Scroll down and stay a while...

Scroll down and stay a while...

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Merry Christmas from up here in PA! (We've got an update for you, too!)

Hello Everyone!

We are currently in PA for Christmas this year and being that we have some free time, we thought we'd take advantage of this opportunity to update everyone. [If you received our email last month, you can skip to the pictures at the bottom. It's basically the same.]  
Now for our update. Thank you, everyone, for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers recently. Last you knew, Martha and Yosidara came to live here with us at the beginning of September. The initial plan was to provide them with a safe home so they could finish out their school years at NCA where we teach. However, we took them in knowing that they could possibly be staying with us for a longer period of time than just until the end of the school year.

These past three months with the girls have been so great for us. In the beginning, Mitch and I have had to transition and figure out some things in our personal relationship with each other, but we are enjoying our parenting roles and feel this new change in our lives is just what God is calling us to.

As the girls came to live with us towards the end of our school year, we knew a big transition was coming up in their lives once December came around - either moving back to their homes where they didn't want to go OR going to live at a girls' home where they didn't want to go. We spent a lot of time in prayer thinking about whether or not we felt God calling us to offer up our lives and home to the girls here in Nicaragua for a longer time period than just-through-the-end-of-the-school-year. We were thinking about something more along the lines of, living-with-us-as-long-as-we're-in-Nicaragua.
Through prayer and conversations with close family and friends, Mitch and I knew, without a doubt, that we wanted to give the girls the option of staying with us for the upcoming school year, and really, as long as we're living here in Nicaragua. We sat down with the girls one weekend in October and offered them the option of staying with us more permanently, being clear of our expectations and also letting them know of our timeline here in Nicaragua. We told them to take their time in deciding what they wanted to do and made it clear that it was their decision to make, though Mitch and I really wanted them to choose to stay :)

Now, we're here in PA for vacation and the girls are just visiting with family and friends while we're out of the country, and they're only visiting because they have decided that they want to stay with us permanently, while we're here in Nicaragua. Yosidara, 16, knew right away that she wanted to stay with us and she made the decision on her own, just letting her mother know what she was going to do. However, with Martha, being only 13, we wanted to talk personally to her mother to let her know what Martha was thinking. We got to talk with her mother last month and she was fine with the decision Martha had made.

So now here we are, a year into living in Nicaragua and we've got two foster daughters :) There are lots of things we need to be thinking about as we are now preparing to start our next school year in January - financial budget, discipline, and home life structure just touch the surface as we adjust to a very different home life.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers as you have been this past year. Here are some pictures that we've taken together these last few months! We really hope you enjoy this first picture of us four in our Christmas hats the day before we came to PA!

So much love,
Mitch, Lauren, Yosidara, and Martha (oh, and Emre!)















Saturday, October 10, 2015

Changes...

Hello to everyone, and sorry for the long absence of communication. We've been going through quite a few changes, and while keeping you all informed should have been higher on our list of priorities, we are finally getting to it. Thanks for thinking of us even when we aren't in touch!

Where to begin? Biggest news first, I suppose. The number of people in our house doubled two weeks ago! We currently have two Nicaraguan girls living with us until the end of the school year, which has been an unexpected, but God-driven, development.

These two girls, ages 13 and 17, attend our school, NCA Nejapa, and had been living with a lady from Maryland for the last year or two. She had to move back to the States at the end of September for some severe health problems, and the girls needed a place to go. Without a place to stay, they would have moved home and dropped out of our school as their homes are far away.

We heard about the situation as other options were being considered, such as Fortress of Hope or other organizations like that. The girls stayed on our hearts and minds, and eventually, after much prayer and deliberation, we offered them a place with us until the end of the school year. They moved in two weekends ago, and here we are!

It's been quite an adjustment, although there haven't been major problems. We've had to figure out many different things. How to act as parents...to teenage girls...who only speak Spanish...from a completely different culture. How to spend our time between their needs and our needs. How to cook food that teenage Nicaraguan girls will eat. How to communicate our expectations and reasons and understand their needs in Spanish. How to make decisions that balance the two cultures.

