Ok, so I have many family and friends who are obviously very far away from me who I think at least a handful of them would like to keep tabs on me during my pregnancy. I don’t want to do an in-your-face weekly baby-bump facebook picture. But I will do one via blog! This past year hasn’t been my best blogging year, but I’d like to give it another go to keep you guys updated on this developing baby! Anyway, you can check back at your leisure, I won’t be linking to all of my posts on facebook, because, really, that’s just a not as in-your-face way of being in-your-face, and it’s more work. I hope you enjoy!
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Have you ever gone on vacation and thought, “Wow! This place is amazing, it’s so different from home.” When we go on vacation we usually only see the positive side of the place and don’t see the day to day struggles like we do when we’re at home. At home we see the dishes that have to be done, the bills that need to be paid, the laundry that needs to be cleaned, all that on top of our work and family. At home we see the cracks in the wall, or get frustrated with the people around us who just don’t get “it”, whatever it may be. On vacation we get to relax, spend more time with our family, spend more time with God, we can enjoy the view.
When I first moved to Nicaragua it was a little like going on vacation. It was something new, everything was different and exciting. Maybe it wasn’t always so relaxing, but it had that vacation feel. Now that I’ve been here for a few years I’m starting to see the cracks in the walls and sometimes I get a little (or a lot) frustrated with the people who just don’t get “it”.
Yesterday I was driving and I was feeling a little bad about this because I was thinking how sad it was that I didn’t love Nicaragua like I used to. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not thinking about leaving anytime soon, but I don’t have that same feeling of excitement that I once had. It used to be easy for me to say “I love Nicaragua”, now it’s a little harder. Then it hit me: Nicaragua is my home. I know it’s streets (and all the wholes that are in them), I know it’s people (good and bad), I know that it’s processes are always changing so there’s no point in really learning them. I can see the good and the bad, and I know that just because there are things that are frustrating for me, that doesn’t mean I can’t love the country as a whole. I am where God has called me to be and I am doing what He has called me to do. I absolutely love my job, and I couldn’t do this specific job anywhere else. I am home.
Be not Conformed…
Romans 12:2 says “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
I was thinking about this passage last night and about how it applies to me here in Nicaragua. Moving to a country that is not your own and trying to minister to it’s people is not always easy. Thankfully, God called me to a country that is very similar to my native country. I ask myself how things would be different if I had moved to Pakistan, or tribal Africa, what things would I have changed about myself to fit into my surroundings? If I had moved to Pakistan, would I have dressed according to Muslim traditions? Yes! If I had moved to tribal Africa, would I have gone topless? Not so sure on that one, but I can’t rule it out. To me it’s a matter of modesty, but to them, it’s not (from what I understand).
Sometimes as Christians, I think we take this verse and think “if I listen to that music, or if I dress that way, or if I watch that movie, or go to that place, then I’m being conformed to this world”. Now, I believe that there are those things that Christians shouldn’t take part in, but I also believe that sometimes taking part in some of those things, will allow us to better relate to the world we live in. However, this verse also says that we should be transformed by the renewing of our minds. What does this mean? It means that although Jesus went to sinner’s houses (i.e. that place), He didn’t sin. It means that even if we do go to that place, it doesn’t mean we have to take part in things that compromise our beliefs.
In the Message Bible this verse in Romans says “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”
Living in Nicaragua, I see attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs that are not the norm for me. With some of these things it’s just a matter of getting used to them; driving equally aggressive and defensive, the process of buying something, lines – if you leave any space between you and the person in front of you, anyone can fill that space. But other things go right to this verse. I often get frustrated when I see or hear of a Christian who behaves in a way that is normal, and even expected in Nicaraguan culture, but goes against what I believe that Christ would want of His followers. When Yeril and I were going to get married one of his uncles advised him that “Gringos don’t like when you lie to them”. To me, this is an obvious statement that I would think would apply to everyone, however, in Nicaragua things are different and sometimes lies are expected and/or accepted. This is one of those things that frustrates me and I think to myself, “but you’re a Christian, why would you think that’s ok?”. They’re “so well-adjusted to their culture that they fit into it without even thinking.”
This is where people can say to me… “Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” – Matthew 7:5 How well-adjusted am I to my culture? How well-adjusted are you to your culture? What are the things that we do that we don’t even realize are wrong? That is why the second part of this verse is soo important “… but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Let’s become so well-adjusted to Christ’s culture that we can fit into it without even thinking. Let’s become so fixed on Him that we will be truly and completely changed on the inside.
