Cristal

This special little girl is Cristal.  Cristal has Cerebral Palsy.  

If you look closely, Cristal is grasping a small piece of candy in her hand.

This is Crystal's home.

Crystal is moving her arm from the elbow up to reach her mother's hand.

The first time we met Cristal, my heart shattered.  She lives in Malacatoya, about which I posted the other day.   Her family was one of those to which a team from Celebration Church in New Orleans took a food box.  Sean spotted Cristal and could tell almost immediately that she is paralyzed from the neck down.  

The team members always ask some variation of the "if you died today" question.  When they asked Cristal's family if they believed in heaven and hell, her grandmother, the matriarch of the home, answered "Yes.  I believe in hell.  You're in it.  I live in it every day."  They told us that they had no hope.  That was a hard day for us.  One of those days where you can't help but wonder how you're making a difference.  How your "help" does anything to improve the lives of this family, who struggle every day with a sick little girl in the hardest of places to live.  

We went back a couple days later to take Cristal some milk and a few things that one of the team members purchased for her.  That's when I took the pictures above.  You may notice that Cristal has a smile on her face.  Like all the time.  Her mother, too, was even smiling.  She couldn't wait to share Cristal's new trick with us - she was grasping a piece of candy!  Her mother said she had been moving her arms quite a bit since the team had prayed for her earlier that week, and also that she was trying to form words and speak, something she had never done before either.  We were amazed.  We cried.  We thanked God.  But the story gets better.  Way better.

Not surprisingly, I couldn't stop thinking about Cristal.  Over the course of a month or so, God kept bringing her to my mind, and to Sean's.  We agreed that we needed to do something special for her and her family, so we purchased about 6 months worth of rice and beans as well as the special formula she requires.  Last Sunday, we went to visit her and deliver her provisions, along with another message of the love of Christ.  We thought we were the ones blessing them.  We were wrong.

From the minute we got to her home, we could sense a difference.  Even our translator, Lenin, remarked about how hopeful and happy they all seemed - including the grandmother/matriarch who had told us she was living in hell.  The pastor of the nearby church came with us, and reported that the entire extended family had been attending church since our earlier visit.  They spoke of God's love and His blessings in their lives.  They thanked us for the provisions.  We hugged and held Cristal, took pictures and told her we hoped to see her again soon.  And before we left, we gathered around her to pray.

As Melissa was praying - speaking healing and life over her and her body, and declaring that this little girl would be a light and a testimony to cause all around her to see God's works and believe - none of us could believe what we were seeing.  Cristal began kicking her legs waist high!  Her numb, lifeless legs began to fling up, nearly kicking Melissa and me!  Her mother began crying and rejoicing - in fact there wasn't a dry eye in the yard.  

I don't know whether Cristal will ever walk, or what wonderful things God has in store for this little girl, but she has already changed the lives and increased the faith of so many around her, and I am so grateful that I am one of them!  

Elliott's 5th birthday

Elliott celebrated her 5th birthday on February 25th.  This one was a tough one for me.  I don't know why 5 just seems big.  She is big.  But she's awesome.  

A few days before her birthday, we took her to the park to play.  We knew Sean would be going with the Weber's Cokesbury team to the island on the actual day of her birthday, so we got a jump start on the celebrating.  

 I have to confess I was bummed about having her birthday here for some reason.  I don't know why - this is one of four we celebrated down here.  But for a few months she'd been asking me what kind of theme she would have for her birthday party and talking about celebrating with her friends - it just made me sad that we weren't going to be able to do any of that for her.  God knew my heart, though, and made her birthday just an INCREDIBLE day.

On her actual bday, while the boys were at the island, we made a crown fit for a princess out of some construction paper.

And we baked a cake.  Elliott pretty much made the whole thing by herself!

Then we went with the team to Masaya for lunch and to shop in the market.  In the picture below is Elliott's new BFF. Her name is Irene, but Elliott just called her Grandma.  She LOVED her.  She will be seeing her again when we get back to the states.  Grandma was so sweet - she bought Elliott a little dress at the market!  Another member of the team, Jenny Bushkell, bought Elliott an adorable hair barrette. And the whole team sang happy birthday to her and just made a big deal out of her day.  It was so special.

