R.O.U.S´s, Horses, and Monkeys, Oh My!

It is quite amusing to me, as I sit down and write this while I try to sort out my feelings on our new home, to see how many different emotions come up regarding the word “Nicaragua”.

A year ago, it was just a thought, not even a dream, really. A semi-possibility of doing something more, if we could pay off debt, rent out our home, and find a way to support ourselves financially while living in a foreign land and preaching every single day. Then, after reading the 2003 Yearbook on Nicaragua (which I encourage you to read), we decided to just do it. We told Jehovah that we would like to do it, that we would do our part in trying to pay off debt, etc., but the rest would be up to him. Well, you can see very well what his answer was. Here we are!

When we told our friends and family back home that we would be moving here to help out in a greater need area, there were some mixed reactions. Some felt we were nuts and would soon snap out of it. Others felt that we were trying to do our best in serving Jehovah and were thrilled for us. Others looked at us with sad eyes, shaking their heads, wondering where our funerals would be held once the vicious kidnappers and guerilla fighters had their way with us. For our part, however, we felt that it would be a sin not to go. How could we sit through a talk encouraging us to do the most we can for Jehovah, while having the circumstances to do just that but preferring to stay in our comfort zone?

So, we took the plunge into the deep end of the pool and went to a country in Central America that we had never stepped foot in before. And you know what? We are starting to create our very own comfort zone here already! The brothers and sisters, you are always told, are the same everywhere. We all speak the same pure language of truth and have put on the same new personality. And it is true! We are seeing it for ourselves.

Proverbs 10:22 says, “The blessing of Jehovah - that is what makes rich, and he adds no pain with it.” Yes, we have only a tiny fraction of the material things we had back home (and we didn’t have much back home, ha ha). The money we live off per month would not last us 10 days back in the States. We don’t have much in the way of entertainment, no movie theaters, no Applebee’s or Olive Garden or gourmet Chinese food (I’m getting hungry now!). But we are rich! We have wonderful evenings in fellowship with our brothers and sisters, where we discuss deep Bible subjects, field service, and play games. We find human treasures in service. We feel the warmth and love of the congregation. We feel the deep appreciation that the brothers, including the Bethel branch, have for us and the other foreign pioneers that have decided to make this their home in support of Kingdom interests. And we have Jehovah, who is with us wherever we may go on this planet. We are keenly aware of his hand helping us and guiding us.



We have only been here about 7 weeks, but we are having the time of our lives and we know that it will only get better and better as we get busier in service and in the congregation, and as we get to make more and more friends here. Now, although Jehovah does not add any pain to his rich blessings, we DO have certain pains of the more fleshly type. For your sympathy (or gleeful pleasure), I present:


R.O.U.S’s.


R.O.U.S’s, if you’ve seen the classic movie “The Princess Bride” is a rather comical phrase. For us here in Nicaragua though, it stands for Roaches Of Unusual Size. We will see one just about daily. (Jehovah instructs us to abhor what is wicked. Marlene saves a little bit of that for R.O.U.S’s.) Some of them are disgusting and rather stubborn to die. They run when they see you, knowing that their end is at hand and fainting out of fear and expectation. Others have sadly stepped into the Raid that we spray from time to time and are dying agonizingly slow deaths, probably having their lives flashing before their eyes, from when they were born with their hundred brothers and sisters, flicking their little antennae back and forth during play time, to finding that special roach lady or roach man, having a few hundred babies, going out to pick up a few crumbs for the kids back home, and running into the executioner on the way back.... Either way, it falls to me to be the death-dealer in our home. Usually it is just a smack with a sandal, and it is mercifully over rather quickly. Other times they are rather resourceful and climb up to the pila (a wash basin in the patio), and hide in a little corner, so then I have to turn on the faucet and drown the poor things. Once Molly, our little Shih-Tzu, decided to give Daddy a little help and I found one with the lower half of his body eaten off. Now that was disgusting (Marlene has a fear that one morning Molly will bring her a little gift in bed; a gift of the small, wriggling kind. And yes, that fear will probably come true one day). Now, killing R.O.U.S’s is not very difficult, and it doesn’t bother my conscience murdering them, as I take no pleasure in it. But it is rather dirty work, and it does wear on you. Especially when you accidentally step on one with only a thin sock on your foot. Thankfully, we have not seen any in our shower. That would make Marlene move out of the country. Personally, I think that the R.O.U.S’s are not stupid and they probably think that only idiots are crazy enough to step in that ice cold shower to freeze their noses off.

