PRICELESS VS PRICEY MINISTRY

"I wonder if Hellen would prefer to just have the money rather than have the groups spend the money it takes to come here?"  That's what one of the parent leaders of a group from a high school said to me last night while we were eating ice cream in Moyogalpa.  It cost their group $26,000 to bring 30 kids and chaperons to Nicaragua for a missions trip.  It was a valid question seeing how much work it takes to host a group visiting the orphanage from the United States.  We have had three or four groups here at the same time for the last week.  That means the cooks have been working from before sunrise to well after sundown to make meals for over 90 people a day.  And everyone needs to or wants to talk to Hellen throughout the day.  Keeping over 60 guests working, fed, housed involves countless activities to coordinate, endless water bottles to replace, work details to arrange, bathrooms to keep clean and supplied, and parties to plan.  Needless to say Hellen has had very little rest.  In spite of all this I told him 'no'.  Their presence here provides blessings which cannot be measured in terms of monetary value.  It will never be extinguished, will never suffer inflation, will not reduce in value over time.  The Bible tells us to care for orphans, widows, the poor.  It doesn't say to send money to reduce the overhead costs of ministry.  There are no overhead costs.  All aspects of doing ministry are spiritually valued.  In God's economy our fellowship with Him and each other is what counts.   The desire in their hearts to come to serve orphans is what matters most to God.  He provides the means to get that to happen.  $26,000 can be used to buy a lot of necessary things but it can't minister to these children or to us the way a single person.  God values brotherly love; money means nothing to Him.  He can get all He wants.

Pictures of My Time on Ometepe Island

                                           

 

Unique beauty of the island

  Growing carrots and beets under 

shade to keep the soil as cool as possible

 
pelibuey sheep donated by the American Nicaraguan Foundation


     Beach at Finca Santo Domingo Hotel

  
      Hermanos Keila and Cristian at Playa Taguizapa

  
Saira, Scarleth, Isamar, Luisa, Cristian, Danilo and Hilden
playing gin Nicaraguan style


Hellen leading Wednesday Night's Family Night
                                                                               
 Danilo doiong a fine job of transplanting onions.

                                                      









Félix mulching the beds.


 Darel mulches too, we all mulch, do you?

                         CICRIN'S new wellbeing dug, thanks to the American Nicaraguan Foundation

                        the kids take a picture with the pump about to be placed at the bottom of the well

  
Don Hilario catches an alligator/caiman? in our net.


Big Boss Jefferson helps with the planting.

See I mulch too!

Charco Verde

Darel wanted a picture with me.CICRIN gets ready to start the volcanic eruption evacuation drill, Islanders making their way to the ferry.you can tell we ran for our lives.from left to right, Maren holding Duñia, Lia, Rebecca, me, Beth and Aleida.  a hard-working group from a Lutheran church in DC.  Some groups you wish could stay longer.  Thanks Lia for the Starbuck's Via.

Time is a Strange Thing---El Tiempo Es algo Extraño

Ever since I quit my job to come down to Nicaragua I have felt like I'm living on borrowed time.  I wish it weren't true but my biggest worry is whether or not I will receive the support I need to be able to sustain this work over a period of time.  I look at money in terms of how much time it buys me to be able to be here at the orphanage.  I know from past experience that God has always provided for me in ways unexpected above and beyond my plans and expectations.  So I know that I can trust in Him to continue to do so.  But in my mind, thinking in the natural, I look at how much I have in my missions account and I calculate how long it will last and pray that my supporters will honor their pledges.  So these three short months sometimes felt like an eternity while I was in Nicaragua.  I didn't realize how much I would miss family, friends, home.  And of course I spent much less towards the end than I did in the beginning.  Of course mostly because I bought most of what I needed in the beginning and now I don't need to spend as much--until it's time to plant more trees and expand our growing area.  But now that I'm back in So Cal for a two-week visit I feel like I never left.  Time is a strange thing.  It seems like I have gone through a time machine and time stood still here while I was away from home.  In a way it has.  I have no memories of this place as of November 15, 2009--the day I left.  The lesson I learn from this is to make the best use of the time wherever we are.
Ephesian 5: 15, 16 say 'Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time because the days are evil'.
I am glad I am able to say thank God that He has given me a work to do that is keeping me busy.  I have been focused on planting a bunch of vegetables and that has been done.  I have also gotten to get to know most of the kids on a personal, one-on-one level, beyond what I would have expected at this point.  And I know He has given me influence with them that they will listen to what I have to say about things such as how to treat one another.  It has not been easy, like Paul said, '...the days are evil.'  They sure are.  Discouragement, boredom, loneliness, discourtesy, misunderstanding can ruin a day if you allow them.  But God has an answer to all of them: persistence, perseverance, patience, prayer, la Palabra.  I know God thinks bigger than me so I know that He has more for me to do there than teach kids to grow vegetables.  I don't know what it is yet but I sense it will come about in that amazing way that He always does things.  Thanks for taking the time to hear what I have to say and please keep these things in prayer and I will be praying for you that you will make the most of your time.

