Day 10 & 11 - February 1st & 2nd

Saturday, February 1st

I can barely begin to tell you what a wonderful day we had.  Our destination was San Juan del Sur is a lovely town about 2 hours from our Jardin Shalom.  It was a pretty drive out and we picked up a tour guide (Pablos) who told us the history of the area and also of Nicaragua.  The fullness of my heart goes out to these people who have such giving hearts themselves.  

We stopped in La VIRGEN (name of town) in Las Jicaritos on Lake Nicaragua.  First we went up to a plateau to get a better look at the huge statue of Jesus and see the small museum there.  It was a pretty steep walk up, so some of us stayed on the lower plateau with the vehicles.  We found a vantage point from there.  Afterward, we went to a restaurant on a beach where we were allowed to eat our packed lunches and just bought a drink.  It was lovely.  There was an area to the right of the beach that had many turbine wind mills lining the landscape.  In the photo below, the volcano on the left is Concepciones and the one on the right is Maderas (meaning woods).

The original plan was to go see the turtles migrate.  But they had already gone so we headed for a beautiful beach and spent the afternoon there.  A great camaraderie was enjoyed jumping into the waves off the ocean.  We stayed to watch the sunset before heading off to El Tinon, a restaurant in San Juan right on the Main Street.  The evening was alive with street vendors selling hats, sunglasses, vases, souvenirs and a fabulous street artist.  His work was alive with colour and detail and marvellous depictions of his experiences.  The detail in the faces and the turtles was amazing.   There was live music at the restaurant but our tables were further back nearer the entrance so it was very enjoyable.  Dinner was fabulous, the fish (Mahi Mahi)  melted in my mouth.  As we finished dinner we were surprised by the entrance of 10-12 lovely women with banners on them.  They are contestants in Miss Nicaragua.  Miss Nicaragua will be named on February 15th and will represent the country at Miss World.  

A lovely breeze was blowing through the restaurant, excellent service, and really good music.  I highly recommend this restaurant if you are able to come to San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua.  As we left the restaurant, some of us slipped over to make our purchases from the artist we met and pick up a few last souvenirs.  The ride home, although 2 hours, was rife with laughter followed by some drifting off to nap and others tucked into quiet conversation..  This is the latest I have ever been out in Nicaragua.  We arrived home a little after 11pm and once the van was emptied, we went off to rinse the salt water off of us and go to bed.

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Sunday, February 2nd

I was a little bleary eyed this morning as I had trouble getting to sleep last night.  Anyway, breakfast was pancakes and porridge.  I had devotions this morning.  For scripture, I chose Proverbs 3:5 and talked about how we need to give our cares to God and let Him take care of things.  Too often, we carry the full burden.  Then we were off to pack the vans for the day’s events.  

It is an hour drive to Roca del Salvacion church for the service.  This is Pastor Ernan’s (PAN Mission Administrator) church.  It was a lovely service and Yessie (Pastor Ernan’s wife) sang several songs and a couple in English too.  The sermon topic was on not waiting for tomorrow but accomplishing things today.  We do not know what the Lord has in store for tomorrow.  After the service was over, we greeted people and socialized and then tables were set up so that we could have our packed lunch here.

Afterwards, we visited Pastora Dora’s church, Llama de Fuego in Ticuantepe and blessed them with the gift of a dress form from the Apoyo Team and several boxes of milk bags for weaving the plastic mats.  Joannella and the other ladies were very pleased.  They gave us a tour of the newer areas like the building in the back used for women’s retreats and Sunday School.  They have done a lot of work there.

The next visit was to Light Unto My Path church, also in Ticuantepe, which was my very first co-op in 2016 where I taught crocheting.  Their new pastor and the ladies were thrilled with the blessing of a dress form from the Apoyo Team and a new serger to replace the one that was stolen.  As well, some bolts of material and milk bags were left here as well.

Our final visit for the day was the Barrio Walk to Buenos Aires in Ticuantepe.  Historically, a barrio walk would include a walk throughout the village delivering bags to different households.  But today, everyone was gathered at their church and the bags were brought to the front.  The pastor called out the family names for the bags of food blessings.  Also, we had toothbrushes, dolls and Izzie Dolls to hand out to the children.  These Izzie Dolls were made and donated by the Knox Presbyterian Church in Listowel.  I am including a link so that you can learn of the initiative behind The Izzie dolls from Master Corporal Mark Isfield and his mother Carol, through 1 Combat Engineer Unit, and now led by Shirley O’Connell, who lives in my hometown of Perth, Ontario.  In The Mood For Peace

After this visit, we headed home to Jardin Shalom to clean up, and rest before supper.

Thank you for listening and letting me share my stories with you.