And now on to more pleasant subjects.


HORSES


A couple of weeks ago we were getting a little stir crazy. We are not used to living in such a small town and especially not having a vehicle. So we were really bored out of our minds when Sylvia and Emily invited us to go to Masaya. Masaya, we’ve heard, is a nice town about 45 minutes away with good food and little shops with souvenirs. It is also very close to Catarina, which has the Laguna de Apoyo (I encourage you to Google “Laguna de Apoyo”. It is beautiful!)

So, we were very excited to go, looking for a little break from the feelings of confinement we were starting to have. We were set to go on Friday, but unfortunately it rained very heavily and we were unable to go. Saturday we had our Watchtower and Public Talk (which is usually on Sundays but was switched over because of religious festivals going on in the city on Sunday, and it was felt that it would be too noisy to have an effective meeting), so we were able to go on Sunday.

Masaya truly is a beautiful city. We happened to arrive during their 199th anniversary, and there was a little folkloric dance thing happening, which was neat to see. The souvenir shops were very interesting, and I was able to get a hat, which really helps now that the sun is beating down on us. They had many many trinkets, beautiful art, hand-woven hammocks, hand crafted black pottery, and other strange beautiful things. For some reason, though, they also had hundreds of toads that had been killed and stuffed. These toads were usually paired two by two on a little wooden stand, and put into poses such as drinking a beer and even very lewd, obscene poses with each other. It was actually pretty sickening, and we both had the same thought: What a total lack of respect for Jehovah’s creation! And yes, we know that they are “just” toads, but still, it was pretty disheartening. They also had stuffed roosters which, for some reason, didn’t bother me as much. Perhaps it was because the roosters and hens weren’t forced to assume pornographic poses in death, like the toads were. Seriously, some people are just totally messed up.

After shopping in Masaya and eating lunch, we took a taxi over to Catarina, and we were dropped off at “El Mirador”, a local lookout point over the Laguna de Apoyo. The lagoon is in a large crater of a dead volcano. You may not be able to tell from the photograph, but the water was crystal clear and perfectly reflected the rising forested cliffs on either side of it, as well as the clouds in the sky.



We noticed that they were renting horses nearby, and I looked at Marlene and just nodded my head, smiling. She shook her head, saying, “no way!”. (Marlene thinks horses are beautiful, but she is a little afraid of them because they might start running and she fears falling off. Well, they did run, as I will explain in a bit, but although she bounced all over the place, she didn’t fall.) I went over anyway and asked the guy how much they were. Since they were $3 apiece, even Marlene knew that it was too good of a deal to pass up. That, and my incessantly sad puppy dog eyes did the trick. Sylvia didn’t want to go, so we took Emily with us, and wound our way through the cobblestone streets to another lookout point even more beautiful than the first one. The horses were pretty lazy, and we took our time getting up there. On the way back, however, I chose Marlene’s horse, which had shown a bit more spunk on the way to the second lookout point, and started pushing him to trot and gallop on the way back. Emily’s horse was pretty spirited as well, and we were soon racing through the streets of the sleepy town, laughing and catching up to one another. As one of us passed Marlene up, however, her horse chose to not be left behind and took off after us. At one point we were going so fast that my hat blew off my head (one of the “guides” that were running down the street after us picked it up. He probably thought we were running off with the horses, but he would at least keep my nice hat!). We finally made it back, with flushed excited faces. . . When I asked her if she had fun, Marlene smiled enthusiastically and nodded her head and said, “Just don’t ask me to do it again, okay? Ever?”


MONKEYS


Since I started reading up on Nicaragua about a year ago, I realized that in certain parts of the country there are monkeys. Namely, spider monkeys and howler monkeys. I must admit that I have always held a certain affection for the primates of the world, and I sometimes nurture a dream in which, in the New World, I would be able to train a group of 4 or 5 chimpanzees to do our laundry, wash the dishes, and keep up the general maintenance of our home, for which they would be richly paid in bushels and bushels of big, yellow bananas. And if any little bundles of joy would be born to us, why, I’m sure they could be trained to look after the children while we went traveling or riding horses through long meadows of tall grass and sunflowers. Is it a form of slavery? Oh, I don’t know. I suppose it would depend on the point of view, but why give them opposable thumbs if not for work, right? And they would look so adorable with little coveralls and straw hats, mowing my lawn.

