¡Viva la Vida!

Family Vacation

Well we're off to the Hound Ears Country Club in the mountains of North Carolina to spend two nights and three days in a kind of family reunion with Greg's parents, brothers, brother's wives, and our three lovely nieces.  This will be the first time Greg & his brothers have been together with their families since Mark's wedding in March, 2003 so it's a momentous occasion in the Millsaps family!

Amid all the catching up we're also hoping to hit the local slopes and do some skiing.  Of course the boys all want to snowboard as that's the cool teenage thing to do.  The photo on the right has only inspired Zack & Max to try feats such as this!  Hopefully no visits to the local emergency room will be needed!

Planning for the New Year

One of our good friends really loves New Year's Day. She tells me that she loves to think about her goals for the coming year and evaluate the previous year.  I have never really done this. Greg has been talking a lot about having some planning time to pray and think about what we want to accomplish for the upcoming year, 2006. 

I know that we will be talking to a lot of churches in the coming month before we return to Nicaragua, and I want to be able to tell them what we hope to accomplish this year in our work in Masatepe.  Here are some of the things:

* Help get "God's Place for Little Children" running... this is an orphanage that our church will be running.

* Continue our work on the school library and work on creating bibliophiles amongst our students.

* Start a hostel / guesthouse for all our teams and guests to stay in. I would like to have a coffee shop and bakery in the front, and have an area set up for community English classes.

* Continue with our work at New Generation School and Centro de Fe. This includes teaching English, hosting a home group, helping in women's ministry and worship team, facilitating the International School of Ministry for other churches, and serving where needed.

* Hosting short-term missions groups.

There's my rough draft. You can be praying for us as we plan, strategize, talk, and organize our year. If you feel like you want to be a part of any of it, email us! We welcome comments and prayers!

Merry Christmas 2005 from the Millsaps Family!

Nicaragua: Peaceful Times For Tourists

I was reading the international news this morning and came across a nice article from the Associated Press about the increasing tourism industry in Nicaragua.  "Nicaragua:  Peaceful times for tourists in country remembered for strife" by AP reporter Greg Risling is an interesting read that dispels the persistent myth in the U.S. of Nicaragua being a dangerous destination.

The Fashion Show

There's really not much to do around here.  We're at least 30 miles from the nearest Starbucks and Barnes & Noble bookstore.  So yesterday we're sitting around (seven kids and five grown ups) looking for something to do when the birthday girl herself suggests we hit the local thrift shops and have a grand fashion show after dinner.  So we loaded everyone up and went to the Operation Hope thrift shop in Landrum, SC where we burst through the doors 15 mins before the 4 pm closing time to the shock and amusement of the store's staff.  So there we were - tearing through racks of clothes looking for articles of clothing tacky and outlandish enough for our fashion show.
This thrift shop was perfect!  All the decades were covered - from the fifties to the nineties.  The seventies and eighties were especially popular for our participants, however.
It would be a terrible understatement to say that the kids weren't into this fashion show!  They were so excited they could hardly contain themselves.  So when Jan said she wanted to go out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner the kids begged us to let them wear their zany outfits.  How could we say no???

You should've seen the faces of the people in the restaurant when we showed up!  Was it a night to remember? 
Said Jan to Greg:  "You bet your ascot it was!"

Happy Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY WONDERFUL WIFE!!!

"Who can find a virtuous woman?  For her price is far above rubies."
                                                  - Proverbs 31:10

"She will do her husband good and not evil all the days of her life."  - Proverbs 31:12

"Strength and honor are her clothing and she shall rejoice at the time to come...
Her children arise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her."  - Proverbs 31:25,28

This is a tree on Beech Mountain, NC sent from a friend.  We'll be up that way for a ski trip the week after Christmas.  I just love this pic! 

We attended Jan's parents' church this morning, Mountain Hill Baptist - one of our supporting church families.  Following the choir's beautiful Christmas presentation, we ate one of the best covered dish lunches I've had in a loooong time.  Who can resist delicious Southern cooking???

Then tonight we did our misisons presentation at Temple Baptist Church in Simpsonville, SC and were pleased to learn that this church, who sent a team down to Nicaragua in 2004, is planning another trip for this summer!  All in all, we had a great day reconnecting with lots of friends.

So what have we been doing???

We have been in the US for a week now, and it has been a busy time. Most of our time has been spent visiting with friends and family or shopping. I thought I might not be able to handle the shopping trips, but we have been going during the day on weekdays, so it hasn't been too bad. Today we drove past the mall and there was a huge line of cars just to get off the interstate! Glad I wasn't hitting the malls today.

Jackson was amazed today when we went to get gas. He said, "You mean in America you have to get your OWN gas?"  Just a funny little observation from a seven-year-old boy.

We have changed locations as of today and moved over to Columbus, NC and Jan's parents' house. The power is out in most of the area, so Jan's sister and her family are also here... enjoying heat and electricity.  Tomorrow evening we speak at Temple Baptist Church in Simpsonville, SC for those who are near and would like to come by.

National Champs!

Our alma mater, Appalachian State University, won the 1-AA national football championship last night. It was exciting to watch the game on ESPN2 and cheer along with the sold-out crowd to see our school win its first ever national trophy! Go Apps!

<==Jackson & cousin William.

Greg & Uncle Brett.==>