You can help us start [thinking about] a family!
This past year we were blessed to find a bigger house, however it has it’s issues, including low water-pressure and holes in the ceiling (like the one bellow that’s conveniently located over our stove) that let a lot of dirt in. And, most recently, we had our power turned off due to unpaid bills from before we lived in the house. This, for us, was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and we’ve decided to move out of this house.
This coming year we’d planned to look for a larger house that can accommodate regular showers, clean(ish) floors, and, someday, children. This is where you come in! Our current rent is only $200 a month which is a steal for our house, however, that is about as much as we can swing with our current income. With the recent circumstances, we’ve upped our schedule and have already found another house. We’ll be in a neighborhood where I lived before with a couple of other single girls before getting married. In a way I feel like I’m going back “home” to a familiar area. This house, however, has a higher rent and is in a zone with higher utility rates, but with it being closer to the church, we will spend less money in gas, and can even take the bus or walk if we need/want to. We’ve taken a step (or maybe leap) of faith that God will provide for this new house, and if things get too tight for gas, we always have other options for transportation. However, if we could get enough new monthly commitments, and/or increases to raise our income by just $200 a month we would be able to comfortably afford this home.
Once we’ve reached this $200 goal we’ll be able to set out toward the next goal of increasing our income by another $750 so we might be able to start planning a family. Why so much? Food, diapers, insurance, more gasoline, savings for emergencies. Also, more income would mean increasing our tithe and paying more taxes, all of which would total around $750 more a month.
I’d like to ask you to please prayerfully consider helping us reach these goals! If you’d like to make a monthly commitment you can do so at the following link: Support Now.
I miss… the DMV!
Yeril just finished a driving school and now we are faced with the task of going through the process to get his license. We spent 4 1/2 hours today trying to get the process started. First we had to go to the driving school to get his certificate re-printed because they had printed his second name wrong, but the person who had to sign the certificate wouldn’t be there for two hours. So we went to the bank where we had to pay for the driver’s license, that was another 30 minutes (actually we got in the wrong line to begin with, a set-back of about 10-15 minutes, then switched to the correct line, which set us back another 10 minutes). When we went back to the driving school they had the certificate ready but we found out that we had to pay for the driving certificate too (also at the bank). We decided to go right to the police station and see what they asked for, but the police station that we were told to go to wasn’t the right one, nor was the one that the police station directed us to. When we finally did find the right police station we then had to go to the bank and pay for the driving certificate, but this time it was a much shorter line at the bank. When we went back to the part of the police station and handed in all the papers we were finally done for the day. We get to go back the afternoon of December 12th to pick up the certificate and then we’ll have a whole new process to start to actually get the license… including a vision test and blood-work.
So the next time you’re at your one-stop-shop, the DMV, and you’re getting frustrated with the long lines and rude people, just know that it could be worse.
Weekend Fun
This past weekend I was really excited for Saturday. Saturday is one of our biggest ministry days with a service for kids in the morning and one for youth in the afternoon. Now that Yeril is the childrens’ director the morning services have become much more tiring for us. Jeremy, our boss, recently offered us the option of not coming in the evening and the youth director would no longer come in the morning. The first week that we had that schedule we spent the afternoon doing house work and then cleaned up and went on a date!
With my program, Segundo Paso, we tend to stay at work until 5:30 or 6:00 pm, meaning that we don’t get home before it gets dark… between 6:00 and 6:30 pm every day year round. I was really looking forward to being home before dark on Saturday as it would have been the first day all week that it would have happened. Well, it didn’t happen on Saturday either. 😦 Instead we went and visited my in-laws and got a nice free lunch and we were able to catch up with them after not having seen them in a while. Then we ran some much needed errands and got home a little after dark.
I spent most of Sunday trying to drain all the water out of our water-tank because we needed to work on the tube that went from the tank to the house so that we wouldn’t have a tank that overflows every night. I was able to drain the tank (two loads of laundry, two showers, many dishes washed, and several other house-hold chores took care of it), and we were able to start our changes before sun-down! Shortly after cutting open the tube we realized that it wasn’t a standard 1/2 inch tube like they always use, instead it was a 3/4 inch tube.. the only problem was that all of our material was for the 1/2 inch tube. We tried to do it “nica style” and when the city water turned on that evening we had a pretty decent leak. We spent the evening trying to find the perfect stick to shove in the tube so that we could still take advantage of the city water (great water pressure this time of year) and not have a flooded yard.
We were able to accomplish our task, get up early the next morning, spend less than a dollar to get the new, correct parts, and get them installed before the city water turned back off. Our tank is filled up again and we no longer have overflow problems!