Anyway, when we arrived in Santa Teresa, Sylvia and Emily told us that there are monkeys in the area, and that they sometimes see them while out in service. I was secretly saying “Whoopee! Yahoo! I want to see monkeys!!”, while outwardly appearing calm and saying “Well, I suppose that might be interesting….” But Marlene would just smile at me and shake her head, knowing my internal excitement.

So last week we were going out to a rural area which is quite a few kilometers away (I’ve quit trying to figure out things in miles), and after trekking through a narrow mud trail through what seemed to me like a jungle, complete with hanging green vines, we came upon a small clearing with a road leading out of it, towards the town in the far distance. As we got on the road, talking and laughing, we heard a surprisingly deep, resonating growl in the trees above us. It seemed to come from some very large beasts. I immediately broke out in a grin, because I had already read in books that howler monkeys are named for their deep, guttural hoots and howls that can be heard from a mile away. We all fell quiet and Sylvia and Frank motioned us over to the foot of a large tree. We hurried over as quietly as possible, and looked up. Thankfully Marlene had her camera!



We must have seen probably about 15 of them, some of them mothers with their tiny babies riding on their backs, clinging to their necks, jumping from branch to branch. They were very beautiful, and their low growls didn’t seem so intimidating once you saw the actual size of these rather small creatures. But I’ve been told that when they get angry they will either urinate on you or throw little lumps of excrement on you. It’s amazing to me that these little creatures know that they can insult you more by throwing their poop at you than by throwing a twig or a piece of fruit.

Now, to change the subject a bit before I wrap this up, service is going fantastic. Today we were walking down the street and noticed a man selling food or something, and we fell in step beside him. After some pleasantries, we offered him a tract. He asked us what religion we were, and when we told him that we are Jehovah’s Witnesses, he stopped and said, “I have a question for you. You say that the dead don’t feel or know anything, but the Bible says that we all go either to Heaven or Hell.” He asked me what I personally thought about this. I took out my Bible, and he started shaking his head no, saying, “What do YOU think?” I, of course, opened up the Bible and said, “I believe what the Bible says.” (Some of the more religious people seem to not like the Bible, which is quite odd)…

This opened up a very nice conversation in which I was able to use about 8 scriptures to prove that the dead are conscious of nothing at all, that the soul is not immortal, and that there is a sure hope for the dead to be resurrected here on earth and have eternal life. He admitted that he did not know how to read, but he listened very carefully to the scriptures I read to him. Later in the conversation I found out that he is a preacher who teaches a congregation of Baptists somewhere in town. It is amazing to Marlene and me that someone would lead others from the pulpit, not knowing how to check if what he himself believes is true. It is truly a case of the blind leading the blind!

Later on we went to the bakery across the street to pick up some bread and little treats, and we asked the store owner how he liked the tract we had left (the new campaign). He nodded his head and said that he liked what he read about the dead. His wife came into the conversation, wanting to know what we were talking about. I asked to borrow her Bible, and asked her what she thought happens to us when we die. She said, “Well, we either go to Heaven or Hell, right?” I didn’t respond, I just opened up the Bible, and she said, “That’s not right?” I said, “Well, let’s see what the Bible says.” I read to her Ecclesiastes 9:5,10, and she was shocked! She turned to her husband and said, “Did you hear that?” Then I showed her John 5:28, 29, but I noticed that she kept her finger in Ecclesiastes, not wanting to lose the place. After we reasoned for a bit on the scriptures, I turned her Bible back to Ecclesiastes so she could re-read it and mark it if she wants to. We think that we will have some good conversations with them from now on. It was really cool to see her reaction!

Another very interesting experience I had was at a hardware store in town. Marlene had left the owner a campaign tract last week and we were there looking for sponges, and we decided to ask him how he liked the tract. He said that he had enjoyed it, but that he was confused with the paragraphs on death. He said, “Why is it that in the Old Testament, it talks of death as being the end of existence, when in the New Testament it talks about going to Heaven and Hell?” I asked him for an example, and he was ready for it. “In Luke 16, Jesus talked about the Rich Man and Lazarus. One went to Hell and was burning there, while the other went to Heaven. It is very clear.” (I later found out that this is a topic that the Evangelicals use to combat us quite often. They teach this to their members, and so we get questions about it. I have NEVER had a householder bring this up in the U.S. before, and here I have already had 3 different people in the span of a week or two bring it up!) As it happened, we had stopped in on the way to a bible study that Marlene has, so we were unable to stay long and explain it (Thank Goodness! I haven’t researched that in probably 10 years…) He asked us when would be a good time to continue the conversation, and he said that he would be happy to close down his hardware store so we could discuss it. So we made an appointment for a few days later. Meanwhile I researched the topic and was ready with some very good scriptures that prove it was not a literal historical account, but rather a parable of Jesus. When we returned, we spent a good 40 minutes or so, but the conversation was unfortunately interrupted by a delivery truck and so we had to postpone it (Satan is not going to let him go that easy, I suppose). But he admitted that Lazarus could not have been in Heaven, although he still believes that he went somewhere. We have an appointment for this Friday at his house, and we will reason a bit more on the Scriptures together. Emily said that she was very surprised that he invited us in and even closed down his shop for us, since he has a reputation of not liking Witnesses and has even run some off his property. She came along for the visit in his store, and said that he had completely changed his attitude. Something must have happened in his life, so perhaps Jehovah is opening his heart. It remains to be seen if he is correctly disposed to everlasting life, but we will give it our best and see whether Jehovah makes it grow or not.