Overall it's been great, though tiring and with a few bumps. It feels like God is still leading us down this road and teaching us along the way. As a couple, our biggest prayer request is that we take good care of our marriage as we embark on a new journey. It's already changed our relationship in some significant ways, and we have to figure out which of those changes are good, bad, or unsustainable. So far we've communicated well, although sometimes it feels like we go for days without having a meaningful conversation. All in all, it's only been two weeks, so we feel good about things so far. God is faithful and leading us, so we're going to follow as far as he takes us.

Other than that large event, things have been moving right along. On October 7th, we celebrated being in Nicaragua for a full year, as you can see in the picture below.We're in a bit of a difficult patch with our jobs and Fortress of Hope. Each has its own issues right now, and we're praying that things will smooth out soon. Hopefully we'll be disciplined enough to write something more in-depth this week, but here are some things to pray for, if you are so inclined. If you want to pray for Fortress of Hope, pray that lingering issues among the children can be resolved soon, and that our relationship with the social services branch of the government continues to be strong. If you want to pray for NCA Nejapa, pray that we can give our best efforts in everything we do and that we continue to search for ways to contribute to the work being done there, rather than becoming complacent.

We want to say a huge thank you to everyone reading this. We know that many of you pray for us regularly, many have supported us financially, and many have walked with us through recent decisions. We are eternally grateful because this journey would not be possible without your support. God is good, and His goodness is shown to us through each and every one of you. Your little notes, emails, texts, and photos remind us that our work here is not something we are doing alone. We have all of you behind every step of the way and for that we thank you.

Make it a great day,


Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Vacation to the States

As we drove to the airport to catch the plane that would fly us to the States, I found myself a little apprehensive to head back home. Most of me was excited to visit family and friends, but a small part of me was anxious that I would get back home to where life was familiar and comfortable, and I would want to stay there for longer than just three weeks. Before we left Managua, someone asked me, "How are you feeling about heading to the states for vacation?" I told them about my excitement but also that I was feeling a little anxious that I might get there and not want to come back to Nicaragua. The person told me, "You just need to pray that God has you where He wants you and that you can feel at peace about it."

We got off the plane and were greeted by two friends, ready to take us from D.C. to Harrisonburg. Instantly, we noticed that we were no longer in Nicaragua. Driving was orderly, there were clear signs on the roads, large cones for construction and even larger machinery.

We arrived in Harrisonburg in the middle of the night and opened the door to Mitch's aunt's house. We were greeted with a cold blast of air and a loving note on the kitchen table that welcomed us to anything and everything in the house. We soaked ourselves in steaming hot showers before bed, and then snuggled under a nice, warm comforter, rocked to sleep by the hum of the air conditioner. It felt like a spa experience.

Our three weeks were excellent, there's no doubt about that. We were able to do so many things - celebrate in the wedding of a cousin, see all of our family and friends, enjoy corn fields and clean lakes, eat familiar meals, camp and grill brats by the fire, drive 70 mph on a highway, worship God in English, take only one shower a day and still feel clean at the end of it, talk to someone quickly in passing and understand every word the person said without having to focus on the movement of the person's lips as they spoke. Everything was great and we found ourselves soaking up every experience that we had grown to love in the states, knowing that soon we would leave it all again.

Thinking back to what that person told me before we headed to the states, I realized that I didn't even have to pray to God that He would help me feel at peace about living in Managua right now. He made it perfectly clear that this is where we are supposed to be. Now, as I write this post with a glass of cold water at my side, a fan blowing on me, Emre sleeping on the porch outside, Mitch taking his second shower of the day, and knowing the kids at Fortress of Hope are playing just down the road, I know that this is my home. This is the place where God has called us for now.

We missed so many things about living in Nicaragua that when family and friends asked us what we were missing most about Nicaragua, we didn't really know what to say. A whole list of things came to mind for both of us, all equally important in forming this experience that we love. This is where we are. This is where we want to be. And this is where we'll stay for as long as we feel called, and I feel at peace about that.