 After the market, we went on a boat tour of the islands in Lake Nicaragua.  One is called monkey island, for obvious reasons!

Then, we capped off the evening with birthday cake!  Complete with princess plates and napkins, and a FaceTime happy birthday serenade.  (In the picture below, she's wearing the dress that "Grandma" bought her and the hair clip from Jenny.) Thank you, God, for such a special day!

Malacatoya

In several previous posts I've mentioned the village of Malacatoya.  One of the first places Sean went when we got here was out to this remote village - the one where you put your truck on the crazy barge and get pulled across the water to get to it.  From the very first time he went, we knew this place was special.  Six pastors met him on that first visit, and each was eager for help.  While there are a lot of missionaries working in Nicaragua, these folks haven't seen any out where they live.  And their needs are overwhelming.  

The Webers decided to take one of their teams, a group from New Orleans, out to work in Malacatoya for the week that they were in Nicaragua, and we tagged along.  The team did door to door ministry, delivered food boxes, and presented several VBS-style lessons in the village schools.  

This is the main church in Malacatoya.  We used it as a sort of
staging area.

The church is home to two parrots.

This was one of the schools where we did VBS.

This is Gabriel.  He was sick and his dad brought him to us for prayer.

This is the school from the outside.

Periodically the government delivers bags of rice and
beans for the schools.

This special little girl is Cristal.  MUCH
more about her later.  She has my heart.

Here we're doing some door-to-door ministry.  This woman and
her precious 16-year-old daughter shared with us about the
alcoholism and abuse of the girl's father.  

This is just a picture of a typical home in Malacatoya.  

We have since spent some more time in Malacatoya, and we have such a burden for this area.  In fact, we were there again yesterday, and by the time I get my blog all caught up (which could be a while - it took over an hour to load the pictures just for this post), I think you'll have a burden for this area, too.  :)

Kellen is 15!

I know I'm a bit behind on blogging, but we've been busy down here, and our wifi is a little frustrating (to put it mildly).  But I'm constantly thinking of all the things I want to share with our family and friends, so I'm going to try to get caught up.

First up, Kellen's birthday!  Kellen is a valentine, as many of you know, and this year my sweet valentine turned 15!!! To celebrate, we took Kellen to Managua, about an hour away, for two simple things most teens take for granted (but LOVE): McDonald's and the mall.

Kellen was really happy to see his friend Ronald.

If you know Kellen at all, you know how thrilled he was
to be drinking sweet tea.  

The only thing Kellen likes more than sweet tea is Nutella.
The Santa Domingo mall in Managua has a crepe shop that
 makes A-MAZ-ING Nutella milkshakes.  Happy, happy
 birthday boy.  

We finished the night off at home with a birthday cake,
complete with candles.

I know every year I make some obligatory remark about how fast the time is going and how much Kellen is changing, but that may never have been more true than this year.  Looking back at pictures from a year ago, I barely recognize the kid.  He's taller than his mom and dad now, but his growth isn't just physical.  What a true treasure he is, and what a blessing it is to be his mom.  

A day in the life...

 We've been here for over 6 weeks now, and I've been getting a lot of questions from the folks at home about what a typical day looks like for us.  

Most of them start in about the same way.  Around 5:30, Abel stirs (if he's even sleeping...) to the sounds of vendors in the street calling out "el pan" (bread) and "la prensa" (the morning paper) over and over again.  It's an art, the way these guys call.  So sing-songy.  Maybe I'll try to capture the audio some morning, although I'm not altogether on top of things at 5:30 in the morning.  

