Friends and Family,
Well, the months of March and April have flown by, and I can’t believe we are looking at May just around the corner. I hope that all of you who are planning on graduating do well on your exams, and I know that you are all excited for summer.
Here in Nicaragua the last months have been extremely hot, which I know many of you wish was the case in your town. Before you get too jealous, though, know that it is in the 100’s here and that if there is no shade to walk in, the trip home is very rough. The month of March brought heat to Nicaragua and with the heat it also brought many short-term teams from the United States. Many students took their spring break and came to Nicaragua. Both Jacque and I met some really awesome friends and the teams did a ton of different things for Nicaragua while they were here. The whole month was almost a blur because of the amount of work it took to host the teams, but every one of them said they had a great time.
I spent most of my time working with a team that stayed outside of Granada in a place called El Guayabo. Traditionally, teams stay at a mission base in Granada where we have specific ministries they can be involved in; however, due to an overlap in teams during March, a team had to be relocated to El Guayabo.
El Guayabo is a rural fishing community about 15 kilometers out of Granada that sits right on the beach of Lake Nicaragua. The challenge with this trip was that we had never sent a team out to El Guayabo, so we had no idea what to do out there or how the trip was going to play out. So, many other staff members and I were charged with the task of preparing the community and the church, as well as hosting the team when they got there. We did the best we could with the resources we had, and when the team landed, we started into ministry.
The trip ended up going fairly well for a first trip to a new place. The team that came down for this trip turned out to be the perfect team for the project. The group of high school seniors with four leaders was very flexible and able to go with the flow, which was essential since everything changed at least five times before the trip was over. The community said bye to the missionaries with tears in their eyes, the missionaries exhibiting the same emotion, and from all other reports the trip went great.
After recovering from that trip, El Puente, the mission base we work for, had me help with the hosting of a few other teams, and then we started into the slower month of April.
April was not as action-packed as March because there were not as many mission teams. Jacque and I spent most of our time serving in our weekly ministries and then a few weeks ago we started working on the video that you see on the site. The video was made for our bosses who went back to the States to speak at their home church. We hope you enjoy the video as it shows a lot of the ministries that both Jacque and I participate in.
The other news from April is a unique picture of the Nicaraguan culture. Last week was Semana Santa (Holy Week), which is the week leading up to Easter. The week is full of different parades and celebrations. One of the most interesting aspects was the Palms that they had everywhere on Palm Sunday.
I know in the States that Palm Sunday flies by with some palms used in worship and then that’s about it. Here in Nicaragua, though, the palms are everywhere. They even tied them around all the poles on Main Street. They started the morning off by bringing a float of Jesus from central park to a Church and then there were people selling stuff the next few days in huts made of palm branches.
Then, later in the week half the town went to the beach to celebrate Semana Santa. Almost every business closed for the nation-wide holiday. Everyone got at least Thursday and Friday off and many got the whole week. Most of the country flocked to the beach and the scene looked very similar to MTV spring break. People are blasting loud music, every square inch of sand is taken up, and there is a ton of drinking. Needless to say, Jacque and I avoided the beach completely.
Well that’s about all that’s new here. We are so thankful to all of you who are supporting us economically, in prayer, and in the encouragement through writing and phone calls. Thank you to everyone. We miss you all and love you guys.
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