¡Viva la Vida!

Last Day of School!

Today is the last day of regular classes. Exams begin on Monday. V-a-c-a-t-i-o-n is juuuust around the corner!

Serving with a smile

 

Allow me to introduce you to Anna Marie from Omaha, Nebraska.  Anna Marie's a veteran short-termer with 4 trips to Nicaragua under her belt.  Right now she's here on a two month stay in order to get a different angle on missions.  This girl is incredibly gifted with children.  She's working with the pre-school classes at our school and has been a tremendous blessing.

Her sister Crystal is here for 3 weeks and is also serving and helping with English classes at the school.  This is her first time to Nicaragua and, by all accounts, she loves it - especially the food.  Crystal likes to take pictures...lots of pictures.  In fact, I call her the sniper because she's really good at getting great shots. 

We've enjoyed having the girls here and pray that their time will be a time of refreshing and receiving from God.  One of our callings here is to host people who are interested in the possibility of pursuing missions or who want a longer missions stint in order to see the field from that persective.  As Jesus said in Matthew 9:37, 38: "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." We're happy to report that God is answering this prayer but we know there are many more out there who are considering the calling of missions.   

Sandinistas resurgent!

The municipal elections were held nationwide in Nicaragua this past Sunday with 52% of the electorate turning out to vote, according to the Organization of American States (OAS) who helped to oversee the election.  Now that the results are in it is clear that Nicaragua has swung to the left:  the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) won 110 of 152 mayoral elections - including our town of Masatepe.  One reason for the Sandinista's triumph is because the main opposition party that controls the presidency split several months ago.  The president split from his party, the Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC), and formed the Alliance for the Republic Party (APRE) - effectively handing power over to the FSLN.  Like the Democratic party in the U.S., these defeated parties must now figure out how to reform and reorganize in order to stay a viable force in the political life of the country.  Meanwhile, last night the Sandinistas were celebrating with a huge parade through Masatepe - waving their trademark red and black flags, chanting their Socialist slogans, and singing their old revolutionary songs...

Pray for the Peace of Fallujah

Morning in Al-Fallujah

Morning will break over the city of towers,
the light of the new day will bathe the brown city
in a warm light - melting the tears and healing
the shell-pocked hearts and streets.
Morning will come, when all eyes will turn to the
Morning-bringer.

Faith hope and love will break anew in Fallujah;
The Morning-bringer remembers and will not forget
the threefold Babylon-sent gifts:
frankincense, gold and myrrh
lavished upon a semitic child by Magi following the
Morning-star.

Yes, even now morning is breaking over the towers,
and eyes of children welcome the sight!
God is a witness of everything and verily
the Lord's assault is terrible:  He is the Forgiving,
the Loving One, He who accomplishes that which He intends.
First as Morning-star and now as Morning-bringer.

Fallujah (al-Fallujah in Arabic) is a city of 350,000 in the Iraqi province of Al Anbar, 43 miles west of Baghdad on the Euphrates river.  Within Iraq, it is known as the "city of towers" or the "city of mosques" for the more than 200 mosques found in the city.

" And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts."  (II Peter 1:19)

From the Surat al-Buruj:  The Towers (Sura 85 from the Koran)
"But God is a witness to everything.  Verily, those who vexed the believing men and the believing women, and then did not repent, for them is the punishment of Gehenna, for them is the punishment of the burning.  But those who have believed and worked works of righteousness, for them are the gardens beneath which rivers flow.  That is a great success.

Verily the Lord's assault is terrible.  He it is who originates and restores.  And He is the Forgiving, the Loving One, Lord of the Throne, the Glorious One, He who accomplishes that which He intends."

Fashion

One of the biggest surprises I found when I got to Nicaragua was how clothing-conscious people are.  They think Americans dress sloppily for the most part.  I would tend to agree.  Here's a funny story from a former missionary to Honduras.

Shortly after dh and I arrived in Honduras, we began trying to get a refund back from the national air line for our un-used tickets and it eventually turned into this nearly year-long marathon of trips downtown, uptown, people out of town, come back manana, wrong person, wrong office, wrong form, wrong week, go out to headquarters at the airport, he's on vacation, .... you know the drill. Well, we decided to try one last thing before writing it off as a lost cause. Because my Spanish was better than my (new-to-the- language) husband's, I got the job. Until this time, we had always gone to these offices dressed in your usual "Missionary business casual, not grungy but definitely North American. This time I dug out my best bright fushia dress suit, my flashiest jewelry, fanciest hair-do, highest heels, bright nail polish,make-up, classy lady's briefcase and set off. (I'm now approaching 6' tall with these heels, and definitely towering over your average Honduran ). Now, as I approached the airport office security guard, he quickly stepped out of his guard hut to open the gate for me and did not ask to see my passport or who I needed to see. Inside the office the secretary looked up and then quickly stood up before asking how she could help me - on the other trips, we had waited loooooong minutes to even have her look up. She immediately ushered me into the airline PRESIDENT's office where he graciously offered me a cushy chair and something to drink! I sweetly explained my dilema in my best "jet-setter business woman" manner, and finished by sadly telling him that my husband and I would be hosting numerous people/teams from abroad who wanted to come help the people of his country... We were so disappointed to not be able to recommend their using his airline because of the customer service difficulties we were experiencing. Suffice it to say, he sent a courier over to our house within two hours with a check for the full refund! My dh's response was, "I guess clothes do make the woman!" Anyway, it was a great reminder to me of how much the culture judged by appearances.

A Little Rant

Greg has been reading several blog comments about the election results, where we have found that many Europeans are upset about America's electing of W. once again. This, of course, comes to no surprise to us! One man's post, however, irked me a little bit. He said that four more years of Bush means four more years of persecution of women's rights, gay people, and more hardships for the poor. I'm sorry, but I really just don't think that living in America is that bad, on a global perspective. American women don't really know persecution... we should look to countries in the Middle East for that. The same with homosexuals. And poverty? Don't even get me started! One will find very little true poverty in the US. A friend of mine in NC runs a co-op for the poor. She struggles with the fact that many people come to her for help to pay their cell phone bill, or help with groceries because they spent all their money on pager bills and cigarettes. Just last year this woman went on a trip to Haiti and nearly had to quit her job when she returned, she was so upset by the "poor" in the US.

Stay tuned for a post about things that I love about America. We have gained a new perspective and renewed love for our country. We are proud to be Americans.

Election Day!

We plan on getting together with our American friends, Anna Marie and Crystal, tonight to watch the election results come in. We are thinking of ordering a pizza and enjoying American cuisine as we wait on pins and needles. It's a good thing we get some tv stations from the US so we can actually watch these results come in.