Sweet, Sweet Candy and Horrible, Horrible Darkness

We sat, trembling in the cold and in the dark.
“Has it really come to this?”, we thought. “Is this where we meet our end?”

Any available water was nothing but a distant fuzzy memory. Electricity had disappeared days ago. And the wind! The howling wind, battering our small house as if a giant was furiously blowing on it, determined to uproot it and send it flying into oblivion. The metal-sheet roof threatened to fly away, tearing against the old, weak nails that fixed it to even older, rotting wooden beams. It banged and slammed against the frame of the house, over and over again, a terrible sound that vibrated through our bones.
We were in the middle of an almost nation-wide blackout. A vicious windstorm had blown across the country, tearing down trees and power lines. We would later find out that the large, two-story ferry used to travel regularly to Ometepe Island had very nearly sunk beneath the frigid waters with over 100 people aboard.
But on that cold night, with the wind rushing down the street outside like a freight train, the howls of the dogs trying desperately to find shelter lest they be torn apart like twigs, the most terrible thought in our minds was,
“What if we miss Lost?”


But I digress. Let us begin at the place where one must always begin. The beginning.

About three weeks ago, we had been buzzing along in our normal routine up to that point, until we suddenly realized that we had reached a point we never thought we could ever reach—complete and utter poverty.

I am not sure how exactly it happened. Now, I don’t mean to say that we did not have a single dollar to our name. We had some reserves in our bank account, but we did not have the 25 cents needed for even one of us to go to Jinotepe to actually withdraw our funds.

I think we merely failed to keep a good track on the money going out, and we reached into our pockets and wallets one morning and came up with 2 cordobas between us. The bus to Jinotepe costs 5. We looked everywhere, but we couldn’t find any more.

“Oh well,” we said. “We’ll just finish the food that we have in the fridge and figure something out later.”

We opened the fridge and, unfortunately, saw that we had already finished anything edible that could be found. We looked at each other, and we looked down at our hungry puppies, and we just had to laugh. We had no food, and no money.

So, we decided to go out in service. Everet, Silvia, and Emily were due back from their Guatemala vacation the following day, and we would just ask them for a ride to Jinotepe and then we would withdraw some money and buy some groceries. As for today, well, we would figure out something. Maybe someone would angrily throw a mango or a potato at us during service and we could get some lunch then.

Service that day went rather well, as usual, and when we returned (unfortunately without any produce being thrown at us), we sat down and tried to figure out what to do. We could always borrow some money, sure, but we felt that since we were still relatively new here, and everyone else was very poor, that would be our very last resort.

Marlene leaned back into the sofa and promptly fell asleep.

I started studying for that week’s meeting, and suddenly a knock came at the door. Willy, the house caretaker, was there and handed me 500 cordobas. “Here you go,” he said.

I frowned at this, scratching my head in confusion, and he said, “Don’t you remember? This is from Scarlett.”

“Of course I remember,” I said, trying to.

Then suddenly it hit me. The owner of the house, Scarlett, told us she would give us $500 cords this month because of something to do with the phone bill. It was her share of it. I smiled as I recalled that the phone bill was not due for another few days. This was our way to go to Jinotepe, get some groceries, get some money out, and reimburse her share so that the phone bill could be paid on time.

I woke up Marlene, tapping her on the shoulder and holding the money in front of her face. Whenever I wake her up, she always awakens with a violent start, as if someone just came into the room shooting up the place. So I took care to stand a good distance away while I reached over and tapped her.

After her shock at being woken up from a dream full of bunnies and teddy bears she smiled.

This was just one example of seeing Jehovah’s hand providing for us. Lately we have been rather tight on cash, since we have had some unexpected purchases come up (who would have thought that we would actually need a sofa and a couple of cushioned chairs? Well, plastic molded chairs can only provide so much comfort. After a while it starts to feel like cement!)

The next predicament we found ourselves in was that my parents were visiting the following week, and we did not yet have an extra bed. We thought of merely putting the inflatable mattress on the floor in the living room and giving my parents our bed in our room, but the thought of sleeping with who knows what crawling across the floor in the dead of night was definitely not appealing.

Then, however, we were invited to dinner by Ed and Lisa, a very nice family from Chicago who we ran into a few months ago. They were leaving that week, but had wanted to get together with us. We spent a very pleasant evening with them, and when we mentioned my parents visiting, they offered to give us a bed they had bought a while ago. They no longer needed it, and we were more than happy to accept it. It worked beautifully.

The following Sunday was, for some reason I cannot recall, rather discouraging. I think that we ran into some minor trouble with loss of electricity and water, and it was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. Anyway, we were feeling pretty dejected, and later that night I remember feeling that I wish I could just get that day over with. The meeting, of course, had been a bright spot but otherwise it had been pretty dismal.

At one point, however, the phone rang. I picked it up and it was Daniela, from back home! She put the entire Morales family on speaker-phone, and we had a very encouraging conversation. They even said that at that particular meeting, we had been mentioned in the public talk. It didn’t really hit me until after we hung up. We realized that we actually are encouraging others back home, too, and that really made us feel very good. The entire phone call was just what we needed that day. After we hung up, we talked about how much we really missed them, but that it had really made our day.

After that, our batteries were recharged and the days went by rather pleasantly.

MY PARENTS’ VISIT

On the following Wednesday, my parents arrived. It must have been a shock for them to go from minus 20 degrees or whatever in Chicago, to 85 degrees and high humidity in Central America. They were happy to see us, of course, although they mentioned that I was way too skinny. I think the word “stick” was thrown around a few times. I guess I could be a little bit fatter. (All that will be taken care of in due time, when we visit the States. Chicken wings, here I come!)

Anyway, after we got their numerous gigantic bags into the car (they were very heavy, which was very good news for us), we took them to our favorite restaurant in Managua, a Mexican place at the mall, which they enjoyed. Later we got home and opened up our presents, which were their bags.

My parents had asked us for a list of needs and wants before they came. I had listed Milk Duds, Laffy Taffy, and medicine. And that was in order of importance.

Marlene, selfless as usual, asked for medicine, doggie treats, doggie medicine, doggie toys, doggie combs, other assorted doggie items, and then some hair care stuff, other assorted girl stuff, and some candy, if they felt like it.

When we opened up the bags, all I could see was candy, candy candy. 31 boxes of Milk Duds, 2 or 3 large bags of Laffy Taffys, about 5 or 6 huge tins of chocolate for Marlene, etc. We eventually saw that they gave us a huge amount of very high quality soap, medicine, and other things that we really, really needed. I even got 6 or 7 books to read (I am a book addict. . . Marlene doesn’t like it much because I pick up a book and disappear into La-La Land.)

As of this writing, my wonderful Laffy Taffy is gone. I’m not sure if I ate it all or if Marlene stole some, but it is very sadly gone. My Milk Duds, however, are still going strong. The main reason is because I can’t take Milk Duds out of the house or else they will melt into this disgusting gooey blob. Of course it is still edible, but my hands get all messed up. Laffy Taffy, thanks to some wonderful chemical additives, stay in the same shape until they are eaten. So I took a bunch of them in service every day and—well, I guess I DID eat them all, come to think of it!

Our doggies were very, very happy to get about a year’s supply of rawhides, bones, and treats. We were feeling pretty bad for them lately, but now they are happy as can be.



Lizette, my younger sister, also burned me some DVDs with some of my favorite TV shows that I missed while I was gone, so that was an extremely nice gift as well.

All in all, we were totally overwhelmed at their generosity and kindness.

The next day, after a night filled with dreams of chocolate rivers and rolling around in Laffy Taffy (I’m sure the dogs drooled during the night as well, reliving the rawhides they had consumed before bed), we took my parents to the Isletas de Granada, the same tour we had taken before with Everet and his family. For some reason, however, the Spanish fort was filled with gnats, which flew into our mouths, nostrils, and got all over our clothes. It was completely disgusting. At one point I laughed, and swallowed about 10 of the poor things. Oh well. It was a very nice trip from inside the boat, though.