What happens next depends on what's on the day's agenda.  Sometimes we all get ready and go out with the teams, sometimes just Sean or just Sean, Kellen and Wyatt.  With the teams, we typically do door-to-door ministry in the mornings and deliver food boxes.  Depending on where we are (and how far outside Granada), we either come home for a quick lunch or eat a packed lunch in the field.  Then it's usually back to door-to-door ministry and food delivery after lunch, often followed by a church service in the village's church around 4:00ish.  These church services are so important to draw in those who accept Christ during door-to-door ministry, so that they can be discipled.  

When there is no team in town, Sean goes out to meet with area pastors in order to determine where the needs are, what the needs are, and to get a sense for the vision that these men (and some times women) have for their churches, their villages and this region.  

On days when we don't go out, our days probably look pretty similar to yours, except everything seems to take longer here than it does at home.  The big boys and Elliott have school work. There are always chores to be done. Provided the water and electricity are both working, there are clothes and diapers to be washed and hung to dry (no dryer).  There are restaurants in Granada but we don't dine out all that much, so there are three meals a day to prepare and clean up after (without a dishwasher).   We don't have a car so trips to the market usually involve Sean, a backpack, and a bicycle, and have to happen fairly frequently since things don't stay fresh long when your kitchen is outside. 

It's not all work though.  We brought the Wii and some DVDs in a carry-on, so the kids play games and watch movies in English.  When the WiFi is working, we also check Facebook and Instagram just like you, and FaceTime and iMessage with family and friends.  We watch television in Spanish, which does wonders for our fluency.  We listen to the neighbor's parrot, just on the other side of the high concrete wall that separates our house from the next, who says "Esta bien!" about 200 times a day.  We count lizards.  We play with Barbies.  We chase away cats who climb down the rooftop and into the open house.  Mostly we try to stay in the shady parts of the house to avoid the heat - it's between 90 and 92 degrees every day - until it's time to retire to our bedrooms at night.  The bedrooms do have A/C units, but electricity is very, very expensive, so we run them on a timer for 4 hours each night.  One for our room (which Sean and I share with Elliott, Cade and Abel) and one in each of the big boy's rooms.  

And the next morning, with calls for bread and the paper, we do it all over again.  

Weeks Three, Four and Five update

What a busy couple of weeks we've had!  Open Eyes Ministry had a team here from Knoxville and we got to spend a week with them delivering food boxes and sharing the Gospel in a number of very poor villages outside of Granada.  We've been able to lead dozens of people to Christ, and to see people healed!  We work with local pastors before going into each of the villages, so that we can identify those most in need and also so that the new believers can be plugged into a faith family.  After delivering food and ministering, we would invite the villagers to service in the village churches in the afternoons.  How rewarding to see new converts and new friends come to church in the afternoons - and to see the churches packed to standing room only!  Talk about fruit!!

I've included several pictures from our outings.  People often ask me what the littles do while we're in the field.  Well, Elliott tries her best to communicate with the kids we encounter, and she loves them with all her heart.  Cade usually chases the pigs and chickens around.  ;-)  And Abel rides on mommy's hip, of course.  But, I have to say, it's endearing to see the way the families we encounter really warm up to us when they see the little ones.  Many of them say they haven't seen blonde hair before.  Just by virtue of their littleness, their smiles, and their shiny mops, they are helping us win souls!  

I mentioned in our last post that Sean and the boys were visiting a village that was on a tiny island only accessible by boat.  The island has no electricity or running water.  The last several pictures above show the guys on the island.  One of the churches we are working with here is attempting to plant a church on this island.  

In an earlier post, I showed some pictures of the boys visiting a village that is accessed by putting the truck on a barge-type pulley and being pulled across Lake Nicaragua.  That village is called Malacatoya. We will be working a lot in Malacatoya this week with the Webers and a team that just arrived today from New Orleans.  

How can you be praying for us?

• Pray that we will see fruit in our efforts at the village of Malacatoya this week.  
• Pray for the island church plant
• Pray for our Spanish-speaking abilities.  ;-)  We're all actually communicating pretty well, but Elliott is starting to get frustrated by the language barrier.  She loves the little ones she encounters, and wants so much to be able to talk to them.  She spends most of the day speaking the little Spanish she knows over and over and over.  It's pretty cute.