I always dreamed of doing this as a boy.
Jimmy's the real expert though.

GREETINGS FROM MANAGUA AIRPORT

Wow, I forgot what a fast Internet connection was like.  Free wifi Internet access at Augusto Sandino International Airport, Managua.  Very nice airport for a poor country.  I'm taking advantage of this fast connection to put up this post.  Again.  It's been a long, long time.  It's so frustrating to use the Internet at the orphanage that I don't even try to post a blog after I keep getting cut off.  Well to let you all know, I'm on my way home for a short two-week visit.  I've been counting down the days until now.  Not only to come home, but also to get everything in the ground.  We've (me and all the kids) have really been hustling.  We've planted zucchini, ayote squash, pipian squash, beets, carrots, cabbage, three kinds of tomatoes, two types of cucumbers, three types of onions, two types of radishes, two types of beans, okra--new to them, garlic everywhere, and flowers everywhere.  I wanted it all under way before my departure.  I want this time at home to drag by slowly but I am excited to see what the garden will look like when I get back.
Now I'm looking forward to feeling some cold air and cold rain.  Right now Nicaragua looks like California in the middle of a hot summer: dry and dusty.  Three more months until the rains come again.  But one good thing is the wind.  Cool winds blow in from the North and make things much more bearable.  Still, we're about 11 degrees from the equator and the sun is mercilessly strong from 11 to 4.  I will water in the morning and by 4 it looks like it's never been watered.  But we have started to use water from our new well, thanks to the American Nicaraguan Foundation, and we're flooding the trenches and now they stay moist for a couple of days.  I'm learning how to adapt to the conditions here.  Narrow and deep trenches, which shade the bottom of the trench, are the key.  Last Wednesday I got to lead our weekly 'Family Night' since the director is in Costa Rica.  It was quite different from what I'm used to at home, but we made it through.  I hope they got something out of the devotional and the game we played about acknowledging each others good qualities. 

Well, I better get to my gate.  Now that I will be at home with a fast connection I will be posting a lot of pictures of what I/we have been doing.  Please check back soon!

THE GOOD WITH THE BAD

The last thing we want to share with anyone is our defeats, but I would be painting a false picture if I only sent home 'feel good' stories about my time here.  So I have to tell you guys that my first planting of red beans has ended in failure.  Soon after they sprouted they were swarmed by white fly--one of the worst crop pests in the world.  I didn't want to spray insecticide hoping they would move on but they didn't, until they left it in ruins.  I finally had relented and had them fumigated but it was too little too late.  I had primarily planted them so I could turn the plants into the ground to improve the soil.  Still I was hoping to be able to harvest some beans before I did that.  Now I will have to incorporate them into the soil while I still have something to work with.  Right next to them I planted a few yardlong beans and those vines are as healthy as can be.  For some reason the white flies didn't like them.  I will plant more of those in the future.  But will the kids like them?  This is the essence of agriculture, experimenting to find out what works on your farm.  However, I didn't come down here to run experiments.  I know there are tried and true vegetables that will succeed and we have all those planted now: local squash varieties-ayote, pipian; local sweet pepper-chiltoma; corn; yuca.  I also saw the entire crop of tomatoes planted by staff before I arrived get destroyed by the white fly while they had little effect on the chiltoma, which are still producing.   So I still expect to succeed. We now have planted in 19 beds onions, beets, cabbage, radish, carrots, cilantro, yuca, cucumber, garlic, lettuce, ayote, pipian, zucchini and flowers.  I also have tomato seedlings ready to be transplanted. I'm leery about the beets and lettuce though with this hot sun but we're giving them a try.  If they don't do well we will just try again in the cooler rainy season.  I've also thought of growing large quantities of crops that I'm told don't get bothered much by insects, such as yuca and taro root.  We could then sell most of it and buy the cooler growing crops that don't do as well here.
That was the bad news.  The good news is I found an organic pesticide made up of the seeds of the neem tree.  Insects ingest the liquid and their hormones get skewered.  They lose their appetite for food, as well their ability to reproduce.  I pray this will do the trick.
This early loss has shown me that this will not be a walk in the park.  I will be on the lookout for potential dangers and act before it is too late.

The first beds are starting to take shape.