During the rest of my parents’ trip here, we took them to San Juan del Sur, which was new for us as well and was totally breathtaking, seeing the ocean. (I remember sitting on the beach, sipping a frozen drink and watching the waves rolling in under a lazy sun, and I suddenly remembered the rest of my family, back in Chicago, freezing in their gigantic stuffed coats, shaking their fists at the snow that would continue to fall. I felt your pain, people.)

That weekend we had a special treat. I had heard of a group in the Isletas, and their assignment is to preach among the numerous little islands there. I was told that you have to make a reservation to attend, since they pick you up from the dock in a boat and they can only fit so many people. So before my parents arrived, I called and made the necessary arrangements. When we arrived that Sunday, we immediately went out in service, being taken to the islands by a boat. We hiked up a very steep mountain in order to reach the several return visits and studies up there. My parents really impressed us.

There is a moment when you are preaching in many of these territories, where you feel that you are near death. Your heart is pounding, your vision is jumpy, your sweat is coming out in rivers and you are panicking, wondering how you are going to put all that fluid back into your body. You start hearing and seeing things that aren’t even there.. . . sometimes while walking along miles of dirt road, I can almost swear I see a kindly woman at the side of the road, a pitcher of Country Time Lemonade in her hand, smiling and beckoning to me, and then when I get near to her, smiling and wide-eyed, licking my parched lips, I see that it is only a dry tree, swinging its cracked and dead branch in the wind.

Anyway, I thought I saw that look in my mother’s eyes at one point. She seemed about ready to pack it in. Like “Ta ta, see you in the New World, people!” But she got through it, got her second wind, and she just really amazed us. The rest of that week she kept up with us in our long treks through service, and she actually said she hadn’t felt that good, physically, in a long time.



My dad was also very impressed with the preaching work, once he got a taste of actually talking to people, even being invited in, and sharing scriptures. He mentioned that he would like to come back and get more preaching in than he was able to this time around.



The meeting at the Isletas was very nice. It took place right on the shore, with waves rolling in and the songs of birds in the background. About 90% of the entire group (about 30) were all under 20 years old. I’m not sure why they were all so young, but it was quite refreshing to see their zeal in the ministry.

During my parents’ visit we also had a tour of Bethel arranged for our congregation. It was a very nice treat, and it was really cool to see all of the different paintings around, some of which have been used in Watchtowers and other Bible-based publications from the organization (the painting of the Mount of Olives, with Jesus’ apostles asking him, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your presence and of the conclusion of the system of things?” was there, and I was able to study it carefully. It’s so beautiful, isn’t it??)

We also learned a lot of things about the work here in Nicaragua. There are presently 2 districts with over 20 circuits, and around 350 congregations. There is an average of 2 elders per congregation, but about 30% of all congregations either have only 1 elder or 0 elders, and they are also SORELY in need of ministerial servants and regular pioneers (so anyone that is thinking of serving where the need is greater, let me know!)

Later we visited Ometepe Island, and stayed at a very nice hotel on the lake. There was a hammock, which my Dad wouldn’t share of course, and a VERY nice breeze coming in through the windows at night. The breeze, with the sound of the waves, made us sleep like little babies.



During the Ometepe trip, Marlene and I took a kayak tour out to a jungle river. It has Caymans in it, which is some sort of alligator, but unfortunately we didn’t see any that day. We did, however, see a whole mess of birds, including white and blue Herons, which are very beautiful. At one point, however, while I was paddling (Marlene had the front seat), I noticed a very, VERY large yellow and furry spider on Marlene’s life jacket. It was crawling rather quickly up her back and was about to go under her shirt by her neck. I more or less stood up in the kayak and said, “Don’t move!” She put up her hands like I was going to shoot her or something, and I smacked the spider. It fell onto the kayak, and I picked it up and threw it in the river, where the poor thing drowned to death, probably. I don’t know if it did or not, but it definitely sank into the water like that guy on the Titanic movie. It even stretched out its 8 furry legs in a sad, watery farewell.

Anyway, that’s how I saved Marlene’s life. She wasn’t very appreciative at first. She said, “Did you hit me with your oar?” I decided to take that as a compliment regarding my superhuman strength, but I assured her that I had merely smacked her.

I don’t remember if it was an open handed slap or if it was a fist punch, but either way, I saved her life, didn’t I? Besides, she had a life jacket on. That’s like wearing two pillows on your back!

When I described the size and furriness of the spider, however, she was very thankful.



After the kayak trip, we decided not to wait the 2 hours for the bus back to our hotel, so we decided to hitch-hike back. In the States, this is a very obvious danger; you are practically asking to be murdered, dismembered, and put into large jars and stored away in some psychopath’s freezer, to be consumed at a convenient time. (But you can’t wait too long – eyeballs are disgusting when they’re freezer-burned!)

But here in Nicaragua, it’s just the way people get around. I happened to save Marlene’s life yet again on this hitch-hike trip. And no, the driver was not a psychopath.

We were in the back, standing up, and she was taking pictures of the countryside, when I saw a gigantic tree branch coming up fast ahead. I yelled for her to duck, and she actually did! Anyway, I know that one doesn’t sound very heroic, but if she had gotten hit in the face with that branch, she probably would’ve gotten knocked off the truck and most likely would have broken her head open on the road, making a pretty big mess.

And even if she hadn’t gotten thrown off the truck, she would have gotten a branch in the face! That’s a one-way ticket to Ugly Town and believe me, that would have made for VERY uncomfortable social gatherings. For both of us.

We made it back in time for a late lunch with my parents, overlooking the lake, which is so big it looks like an ocean, and it was just marvelous.

The next day we took them to Catarina, overlooking the Laguna de Apoyo, and had a nice lunch there. We bought some souvenirs to take back home, and all in all it was a very nice day.

The following day was a Saturday, and we all went to the meeting at La Conquista, so my parents got to meet the group. Afterwards we had a final dinner at the Pizzeria Coliseo in Jinotepe, which has some pretty good pizza (the chef is from Italy), and a very nice ambience. We invited Everet’s family to eat with us, and they and my parents really liked each other. Especially when my parents found out how much they have helped us since we’ve been here!

The next morning, at 4:30am, Everet picked us up to take them back to the airport. Happily, it was not a tearful farewell; it was just a “see you later”. (We are planning on going up to Chicago in June . . .we had not originally planned to go up, but my parents invited us and well, we don’t want to offend them, now do we?)

I think the trip was very good for my mom. She actually thought that we lived in a tin-shack type place and cooked with firewood or something. When she saw that we have a very decent house, cable TV, phone, etc., she was relieved. I don’t think she is as worried now as she used to be. And as I said before, my dad really enjoyed the preaching work down here, and is interested in coming back primarily for that.

It was very good for us, too. We kind of needed a vacation, and we got to see a bunch of things that we were wanting to see. Also, we got to see Nicaragua from kind of an outsider’s point of view, and it reinforced in our minds what a diverse and beautiful country we live in. And it was very good to spend some time with my parents and get rid of some of that homesickness.

And, of course, the candy. The glorious, glorious candy.

After leaving my parents at the airport, Everet drove us to McDonalds for some breakfast. I know, I know, McDonalds?? But I was really, really missing those Sausage McMuffins with Egg, and I was NOT disappointed! They taste exactly the way they do back home! I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or what, but I don’t think it shaved a year off my life or anything. What’s a few McMuffins when you have eternity, hopefully, right?

I think that, after the visit, we were expecting to get back into a routine, but it was not to be. 2 days later was the start of our circuit overseer’s visit.

