Crotch beetles and shrimp scones

In the middle of the night I felt something on my upper thigh and reached down to feel a hard insect.  I quickly grabbed it and threw it at the wall.  Of course I had to turn on the lamp to see what it was and freak out!  It was a giant black beetle.  Dustin was still pretending to sleep this whole time and I couldn’t stop squealing about it waking me up from a dead sleep when he starts laughing and says, “I guess the dreaded crotch beetle finally came for you.”  Not funny.

Nicaragua has two seasons hot and very hot.  The garbage deteriorates very quickly and often is rotten and terribly smelly in one day.  One night we had shrimp for dinner and the next morning we came out to a reeking garbage can.  We tried to air it out but the whole morning as we made scones we joked that they were still going to taste like shrimp.

-Angie

Fevers and Snakes in the Moto

This week I came down with a terrible virus with a high fever and body ache.  I have never experienced anything like it and I was knocked out in bed.  The tropics have some crazy viruses and I had to try to sleep in an extremely hot room and recover.  My kids kept bringing me water and trying to see how long this was going to last.  It was sweet, but I think they were really trying to figure out how long they had a break from school. 

Meanwhile, Dustin was managing all that is happening on the property.  We have seven workers now finishing up the bathrooms for the children’s center and creating the water system.  Water is not something you hook up and turn on but something you calculate carefully finding ways to save, pump, and preserve every drop.  Right now is the dry season and there are many people along our road without any water.   After a hot day of work, the guys and kids from class saw a snake climb up inside the frame of Icidro’s moto.  They tried for awhile to get it out but never could, so he drove away standing up and hoping for the best. 

-Angie

Quick tour

How did we get to Salinas Grande?

One of my favorite things about living abroad is meeting people from all over the world.  Last weekend we showed a movie as a reward for good attendance to some of the English Club kids.  As we were setting up, we crossed paths with a group of German students who had used our beach Rancho to cool down after visiting the school during the day.  Right about then a couple from Italy stopped by to check out the movie and learn about what is happening to further education here in Salinas.  There is no way to plan who is going to show up or when, which brings me to the story of Surfer John from San Diego, CA.

About a year before we moved to Nicaragua, Surfer John showed up in Salinas Grande chasing waves.  Within a couple of days, he had broken both of his boards and was wondering what in the world he was doing in this tiny fishing village.  With no board, John spent a lot of time praying and ended up having a profound experience with the Lord.  Some locals took him in like family and he spent the rest of the trip doing what he could to help out in the community.   As he was leaving Managua, he happened to mention to our friend, Chachi, that he knew of a place for sale in Salinas Grandes that was all set up for a big family and entertaining guests.  When we were looking for a place to land in Nicaragua, Chachi remembered the house and told me about it.  We ended up renting that yellow house and it turned out to be the reason we found Salinas Grande.  It was the place where the Lord solidified our vision for Water & Light, where we built community with new friends and welcomed old ones, where the first English class happened on the patio, and where we learned how much water a family of 6 can use.  It was the place where we sat under the stars in awe of our Creator and were encouraged to dream bigger than we ever thought possible.

I got to hug Surfer John a couple of weeks ago and share our story with him.  I am constantly amazed how God weaves lives together.  Our words are powerful.  The most insignificant conversation may provide the spark that ignites a new fire for someone else.

-Dustin

Luisa's story

This year we have met people around us that have made our transition to Salinas Grandes possible.  It’s the people in our lives that inspire us to keep working to build a future of hope around us.  Our neighbors next door are a great example of where we get our inspiration.  Our friend Luisa lives next door with her children Monica and Josiah and their grandmother Mercedes.  She works hard as a single mom to provide for her family.  She is always willing to take on extra work, but there are very few jobs where we live.  In our surrounding area there are about 2,000 people and only 250 jobs and some of those are seasonal like fishing and salt mining.  Luisa taught me how to wash my clothes by hand and is always willing to help me when I leave my clothes on the line too long and a storm comes in.  She approaches the days with a hope that I couldn’t muster myself in her situation.  Her son Josiah has been sick most of his life off and on.  He had meningitis as a small child and continues to struggle with staying healthy.  Josiah is always smiling, even when I drop him off at the clinic to wait for the day for blood tests or exams.  I have never met a harder working grandma.  She caretakes several properties where she cuts the grass with a machete and keeps the property clean.  When we came back from our trip to the states in October, they were the first to greet us with smiles, hugs, and stories of all the happened while we were gone. 
-Angie

photo by James Galt

The past nine months in Nicaragua we have become part of a very special community of people in Salinas Grandes. A land of contrasts where we find ourselves living in the tension between the beauty of our Creator and the many needs surrounding us. The next step for us is to build a children’s community center for more classes and mentorship. We have been able to purchase property and hope to break ground in the next few months. Would you consider joining us to create a place for the next generation to grow in love and hope? We have a goal of $20,000 for the center and are almost half way there.

