We have had an exciting two weeks that has included surgery on Kaylee's toe, Spanish classes, house hunting, youth night, English Bible study and preparation work for our summer work project at the village of Delirius.  God continues to work and we are experiencing Him everyday.  Our Spanish continues to improve, we are meeting and making new friends every day across Matagalpa and it is quickly becoming our new home. God has blessed us with an incredible place to serve Him.  We continue to work to learn the language as fast as possible to break down the barriers of communication and be able to connect with people as we seek to really know them and share with them about our RELATIONSHIP with JESUS CHRIST!!! We have several mission trips coming up during the next four months and things are really starting to get exciting. There are still spots available on some of our trips.  I will post dates in a separate blog update.  Thanks for all of your prayers and support. Below are pictures to represent some of our experiences during these two weeks.

 Kaylee had surgery on her toe April 10th at Clinica Santa Fe and the Surgeon was awesome. Kaylee did excellent and we had a peace during the whole experience. God is GREAT!!!

We had to find a house to rent as our lease at the mission house ends May 31st. We prayed for God's guidance and started looking April 5th.  God moved and led us to two new amazing friends, Norman and Virginia, who love the Lord. They led us to a realtor, that speaks no English, and she showed us one house where the owner speaks no English and it was exactly what we were looking for and we were able to sign a contract to move in April 21st even though we have no furniture.  This was definitely God and he gets the glory--we will love to tell you more details of what our Father in heaven did for us that we did not deserve!!!!

Our second youth night April 14 was awesome. We had a WII Just Dance 3--dance off and the winners got a chance to shoot a giant inflatable basketball out of the second story window for a chance to win a prize. We had a great turnout, everyone had a great time and we were able to share about the importance of having a RELATIONSHIP with Jesus Christ.

                     

Very excited to begin our preparations for the work project with the village at Delirius for this summer. Jim Rice was in town to assist as we met with the mayor of La Dahlia, an architect and the community leader at Delirius to discuss plans to build a school, capture clean water and get rights to land to eventually build a church in the village. Everything went well, we are set to begin in May with our first team. At the same time we made some new friends to build relationships with and share about Jesus.  We love this place and these people!!!!

On Saturday we headed back up to the village at San Antonio for additional work on the school and an Easter Celebration with the donations raised by Madi.  On Thursday we had given the pastor enough money to purchase a pig and all the fixings for about 150 people.  On Friday they cooked the pig and on Saturday, after completing our work, we celebrated with a church service, their first Easter egg hunt and a feast.

                              Precious eyes watch as we continue to work to get the school completed.

 Wendy, Kaylee and the rest of the ladies finish painting and decorating inside and the men have completed the stucco and just about have the windows complete. It is about time for church and then the celebration.

Kaylee with Pastor Frank and the rest of our worship team.  We had a great time of worship and fellowship.

Madi is ready for the Easter egg hunt and feast. She is excited that for their first egg hunt each egg will not only contain a treat but also an item to teach about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Gospel will be shared with all.

This is what an Easter egg hunt looks like in San Antonio.  The messages included in each egg were more valuable than anything we could ever buy.

                               A great feast with great friends.  And yes, a pig was sacrificed!!!!

Just spent time with our first visitor from back home. Megan Wisehart is traveling with her college volleyball team on a volleyball/mission trip to Nicaragua. Her team is teaching clinics, visiting some orphanages and a girls home. They will be teaching clinics and playing some games in our town of Matagalpa tomorrow and they are attending a local church for worship. It was really nice to visit with her.

Showing up with our team to begin our extreme makeover of the school at the village of San Antonio.
Specific tasks needed:  paint inside, spray paint desks & build wood frame with rebar for the windows and stucco and trim paint the outside. This will protect access and allow the government to provide materials for their school.

                                    Many hands makes light work as things start to come together.

Precious eyes watched with eager anticipation. These are three brothers whose father is raising them alone.

                                           Harrison and Erick help me construct the windows.

A beautiful school begins to emerge for the children.  Stucco will be applied to the outside on Friday. We hope to complete the windows and trim for the outside on Saturday.  We provided money to the village from donations and they are going to cook a pig with all the fixings for an Easter Celebration feast. The donations were provided by funds raised by Madi Hill, a 6 year old from Concord, NC.

We did have time this week for some recreation at a swimming pool outside Matagalpa.  A little different experience from home complete with monkeys and chickens and we could not see the bottom of the pool, but we all had a great time.