THE C.O. VISIT

We weren’t really sure what to expect, but of course he turned out to be a very wonderful brother. Brother Wayne Burgess is from England. He used to be a missionary in Africa, then he served in Spain, Portugal, and now here. The visit was very, very encouraging. He had a few one-on-one conversations with us, and really reassured us respecting some of our worries here. He was especially helpful in explaining to us certain things that are particular to Nicaraguan culture, and it really makes sense to us when we take into consideration the attitudes we have come across down here. All in all, the visit was very refreshing, and now we have quite a different opinion of some of the attitudes we have seen.



DARKNESS FALLS

I now return to the opening account. The dark, cold misery.

Unfortunately, it took place during the circuit overseer’s visit. Fortunately, my parents got out in time.

We went 4 days straight with no electricity and no water. We had some water stored up in large containers, which we used for “bucket” showers (and I thought the showers were cold! After a few bucketfuls of water I had to look down to see if there weren’t chunks of ice floating in there) and washing dishes and things like that, but that quickly disappeared.

No electricity also meant no refrigeration, so a lot of our food went bad. We tried to cook and eat as much as we could, but some was ruined anyway. On the second to last day of the misery, a fire station came by with a giant tank of water and parked in the middle of town to fill up people’s containers. There was a line 3 hours long, and several fights broke out. It was starting to get out of hand, really.

The reason for the power outages was that there was a very bad windstorm throughout the entire country. Trees were being knocked down from the Costa Rican border all the way up to near the northern border. Some of those trees fell on power lines and I guess it all just knocked out the grid. (The winds were terrible. You couldn’t talk as you walked unless you wanted a mouth full of dirt. And whatever else is on the road at the time, like those nice piles of cow excrement.)

During that night of misery I described at the start of this post, we finally made it to sleep (that roof trying to come off was really loud!). We were awakened at 3am, however, when the power came back on! A loud cheer could be heard in all of Santa Teresa as forgotten TV’s came on, fans began to blow, and fridges began to cool. The joyful outcry, however, was cut short when it went off again 5 minutes later.

On Saturday we went to the meeting at La Conquista, which the circuit overseer was supporting that afternoon, and our studies there told us that the power had finally come back for good. If they have power, we have power. (They get it from Santa Teresa.) So we were elated! Power means water, since the water is run on an electric pump (why they can’t put it on a few generators while the power is out is beyond me. I guess it just is too “weird and different”).

However, about 3 minutes after we finally walked in the house, the electricity went out again, but it came back on a few hours later and it held. And thankfully, it did not interfere with “Lost” goodness on Wednesday night. (Note to Dina and Daniela: Time travel is totally confusing!)

If this were to happen up in the States, I would be making some very stern calls to the power company and would be lying on the kitchen floor, closing my eyes and waiting for death to come and take me to that blissful, blissful sleep. Here, though, the frustration soon ends and you just roll with it. You realize everyone else is in the same boat. A sense of humor goes a long way. (I’m not saying I don’t get frustrated from time to time, but I am starting to get used to it.)

Anyway, Nicaragua has been a total rollercoaster so far. Some days are bad, some days are good, but isn’t that true where you live, too? Having nice restaurants nearby, a car to zip you around where you need to go, a nice carpeted Kingdom Hall where everything runs like clockwork, a home that doesn’t have lizards, ants, or power outages, and all the trappings of developed society doesn’t make you happy. What makes you truly happy is serving Jehovah faithfully and being busy in the preaching work. I am positive you agree with me on this.

It’s funny, but I’ve really just come to realize this very simple truth. Psalm 1:1-3 says:

“Happy is the man that has not walked in the counsel of the wicked ones,
And in the way of sinners has not stood,
And in the seat of ridiculers has not sat.
But his delight is in the law of Jehovah,
And in his law he reads in an undertone day and night.
And he will certainly become like a tree planted by streams of water,
That gives its own fruit in its season
And the foliage of which does not wither,
And everything he does will succeed.”

It doesn’t say, “Happy is the man who has all the conveniences he needs”. It says that we are happy if we read Jehovah’s word and apply it.

And, that’s true no matter where you are.

I cannot yet say that Nicaragua is home. But, overall, I can say that we are very happy here. This isn’t something I could say last month, and some of you picked up on that. And we really appreciate the encouraging words you gave us. But we can very honestly say that we are happy, and that we would never trade any of this for anything.

And a big reason for that is the preaching work. For example, this morning I came across a man who asked, “I have Evangelicals try to tell me they have the true religion. The Adventists tell me the same thing. And so do Jehovah’s Witnesses. What I want to know is, how do you know YOU have the truth? How can you be so sure?”

“That’s an excellent question,” I replied. “The Bible reveals who today make up the true religion.”

I opened up the Bible, to the first point, and read John 13:34, 35, where Jesus said, “I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love among yourselves.”

So I asked him, “What did Jesus say would be the identifying mark of true Christians?”

The man knew I was talking about love, and he said, “Well, every religion I’ve talked to preaches about love, too.”

“Yes,” I replied, “but what type of love do they display? True, some religions participate in humanitarian works, such as disaster relief or the building of homeless shelters and free clinics, but what about actual Christian love?”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“If you see here, Jesus commanded us to love one another JUST AS HE LOVED US. And what type of love did Jesus display?”

“Well, he gave his life for us,” he said.

“Exactly! Now, you see that the vast majority of religions today profess love for their fellow man. But is it the same love that Jesus displayed? Are they willing to die for their spiritual brothers and sisters? Far from it! Many bless their countries’ armies as they go to war, without giving a thought to the killing of their fellow humans, some of whom may even profess their same religion! The leaders of the world, many who profess to be Christian, would rather send countless young men and women to die for them, and would never lay down their own lives for their citizens. Can you imagine Jesus acting this way, showing only a hypocritical love?”

“No,” he replied.

“Jehovah’s witnesses, however, really do follow this commandment. In every country where the government has a military draft, they choose imprisonment over joining the military. And in countless conflicts, they have chosen to actually be executed rather than take up arms against their follow man.”

After some thought, he said, “Well, that’s commendable.”

I then moved on to a second point. “Now,” I said, “You may see that certain Adventists, Mormons and Evangelicals come preaching from time to time. But what do they actually teach?”

I said this because I know for a fact that the Adventists and Evangelicals go door to door primarily to give out invitations to their church services, and the Mormons use a book that contradicts much of what the Bible says, including the belief that Jesus and God Almighty are the same person. Occasionally you will get an Evangelical try to explain that everyone who is good goes to heaven, all of the bad go to hell, and that the earth will eventually just be an empty wasteland. These false doctrines, however, are very easy to dispel, using such scriptures as John 14:28, 1 Corinthians 11:3, Psalm 37:29, Proverbs 2:21, 22, and Matthew 5:5.

I then opened up the Bible to Matthew 10:7, 8, which reveals that Jesus’ true disciples preach primarily about God’s Kingdom. I said, “Most religions cannot even agree among themselves on what that kingdom really is! Some say it resides in the hearts of the faithful, others say that it symbolizes Heaven, which is waiting for all good people to arrive from the earth, and so on. But look at what the Bible says.”

I then showed him Daniel 2:44 which says that God’s kingdom will destroy all earthly governments. He was a little surprised at this.

I also showed him the full title of the Watchtower, which includes the phrase “Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom”.

“Jehovah’s Witnesses are the only ones in the world who teach the truth about God’s kingdom and what it will do for the earth.”

I then mentioned what verse 8 of Matthew 10 had said. “You received free; give free.”

“If you go to a Catholic church,“ I said, “what will you expect to be passed around before long?”

“A collection plate,” he replied.

“Yes,” I said. “And other religions will charge you the tithe, 10% of your salary, in order to pay the wages of their leaders. Jehovah’s witnesses, on the other hand, will never charge you. There are no collections at the meetings, there is no tithing, there is no charge for giving a talk at a funeral, a wedding, or a baptism. Jesus did not charge for his ministry, and neither do we. Now, you might wonder where we get the money to print billions of copies of the Bible, magazines, and other Bible-based literature. Well, it is all taken care of by voluntary contributions. There are no ‘suggested contributions’. No one knows who gives what or when. And in this way, we are able to print tons of literature per year. And there are no salaries. From the ones who live and work at Headquarters in New York, to us living here in Nicaragua, no one receives a salary.”