-Lauren



Here are just a few of our favorite pictures from our great trip. Check out the whole album on my Facebook page:








Saturday, June 27, 2015

Back for a visit

Sorry for the silence! We've been settled into a routine and haven't thought to share recently. But we thought we'd better let you know that we are back in the States for a while! We have a three week semester break right now, and we'll be here for that whole time. We're going to try and visit as many people and places as we can! Here are a few places we'll be if you want to hear more of what we're doing.

June 28th - Eastside Church, Harrisonburg: We'll share a little bit and bring the message on Sunday morning. Church starts at 10.

July 1st - Park View Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg: We are having a dinner to share information about Fortress of Hope. We'll share what we've been doing and how the organization serves the children of Nicaragua. The dinner will start at 6:00.

July 12th - Pigeon River Mennonite Church: Well share a little bit and bring the message on Sunday morning. Church starts at 9:30.

Hopefully we have the chance to see you while we are home, whether at one of the events above or just around town!

Sunday, June 7, 2015

The rains they are a comin'...

Wow. When it rains, it rains and when it storms, it storms.

When we arrived here last October, we got just a glimpse of Nicaraguan storms towards the end of the rainy season, but now that we're in June and the rainy season is just starting, we're beginning to experience rain almost every day and the storms that go along with it.

The rain comes down for hours without stopping or slowing. It. Just. Pours. It is beautiful and also reminds us of how powerful it is, as our electricity wavers and sometimes says goodbye for a little while. The other night we went to sleep with the sound of pouring rain and a beautiful crackling thunderstorm. It took a while to actually fall asleep, but lying in bed listening to the storm right over top of us was an incredible experience. We've never experienced storms like the ones that are here in Nicaragua - where you actually hear the lightning as it strikes with incredible thunder. Have you ever taken a baking sheet and shaken it to model lightning and thunder? It's like that. Absolutely deafening.

Each day after the storms, we see roads washed out or hear stories at school of co-workers houses that flooded in the night. There's a missionary couple with a daughter in my classroom and the father told me he went to bed at 11pm and got out of bed to check on things when he stepped in water on his bedroom floor. He turned on the lights and saw that the water was pouring in. He and his wife were scooping up buckets of water until 1am. Other people have even less shelter from the rain, and we can't imagine what it's would be like to spend a night outside. Listening to these stories just reminds us of our sturdy and dependable house, and we are grateful.

If you're ever in the mood for a real, loud storm, come down to Managua for a visit anytime from June to October. We'll be here!
-Lauren, and Mitch

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Just. Love.

It's about 9:00pm on Wednesday night and we just got home from Fortress of Hope about an hour ago. And tonight, I left with my heart full.

Most days after school, we get home around 3:15, change out of our uniforms into something a little less sweaty, relax at home for a little bit, put Emre on the leash and then head over to FOH. And, well, if I'm being honest, some days a part of me doesn't quite feel like going to FOH. Part of me feels like staying home because I just finished working and now I would like to relax. And for a moment, today was one of those days.

For the past 3 days, we've been at school until 4:30pm because of after-school meetings consisting of reading through 113, yes 113, pages worth of documents written in Spanish. It's been draining! Then today after that, we came home to change clothes, we grabbed the dog, and quickly headed over to FOH for dinner, help with kids' English homework or whatever else until 7pm when it was time to lead devotions.

However, today, when devotions ended, we ended up just hanging around for another 30 minutes. You see, every day when we get there, we're both greeted by 2 or 3 lingering hugs from kids who really just need a lot of love. They just. need. love. We aren't greeted with hugs because we're super-special, but because with 20 children there are always a few who need more one-on-one attention.

Sometimes, we get to FOH and the kids ask us why we didn't come earlier. We get ready to leave and they ask us,"ya te vas?"... which means, "you're leaving already?" It takes us 20 minutes to say good-bye each night to these kids because they hang from the windows of our car to keep us from moving. They always have something more to say to us before we go. They hug us and don't want to stop. The kids are this way with most of the adults they come in contact with at FOH. Just this past weekend, a small cross-cultural group from EMU came to visit and it didn't take long until the kids were seeking them out for love and attention as well.

