A jumble of pictures

My little service partner Jasmin is under there.  You can just see her fingers hanging on to her mom's hand. I have the privilege of studying with her mom who is an unbaptized publisher.

You pay extra for that seat in the back of the taxi!!

We enjoyed a great weekend with some other needgreater couples at the beach back in February. This was the view from the hammock at the house we rented. Super relaxing!

I finally got a good shot of Nicaragua's national bird. Guardabarranco, or in English MotMot I think they call it! Notice it's unusal tail. On the other side those feathers are bright blue. There are a few that frequent the trees around our house.

Charley trying to make our car look like a hatchback "Nica-style"!!!

Thanks to modern technology we were able to watch our nephews get baptized live from the State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis! They are 10 and 13 years old and wonderful boys. They both auxiliary pioneered with their mom that very month! She does a great job!

This was a busy Sunday picking up our dear friends (top left pic) from the airport at 1am. Then going to meeting with them at 9am. Then going to a wedding in the afternoon, then staying at that hall after the ceremony so that Charley could give the public talk at the meeting! Then we said goodbye to our CO and his wife who were reassigned back to El Salvador after only 18 months with us. And then we went to the reception of the wedding from earlier and I captured this great shot of them!!

We're back in the kitchen for CO's school at the educational center. We work Friday's now so we get to help on the lovely lunch they always do for them on the last Friday of class. The dining room gets all decorated nice for the occasion and the CO's and their wives are always taking tons of pictures of it all! We cherish our undeserved privilege of working together in this assignment. It's very rewarding work.

Just a random picture of me at assembly!

With visitors came the excuse to finally sit in the long line to get in to the volcano at night. Such an awe-inspiring sight! You can't help but reflect on Jehovah's power as you look down at the bubbling molten lava!

We have a new member of our congregation, Ashley Diana, and I made my very first diaper cake which I thought turned out pretty well. Nobody had ever seen one here so it was quite the hit!

Charley and I at our circuit assembly in March.

One of the four baptized from our congregation at this past assembly. 3 of the 4 auxiliar pioneered in April!

Isn't Obed the cutest?!

With our new CO and his wife who just arrived in time for the circuit assembly. Enjoyed pizza with them afterwards and getting to know them a bit. Straight away we could tell we're going to really enjoy having them!

Another one of those baptized at our assembly, with his family. His mom was just announced as a regular pioneer too so that was exciting! He auxiliary pioneered in April too and is being used at the meetings on microphones. 

Making sure we could all hear the assembly!

The couple in the middle got married. Brenda (in yellow) used to study with her, and when she moved she handed the study over to me. So nice to see her taking steps to make spiritual progress.

Mildred showing a video in service! She acts like she's shy but once she gets going she wants to do it all and won't let you talk or hold the phone or anything!! Her mom and sister are the ones in the first picture on this post.

We had to do a border run to get our visa renewed. We managed to travel there on a fancy bus with AC. Ironically it was the same price as the horrid old school bus that was so packed we had to stand for the whole two hour trip home! We got a flat tire on the way there but an equally nice bus soon had us on our way. We managed to cross and get back with no problems, although they did tell us we have to figure out how to get residency. Easier said than done!

Preparing the hall for Memorial

Rented chairs inside, and the Kingdom Hall chairs outside. Ready to go!

Helping at an ongoing construction project here in Masaya. Pacayita is getting their very own Kingdom Hall. Very exciting!

We found this, what we finally decided was a baby possum, outside the house. We tried to save it but it only lasted a couple of days. It was cute in an ugly sort of way!

Just an idea of daily life here. This is rush hour. You do whatevr you can do to get home! Notice there are two pairs of legs there!

Chocolate cake in a mug made in the microwave! My first attempt and surprisingly delicious and easy!

Another busy day in the educational center kitchen. Charley is making cinnamon rolls which I must say turned out to be "melt-in-your-mouth" delicious!

Working on a project of putting shelves in the bathroom where at one time there was going to be a door or something! Hopefully by this weekend we'll get it all done. We made some considerable progress yesterday! Pictures will be in another post.

Like I said in the title of this post - a jumble of pictures! Back to Memorial in this picture.

Charley had the privilege of giving the Memorial talk. Thankfully he didn't get sick this year and end up missing out on giving it!  Click here to read about last year's Memorial!

The outdoor crowd watching the talk on the wall!

Masaya is getting a fancy little mall complete with movie theater! Never expected to see that!

Memorial campaign - we had excellent support

And last, but certainly not least, a family in our congregation heading home from field service. Whoever said a motorcycle wasn't an excellent means of transportation for a family of five?!

So, that's it from me for now. We also had a lovely meeting from Mexico during the Headquarters Representative visit to the Central America branch. Wonderful experiences and a couple of videos with some familiar faces in! Very encouraging to hear of all the work going on in the Central America region.

This month is a relatively calm one as is June, at least as far as we know! Then it all starts in July. We have pioneer meeting and circuit assembly towards the end of July. Then Charley has the privilege of being an instructor in one of the two pioneer school classes that will be held here in Masaya in August. We're also looking forward to going to the English Regional Convention just down the road at the assembly hall in August. And then September we have our Spanish Regional Convention and Charley has Elder's School.  So, before we know it we'll be in Indiana briefly in October and then off to NY with my parents for a visit to the new World Headquarters!!!

Hope you're all doing well and enjoyed this albeit jumbled and mostly photographic update!

Out of the mouth of babes

I'm going to take a moment to brag about my amazing nephew and his awesome mom too.

Asa is 10 and these are his Bible students! His mom, Charley's sister, was taking magazines to the husband and decided to let Asa take over since the man's wife never really joined in their conversations. Next thing she knows, Asa is offering them a study which they both accepted!