This last point is rather interesting, since many ask us whether our congregation pays for our rent or food. When we make it clear that we are here completely of our own accord and that we depend solely on our own savings or secular work, they are all surprised and pleased.

Now I moved on to the final point of our discussion. I read to him Matthew 28:18-20, where Jesus said, “All authority has been given me in heaven and on the earth.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you.
And, look! I am with you all the days until the conclusion of the system of things.”

I then asked him, “What command did Jesus here place upon all of his disciples?

“To preach,” he said.

“Yes. And do you know to what extent this preaching work was to be done?”

He didn’t, so I read to him a final text, at Acts 1:8, which says, “you will receive power when the holy spirit arrives upon you, and you will be witnesses of me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the most distant part of the earth.”

“And this is true!” I said. “No other religion in the history of the world has had a preaching and teaching campaign that rivals that of Jehovah’s witnesses. We are preaching in over 235 different lands, in more than 400 different languages. And we don’t merely build a church and ring the bell to draw any who might be interested. We go door to door, exactly as Jesus and his disciples did, giving personal instruction based solely on the Bible to any who might be interested.”

In fact, at our last assembly the brother made a point on how a very successful businessman had mentioned to him, “I’ve been on almost every continent in the world, in many different countries, and there are only 2 things that I have seen common to every single country I’ve traveled to. One is Coca Cola, and the other is Jehovah’s Witnesses.”

After our little discussion, I could tell that he was convinced that we really do have the truth. He happened to live out in the middle of nowhere, quite far from the Kingdom Hall, but we will see if he makes it to a meeting. We warmly invited him to come.

We are continuing to have success in all of the different facets of our ministry. For example, remember that woman who flagged us down from the side of the road when we went on a seemingly worthless 7 mile trip? Well, she is going to every Sunday meeting right now, and she is studying regularly.

There was another young man named Roger, who I have seen from time to time around town and he kind of looks like a “punk” kid, you know, the earring, spiky hair, etc. Anyway, he asked us to study with him, and he has been to one day of the assembly so far.

And, thankfully, my job back home is continuing to send me a deluge of work on a weekly basis. It is almost too much for me to do, but I work about a day a week and manage to keep it under control. Jehovah really blessed us with that. It’s really the only way we are able to stay here at this time.

Well, that is it for now. I hope that you have enjoyed reading this rather long account of the last few weeks. (Just so you know, this is not really designed for a one-time reading. I assume that most of you just save it or print it or something and then read it once in a while until you are done. If you do manage to read the whole thing at once, that is very commendable, especially in this age of 10-minute attention spans. I just ask that you all do not print it out and read it in the bathroom. I really don’t want to be read in the bathroom. That is disgusting.)

We hope you are all doing well. May Jehovah continue to watch over all of us and help us to keep our integrity.

Til next time!

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It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times

I chose the above title because the classic line perfectly describes our general feelings on our assignment here in Nicaragua, 3 ½ months in.
Some days, we absolutely love it here and just laugh in delight at our wonderful lot in life and still can’t believe we are here. We are in a real preaching paradise and we often feel that we really are doing our utmost in service to Jehovah, and that is truly a beautiful feeling; it really feels like we are living the best times of our lives in this terrible dying system. Then, there are the other times, when we feel exasperated and just fed up with all of the challenges and are ready to just come home and be done with it all. As if we are living in a real-life preview of the Great Tribulation.

Now you may have noticed that, in the past, I have written mostly of the wonderful experiences that we have had. I assure you I have not sugar-coated life here, that we really have had some excellent experiences in our new home. But I must admit that I have refrained, at least on this website, from sharing too much of the negative things about life here (some of you have had to put up with my venting from time to time, sorry). And that is only natural, isn’t it? I’m sure half of you would simply delete my announcement of a new post if you knew it would be nothing but whining and complaining about how hot it is here, and how gigantic the bugs are, and how it is just not what we expected. That would get quite old quite fast, right? So, in order to be encouraging and positive, I have left it out, for the most part.

But it is good, from time to time, to reflect on the challenges of life here, to get the overall picture of our condition.

First, I present to you 5 of the biggest challenges we face in Nicaragua:

1. Trash.

The land of Nicaragua, although very beautiful, lush, and green, is a filthy trash heap in many areas. The people simply do not know how to use a trash can. I don’t know if they just were not raised to be clean, or if they simply don’t care. But we often get upset when we see a child unwrap his or her lollypop and toss the wrapper on the ground without a care in the world and its mother not showing the least disgust in this child’s manners. And why should she? She tosses her cup on the same ground when she finishes drinking her corn juice. The Watchtower we are currently placing, on page 18, is especially timely as it talks of how Jehovah is going to bring to ruin everyone who ruins the earth (Rev. 11:18). Ah, that is truly a wonderful prospect! (And yes, I know, it is our responsibility to show them what Jehovah feels about this and we shouldn’t condemn them to the second death just because they are lacking in cleanliness. I’m just telling you how I feel about it.)

2. Treatment of animals.

Many of the people here are simply appalling in their treatment of animals. They will throw stones at dogs if they feel like it, they will beat their horses mercilessly if they show any fatigue in pulling a ridiculous amount of weight (many of the horses here are missing flesh on their backs or are very bloody and raw), and they string pigs up on branches as they slit their throats. (This last one, I know, is somewhat necessary if one wants to eat pig flesh; and I must admit that I myself enjoy a morsel or two of pig from time to time. However, the looks of glee and humor on the faces of everyone as we hear the terrorized screams of the poor animal just make us totally sick.) The treatment of the animals here really, really affects me in particular. Once we were walking down the street and I saw a boy throw a rock at a dog quite hard. I went up to him, furious, and said, “Why did you just do that?” He just shrugged at me and said nothing. I asked him (and be assured that I was as kind as I could be when I asked him), “Would you mind if I threw a rock at the back of your head? Do you think that would bother you at all?” The boy, I must admit, showed some alarm at this prospect, and I told him that I would, of course, not subject him to this cruel punishment, but that he should remember that dogs feel pain just as he does, and just as he does not want to be hurt, he should not hurt defenseless animals. After walking away from him, I realized that he might have understood that I would physically hurt him if he injured a dog again. It was not my intention, but oh well.

3. Bugs, bugs, bugs!

I know, I know. We are in a Central American tropical country, and bugs must be expected. And I don’t mind seeing gigantic insects. During the last cleaning of the Kingdom Hall, we saw a giant insect that looked exactly like a leaf of a tree. It was gorgeous. Bright green, with veins running through it just like the delicate stems on a leaf. But we have a problem with the insects when they are in our home. Not because we get grossed out by them or anything, but because we have giant ants which are constantly biting the paws and tummies of our dogs, so they are in constant itchy craziness. We’ve tried several topical creams and such, but they don’t seem to work. Oh well. There really isn’t much we can do about this one. (Some of the friends have e-mailed us instructions regarding certain cleaning solutions for the floors, and we are presently attempting them. We will let you know how it goes.) But we DO realize that we are actually pretty fortunate in comparison with others. The R.O.U.S’s are not around anymore, really, and some of the other friends are reporting an increase of mice and rats, which hopefully we don’t have a problem with.

