Pearl Lagoon, Nicaragua - July 28, 2013

Jean and Annette writing letters

We are just two weeks away from Pioneer School and one month until we have our convention in San Salvador. We can't believe how quickly time is going by.

We have had quite a lot of rainy weather in the past couple of weeks which has meant a few changes to our witnessing. We have spent some time writing letters as well as working closer to home rather than going to Haulover or Raitipura. I think our calls and studies out in these areas will think that we have forgotten them! Hopefully, this coming week will be a little better.


We have a few visitors here this week which has been nice because we've had some pretty big service groups. There are two sisters visiting from the US - Neema and Malacha (Malli) as well a the Hunter family that are serving in San Juan del Sur. Pat and Byron are happy to have a couple of brothers around to help with meeting parts - it gives them a little bit of a break. Paul, Marie Claire and their son Kieran are here until Monday and then they will head back to the sun and surf of San Juan but the girls will be with us for a month. The Hunters also have a blog which you can read at nicaneedgreat.blogspot.com.

Thursday morning service group - 11 in attendance!

plus this guy hanging on the fence

On the way home from service we did a little "foraging" for ripe mangoes. There are a couple of huge mango trees out on Bush road that don't belong to anyone and so we filled up our bags with some ripe fruit. Pancho was really happy because our mango tree is finished and we have been giving him bananas again which he suddenly doesn't like too much!

Annette and Malli foraging for mangoes

Annette has left for Bluefields to attend the Miskito language course. After the course she will come back to Pearl Lagoon for a couple of weeks and then after the convention in San Salvador she will be heading home to Mexico for a few months of work. She hopes to return to Pearl Lagoon in early January 2014.

Annette

a large Aloe growing on someones gate

Paul, Marie Claire and Malli 

Pearl Lagoon, Nicaragua - July 15, 2013

The last few weeks seem to have just flown by. We now have bible studies on every day except Monday. Monday is supposed to be our day "off" but it is filled with cleaning the house and having our Family Worship so it seems like ages since we went for a swim! (do you hear a tone of "oh, pity me"?) I sometimes wonder how we ever had the time to work?? Oh, yeah - we weren't pioneering then!

So, we were disappointed in regard to the class to learn Miskito. It was changed from June to start the end of July. If we signed up for it then we would be two weeks in the Miskito language class and then directly into our two week Pioneer school and then the following week in El Salvador. Unfortunately, the Miskito class was abandoned for now. We have found some online resources to learn Miskito and just have to apply ourselves to it - hummm, hopefully we will do better than when we tried to learn Spanish!

Last Friday we took a break from service and helped a sister in our hall build her house. It was an overcast, day with rain showers - so it was pretty good for "hard" labor. We were able to help "stick" a few bricks and then fill the gaps with cement. It's interesting that people make their own cement bricks here - that way they are sure of the quality.

Anthony, Nameisha, Yoli, Jean and Pat taking a break (one of many!)

Debby, Jean, Pat, Yoli and Chase (in the hat)

Pat and Byron "sticking" bricks

Debbie filling the cracks

We were surprised when we first moved here that at times it was hard to find fish for dinner. Now, the fish are abundant. There is a new shack at the Point where the local fishermen bring their catch and if you get to him before he sells it to Mr. Sudland you can get a good deal!

fishing operation down at the Point - Pearl Lagoon, Nicaragua

 Finally, I took this last picture just a couple of days ago - isn't he looking good?

Pat Polden - July 2013

Pearl Lagoon, Nicaragua - July 5, 2013

Jean informal preaching in Raitipura

This has been a great week in the ministry for us. The sun has been shining and we've been getting almost everyone at home.

While Honorio is away Pat has taken on a number of his bible studies. One of them is at the far end of Haulover and we identify it as the house that has the monkeys. Not only do they have monkeys but they also have a number of cats, dogs, birds and kids running around. The fellow that Pat studies with is called Nimrod. During the study on Tuesday his wife indicated that the sister who used to call on her hasn't been by in a few weeks and she really would like to continue her studies. So, after looking into the situation I offered to continue the studies with Maritza. Like many around here her reading isn't very good but she does manage to get the point of the Good News from God brochure. Both husband and wife have indicated a desire to attend the meetings but are concerned about the distance. We have encouraged them to try and make the Sunday meeting since it is in the afternoon and therefore they would be able to return home by the time it gets dark. They have also asked that we study with them twice a week - so we are going to be very busy indeed!

Another highlight for Pat is that he is conducting a study in Spanglish, I mean Spanish. Again, with Honorio away Pat is looking conducting a study with Luis. Luis does know a little English and so Pat has had to scrape up every little bit of Spanish he knows in order to conduct the study. So far things seem to be going well - or at least that's what I've been told.

We recently received our latest shipment of bible literature and in one of the boxes was a Miskito Bible that I had ordered for a study in Awas - Miss Adelia. When we went to call on her on Wednesday morning we found her at the home of her mother, Miss Hazel (who also is studying). They were all thrilled with the bible and a couple of them took turns looking through it. There were 7 family members in attendance during this study. I've noticed that over the last few weeks more and more of the family come and sit in the vacinity of the porch during the study - they don't say anything but they all seem to be listening.

Miss Adelia and Miss Hazel with the Miskito Bible

Preparing for the Convention in San Salvador

Delicious carrot cake

Preparing to attend the annual convention requires a lot of planning and extra work for the brothers and sisters in Nicaragua - Pearl Lagoon is no exception. Their options for obtaining extra money here is very limited but they are very resourceful and put their many talents to work. One of the talents that many of them possess is their skills in the kitchen. 

Yadira (Yaya) and Jean Blake spend many hours in the kitchen preparing food for sale even when there isn't a convention coming - this is one way they bring income into the home. Yaya is well known in town for her delicious cakes and has many requests for different flavors such as banana, chocolate, carrot or even a simple white cake (trust me - they are all good!)

This past week they have started to add extra "cooking/selling" days into their busy schedules (they are both regular pioneers). For example, yesterday they made a delicious dinner of Chinese Rice, salad and plantain. They were up very early in the morning to start their preparations and by 12:00 noon they were busy distributing the "pre-ordered" meals. They sold a whopping 40 dinners and figure that after expenses they cleared over 1,000 cordobas which is about $44.00 CDN.  These industrious sisters will continue to have extra "cooking/selling" days until they leave for the convention.  We are happy to assist them by eating what they make. We will likely add quite a few pounds between then and now!

Chinese rice, salad and fried plantain