fun spending time with them doing some touristy things. I always enjoy seeing Nicaragua through new eyes, because they often see things that you'd forgotten were odd, or different, but it brings back nice memories of what we first thought and felt when we came down here!

Well, I think that's enough rambling for tonight. Hopefully over the next week or two I'll get to my list of other blog post items and be able to include some pictures.

But one last thing - isn't JW Broadcast the most AMAZING thing ever?! I could type for an hour about that, but I won't! So wonderful to feel so close to the organization no matter where you find yourself in the world.

2014 In Review

A fellow blogger reviewed her year and I thought it was a nice idea. Let's see if I can sum it up as briefly as she did - you know I have a hard time being brief! If you click on the pictures you can see them a bit bigger.

We had lots of fun in the first half of the year in our old house, inviting people over to swim:

 

We got to help on a couple of construction projects:

We had our first Memorial as a new congregation, Pancasan Masaya and Charley gave his first ever Memorial talk:

 

We got to spend some time with our friends' parents visiting from the States:

    

We also spent fun times with old friends, and made some new ones along the way:

We had a zone visit from Bro. Losch (it was still called that then!)

















Our friend Cherub visited, and took some awesome pictures as she went!

 I had my first ride on a motorbike, we moved into a new house, and then we got our own motorbike!

We had some fun times with our congregation, old and young alike.

And we were able to go back to the States for the convention season, attending the English International Convention, and then the giant Spanish convention, both held in Lucas Oil Stadium. We had a great time with family and friends, old and new, from near and far:

On returning to Nicaragua I attended Pioneer School for the third time, and Charley had the privilege of coordinating the school.

We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary as a couple, and with dear friends:




















And we had our Regional Convention, Charley and I both having our first parts on a convention program down here:

And somewhere in between all that we did actually go out in service!!!