4. Pigs disguised as men.

I get quite apprehensive and disgusted when we pass by a group of very obviously drunk men. I don’t care much at all when I am by myself, but when Marlene is with me, I get hypersensitive. They all leer at her, make little catcalls here and there. It just strikes me as such a gross lack of respect for the woman’s husband who is walking right by her, piercing them with razor sharp stares. They make outright propositions to her, and it just makes my blood boil. Marlene thinks it is just a male-ego thing and that’s why I can’t stand it, and it might have certain elements of that involved. But one man came up to us not too long ago, completely smashed out of his mind, and said to her, “Oh, please, come here and teach me about the Bible.” He started to reach for her, and I stood in front of her to face him and smiled, saying, “Perhaps another time when you are more disposed.” Of course, he didn’t hear a single word I said, but kept reaching his grubby, dirty, shaking fingers towards Marlene’s arm, and I really hoped that either she would move further back out of his reach, or that he would pass out, because if he laid one of those fingers on her, I very likely would have done something and we would have had the unbearable shame of being called to Bethel and being asked to leave the country. Thankfully, Marlene moved pretty far back and nothing happened. I’m not sure why I get so angry about this, but I am just completely and utterly disgusted and infuriated by it.

5.1. Food, glorious food!

I don’t list this as a number, because I feel somewhat ashamed of myself in saying that this is a big challenge and it makes life in Nicaragua difficult. But it does. It really does!

I am speaking of food, or lack thereof. Don’t get me wrong. I love rice. I love beans, especially when they are refried and creamy. I love chicken. After all, I am Mexican and I grew up eating these wonderful things. But there IS such a thing as too much of a good thing. Now, Marlene does her best. She is very creative with food. She mixes it up and give me delicious pasta with meat sauce, homemade hamburgers and fries, grilled chicken breast, chicken fajita type things, and chicken soup. But there is not much to work with here. And, after a while, you really start desperately missing Olive Garden, Applebees, even Wendy’s and McDonalds.

We have cable tv, with quite a few American channels. This means that we get all of these commercials featuring juicy cuts of sirloin steak, wonderful fat cheeseburgers, and mouth-watering pizza (Marlene is so awesome. After I whined about missing pizza, she made me one from scratch!) When these commercials come on, I have to immediately change the channel. Otherwise I might start to cry a little bit. Now, I am not a glutton. I do not have an insatiable greed for food or drink. But I do believe that food and the ability to taste is one of Jehovah’s finest gifts to the human race, and I fear that I am wasting it here among all these chickens and stale-tasting beans. And every time I think of those wonderful honey barbequed chicken wings I used to buy from Wal-Mart of all places, well, my eyes just water a bit. I truly, truly miss them with all of my heart.

Ah, that feels good to get off my chest, but now I am very very hungry.

Now, on to 5 blessings that make us want to pitch camp here until Armageddon.

1. The country.

Yes, many areas are trash heaps, but many areas are so beautiful it takes your breath away. An example, with some nice pictures included:

A couple of weeks ago we were out in service, and Everet, the Spanish speaking elder, invited us to go to Granada with them the following day. We agreed, since we have always wanted to go, and so the next morning we started out early. Our first stop when we arrived in Granada was Kathy’s Waffle House, which is geared toward American tourists. Yes, that means it is a little bit pricier than what we are accustomed to paying (“$4.00 for a breakfast? Are you nuts? What do I look like, Donald Trump?”), but the food was DELICIOUS. It is basically an IHOP type place, and we had some nice eggs, ham, pancakes, potatoes, blueberry waffles, good Nicaraguan coffee, and a colorful assortment of fresh fruit.

After breakfast, we went down to the docks and took a wonderful boat ride to the Isletas de Granada.




These are tiny little islands that were formed when the twin volcanoes in the middle of gigantic Lake Nicaragua exploded thousands of years ago. It was such a neat thing to cruise by some of these islands. Some of the richest families of Nicaragua have bought some of them and have built mansions for themselves. They were very pretty. We passed by an old Spanish fort built in 1524 overlooking the lake, with cannons lying about.



The boatman pulled us in and we were able to explore it on foot. It was really an amazing view. The waves of the lake crashed against the walls of the fort, and you could swear that you were out in the middle of the ocean somewhere.



After the fort, we traveled to another small island that is called “Monkey Island”, for a good reason. There are about a dozen monkeys inhabiting this small piece of land, and they are well taken care of by a family that owns another island nearby. This, of course, does not stop them from showboating for the tourists in hope of getting a banana or two thrown their way. It was so cute to see one of them actually peel the banana and eat it.





After we got back to the mainland, we drove around looking for a place to eat lunch, and happened upon an old hotel. We stopped there for a bit, because we noticed that there was a large spider monkey tied to a tree by a leash of some kind. We went up to say hello, and were surprised at how friendly it was. It wrapped its arms and tail around us, and climbed up on Marlene when it saw that she had a lollypop in her hand. The little thief promptly stole it and then lost all interest in us as it climbed up the tree and starting crunching away at the candy.





2. Theocratic blessings.

We recently had the annual pioneer meeting in the congregation, and it was a pleasure to listen to the elders as they outlined the blessings the congregation enjoyed as it had 18 regular pioneers (13 of them foreigners). I remember that at the special meeting for needgreaters back in November, the brothers told us that Bethel saw that the congregations that had foreign needgreaters in them frequently enjoyed a faster pace of growth from the field. The elders at our annual meeting reaffirmed this. They also talked about how important it is to be discerning in the field, to be flexible, and to be observant of the circumstances. This is especially applicable here, where the householders very frequently invite you to come into the home and speak to them at length about the Bible. You can’t just say, “Here are the magazines, have a great day.” You really need to be ready to converse on a variety of topics and show multiple scriptures to prove a single point. It is so much fun!

After the pioneer meeting we were treated to gigantic “Nacatamales”, which are kind of like Mexican tamales (which I love!), except that they have giant portions of fresh pork on bone, rice, onions, raisins, and a whole mess of other things, steamed in a sleeve of dough wrapped in a huge banana leaf. Marlene is not a huge fan of pork, but I really enjoyed it.

We also received recently an e-mail from Bethel telling us that our “missionary” visas were approved by the government! That was very good news and we went to Bethel last Wednesday and hitched a ride with the brother to the Immigration Department. Of course, it was packed with people fleeing the country to work in Costa Rica, among other things, and so it was probably about a 2 hour deal. But now we are officially Nicas!

This is especially encouraging because Marlene and I are hoping to eventually move to an area of the country that has a greater need (with our new visas, we don’t have to leave the country anymore, which means that we can move farther into Nicaragua without having to worry about crossing the border every 3 months in order to renew our tourist visas). The brothers at Bethel told us to stay put in Santa Teresa for a short period of time while we get acclimated to the country, and then let them know if we would be willing to accept another assignment. We are thinking that, in time, we would like to ask to be assigned to Jinotega, up north in the mountains, because they are sorely in need of help (especially in the northern part of their territory) and it is much cooler than it is down here. It is a relatively large city with all the conveniences we would like, but it has a very rural “cowboy” town atmosphere, we are told. We are planning a visit to Jinotega, and depending on our impression of it, we would ask Bethel what they think. But they have already hinted to us that Jinotega would be a good assignment. Also, Nicaragua is frequently receiving Gilead trained missionaries and they are often being assigned up north.

After the Immigration deal, we asked the brother to drop us off at a mall in Managua, and we had a very nice meal at a Mexican restaurant, and then caught a movie at the theater. All in all it was a very nice day, and a good break in the routine.

3. Field Service

Obviously, this list is not in the order of most importance. Our ministry is the number one reason we came down here, and it continues to be the number one source of joy in our lives. We can very clearly see the angels guiding us. An example:

On Thursday Marlene had a study and a promising return visit to make, and she very graciously invited me to come along. The study was only about a 10 minute walk from the place we met for field service arrangements, but the return visit was roughly 7 miles away.

In the States, this would not be a problem whatsoever, and we would be able to catch a nice Starbucks break in between. Here, however, you tend to look off into the far distance, imagining the long trek along dirt roads and muddy paths through fields, and then you look down at your poor feet, wondering if they can take it. (Even though I smile enthusiastically whenever Marlene says “I love walking here! I have lost so much weight, isn’t it wonderful?”, inside I am groaning and wondering how in the world I wore holes through yet another pair of socks.)

