Volcano Lake near Granada, Nicaragua

Monday, we drove out to the shores of Lake Nicaragua near the colonial town of Granada. We contracted with a fisherman to boat us out to an nearby island restaurant for lunch. It was in faith that he would return at 1:15pm after dropping us off on this 1 1/2 acre island restaurant.

All along the shore line are these tropical islands that are only big enough for a large tree, a hut, boat dock and out house. There are over 365 tiny islands along this shore line that have nice homes in the range of nice to modest all the way to a "lean to". One small island had a 6 room school house. Imagine taking a boat to school instead of a yellow school bus?

Next we drove back toward Managua, stopping off a crater lake (Laguno de Apoya). Crystal Clear Blue deep water. We stopped at a resort and took a tour of the facilities. Very nice.

MARY

Mary, a volunteer medical missionary with Christ for the City here in Managua, Nicaragua joined us for lunch on Sunday. She is a friend of Ellen. Pictured here is Ellen with Mary.

Member Care ministry with the Reids

Ok, on Saturday, while at the beach, I was visiting with Mary. She is a missionary with Christ for the City organization here in Managua. She heads up medical teams from the USA that come here to do medical work. As I was visiting her, she asked, "well, what do you and Glenn do?" I then mentioned we do Member Care. I then said "ok, here is an example. Back in November, Glenn drove down to Houston to meet up with CAM missionary Paul Reid from Nicaragua, who had medical appointments to discuss his parkinsen's disease. I think Glenn made arrangments for him to see the doctor and also had contacts for him to get a car to make it to each of those appointments. Anyhow, now that we are in Nicaragua, we're here to just see how the Reids are doing." I continued to mentioned that is just a small example of what we do - member care or pastoral care.

Mary exclaimed, "Hey, I'm a physical therapist and have done some study work in the area of Parkinsens and its effects on the individual and on the family". At that time, Glenn walked up and joined the conversation. Wow, we were so touched to see how, just making a conversation and talking about this one example, that the Lord lead us to Mary. Mary said she would be willing to work with Paul and offer any medical suggestions and information that would be helpful.

So, Glenn's brain starts to kick in. He is thinking, how am I going to get these 2 families together. On Sunday morning, we called both Mary and the Reids to see if they could join us for lunch. So, yesterday over some delicious Nicaragua food, we visited with both the Reids and Mary. Paul Reid retold his story of how the Parkinsen disease was detected and his pathway since that time. He told of his struggles and his difficulties he face daily. Paul described how at times it is challenging to walk and the way his feet moved. Mary suggested that he literally stop and start over in his "walk". Mary and Paul talked at length in his struggles.

I pray that this contact with Mary will be helpful to Paul in the days and weeks ahead. I think that this friendship will be very valuable in helping Paul through his Parkinsen's disease.

Wow, isn't it neat to see how people come across our lives?

DAY at the BEACH

Saturday, we picked Gary up from the Managua airport at high noon. He had no problems coming through customs. We were outside the security window waving at him as he picked up the 2 pieces of checked luggage. The checked luggage was mostly "goodies" that Grandmommy picked up for Ellen. Stuff like Golden Grahams, marshmellows, chocolate chips and candy so Ellen can make "Indoor S'mores".

As we drove back to Ellen's apartment, Gary kepted us entertained with his traveling adventure stories of getting on the airplane in Dallas and his fast connection in Miami. He was pretty tired since he didn't get too much sleep on Friday night.

After reheating our pizza, we were all loaded up in the van to head to the Pacific Ocean. Just 45 minutes away. Glenn offered to drive and I was the co-pilot. The rest of the van was full of teachers from NCA.

We arrived at a private beach and marched towards some grass huts so can could throw our towels and stuff down. The sand was thick DARK black sand. Quite different than the Cancun beaches. Gary played frisbe football with the teachers. Glenn and I strolled along the beach. We picked up shells and noticed lots of living sand dollars. Or would it be sand cordovas (Nicaraguan currency)?

Visit to active Volcano

Friday, Glenn and I boarded the multicolored school bus with the 11th and 12th graders from NCA for their field trip. A day on an active volcano, called Messiah. There are 3 volcanoes in this general area. The volcanos are located 45 minute drive from the capitol city of Managua. As we entered the National park, we drove another 20 minutes to the parking lot on the side of the active volcanoe. We saw old lava flows from previous eruptions all along the mountain side.