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Martin and Rosa

Our neighbor Martin and his family have been a huge blessing to us living in Salinas Grandes.  They are the caretakers of the house we rent.  Martin and Rosa live in a one-bedroom structure with 6 sons.  They are kind and generous and have the gift of prayer.  They prayed over me the day that Dustin was at the jail trying to sort things out with our motorcycle accident.  They have shared many shocking stories with me, but on the day that Dustin was working out the accident paperwork Martin told me how one time he went to jail unjustly but used the time to encourage the other people in prison.  When his family brought him food in jail he shared it with other inmates because he said they had nothing and he had his caring family.  Martin and his sons are fisherman.  Lately the fishing has not been good so everyone in our community suffers without people buying, selling, and trading fish.  Martin is learning English and hoping that at some point the his new skills has will help provide further for his family.   He asked Dustin to help him with his homework so now the two fathers will be learning a new language from each other. 

What's your passion?

Last week our friends Chip and Andrea and their family came down to stay with us and serve in our community.  Through generous friends they were able to bring down medical supplies to our little clinic that is open three days a week for a few hours a day.  They brought down a nebulizer and blood pressure machine, which the doctor immediately started using.  The first patient of the day was a little boy having trouble breathing.  It was eye opening and we were all silent on the ride home after viewing the hand washing station without running water, the exam room, and the rest of the facility.  One nine-year-old girl came in with her baby brother and toddler brother without a parent because she had been feeling badly for eight days and was unable to eat much.  We tried to look into her throat but the only light that was available was the flashlight on our phone.  She was very protective of her siblings and we did our best to get her feeling better. It was a lot to process and yet the doctor was very gracious and thankful for the help.  She thanked us over and over again for the basic supplies that we brought.  The clinic is very limited in what they can treat and often have to encourage people to go to the hospital in Leon 40 minutes away.  But we wondered how many people would take the bus to the hospital and get further treatment. Although the needs are overwhelming we want to be about tying people and their passions in the world to the needs that are all around us. 

-Angie

You bought property in Nicaragua....

After a two-hour Spanish negotiation session, we have somehow, miraculously, bought property in Nicaragua.  It is a beautiful piece of property equivalent to an acre.   Come to think of it….if you are reading this, YOU bought property in Nicaragua too.  You invested in what the Lord is doing here.  We feel very humbled to have your support.  It all seemed very far off in the distance and now it is a reality.  It is again proof that the Lord dreams bigger than we do.  We just wanted a nice rental with running water and space to hold classes.  More honestly, we wanted the option to run, if things got too hard.  But we are also learning that the Lord is truly good and faithful.  He has never been nearer, led us more clearly, or disciplined us more gently.  He knows our fragility and brings along likeminded friends or a beautiful sunset when we need beauty and order.  The very first thing we would like to put onto the property is the kid’s club center.  A place to hold classes and connect with the kids that is secure, dependable, and fun.  We are drawing up plans and will have those to share with you when we come to Oregon and Washington in October.  If you would like more information we can send it to you on email so feel free to contact us:

[email protected]    |   [email protected]

Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Last week the entire community became infected with pink eye.  We wish we were exaggerating.  There was not a house that was unaffected.  Many people wore sunglasses because they thought you could get it by looking at an infected person.  We discussed with our neighbors how this was passed through touch and that washing hands thoroughly could prevent infection.  This solution might help if clean water was available.  Instead, people are putting dirty hands into a water barrel and the germs continue to travel.  Interestingly few people on the ocean road had it because they wash in the salt water.  Sometimes we feel like we are hitting our heads into a wall with the water situation here.  We believe that access to clean water all the time is a basic right.  Our family continues to research the best way to create a water system that is functional for everyone and involves the community.  The step we are currently taking is visiting other similar communities to learn how they improved their water system with the limited resources available Nicaragua.  We continue to meet amazing people who have navigated the water problem in rural areas and understand the importance of clean water.   

The longer we live in Nicaragua the more the Lord is allowing us to realize that he is about restoring all people to him.  It looks different than we thought.  He is bringing us to our knees to realize our own poverty of heart, our sense of superiority, in the world.  We want to be about real sustainable changes, which for us means understanding our brokenness and beginning the process of restoring both poor people and ourselves to live in right relationship with God and others.  Many times our North American need for speed undermines the slow process needed for lasting and sustainable development in our community.  We believe we are called to do work that will continue long after we are gone and that the impact will be dependent on the extent to which we develop relationships that affirm the gifts and abilities of our neighbors.  We are also reminded that the Lord has been actively working in this community since the creation of the world and has drawn us to help Salinas Grandes discover and further God’s gifts to them.  This could be why the echo of our hearts for the past two years has returned over and over again to the scripture, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  We want to declare that in one of the most challenging places to live in the Western Hemisphere.