Un Dia en la Vida

Hi there!

People have been asking me what a typical day for us is like. So yesterday, we documented a normal day in the ministry in Ojo de Agua, from morning til night. It was definitely a productive day, so fasten your seatbelts. It's gonna be a long and crazy ride.

6:15 AM - Good morning! Simon makes the coffee (the day WILL NOT succeed without it), and I cook the eggs.

6:30 AM - We consider the day's text, and then watch an episode of whatever TV show we're currently watching on Simon's laptop hard drive.

7:15 AM - Shower and get ready for service.

7:45 AM - On our way to pick up the motorcycle from a local garage, we usually place a tract with somebody on the streets, and the people are receptive as usual. They love having things to read.

8:00 AM - Simon gets his motorcycle (on days that we are unable to take the motorcycle, we ride our bicycles out to the territory), and being the manly man that I am, I ride passenger...

8:15 AM - We arrive for the field service group. I lead the group on Wednesdays at Esperanzita's house. For a while, it looked like nobody else was gonna show up, but three sisters - Esperanzita, Paula, and Esperanza - soon arrived!

8:30 AM - We start working territory on the main road in Ojo. And we receive a very pleasant surprise - a brother in our hall named Jorge shows up! He has been sick and inactive for the past few months. However, he has been coming back to meetings the past few weeks. We usually stop in to chat with him on Wednesdays, but today, he surprises us by coming out in service with his wife! It was really encouraging.

9:30 AM - The morning is going well. I've placed three Listen to God brochures, and started another study! Simon is working with Jorge, having some nice discussions as well.

10:00 AM - Water break. We always make sure we have bottles of water with us. I wouldn't survive the brutal heat without it! Then it's back to preaching.

10:30 AM - Time to start heading back to Esperanzita's house. On the way back, I stop by José and Fatima's house. They're a couple that I study with, and I'm just confirming that we'll be studying this afternoon. The study is still on!

11:30 AM - Now we head back to Chinandega for lunch. Some days, we'll bring a lunch with us out to Ojo, but today, we'll have lunch in Chinandega.

11:45 AM - Once we get back to Chinandega, we place more tracts with people on the street. We then go back to our house and drop dead of exhaustion.

12:00 PM - Lunchtime. I usually head to one of the local coffee shops in town, Casa del Café. They've got decent coffee, air conditioning, and free WiFi - pure bliss.

1:00 PM - We prepare for the Bible studies we're gonna have in the afternoon. Conducting a Bible study in Spanish isn't easy, but it certainly is exciting!

1:30 PM - Time to head back out to Ojo. There currently isn't an official afternoon group on Wednesdays, so we usually say a prayer for ourselves and head to straight to our studies.

2:00 PM - We arrive in Ojo only to find that two of Simon's studies aren't able to have their study today. My study with José and Fatima isn't until 4:00, so in the meantime, we decide to go see another one of Simon's studies, Ariel. He lives pretty far away from the Kingdom Hall, so we usually take the motorcycle out there. However, he lives right next to a recently-harvested sugarcane field. Because of the recent harvest, the road is WAY too dusty to drive the bike through. So what do we do? We park the bike at the hall and walk! I'm not too good at guessing distances, but I'm pretty sure that this is at least a five-mile walk. Make sure you have water - this is a HOT time of the day.

2:45 PM - We finally make it to Ariel's house, only to find that he can't have his study today (???!!!). However, his brother, Anjel (Ahn-hel) is home. He loves to talk (a lot), and can't read, so we have to be very patient with him. Surprisingly, we have a really good discussion with him. Simon places the Listen to God brochure with him and starts a study! The long walk in the heat was worth it!

3:30 PM - Time to head back to the hall and onto the next study. The amount of dust and dirt on the road is unbelievable! At least the views out by the sugarcane field aren't bad to look at.

4:00 PM - After retrieving the motorcycle and taking another water break, it's time for José and Fatima's study. We're studying the second half of chapter two of the Bible Teach book, talking about the prophecy of Babylon's destruction. I'm a little nervous about how this is gonna go, because it can be a bit complicated, but it's going really well! They're understanding things very well, and they wanna come to the meeting this Sunday!

5:00 PM - We finish the study and head back to Chinandega. This is the outside of our apartment. We live on the second floor. (I have no idea whose car that is.)

5:15 PM - I am in DESPERATE need of a shower!

Before...                                                 ...After!

5:30 PM - Simon's turn to cook dinner. While he's prepping things, I'm preparing for my Bible Highlights at the meeting for Thursday. 