Anyway, on this particular morning I nodded and said, “Great, honey, that would be wonderful, but could you maybe call the return visit to make sure she is there first so that we don’t make a huge unnecessary walk?”

“Sure”, she says. “You just put minutes onto your phone the other day, right?”

I stare off into space, trying to remember when I put that dollar’s worth of minutes on my phone. Yes, it was only 2 days ago, and they last 3 days before it “expires” whether you use them or not (those thieves! But that is another topic…)

“Yeah, we’re good,” I say, and off we go to her study. Her study, incidentally, is a wonderfully sharp young woman who asks a lot of questions and works her way through the logic of Bible truths. She is such a joy to study with.

So, after the study, we start off on the long dirt road that leads to Los Potrerillos, which is a tiny village on the way to Los Encuentros, which is a far away village where Marlene’s return visit lives. About two thirds of the way to Potrerillos, which means too far to turn back, I try my phone. Surprise, surprise, I get the nice message from the robot on the other end telling me that my minutes have expired and could I please pay more money so that I don’t lose them permanently?

“Honey,” I say. “It looks like my minutes have expired. I guess I was wrong and I put minutes on it three days ago, not two. We will just go to Potrerillos and recharge the minutes, okay?”

“Okay,” she says cheerfully, practically skipping the whole way. She loves these long grueling walks under the hot sun. It’s masochistic, really. I don’t get it.

So we finally arrive at Potrerillos, and we visit a young woman who happens to be one of Marlene’s return visits and also owns a shop where, apparently, you can choose from an assortment of canned goods, bell peppers, and cats.



Most shops recharge minutes on phones. This one, unfortunately, does not. But, I am told, there is one that does recharge minutes just a little ways down the road.

We finally find it through some overgrown vegetation, but the woman who does the recharging had gotten sick that morning and was at the doctor’s office.

I frown at this, and consider taking a taxi to Los Encuentros, since it is a good 3 or 4 more miles away. Unfortunately, there aren’t really any taxis that pass through here, so we just start walking. And walking. And walking.







I try not to grumble too much, and I really do succeed at it. Especially when Marlene pulls out a nice roll of Oreos that she brought along.

(Actually, on some level I really do enjoy these long walks, as they give Marlene and me more time to just talk. It draws us closer together as we are able to talk about a variety of things, instead of sitting in front of a television and pretending to be spending quality time with one another.)

So, we finally make it to the tiny house past a gigantic chicken farm, and walk up the path, completely worn out. A nice elderly lady walks out and invites us in. Marlene asks for the young girl and the lady says, “Sorry, she is in Jinotepe today. She won’t be back until Sunday.”

Beautiful, I think to myself. Just wonderful.

Anyway, we don’t want to waste the opportunity and so we share something from one of the magazines with her (yes, this was a selfless act, although I cannot deny the fact that we also welcomed the rest before our long trek back).

She accepts it and listens graciously, but isn’t really jumping out of her shoes, you know? So, afterwards, we make our way to the gate to leave, and she starts talking about how much the young girl, Valezca, needs to study the bible since she is 13 years old and is getting to be that age where she wants to hang out and go to parties by herself. Anyway, we get to talking about the girl, and it turns out that her situation is very much like the situation of many children in Nicaragua. She has two parents, but they are too poor to take care of her and so they put her up for adoption. The elderly lady is really a foster mother of sorts. The children that are put up for adoption usually live in an orphanage, but since this lady’s daughter works for Family Services, the lady takes in some of the children from time to time in order to care for them in a more personal way, until they get adopted. The problem is that most families in Nicaragua are just as poor as the parents, so the children don’t frequently get adopted by anyone.

The elderly lady is currently taking care of a 10 year old boy that she has raised since he was 3 months old. The conversation finally turns to us, and she asks us if WE have any children.

I immediately see where this is heading, so I say, “No, we don’t have the circumstances right now to where we could care for a child.” (For those of you that know us well, you already know that our circumstances consist of the simple fact that we don’t really want any. At least not until the New World.) She says to us, “Oh, but you are a nice couple and you could really take care of her!” We kind of just back slowly away, being nice, and say something along the lines of “Let’s just see if she likes to study the Bible or not.” (I suspect that she does, since the lady told us that this girl walked the 7 or 8 miles to Santa Teresa to look for our house, but couldn’t find us.)

So, we make our way onto the path leading out of town, and I say, “Well, let’s start back,” already dreading the walk and completely convinced that this was a colossal waste of time and a huge unnecessary toll on my innocent feet. Even Marlene looks a little discouraged, but we trudge on.

Almost immediately, however, a young woman comes to the side of the road out of her tiny house, and motions for us to walk over. We do, and she asks us, “Are you Jehovah’s Witnesses?” We nod our heads, mustering smiles as sincere as we can make them, and she proceeds to tell us that she was studying in Masaya and attending all the meetings, but that she unexpectedly had to move to Los Encuentros (I think it has something to do with her family needing her there), and she has been looking for Witnesses so that she can resume her study and meeting attendance. Now our smiles are truly genuine and we have a nice conversation with her. We are going to start the study with her this Sunday and she has already expressed the desire to walk back with us after her study so that she can attend the meeting at the Kingdom Hall.

Afterwards, the long walk didn’t seem so long and our step was light. We just marveled at how Jehovah really does lead us to sheeplike ones. We talked about how, if we had found somewhere to add minutes to my phone, we would have learned that Marlene’s return visit wasn’t there, and we would never have gone out there. But because we had no way of knowing, we made the long trek and were led to a person that practically begged for a Bible study and directions to the Kingdom Hall.

This is not the first time something like this happens, and we are sure that it won’t be the last. Even later that same day, as we walked to our meeting, a lady stopped us on the street and asked if we were Jehovah’s Witnesses, and when we said yes, she commented on how much she loved reading the magazines and asked us if we had any. We didn’t happen to have any with us, but after the meeting we went by where she was staying (she was just visiting from Managua), and dropped off some magazines that we had gotten from some of the friends.

This type of experiences convinces us that this is the reason why we are really here. Not to be on vacation, not to have an easier life, or to have a nice experience to look back on in a few years, but because we really are needed!

We are no one special. Those of you who know us very well also know that we aren’t even particularly great teachers; we are so extraordinarily ordinary! But, we are simply here, ready and willing to work. Which means that Jehovah has two more tools with which to cultivate the ground and reap the harvest of those who still have the opportunity to get into his organization before Armageddon. It really is such a great privilege!


4. Quirks.

In our day to day lives here, there are little quirks that just delight us or disgust us, make us laugh or make us scream, but they are all pretty special.

For example, on the same day that we found that study out in Los Encuentros, we went to the meeting. Unfortunately, we only had half power (which is quite strange. In the States, you either have power or you don’t. But here, sometimes you have half). Which basically meant that there was not enough current to power everything. So, although the sound control worked, the microphones and CD player did not. Although half of the lights came on, the other half did not. So, we all did the best we could, and sang without the music, which was quite nice to hear once we all got in tune. In spite of not being in the best circumstances, the meeting was a wonderful success and we all enjoyed fine association afterwards.

This little experience is not very significant, but that is what life is, in a way. Many little insignificant things add up and make an experience. They are things that we will not easily forget, and that draw us closer together as brothers and closer to Jehovah.

5. Time.

There is so much more time here. And, since time is our most precious commodity, that is a very good thing. We find that just by spending the morning in service each day (about 4 or 5 hours, starting at 8:30am), we can easily make our time as pioneers. Granted, I go out 6 days a week and Marlene goes out 7 days, but it is not a burden, since we usually get home by noon or 1:30. The rest of the day, after lunch, is free for whatever we want to do. That typically involves personal study, preparing for the meetings, secular work for me, etc. It is not as hard here as it was in the States to keep our family study regular, as well as Bible reading and personal study (we are really enjoying the new arrangement for studying as a family on the same night that we had book study). The result? We find that we are more spiritually “tuned” here. We find ourselves speaking less and less of empty worldly things, and more and more of spiritual treasures we find in our reading of God’s word, in our personal study in the Watchtower CD Rom, etc. And all of this helps us stay more positive in general. I just hope that the good habits we are acquiring and/or refining here will stay with us when we leave to go back home eventually.