These kids need direction and they need guidance, all of which the staff of FOH gives so well. For our part, we're happy to finally feel capable of giving these kids extra direction and guidance they need so much. Most of all, I'm glad we can give them unconditional love, every day. Even on the days when we might just feel like staying home to relax.

Below are just a few pictures of the kids we love.
Makes it a great Thursday,
Lauren





Sunday, April 26, 2015

Oh my, how fast the time goes!

Lauren here.

A couple of weeks ago we passed the one year mark when we traveled down here to Nicaragua for the first time together and began this whole journey. When we came here last year on our spring break, we didn't even imagine the idea of moving down here just a half year later. It's amazing what we've seen God doing and how He's been working in our lives. Now, I'm sitting in a hammock writing this on the front porch of my home in Nicaragua, our dog Emre is walking around the house with his little football ready to play inside the house, Mitch is working on his lesson plans, we've got the fan blowing at full speed in this almost 100 degree weather, and I'm wondering how time goes so quickly.

In the past 6 months, almost 7 now, we've experienced so much that it's hard to put it all down on paper, but to name a few - we've explored surrounding cities, climbed volcanoes, eaten lots of Nicaraguan dishes, spent time with different family members who came to visit us, learned how to ride the Managua buses, swam in the Pacific, flown home to PA in January, and experienced both the rainy/humid and dry/hot season. But along with the fun things also comes the things that are difficult and challenging as well - the language, cultural differences, worship differences, the lack of nearby family and friends, and how to make relationships with the people around us here; these just skim the surface of the things we're learning daily.

Upon moving here, it didn't take us long to feel comfortable in Nicaragua. I'd say once we got off the plane, things basically just took off and we settled into a routine. Our jobs continue to go well at NCA Nejapa. We are both learning a lot. Every day. In no way are our jobs easy, but I think we're both up for the challenges that we face. At times, the tasks we see in front of us can feel daunting, but I know we were placed there for a reason and I find peace in that. As for life at Fortress of Hope, CINAFE, things continue to get better as time goes on. We see CINAFE as a place where we feel rejuvenated each day. This past weekend we didn't go to CINAFE on Friday or Saturday, and by the time Sunday morning came around, we were already missing the kids. We're investing a lot of time there, and we both feel so happy to spend each second, minute, and hour at a place where we feel at home. With no kids of our own, we feel like we've got 20 kids that we get to love and call "hijo/hija" (son/daughter) each day.

I will leave you with 2 things:
1. Some pictures of us this past weekend at the beach. After being here for half a year, we finally made it to the Pacific.
2. Song lyrics from a group that I've just recently gotten into, I Am They. Their song, "Make a Way" is one that is no doubt a comfort to me here. --
"Wherever you lead me, I know you won't leave me. Where you call me, you will make a way. Wherever we're going, I will be holding to the promise you have made. You will make a way."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Uc8XTZSqso (they don't have a music video, so just listen and ignore the strange lion picture)
The Pacific!! This weekend was our first trip to the beach! Just an hour drive to Pochomil.

Here we are :)

Our hotel was right on the water!

Hammock time at the hotel!

Relaxing by the hotel pool!

Mitch reading on his kindle.


Beautiful beach!

Sunset time.

We walked right out from our hotel onto the beach to see the sunset over the water; it was beautiful.

The next morning, we rode horses along the beach and then spent some time in the sun before heading back to Managua!

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Simple March Update


Hello family and friends,

Lauren here. In our last post, we said that we would post some pictures of our school to show you all where we're spending a lot of our time. As promised, below are some pictures. So if you're not going to read the post that follows, you at least have some photos to check out! :) Take a look.

Anyways, Mitch and I really do want to keep you all, the people we care for most, updated. I also thought that writing this post would be a good way to relax, therefore, I'm writing to you all today. I don't have much to say, but thought I could fill you in on recent happenings here in Managua.

This week marks the middle of March, which means we've been working at our school for two months now, since the middle of January. I know I've said it before, but I really can't believe how fast the time is going. Somehow, even without close friends and family nearby, without The Walking Roots Band practices and gigs, Eastside events and worship practices, school work in the evenings, we're still managing to fill our time right up. If not to the brim, pretty close.