6:00 PM - Dinner, along with an episode of one of our favorite 90's sitcoms. :)

6:30 PM - Meeting preparation and other personal study.

8:00 PM - Some form of socialization!

10:00 PM - Sit in our rocking chairs like the old men that we are and chat about what happened throughout the day. Then it's time for bed!

I'm exhausted just from writing about all of that. Of course, not every day happens just like this, but this is definitely a typical day for us. It's certainly productive, and it's exciting to be busy in the ministry here! Needless to say, we'll be spending our day off at the beach. ;) 

Thanks for staying in touch, everyone! Talk to you all soon.

Take care,

Sam

Bienvenidos a San Juan del Sur

Hey everyone,

Last week, Simon and I paid a visit to one of the most beautiful places in Nicaragua: San Juan del Sur!

You can probably already guess from the pictures that San Juan is a major tourist attraction, mainly because of the nice beach scene. I'd say that it is more touristy than Granada. San Juan is actually a really small town compared to other cities in Nica; its population is only 18,000. It is the only place in the country where the foreigners seem to outnumber the locals! 

Life in San Juan seems to be more relaxed. It's definitely because of the surfer mentality, which I'm afraid seems to be rubbing off on Simon...

One thing we were happy about was the fact that there was a breeze! There were some windy days! "Wind" and "breeze" are two words you never hear in Chinandega. Another major difference is that there is only one congregation in San Juan, compared to the 27 in Chinandega.

Besides being there for a mini vacation, we were also there to check out the recently-formed English group. It has been up and running for a couple of months now. They currently have one elder, Zac Higgs (who moved here with his wife and three daughters from the States), and a few servants. Zac and his family are currently back in the States for a few months, so one brother Pete (here with his wife Hayley from Australia) and another servant have been taking care of things in the meantime. Because it is just a group, they currently conduct the Congregation Bible Study in English in the second school, and then join the Spanish congregation for the remainder of the Thursday night meeting. On Saturdays, they have their own meeting for the Public Talk and Watchtower Study. Most of the group also supports the Spanish meeting on Sunday, which is great because the combination allows everyone to improve their Spanish as well.

Squishing into the second school for the Jeremiah study!

The English Circuit Overseer, Todd Schleper, advised our friends Andy and Paije (originally from Australia, and yes, her name is pronounced like "Paige") to relocate from Chinandega to San Juan del Sur because it currently has the biggest need out of all the English territory in Nicaragua. They're a great couple, and were kind enough to let us stay in their house - which is air-conditioned! - for the week. The group has a big need for public speakers at the moment, so I gave the public talk the first Saturday we were there, and Simon gave it the next week.

There are quite a few studies attending the meetings, including some foreigners!

We also took advantage of opportunities to go witnessing with the English group. It was exciting to be there during the formation of everything! Right now, they're in the process of censusing everywhere and making maps for the territory. A couple of days, we piled into Pete's car and went to a nearby town called Rivas to search for English-speaking people, with awesome results - they've found about 40 people who speak English in that town alone, and many are very interested in learning about the Bible. I had one guy approach me in a restaurant and asked what we were all doing in Rivas. I told him we were Witnesses, and gave him a Truth tract. He was very interested, and gave me his address & phone number to pass onto the group so that someone can call on him!

Pete, the brother in the middle, fearlessly leading us through Rivas. (The brother on the right is Andy, and the sister is his wife, Paije.)

One day, we went with the Spanish congregation to preach out in the rural territory, which made me feel right at home in Ojo de Agua again. It made me realize how much I'm really loving being in Spanish! 

The rural territory has some beautiful views!

And of course, we had to spend a couple of days at some of San Juan's awesome beaches. 

San Juan is also home to some of the best sunsets in Nicaragua! (I took the background photo for this blog the last time I was in San Juan del Sur, about a year ago.)

Simon

Me

Although I'm pretty content in Chinandega, San Juan del Sur is a great place to be. There's a nice variety of people - families (one with a two-year-old baby from the States!), couples, and a lot of young single people. However, as said before, the group needs a lot of help. Many of the people who are there right now are not there longterm. So if you'd like to help out in the English field, San Juan is the place that needs the most help. Plus, a nice little town on the beach? Can't beat that!

Hope you all are well. I heard that it reached -10 degrees in Maine the other day - for those of you who use Celsius, that is equivalent to -23.3 degrees-Celsius! You may say that I have it good here, but trust me, I don't spend all my days at the beach. I'm on the other end of the spectrum, and it's not much better - currently 93 degrees, and this is the cold time of year! Oh well. Stay...warm? Cold? Whatever suits you.

Take care,

Sam