Day 4 (Thursday) Message from Jan
Here am I send me were Isaiah's words after God's cleansed his lips with the hot coal in our devotion this morning. Sometimes we hear God's call but things in our life don't seem to work to get us where we want to go. We need to wait on the Lord for his direction after answering His call.
Today we journeyed to Maranonal--it is more rural--instead of city water, they have wells. In some areas there are no roads, just paths used by people walking and riding bicycles. Vehicles appeared to be non-existent as we walked around delivering the filters today. None of the houses had concrete floors, most of the animals were running loose, not in pens like at La Cartonera. Also the diets of the people are basically beans and rice in this area where in La Cartonera people also had lots of fruits and vegetables, eggs, cheese and meat in their diet.
People in the area glean the peanut fields after the harvesting equipment is finished to get peanuts to sell at the market to purchase their beans and rice. While the nicer area next to the church had fruit trees and some places to raise vegetables, the areas farther from the church had mostly shade trees instead of fruit trees. The people have large piles of wood in their yards used for cooking their food over open fires.
Many of the things we are teaching about in the hygiene lessons are known to this villagers, however, they have not been able to implement the ideas in the rural outreaches due to their poverty. Numerous homes have a pig or two, sometimes a few chickens etc. There were only a couple places where there we about 20 pigs and numerous chickens--those were certainly the more prosperous people in the village.
You're probably wondering how it's been going with the children's ministry. It's been amazing.We had about 45 children in La Cartonera, and they were so full of smiles and energy and hugs that we were overwhelmed. In the morning, many of the women brought their younger ones along to the adult ed. To distract los ninos, we had coloring sheets and crayons, balls to throw, Hokey-Pokey, father Abraham, and follow-the-leader. The afternoon was more structured ("more" is totally relative -- it was structured chaos!) with lessons on germs and parasites, clean hands and clean water, and Bible stories. And of course more games.
In Maranonal, there were only a few children in the morning, but nearly 60 in the afternoon! It was hot and no breeze inside the church, so we moved outside to the extremely dusty yard. We were afraid they'd be too spread out to hear, but they were very attentive and especially got into the games. They are all so charming and loving!
Now we have some things to Praise the Lord for:
Three more skylights installed and the crew receiving hugs and tears of joy from one of the ladies
Little girl with appendicitis is OK-pain and fever went away--ask the Lord to continue to keep her well
Productive meeting that Debby, our team leader, had with the National Church Body here in Nicaragua
Thankfulness of the people for our being here
For the woman whose yard was used for the children's lessons and games today
She also donated the property on which the church was built next to her home
That you can receive these emails even though I have to wait until we wake up in the morning to send them everyday
Pray for all the people who have received water filters that they will continue to use them for their designated purpose
Pray for the continued health and safe travel for the team
Pray for continued breezes--today the humidity was slightly higher also
Pray for the children who have come this week that the joy of Jesus love will continue to grow in the hearts
Pray for yourselves thanking each other for your willingness to be part of our journey here in Nicaragua
God's blessings
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