The other elder, Everet, finally returned last week and it has infused the congregation with some relief. Sumitaka is a very encouraging and humble brother, but the congregation was missing Everet. I have had the opportunity to work with him in service and he is a very zealous pioneer and also has a very positive attitude, which is refreshing. He is very happy that we have been assigned here.


THE CONVENTION AND SPECIAL MEETING


This past weekend we had a wonderful treat. We had the English District Convention at the assembly hall at the branch, and it was fantastic! It was like a miniature International Convention. Most of the foreigners serving in the country went, and we got to meet quite a few from the States, Canada, Britain, Japan, Spain, Scotland, Mexico, Italy, Germany, and other parts of the world (friends from 18 countries were present). Everyone present and everyone giving a part from the platform were people who have left their homes, family, and friends behind (at great cost!), to have a fuller share in the harvest work, including members from the Nicaragua branch committee and missionaries who have served here for the last 30 or 40 years. It was a very rich experience, and the quality of the talks were excellent. There were quite a few talks that were specifically tailored to fit our needs. It really emphasized how much of Jehovah’s spirit we need to continue serving here. We had one single baptismal candidate (there are only 2 english congregations in the entire country), and it was very moving because the talk was basically directed at him. He is from Bluefields, on the Atlantic coast (where they speak a Caribbean-type English and Miskito), and his congregation traveled together over 40 hours and spent over $2,500 (dollars) to be there at the convention. We all gathered around to watch his baptism, in this small, modest, but beautiful baptismal pool under the shade of a circle of trees, in a clearing on the Bethel property, and we all broke into applause as he was baptized and welcomed by all of us. It was very special.





On Sunday night we were invited to a special gathering that this couple from Italy had put together. It was at a very high class hotel ballroom, and there were about 90 present. It was a nice little buffet with some pretty good food, and a little bit of dancing, but the best part of it was the fellowship that we were able to have, and there were a lot of laughs when we all shared little details of our assignments and how we were all irritated and amused by the exact same things, no matter where in the country you were. R.O.U.S’s were a big thing we have in common. We are all so impressed by the lush, green, natural beauty of the country, and the field ministry. We are so amazed by the receptive spirit the people have. It has been rather difficult during the special campaign, because the people want you to sit down and talk to them about the Bible, and we have to explain that we are only being very brief this time around.

On Monday we had a very special experience. There was a special meeting that was open only to needgreaters (who are all at least regular pioneers), special pioneers, missionaries, and traveling overseers. The talks had such topics as “How to Overcome Challenges in Your Assignment”, “Keep In Step with Jehovah’s Organization”, “Jehovah Rewards Us”, and “Give Jehovah Your Best”. One suggestion that was made was to study our Large Reference Bible the way that Gilead students do, reading it and taking notes on the chapters we read, indicating footnotes that shed light on the meaning of certain scriptures, and perhaps from the All Scripture book. We were encouraged also to be careful of not forming “Foreigner cliques” in the congregation, not associating only with those who also speak English or who are serving there as foreigners, but to also have close association equally with the local brothers. The talk about challenges made us realize that, although sometimes we are exasperated and even have feelings of wanting to return home because of the unique challenges we face in a foreign field, there were challenges back home, too. Perhaps the challenges back home were different, such as not having enough time for study or service, etc., they were just as exasperating. The challenges here are merely of a different sort, but just as we have to rely on Jehovah in a developed country like the US, we have to rely on him (perhaps even more so) here in Nicaragua. We were also encouraged to not lose our joy in the assignment we have. Bethel tends to send us to an “easy” assignment first, where there are more foreigners with you (we have 12 in our congregation), elders and ministerial servants (we have 2 elders and 3 servants, which is A LOT in comparison with many other congregations), and more publishers (we have about 50 or so). Later, when Bethel feels you are ready, they may ask you to serve in a more difficult assignment, and we have to be careful to not lose the joy that we had in our “easy” assignment. We will pray to Jehovah that we can be well trained and ready, if that situation ever comes upon us. We also received some good recommendations and watchtower and awake articles to look up regarding staying healthy, so as to be able to continue serving here.