My sister-in-law told me: "They are very religious and I think they only started studying because it's him. My favorite story to tell is how the wife one time said Jehovah...I mean God, and then awhile later said our God Jehovah."

They absolutely adore Asa (it's hard not to!). So proud of this little guy and the great job Hannah is doing. Her 13-year old also conducts a study with an adult. Beautiful thing to see Jehovah using willing young ones.

Catching up

I have once again terribly neglected the blog. This will basically be a summary of Instagram posts over the last few months with a few extra details in the stories. It will also probably be a bit jumbled as far as the timing goes! I'll probably post another set of photographs later since it seems I have some on the computer and others on my phone. 

We traveled to Indianapolis in November to work for a couple of months. This was in the Fort Lauderdale airport. So nice to see the friends wherever we go! It brightened up what was a looooong layover in the airport!

Quick coffee and muffins before heading out into the cold for field service in Bloomington, Indiana with Charley's family

With the Matthews after the meeting. The boys are growing up so fast!

Hadn't seen frost in a long time! Our first weekend in Indiana was chilly but not too terribly cold. 

Loved seeing the snow fall downtown. The novelty wore off as soon as I had to go outside though! We've decided we definitely won't be going back to Indiana in Winter unless we absolutely have to for some reason! This was our first December in Indiana for five years and we'd forgotten how challenging it can be!

We both got new glasses and by complete coincidence chose matching frames!!

We got to enjoy field service (and breaks!) with old friends from the Spanish and English congregations

A couple of weeks after getting back to Nicaragua we had our first break-in experience. We came home from service at midday to discover our gate lying down and the back door open. The police got some good fingerprints, but as far as we know nothing has resulted from that. We don't expect to get anything back of what was stolen but it was a good reminder of why it's best not to be too attached to material things. The worst of it all really is the peace of mind they steal, that's harder to get back. But that weekend we went to the English circuit assembly and felt very comforted by a talk that specifically mentioned how as foreigners we're often the target of thieves and that we continue to have faith in Jehovah as our shield. That assembly day was like a big hug from Jehovah in the language of our hearts. Very encouraging indeed.

This is Charley's new wedding ring! His ring didn't want to fit the morning we got robbed, and so it was in the house and they stole it. It wasn't an item we would have bothered replacing, at least not any time soon. Well, the next week, a little girl in our congregation gave me a little pink box with a necklace in that she'd made for me, and the ring you see in the picture! For some reason she had this ring, and she decided to give it to us, and it fit Charley perfectly! Amazing to see how Jehovah can use a 7-year old to comfort us when we've had a difficult experience!

On a study last week. It was so heart-warming to hear this sister's student talk about how she's trying to use the name Jehovah more often now. She really appreciated understanding more about his name, it's meaning, and the importance of it. She sells clothes so we sit on the high curb to have her study. This picture also captures two popular modes of transport here in Masaya. Motorbikes and horses! You have to look closely but you'll see the horses and carriage in the background!

Field service scene from circuit visit week. This sister and her husband were also visiting us from the States to "spy out the land". We had a really fun week with the substitute CO and his wife, and this couple that were visiting too. Such fine examples of couples who have made wise decisions and always put Jehovah first in their lives.

Finally got public witnessing worked back into our schedule. We did an afternoon shift in Masaya's Central Park. It was so nice to have this aspect of the ministry back into our weekly routine. 

And some random guy decided to draw Charley!!!!!!

So, those are some random pictures from recent months. We had an enjoyable but hectic trip back to the States. I worked at my old job full-time Monday to Friday and Charley worked mostly Saturday-Tuesday at his old job, so we didn't seem to have much time together, or to spend with others. We didn't get to see as many people this time, but we thoroughly enjoyed the time we did get to spend with family and friends. The cold weather also made it harder to want to go do anything! I just wanted to be wrapped up and warm in the house all the time!!

It's always so good to be back though. Although we've had the awful experience of being robbed, and we've lost time and money getting some repairs done from the damage they did, but we don't let that take away our joy. Being out in the ministry, seeing students making progress, and spending time with the friends more than makes up for it all.

We have a busy time coming up as does everyone worldwide. Some dear friends are coming to visit in March so we're very excited about that. And we also have our circuit assembly. CO school started back up so we're back in the kitchen at the Educational Center, but on Fridays now with a different crew. We just had a sub-CO since our CO is in this month's class. And when their class finishes they're off to a new assignment and we're getting another new CO. We can't seem to keep our CO's for very long around here for some reason!! And of course before we know it we'll be in Memorial season which is always a busy time for Jehovah's people worldwide. 

So, lots going on and lots to look forward to. We're trying to tighten our belts a little this year so that we don't have to go back and work until Summer (not Winter!) 2018. It's been amazing to see how Jehovah always provides though. How those unexpected expenses always seem to be somehow covered! And even sometimes there's a little left for some of those little "wants" in life that Jehovah so lovingly provides as an occasional treat!

Thank you to all of you who made our trip to Indy a success, and who continue to support us in many different ways. Your friendship and kind words and deeds mean so much to us.

I leave you with a couple of my favorite quotes from the English Circuit Assembly:

"You have to faith it, to make it"

"Faith doesn't make it easy, it makes it possible"

"Faith is like taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase"

Prayer after prayer

I just posted this on Instagram as a video of photos with the Kingdom song "Teach Them To Stand Firm" playing in the background, but here it is in photo collage format for those of you who don't follow me on Instagram.

In December 2013 I prayed for studies. Within a week he let me meet Sonia. In 2015 I prayed that Jehovah let me stay in that congregation at least until she was baptized. Less than a month after her baptism in April 2016 we were asked to move to another congregation. Last week we finished the second book. What a joy it's been to see her progress and even auxiliary pioneer. I know Jehovah will continue to answer my prayers to help her remain faithful forever.