So, that is all for now. The purpose of this particular entry was to provide you with a balanced and realistic view of what life is like here. I realized a short time ago that I was making it all seem like rose petals and teddy bears every day, that even stepping on a live cockroach was a source of laughter and that there was no problem. The reality is far different. I hope that you have gotten the sense that there are, indeed, many challenges, some of them frustrating and others which make us sad and make us miss home more than ever. There are, however, many blessings that make us so very happy that we were able to take advantage of favorable circumstances and move to where the need is urgent for more workers in the harvest.

In a little less than two weeks my parents are visiting us from Chicago. We are really looking forward to it, and have the trip all planned out. I don’t want to give too much away because they will definitely be reading this, but some of things we will show them will be things that we have seen and loved, and others will be completely new to all four of us. And, of course, we will show them how joyful field service here can be. Although we probably will not make them walk as much as we usually do.

Two days after they leave to go back to the States, we will have our circuit overseer’s visit. So after that I will have a new entry on the website here and let you all know how it went.

We love you all a ton, and we hope that you all continue to keep us in your prayers, so that we all can continue to be as busy as possible in Kingdom interests until the very end of this old system.

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“Sore Feet in Paradise” or “Out of the Mouth of Babes”

I couldn’t choose between the two above titles, so I went ahead with both. The first one is a wonderful experience that was worth the sore feet. The second one is a disgusting, horrendous event that I am glad I did not witness, even though my wife was put into harm’s way, so to speak.

“Sore Feet in Paradise”

A few weeks ago, in an attempt to cover our territory well with the tract campaign, we got a group of about 20 or so and took a bus to a place called La Solera. When we arrived at about 9am, we were told that the bus would depart for home at 2pm, and that we had better be on it. Then, we dispersed. Marlene and I were assigned to a group with 6 others to hit a part of the territory called “El Alquinal”. I’m not sure what it translates to, exactly, but it has something to do with an incline or something. And if it doesn’t, it should. We started off on a VERY steep walk for about an hour and a half, and we would go through patches where we would have to practically pull ourselves higher up by grabbing onto branches or roots. At the time, in the hot sun, with my water bottle quickly running low and my butter cookies nothing but a memory, I was badly wishing for a horse. But, at that angle, I’m not sure if I could have stayed on one. (When we were being assigned, no one wanted to go to El Alquinal, for some reason. Miriam, the German sister who is tougher than nails, told me, “No one can do it. It’s too hard, physically.” This, of course, prompted me to say, “I can do it! Let’s go!” So I volunteered Marlene, the Japanese brother Sumitaka, who unfortunately could not understand what I was getting him into, and the other two Japanese sisters).

At first, it was somewhat entertaining, as Sumitaka and the Japanese sisters had me going back and forth calling them insults in Japanese without me knowing what I was saying. I was sent by Sumitaka to Shigemi and told her, “Urusai, uza ushi”, which basically means “Shut up you demented cow”. It does sound quite crude and forceful in English, but perhaps it is less stinging in Japanese. Kind of how “stupid” in English is no big deal, but if you call someone stupid in Spanish you are liable to be slapped. On second thought, however, it probably is just as crude and forceful in Japanese, judging by the sister’s expression once I said it. Once she realized I didn’t know what I had said, she started laughing, which got everyone else laughing. But that was quickly put to an end, once we saw how little oxygen we had left, and how hard the climb was. The rest of the climb was either silent or filled with dire predictions of collapse and eventual death.

Once we got to the top, however, it was a completely different story. The air was crisp and clean, the sky was blue, there were fields of tall grass and bubbling brooks to cross over. It was very, very beautiful. At one point you could see the ocean beyond the mountain range and, in another direction, the peaks of the twin volcanoes on Ometepe island. It was gorgeous!



And the people that live up there are very hospitable and receptive, as well. Since we had to be back by 2pm, unfortunately, we couldn’t stay and talk long, but we had a couple of good conversations. (I asked Everet when we could go back to follow up on the interest, and he didn’t know. This was the second time Miriam had been up that high in the last 6 years.)



One particular visit stood out a bit. As we walked down the trail, Miriam pointed out a small church and said that the pastor lived behind there. No one else wanted to go so I volunteered myself and Marlene. We went up to the pastor, who was sitting out on his porch with an enormous baby boy, and we got into a good conversation about what happens at death. I read him a few scriptures, and he asked if I could give him a Bible, as he didn’t have one. (Yes, he is a pastor without even a Bible!) I actually had one with me, in my backpack, but I told him perhaps another day. I just had a funny feeling about it, since he said he wanted one in order to teach his “flock”, and I felt I would be contributing to false religion in some way. But, upon our return to the group, I asked them about it, and they convinced me that it would be best to give it to him, that he might perhaps see that what the tract says is actually in the Bible, and that perhaps it would move him to preach the truth and receive further help during future visits from Witnesses. So I volunteered Jackson, a brother who was assigned to work with Miriam, to go back with me to the pastor. (Jackson is an unusual name for a Nicaraguan, so I asked him about it. He actually said he was named after Michael Jackson. I asked him to do the moonwalk, and he looked mildly insulted, until I showed him I couldn’t do it either.) So we gave the pastor his bible, and he started flipping through it. Next time we go through there, if we ever do, I will bring a Bible teach book and see what happens.

So we made our way through the rest of El Alquinal, and finally wound our way down through actual rainforest with very dense, vine-covered thick red trees and about 10 small rivers.





And mud. Lots and lots of mud. We finally made it to the paved road leading back to where we were supposed to meet. At this point, my feet were pretty sore, and I had cut up my Achilles tendon area somewhat, so it hurt to walk. The others weren’t faring too much better either. But what kept us going was that we knew we would soon be sitting in a nice bus, off our feet, with a nice wind in our faces and hair. Unfortunately, when we got to the meeting point, we had missed the bus by about 2 minutes! We were stranded. We just had a good laugh and decided to wait for a “taxi”, which meant just a person with an empty car heading to the “city”. (The “City” is Santa Teresa, which seems like it has about 1000 people, but is much larger than the rural areas).

We ended up finally taking a “taxi”, which at first seemed to be improbable. It was a small car, very barely able to seat 5, and we were 8. But in true Nicaraguan fashion, we all managed to pile in, sitting among twisted limbs. We got on our way, and about 10 minutes later, we pulled over. “What in the world is he doing?” I asked. There was a woman on the side of the road, needing a ride to the “city”. I laughed and muttered, “Doesn’t she see that we are crammed like sardines in here? Jackson practically has his butt hanging out the window, and she thinks she can get a ride?” But, amazingly, the driver said, “Go ahead, I’m opening the trunk.” I just gasped, and saw as she pulled open the trunk, sat on the frame, and held on to the trunk-lid for dear life. We took some hairpin turns, and I kept expecting her to fall off and roll down the mountainside. It was really weird.

Unfortunately, I had to take the next couple of days off from service because my feet were pretty much cut up, but I am now good as new and back in the saddle.

“Out of the Mouth of Babes”

The day after our trek through the rainforest mountain, I stayed home because of my sore feet and I figured I could get some secular work done. What I didn’t expect was to dodge a bullet as well. A very nasty, slimy, disgusting bullet.

When Marlene arrived from service, she walked in and immediately got in the shower. This is not unusual, as we do this whenever we get back from service (it is so stinking hot that we immediately take our now-friendly cold shower and change into some shorts and a light shirt). After her shower, she proceeded to explain that she had had a wonderful day in service, had crossed a few rivers in her bare feet, all the things that are now usual in our day to day lives. Then, she explained the “Roberto” situation.

