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Senior \ Spring \ Two part 1
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<<  p2a: Nicaragua part 1  >>

 

Nicaragua Part 1

 

To my teammates (and Carla/Nicolas/Hazel/Josuel/etc once you find this) - please please please email me with corrections, both for names and stories - i didn't take any notes, and doubt my memory is perfect.

 


  Arrival

                

Tip-Top Pollo!

 

  English church at the missionary hostel/school

 

loading up in flaming purple 

 

  Spanish church - largest i'd ever seen

 

arrival at the Frists for lunch 

 

  The Frists

Lisa's parents, and our primary contacts.  Mr. Frist works mostly on economic development around Managua (the capital).  They also tend to offer the occasional material support to local Christians...such as the importation of 12 bushy-tailed Princetonians...

 

first glimpse of our kids 
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We had intended on stopping by Sunday afternoon simply to distribute invitations in the community, in the hopes of having some kids show up for the Vacation Bible School on Monday.  Except we stepped off the bus to find 50+ kids already sitting there waiting for us, complete with a balloon arch and big welcome sign.  So we played Pato-Pato-Pollo (duck duck cooked-chicken...hey...YOU try to translate "goose" on the fly) and various other group games until it was time to head back to the hostel.

  balloons

 

 


  Planning

                  hi mom!  (home away from home)

 

building the ark

 

  and Noah

 

and Noah's...err...basketball? 

 

  inflated

 

craft preparation 

Our craft team was unbelievable - they stayed up many a night long after we'd all crashed busily chopping, sorting and gluing.  Everything had to be just right, because the throngs of teeming children only gave us about 10 seconds between "Hurray crafts!" and "Hey how come he got six beads and I only got five? I want six beads too give me more beads now!"

Kudos, crafts team.

 

  Bendiganos, Señor...

 

 


  Monday

                

  Wilson

Our driver.  Wilson, along with several other drivers, work for the Christian school/missionary hostel where we stayed.  He's been working on his automobile maintenance skills, and might have a slightly more lucrative career as a mechanic in the future.  Go Wilson.  He lived near the town where we worked, apparently with two roughly teenage kids, whom we never got to meet.

                

on the wall 

 

  Marizza
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Marizza/Maritza/Maritsa (??) is one of the local kids who spend the most time with Carla and Nicolas.  She's 15, Christian (apparently because of Carla and Nicolas, although I can't confirm that), somewhere in the midst of high school, and a ball of energy.  Katie got to know her the most, so you'll have to talk her if you want gossip.  Anyway - we had lots of fun working and playing with Marizza, and easily as much teasing her - especially, of course, about certain boys.

 

   highs and lows 

 

  basketball

 

sorry wade 

 

  yellow

 

thirsty 

 

  crafts (last night in action)

 

fútbol 

 

  well-earned ice cream & brownies

 

 


  Tuesday

                

 

making cement stakes 

 

  cement 

 

  Nicolas

Nicolas's testimony, and the first perspective on the family:
  • Did missionary work as a young adult, but never really submitted himself to the will of God - as he would put it, he was a believer, but not a disciple
  • Got caught up with the Sandinistas in the 80's, resulting in something of an "enfermidad espiritual" - perhaps best rendered in English as "growing cold."
  • Married Carla, who has apparently always been spiritually inclined, and something of a strong-willed woman.  Call her a good influence.  
  • Finished his engineering degree in some sort of Ecology field; perhaps Agricultural Engineering?
  • Had the first of what he calls his wake-up calls out on the field one day, when one of the massive tree-cutting saws swung out and caught his leg - normally resulting in total amputation, but he just got a deep cut and a scar; shrugged it off though.
  • Had his second when, about 80 feet from his house one December, a taxi smashed into his motorcycle (which was as big as he was, as he was fond of pointing out) and sent him flying through the air.  The impact with the taxi shattered his leg, throwing his tibia 30 cm out of position (which we can only assume means sticking out, unless he meant 30mm, which i doubt from the rest of the story) and completely shattering his patella; the first (public) hospital wouldn't treat him (they didn't like his insurance), so he got transferred to a military hospital; as it had now been ~5 hours since the accident, things were pretty rough.  They decided just to focus on saving his life, and wait until he was stabilized to work on his leg (which, presumably, would have to be amputated).  Anyway, the succeeded in stabilizing him, and set an appointment for several days later to see if anything could be salvaged from his leg.  While he was waiting for that, though, he kept feeling the strangest encouragement, like a voice, saying 'wait for Christmas, i have a gift.'  The night of Christmas, he dreamed that there were hands holding his leg, one around the shin and one around his thigh, and he could hear the sounds of crunching bones, "like a cat chewing on a mouse," as he put it.  He woke in the middle of it, waving his hands in thin air, trying to catch the arms, much to the surprise of Carla.  He then prayed that God would finish whatever He was doing, and fell asleep - apparently the first deep sleep he'd had since the accident.  When they went to the previously scheduled appointment, the x-rays showed the bones completely shattered - no change; which was no surprise to the atheist Sandinista doctor whom he'd told about the dream.  The next day, though, when they opened up his knee to take a look, they were shocked to find every last shattered piece perfectly in place -- yes, broken into many pieces, but somehow all perfectly aligned for healing, as if the surgery had already been completed, and far beyond what they thought they'd be able to do.  Three months later he was back at work and riding his motorcycle again  (brave man!).
  • His third wake-up call came when he was riding his motorcycle home late one night, and felt a bump on the road; he looked back and saw nothing, but it bothered him, so he checked in a the police station in the next town to see if there had been any strange reports; it continued weighing on him as he rode home, so he kept checking in, and left his contact information; eventually word came back - and, since his name was now on file, he was accused of hitting an old man - and not just any old man, but the father of one of the police chiefs.  He was summarily thrown in prison.  While he was working on getting all properly depressed for a looooong stay in a Nicaraguan prison, he felt strongly called to tell random people that God still loved them and offered them forgiveness - meaning not innocents, but the rapists and murderers in his hallway.  He was flabbergasted, but found that when he actually obeyed, these men invariably either recommitted their lives to Christ, or believed for the first time - to the point that they nicknamed him 'the Pastor,' and he counted easily 17-20 conversions.  After a while, as his wife worked the legal system from the outside (and the Sandinistas lost their hold on the country) the order came for his release - except he was first transferred to another prison, near Granada.  He never really figured out why; except that the stream of conversions continued there as well.
  • So....as he got out of prison he found his priorities had rather reversed - rather than having God as some random belief, he had personally witnessed the tangible miracles which he hadn't previously thought possible in the present day - both in impossible physical healing, and in mass conversions among the people he would have that least likely.  He was now willing to follow God, no matter what that might mean - as he puts it (mentioned above), he had become a disciple instead of a mere believer.  He and Carla decided change was in order, so he quit his job and moved their family from their comfortable urban home to a little shack on a hill in a depressed countryside community.
  • As they worked to expand their new house and rebuild their family life, they began to notice the dozens and dozens of children being neglected in the area...and, so he found his ministry.

 

  more crafts 

 

toro 

 

  at my side

 

on the truck 

 

  boys

 

collapse 

 

  quiet

 

 

 


 

this gallery photographed with the proverbial brick - Kodak DC3200

max print size is 4'x6'

 

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