Though we have lots of time to relax in our home in the evenings, our mornings and afternoons are busy each day and we're enjoying the different places we get to be. School has been great for the both of us - challenging and new, yet comfortably familiar. We are learning so much every day and I'm beginning to see how far we've already come in our Spanish abilities. Just this past Friday, we were in a meeting after school with a few teachers who are visiting from the states and are at NCA Nejapa to offer some advice to the teachers here. I was asked to translate in a small group setting for a lady who only spoke English. I wasn't sure how it would go but I gave it a shot and I was able to translate everything, save for a few words! It was a good test of my Spanish abilities and when the meeting was over, I couldn't believe what I'd just accomplished!

Our time at Fortress of hope, CINAFE, is also so great. We're busy in school until 3pm, but then head over to FOH until 5pm or so. Soon, we're going to take on leading devotions for the children 2 nights a week, which we're both nervous and excited about. This time will also be another good test of our Spanish language abilities, for that, I am nervous. However, we're going to be able to develop relationships with the kids at FOH in a different and deeper capacity, for that, we are excited.

We love each of the kids in our work at NCA Nejapa and at FOH and are loving every minute spent there. We would love for you to see pictures of the kids that we're working with at FOH, so visit the FOH's website: www.fortressofhope.org and head to "meet us", then "children", and you'll find our recently posted pictures of each beautiful child.

That's all for now. Enjoy the few pictures of our school below!
Much love,
Lauren, and Mitch


Here I am, excited to receive my first work uniform!
Us together after the first day of school.
This is a teacher work room, where Mitch spends a lot of his time with the English department teachers.
NCA Nejapa is completely open-air. The outdoor hallway on the left, leads to my classroom, and the open-air hallway on the right lead to the teacher workroom as well as other classrooms.
This is the Preschool/Kindergarten team celebrating my birthday together with a traditional Nicaraguan snack.
My colorful kindergarten classroom.
The outside right is the playground area where we spend our recess time. The area in the far back is the open-air gym.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Update on teaching

Hello and happy almost Friday,

We've been teaching for three weeks now. Our days go very quickly and time seems to be flying here. We are still so thankful to be living here and continue to soak up each day. We were actually just talking the other day about living here, right where we feel called to be. Mitch brought up the fact that we need to remember to continue to seek God's will, even now when we feel we are where we need to be. He mentioned that moving to Managua was only the first step, not the final step. Now that we are here, we need to continue asking God what He has in store for us. That was a good reminder for both of us as we are starting this new phase of teaching.

We're both settling in to our new teaching roles. Lauren is enjoying being an assistant, with all that that brings - free evenings, extra time to cook, time to read, more time to write blogs, and do all the other things that she often put to the side during her teaching days in Virginia. Although Lauren doesn't have work to bring home, she sees the work ahead of her this year in working with the teacher of her kindergarten classroom. Right now, she's helping a lot with classroom behavior management and will begin this next week with implementing small group times in the classroom. Every teacher at NCA has, or is working toward, a degree in teacher education; however, the methodology taught here is much different from what we were taught in our courses. The techniques we learned at EMU are not often seen in the majority of the classrooms, and we are adapting every day.

Speaking of classrooms, Mitch is in a lot of them each day. While he's figuring out his role and responsibilities at the school, he also has to oversee the other 4 teachers in the English department. Since he is the coordinator, he spends half of his time teaching and half of his time advising. He teaches 3 classes each morning: 5-6th grade advanced, 7-8th grade advanced, and 9-11th grade advanced. In his afternoons, he observes the other teachers and offers feedback. Though his work comes home with him after a long day at school, he doesn't seem to be overwhelmed at all. We both feel so encouraged by our school community, and it's a great place to be.

The past 2 weeks, we've also made more of a point to get over to CINAFE, Fortress of Hope, after school almost every day of the work week. We walk Emre over and sometimes stay for 15 minutes, sometimes an hour. We get to help the kids with homework and just hang out with them. Without the obligation of teaching English each afternoon there, we are really relishing the time we have to continue building relationships outside of a "classroom" setting.