Blessings to all,

Susan (aka Suzie)

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; lean not on your own understanding.”  Proverbs 3:5

Day 7 & 8 - Experiencing the Culture

“Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name [c]Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.” 10 And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my [d]territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested.“ 1 Chronicles 4: 9-11

This morning arrived with tossing and turning as it was a humid night.  Yvonne, Wynne, Tara, Sharon & Allan headed out to the barrio out past Rivas.  They were invited to see what the Canadian group COMMIT is doing there with the families.  This group is sponsored by the Stratford Rotary.  They do similar projects to PAN Missions as teaching sewing, music and trades as well as organic gardening and digging wells.  They stay at an orphanage and then drive an hour into the barrios where they work.  

The rest of us at PAN had a more leisurely breakfast and discussed our plans for the day.  Ron led devotions this morning with the bible quote given at the top of the page here.  He spoke of asking the Lord to enlarge our territories and expanding your world as we feel we are doing here in Jardin Shalom.  Asking the Lord to be with you and keep you from evil is so important because we will all learn some day, some way that we cannot do this alone.  And in knowing that, asking for the Lord’s help allowed Jabez to accept God’s help.

The morning was spent doing lots of little odd jobs, like preparing the bags for the barrio walk later on, sorting clothes that we were giving out,  and doing a shopping list for later.  Dawn hobbled back from the build site with more damage to an already aggravated knee.  Ron and Kurt and Jennifer started on the kitchen chairs taking the seats off, scraping and sanding the rust off the metal frames and giving them a fresh coat of paint.  Once showered and changed, I went over to Pan de Vida to see how the work on the Pastor’s house has progressed.  I was very impressed.  They are doing a great job.  We chatted and I took photos and generally humoured them and made them laugh.  

This afternoon, we visited El Portillo, the barrio that is just down the road.  It is here that the children and crocheters are from that we have been working with this trip.  Some of our team have special connections with people here.  We also received an invitation to a party here for this coming Saturday.  Karen turned 15 today, Wednesday, and it is at this age that a young lady is celebrated as becoming a woman.   We had a card and gift for her but she wasn’t home, she was out with her mother.  

From there we went to the village of Nindiri.  There is a barrio just outside of the dump that earns their living from pulling out recycling and selling it to the trucks that come in.  We had a  good visit with the Pastor there, and delivered clothes, shampoos, lotions, soaps, etc,

There is water coming into their barrio, one tap per family.  The water gets turned on for 1 hour, every other day.  It was on while we were there so we saw one family filling buckets to save for use later.

That’s it for Wednesday’s news.

P.S.  Here is a beautiful Nicaraguan sunset for you to dream on.

Thursday, January 30th

We opened our doors this morning to a bright sunshiny morning.   Just a light breeze going through.  After breakfast, I popped out to the kitchen gardens and saw that shoots were up in the squash and cucumber beds that Sharon and I planted just 6 days ago (Jan 24).  Of course, I got excited as I generally do about gardens and insisted everyone come see my babies.  It was a delightful way to start the morning.

Yvonne gave devotional today rooted in the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 and a story about stone soup!  It was a reminder that we each bring what we have and yet, together we are so much more.

We had a bit of waiting to do before going to El Portillo to work.  While waiting, Jesika showed us the items that she had made (a small purse, a head band, a wrist band and lots of flowers).  Judy and Marta will work with the children and Jesika, Jonathan and I will work with the crocheters.  Jesika walks to Jardin Shalom from the house they are living in.   Jesika and her husband are looking after a property for someone who owns several properties so they are given the house to live in while they are here.  Their actual home is about 1-1/2 hours away.  She has advanced very quickly with her crocheting and has been a willing teacher to others.  She has quickly become the leader of these girls and has demonstrated her willingness to work with them.   The van delivered us with 2 tables about 10:30am and we got to work!  The five women around the table learned crocheting in the round and double crochet (punto alto).  Daisy, Jesika, Frances, Rosa and Karen started the base of a water bottle holder.  This will also teach them increasing and decreasing.   They experimented with different types of yarns and sized hooks and found what worked best for them.  After asking them all what their ages were, we finally realized that Karen is our birthday girl!  So we brought the children over and sang Happy Birthday in English and Spanish. There were also 2 puppies that were having great fun while we were there.

12 o’clock came all too soon and we packed up and promised to see each other on Monday.  They were all given extra yarn to practice their trade.  Back to Jardin Shalom for lunch and some itinerary adjustments.  This afternoon Karen’s Pastor & his wife brought her over to visit us so we could give her our gifts and card.  When a young lady turns 15 in Nicaragua, she is given a great party to celebrate becoming a woman.  This is called a Quinzenera.  We had a lovely visit and asked the Pastor what advice he had for her.  He said he would give her 3 things as advice: Follow God, study hard and then, you can find a boyfriend!  We all thought this was great advice!

After a lovely meal of pasta and chicken, we each went to do laundry or blogging or Board work.  The Board members on their retreat have had several meetings.  They certainly work hard for the organization.  

Blessings to all,

Buenos Noches (Good Night!)

Suzie