Where Have I Been?
I don’t have a lot of time, it’s 3:40pm on Saturday afternoon and I still need to shower and get ready for this evening’s youth service. I just wanted to give a quick update…
February: WE BOUGHT A CAR!!!!
March: WE’RE MOVING (Tomorrow)!!!
Why I haven’t blogged: other than being really busy (we’ve had three back to back teams this month alone), the internet service provider we use at the office it seems has decided to block wordpress.com which is where my website is hosted so I’m only able to access it from home, and let’s be honest… blogging isn’t the first thing I think about when I get home from a day of work. I’ll blog again as soon as possible with pictures of the new digs and the car!
You Take the Good, You Take the Bad…
If you’ve ever worked with kids, or had kids, or spent any time with kids you know that they can be super sweet, or uhh not. When you spend any significant amount of time with the same kids you learn their patterns, good or bad. Today in Segundo Paso I shared with the kids about Thanksgiving and why we celebrate it in the US. I then asked them to share some of the things they were thankful for… learning, my little brother, my nephew, learning about God, chocolate, etc… When I shared the stories I did it with a couple of pictures that I colored and then let them know that they would have the opportunity to color their own picture a little later after they finished their homework (if they don’t bring their own we give them some to do).
One girl, who is normally very sweet, came up to me and said she wanted to color, I asked her if she had done her homework and she said she had. When I asked her to show it to me she kinda looked around a little, I told her she had to do homework before coloring. A little while later she came to me with a completed math homework sheet, but I recognized it as the homework of another girl so I called her out on it and told her she had to do her own. She ended up not completing any homework, nor did she get to color. A sad day for this girl, although when it came time to leave she said she was going to stay at the church with me and hugged me, so she must not have been too upset with me.
Another young girl who is always a handful came to me and asked for a picture. I told her that she had to do homework first, she put up a little fight and when I repeated the conditions she said “okay” and did a homework page quickly and then came to me to get her picture to color. This girl has learned how to manage her behavior a little through coming to Segundo Paso. It’s been a long road with her, and there’s still much to learn but I’m continually encouraged to have patience with her and continue to encourage her to improve despite her difficulties (which, unfortunately, are many).
It’s not always easy to have patience with the kids, but it’s always worth it. Here are a couple pictures of some of the kids that come to Segundo Paso. Next week we’ll be having a celebration with the kids and one select member of their family as we give certificates of completion, book-bags with school supplies, and certificates of achievement to the kids. It’s been 7 months of learning and growing and frustration and joy with Segundo Paso. I can’t wait until we can start again next year and make it bigger and better!!
The Sweetest Thing
Last Wednesday we had a really difficult week with Segundo Paso. There is a local marching band that has been preparing for an event that they have coming up this weekend and they have been practicing in the street in front of the church. This was particularly distracting last Wednesday and as a result we could not conduct business as usual with the kids at Segundo Paso since they all wanted to watch the band and they couldn’t even hear what we were saying anyway. Toward the end of the day each week we go to the park to play, so we finally decided to just go a little earlier. We had already given the kids their snack (a little milk and Ritz crackers).
One of the girls who is particularly difficult each week had not eaten her crackers yet and when we went to the park she sat and continued to watch the band for a while. I encouraged her to come with me and play with the rest of the kids, she gladly got up and came with me but quickly turned around like she had forgotten something. I watched her go back to a kid we had passed that was also watching the band, sitting in his wheelchair, and she gave him her crackers. I almost broke down crying right there in the park from watching her make such an unselfish decision. When she caught up to me I told her “that was a really nice thing you did” and she looked at me like I was crazy and said “what did I do?” when I told her that I saw her give her crackers to the boy she just shrugged and said “oh” and then ran ahead to play with the other girls. A little while later she said to me “ya know it’s because I didn’t really want them anymore”. It was the sweetest thing!
And you win… a new car…
Click Here to see the video version of our testimony about how God protected us while going to get some fried chicken. Also, because of this incident we’re raising money to purchase a car. As a missionary, all of my income is given by the generous donations of friends, family, strangers, old co-workers, milkmen, geologists, former girl scout troop leaders, etc. That being said, it is hard for us to save money without extra financial gifts. If you’d like to help us increase our mobility and safety by making a donation toward the purchase of a decent used car, you can make a tax-deductible donation by clicking here, or if you don’t care about tax deductions you can send a check to Katie Lozano at an address that I can provide for you upon request.
Traveling Katie 