This past weekend we enjoyed such a great, short trip to Granada with some new friends that we are making here in Managua. It's definitely different not having a close friend group nearby, but we're comforted by our little family of 2, and a dog, as well as our family at CINAFE and our school community at NCA Nejapa.

Thanks for thinking of and praying for us continually, we'll write again soon! And next time, we'll try to attach some good pictures of our school :)

Saturday, February 7, 2015

School Days

Hello, everyone! Is it really already February? Spring is just around the corner for most of you. The seasons and weather all run together here. To us, it's just hot. Always. Hot. Although the weather doesn't seem to be changing much, our daily schedules down here in Managua have become quite different in the past few weeks. Students start school this Monday, February 9th! We're excited to get started and meet all of our students! It feels like it's been a while since we've been in a classroom and we miss it!

We began our teacher work days at NCA Nejapa (Nicaragua Christian Academy) 3 weeks ago. Just to recap, Mitch is the English coordinator and will teach 20 hours a week and advise the other members of the English department the other 20 hours a week. We anticipate that he'll get to speak some Spanish, but mostly English. Lauren is a kindergarten sssistant and will spend each day in a Spanish speaking classroom. We're excited for these different roles and all that we'll learn in the year to come.

What a difference it is to be in this Christian school system, instead of the public system we were used to. We've been adjusting well to all of the changes and are enjoying the Christian atmosphere. Our first week our principal reminded everyone of the importance of academic learning, but more importantly, of the importance of teaching about Christ and being models of Christ in our classrooms. We talked about it at home later than night and how we never had the freedom to share those things before now. It was always academics above all else. We are grateful that we're getting the opportunity to experience both sides of the coin in these early stages of our careers!

Speaking of things being said, all directions that we're given, all staff/teacher work days, all workshops, and devotions are all done in Spanish. We decided we probably get about 35-40% of what's being said at school. Directions are given, and we miss them. Tasks are divided out, and we miss them. Jokes are said and all the staff laughs, while we look at each other with blank stares. Depending on who is speaking, how clearly and how slowly, we can either pick up most all of what's being said, or we miss almost every word. We are learning to be gracious with ourselves in acknowledging that we've only been here for 4 months and there's a learning curve to learning a new language.

The first week of teacher work days, we skipped the morning session to go to a funeral of a staff member whose father passed away. Somehow we didn't catch that when it was explained to us all in the morning announcements. Lauren found out when someone came up to her and told us in English, "So you two will get to experience your first Nicaraguan funeral today!" Lauren said, "What?" She then went and told Mitch and somehow he missed the memo as well. Since then we've been careful to clarify everything that we hear in Spanish. There are several staff members who speak English very well. All of the staff in Mitch's English department speak English and help us out when we need it.

We've been trying to figure out our schedules and get into a routine so we can find intentional times to go to Fortress of Hope in the evenings. Today, we went to Fortress of Hope to begin English classes again. This was our first English class in 2 months! We decided to teach English there only on Saturdays for now and we'll hopefully add a day or two during the week once we're a little more settled in to our school schedules.

We'd love your continued prayers, especially now as we're adjusting to a new school in a different culture. Thanks for your love. We feel it all the way down where it's 90 degrees :)

Make it a great week,
Lauren & Mitchell

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Hello everyone!

We hope that your new year is off to a great start. It's hard to believe we're already getting close to February. These past few weeks have been so busy for us that we have not taken the time to sit down and write a new blog post, but we're finally making it happen. We already know how much we enjoy getting out our thoughts, feelings, and updates on this blog, and we're thankful that our close family and friends enjoy reading our updates. Thanks again for your support. It means a lot to us. With that said, here's what has made us so busy:

Mitch's parents came here for a long weekend on 3rd of January with the board of Fortress of Hope (CINAFE) to have their yearly meetings. We were so thankful to see family and to spend time with them just as the new year started. We enjoyed listening in on board meetings and giving just a taste of our Nicaraguan life to Mitch's parents. Our time with them went too quickly, but it always does when you're with family! Once his parents left on Wednesday, the 7th, we flew to Pennsylvania the next day, the 8th, for a quick trip home.