When we got off the bus, we walked to the side of the volcano and could see some steam rise up. Fortunately, the wind was blowing the right direction and we didn't smell the sulfur fumes too badly. Then we walked another 3/4 km to a cave. Armed with yellow hard hats and all, we treked down to the cave that is created by a volcanic eruption and flow in the late 1800s. It was quite dark and our footing was a challenge. Our guide had a dimly lite flashlight which made it even more challenging. I kept wispering in my heart, "thy word is a Lamp unto my Feet and and Light unto my path".

At one point, we all turned off the flashnights. It was pitched BLACK. Then silence. We listened to the noise of the volcano. This was very erie. I enjoyed the cave adventure, but it was a challenge for a 49 year old women. Steep walk to the cave entrance and then a challenging climb through the rocks and into the cave.

This is something I can definately cross off on my 1,000 "Things to do before I die" List.

Visit with Ellen at NCA

On Thursday, we were able to visit Ellen at her school. We arrived there just in time to eat lunch with her and some fellow teachers. I enjoyed meeting each teacher and hearing about their back ground and how they learned about NCA. Ellen had to teach one class in the afternoon, so Glenn and I got to the computer lab to check email and stuff like that.

Later in the afternoon, we drove 1/2 km up to Ellen's apartment that she shares with 2 other teachers. The electricity was not working, so it was quite HOT. We did try to rest in and amongst all the times we were talking and checking up on stuff with Ellen.

Thursday night, we had dinner with Paul and Lucia Reid. They're CAM missionaries here. It was fun to hear their journey. Paul graduated from PBU, and then DTS. He knows some mutual friends like the Bakers, Pauls, Royer and others. He also attended Spanish Reinhardt back in the 80's. They had invited some froms (Steve and L.) to have dinner with us also. Steve married a gal from Santa Cruz. So, it was fun to recount some old places, food, and friends there. L. made sopa de mani (Peanut soup) DELICIOUS. And then Lucia made typical Nicaraguan food. I especially loved sitting on the front porch in their rocking chair and chatting.

The Reids have 3 beautiful girls (2 in HS and 1 in Elementary). They plan on furlough this upcoming summer. We talked about Paul's health and how sometimes he has good days and sometimes he is just worn out. Back in November, Glenn drove down to Houston to help Paul with some medical doctors concerning his parkinson's disease.

Passport arrives in the Nick of time

We had our bags all packed and in the car. FEDEX delivered Glenn's renewed passport at 9:35am, and we left immediately for DFW. We made the 11:15am flight to Miami, with connection on into Managua, Nicaragua.

Ellen met us at the airport and drove us directly to the Parker's house. We'll be staying with the Parkers while we visit CAM missionaries here. The Parkers work with Awana here in Nicaragua and have really gotten the ministry off the ground. As we talked last night, we realized that we had very simular backgrounds and knew many of the same people. Linda attended BMA camp in Ringgold, La for many years. She attended Southeastern Bible College, so we started out throwing some names around. Since Bill and Linda lived in Honduras before coming to Nicaragua, they knew soem CAM missionaries too, like Harold and Carol Krause, the Livingstons and other (these folks I knew when I was on PMT) back in 1977. They attended language school with Paul Johnson, Rod Fry, Yinglings and others from CAMex field. So, it was good to see the connection.

Linda told me that while they were in Language school, they she ran into Sharon Woychuck, whose father started BMA. Sharon and her husband are in Spain and she thinks with TEAM. Small world, big family connection. Linda even knows Bruce Kneige (who is a missionary in Bolivia).

Today, we visited Ellen at school. We're in the computer lab while she has one more class. Then later tonight we'll be having dinner with the Reids. I'll try to write more.

Well, if Glenn gets his passport today in the mail, we'll be flying out this afternoon (2/22) or tomorrow (2/23) to visit Ellen. Our emotions have been changing hourly, as we sense that the passport will be arriving only to call the Passport office to hear that the printing of the new passport missed the FedEx deadline by 30 minutes. So, now it looks like we'll be leaving on Thursday. We'll let you know when we get there. We're looking forward to see Ellen again. The only thing stable in all this "up in the air" stuff, is that Gary will definately be flyingn on Saturday, Feb 25 and returning the following Saturday.

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