The Bethel family worked very hard to prepare the meeting for us. The speakers were VERY well prepared and very loving, and we were provided a buffet-style lunch with delicious chicken, rice, mashed potatoes, a colorful assortment of vegetables, and a nice dessert cake. The Bethel members that prepared the food had been up since 2:00 in the morning, even though they knew that they would not have a day off from Bethel work, but would have to do their customary work on top of working hard to prepare the meal. The servers were very happy and we could tell that they considered it a privilege to help us. What a wonderful example of hard work and joy they are!

Our Spanish district convention will be December 12-14, and we are really looking forward to it. We were thinking of not going, because we have already gone to the Spanish one back home in July, and we just had the English one, but it is our assignment, and the brothers would be hurt if we did not go. Also, I have a small interview that I am participating in, so now we kind of have to. But we will look forward to meeting more brothers and sisters, this time of the local type, which we are sure will be very encouraging.

On a final note, before I end this entry, I would like to say how Jehovah constantly amazes us, with little tiny seemingly insignificant things. Two things such as this happened to us.

On Sunday, we chose a seat behind a small family and Marlene tapped the sister on the shoulder to ask her if they were here on vacation, or were they serving somewhere? The sister turned around, and upon seeing Marlene, gasped! I quickly wondered if perhaps Marlene had a bit of tuna fish on her face or something, but the sister asked, “What is your name?” They quickly realized that this sister had been in Marlene’s very first congregation in St. Louis, and that her fleshly sister had been Marlene’s best friend! We spent probably an hour or so talking to them during the lunch intermission, and it was so nice to get to see Marlene from somebody else’s point of view. (At one point I swear I thought the sister say, “When you went to jail”, but she had actually said, “When you went to Gail”, a sister in a different congregation. It’s too bad I was mistaken, because that would explain quite a few things regarding my wife….) But seriously, what are the odds of this happening? Of us picking those seats? It must have been Jehovah.

Another such thing happened the last day we were at Bethel, on Monday. We had finished with lunch and the association with the friends, and were walking out to the car (we hitched a ride with Everet, Sylvia and Emily), and on the way there we saw this massive Land Cruiser parked in the Bethel parking lot. We walked up to the occupants inside and made some remark about how it looked like the perfect special pioneer vehicle. They asked us where we were from, and we said New Mexico. The brother in the driver’s seat looked astonished and took out a piece of paper from his wallet, asking us what our names were. As we answered him, he showed us the piece of paper, which said, “Luis and Marlene Ruvalcaba, Vista Hermosa Congregation, Rio Rancho, New Mexico”. Now it was OUR turn to be astonished! The brother, Matt Elliott, explained to us that he goes to a Spanish congregation named Delta, in Colorado. We immediately recognized that as the congregation where this family we studied with back in the States moved to. They are really our pride and joy, our “letters of recommendation (2 Cor. 3:1-3)”, because we helped both of them to baptism (Eileen, their little girl, is only about 4, but she already has the pioneer spirit and would cry if her mom didn’t take her out in service every day. If this system lasts she will be a missionary somewhere). When they found out that this brother and his family were coming down to Nicaragua for the English district convention, they wrote down our names and asked him to look for us and to send their love to us. They had looked all over for us all three days, and when do they finally find us? On our way out on Monday. They were literally the last people we talked to before we got in the car and left. We simply couldn’t believe it, and it was so cool to see that Jehovah maneuvered things even as seemingly unimportant as this. He is so generous!

Well, this concludes this portion of the blog. We are sorry we haven’t updated it in a while, but we have been especially busy with the special campaign work and the district convention, and the special meeting, and the partying, of course. But rest assured that we are enjoying ourselves more than we ever have in our entire lives, and we are SO thrilled to be used by Jehovah in this way. We certainly don’t deserve it, but we will gladly take it!





We love you, our dear friends, very much, and we pray to Jehovah concerning you so that he continues to bless your earnest efforts to preach his Kingdom and to stay neutral and very busy in these rapidly changing times. We hope that you ask Jehovah to bless our efforts as well.