Back in November, we bought our plane tickets with the hope of seeing Lauren's family, and her sister Steph's baby! Knowing her due date was on the 8th, we knew we were taking a risk that Steph might not even have the baby while we were home in PA. THANKFULLY the Lord knew just how badly Lauren wanted to see her  niece as a newborn, rather than when she was a year old or so. Steph had her baby on Saturday morning, little Emily Grace Wilson. We got to spend lots of time with the family and enjoy holding our new little niece before we came back to Managua the following Wednesday, the 14th. (We know we've only been in Nicaragua for 3 months now, but it still felt strange to notice the differences between here and the states. And the cold weather is one of those differences. Oh, how we loved to sit by the warm fires Lauren's dad made for us and pull out our winter boots and coats to go outside! Lauren's mom also made so many of the great meals we had been missing. It was such a great time at home!)

Just this past weekend, the 17th, Mitch's aunt and uncle Gene & Gloria came to visit us, too! They are spending a couple of weeks down in Costa Rica and made the long trip up to see us. We enjoyed a short amount of time together, really just one full day, but it was so great to see them! They came at just the right time because we started our teacher workdays at NCA Nejapa yesterday. Their being here was a great distraction from thinking about all of the unknowns of starting a new job, at a new school, with a new language, and a completely new setting.

For those of you who don't know, Mitch will be the English coordinator at our school and Lauren will be a Kindergarten assistant. We're both so excited to learn a lot this year and help where we can. Right now, after only 2 days of listening to everything in Spanish - Spanish devotions, lectures, and conversations - it's safe to say we're already feeling a little tired. We'll be writing again soon to let you know how it's going once we know a little more :)

That's pretty much it from down here. Enjoy the new year and all it holds!

Make it a great day,
Lauren and Mitch

Thursday, January 1, 2015

And a New Year arrives...

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and everything else that comes at this time of year. We haven't written anything for a while, but that doesn't mean we've been bored! We're glad to have a few days to relax and unwind as the new year is fast-approaching. Here's a quick run-down of what's been happening here in Nicaragua.

- Finished language classes. We might go back for a refresher before we start working, but for now we've learned all the grammar and skills we can. Now we have to practice, practice, practice. We start teaching in a month!

- Visited the city of Matagalpa. We didn't do much except enjoy the cooler weather. It was nice to get out of the heat of Managua.

- Finished teaching English classes at CINAFE. Hopefully we can continue those in January or February, but we'll have to see how full our schedules are once we begin teaching.

- Participated in the CINAFE Christmas party. It was great to see the children happy and loved, and the staff as well. The staff members told the kids how much they loved them, everyone opened presents, and then we ate a great meal. We are feeling blessed to be a part of the group. Sadly, we also said goodbye to a family of four who have lived at CINAFE for the last 6 years. They are now living with their mother again, and we are praying that everything works out well for them.

- Spent 3 days on the island of Ometepe in Lake Nicaragua. Lauren was hoping to see some freshwater sharks, but those live at the south of the lake so we missed out. We did manage to stay in a room right on the edge of the lake, and it was mighty pleasant to sleep with the waves crashing. Christmas was very different on the beach, especially since we didn't feel so great. Because..

- Contracted the Chikungunya virus! Thanks to our mosquito friends, we had solid fevers and chills for a day, then bone and joint pain, and now we just have some sweet itchy rashes across every square inch of skin. Truth be told, we are almost perfectly fine. It should run its course pretty soon. We are lucky we haven't had many commitments.

- Cared for a girl from Fortress of Hope for two days. The staff had meetings for two days this week and asked if we could care for one of the girls during the day. She stayed with us from 8 to 5 both days, and we got to visit the park, make brownies, color pictures, buy groceries, and dance and sing the songs from "Frozen," all in Spanish. We are so glad that the staff trusts us in that way and that we are capable of doing something like that.

And now, we are waiting for 2015! We can't wait to see what this year holds. There will be family visiting us here, trips to visit family and friends in the US, new jobs beginning, and nobody knows what else. We're sure God has things in store for us that will help us grow, and we're sure He has the same for you.

Make it a great day,

Mitch and Lauren