Roberto is a very nice, chubby, and cute little 10 year old boy. He always smiles and takes it upon himself to invite us over for dinner from time to time. His mother is a single sister raising him and his two sisters, and she has done a very good job raising them in the truth. We have played Monopoly with them a few times and enjoyed other evenings with them. Roberto, however, has a very peculiar problem. When he eats a lot, he tends to throw it all up. (Hence the title of this section of the blog.)

I’m not talking about an eating disorder or anything. I suspect he has acid reflux, or perhaps gastroesophageal reflux disease, and just doesn’t know it.

Anyway, as Marlene explained it to me, they were up in the mountainside, and they all decided to sit in the grass under the shade of some nice trees and eat some lunch. Eduardo, Roberto’s cousin, had brought along a very large meal consisting of tortillas, rice, beans, and several “soy-meat” steaks. Why anyone would eat soy-meat is beyond me, but I have heard that it is quite common. So this kid shovels it all in, rubs his full belly and smiles, satisfied.

Then they decide to get in the car with Everet, Silvia, Marlene, and Emily. (Everet has a car and often takes it with him, giving a ride to whoever can fit. On this particular occasion, Eduardo and Roberto were going to take the bus back, but Marlene and Silvia insisted they ride back with them.) So, in order to keep the three sisters comfortable in the back, Eduardo sits in the front seat with little Roberto on his lap, enjoying the ride. As they draw near to Santa Teresa, however, Roberto has that familiar feeling of his lunch deciding to leave his stomach the way it came in, and he puts his hand over his mouth. Eduardo notices this and begins to tell Everet, but all Roberto can do at this point is point his head in the general direction of the open window. This resulted in not getting the entire car horribly soiled, but it unfortunately also resulted in the wind flinging a lot of his vomit into Silvia’s face and Marlene’s shoulder. (Marlene got off really easy). Later, when I inquired of Silvia about it (trying to keep a straight face but not succeeding), she initially thought that a bird had pooped into the car somehow, and that it had landed on her face. As she smeared it away, however, she could see that it contained rice and soy-meat, and started to cry out in shock and horror.

They pulled over and Roberto sheepishly tried to clean some of the mess off his shirt and off his cousin. His cousin got drenched.

Silvia and Everet cleaned the car as best they could afterwards. Later that day, they invited us to go to Jinotepe with them, and I said, “Okay, but let’s take the bus, all right?” (I’ve heard that puke-smell is notoriously hard to get out.) So we took the bus. Later on Roberto called Sylvia and apologized for throwing up in her car and on her face, although we suspect that his mother, terribly embarrassed, made him make the call.

SERVICE

As far as service is concerned, we are actually very relieved that the campaign is over. We truly enjoyed it, but Marlene and I had not had a chance to do any real return visits or cultivate interest and start some studies. I have, at this time, 8 studies and quite a few very promising return visits, which I’m sure will study, and one older man, a shoemaker, who is already studying without knowing he is studying. There is one, however, that was a bit frustrating for me. He is an evangelical who fiercely believes that all good people will go to heaven, and that all bad people will go to hell. He is the owner of the hardware store I told you about previously. We reasoned with him quite a bit, showing scriptures involving the 144,000, what they do there, why they go to heaven, and what the hope is for the majority of God’s people. He has admitted that Lazarus in the parable of the “Rich man and Lazarus” could not have been in Heaven (John 3:13). But he still didn’t want to reason; saying that Lazarus must have been in a different dimension or something. He actually tried to get me to watch a video entitled “Invited to Heaven”, from his pastor. This, and other little things, have convinced me that he is not really trying to find out the truth, but is instead trying to teach me his beliefs. So I decided to not continue the study with him. If he had accepted even one Bible scripture that we reviewed, I would have continued. But every single scripture that contradicts what he believes, he ignores. He even told me that it’s stupid to pay attention to the so-called “Old Testament” since it has no bearing on anything anymore. (I got a little upset at this and prayed to Jehovah to help me keep calm, which he did, thankfully.) When I explained to him with 2 Timothy 3:15,16 and Romans 15:4 that all scripture is beneficial, he started getting loud and obnoxious. So, either this is not the right time for him, or he is not correctly disposed, but time will tell. But our time is way too precious to waste on someone that just wants to argue. A couple of times he has stopped me on the street, trying to pawn off one of his religious videos on me, but I’ve become quite firm with him lately, and so I think he won’t be doing it anymore, hopefully.

Other than that, service has been very much the usual. We are finding people that are interested in the Bible every day, and we are finding many that have a good, basic knowledge of a lot of Bible teachings. The hard part is actually figuring out whether they are humble and if they are willing to apply what the Bible says, especially what it says regarding meeting together.

One thing that is amusing and somewhat frustrating, at times, are the evangelical “preachers”. They have taken to trying to imitate us. They will go out two by two, dressed nicely, with their Bibles in their hands and with tracts in little cases. Sometimes you will see a couple and a child preaching in the streets. I suppose they might go door to door, but I’ve only seen them walking in the street. It’s a little bit frustrating because you start to think that Witnesses might not be seen as something special in the eyes of the neighborhood, or that we might just be one of many who seemingly do the same thing. But that frustration doesn’t last once you actually talk to the householder. They never ask us what religion we are because they already know, so there must be something about us that is different in their eyes. Also, when you actually start teaching them, they can tell we are very different. For example, at one study that we have, when I mentioned that we are all sinners, the wife said, “It’s so refreshing to hear you say that. The evangelicals say that they don’t have any sin anymore.” I then read to her 1 John 1:8, which says “If we make the statement: ‘We have no sin’, we are misleading ourselves and the truth is not in us.” They smiled when they heard that. Also, the evangelicals, as I’ve mentioned before, get smashing drunk on the weekend just like everyone else. And another thing is that they might preach, but they don’t last. No one ever sees the same person or same couple preaching. I think it’s some sort of thing that only new ones do for a few days or weeks and then they stop.

THE DISTRICT CONVENTIONS

I say conventions, in plural, because we had to go to 3 different conventions the last 3 weeks. As I mentioned in the last post, I had the privilege of having an interview during the Friday morning session. Happily, Marlene also was asked to be included (She did fantastic! I think her Spanish is getting a lot more conversational, although she doesn’t think so.). The thing is, though, that we had to give it at 3 different conventions. I’m not sure exactly why, but I think it’s because there might not be enough brothers to handle the talk that includes the interview, so they assigned the brother, and therefore the interviewees, to three different ones. The convention that our congregation was assigned to, however, was the last one, December 12-14, so we got in a bit of practice before that one.





Also, these last three weeks have been quite costly for us, because after each time we’ve been to Ticuantepe, we (Us and the Lau’s) have gone to Managua to eat. The first time was a wonderful reunion with McDonalds, where I almost cried from sheer joy. (I was no longer a big fan before we left the States, what with that bloated, brick-in-your-belly feeling you get courtesy of Mickey D’s, but after 2 months of eating rice, beans, and chicken, you start yearning for that fat greasy Quarter Pounder, believe me!) The other occasions we’ve experimented with a Mexican restaurant, an American ribs place, and a couple of other restaurants and, while our tummies were blessedly full, our wallets weren’t. It’s amazing how much money you can spend if you really want to!!

We even got to see a couple of good movies, and instead of paying the $10 ticket plus the $35 popcorn/coke combo, the tickets are about $3 each and the food is dirt cheap. The weird thing with the theaters, though, is that they run the current movies and they also run movies that we saw about 10 years ago, all in the same mega-plex stadium seating theater (“Coming Soon! Sleepless in Seattle!”). And, for some reason, we got to see “The Day the Earth Stood Still” one day before it came out in the States. We don’t know how it happened, but whenever we ask why something happens, we always get the same response, “This is Nicaragua!” Ah yes, the land where you either get chased down the street by mask-wearing machete wielders or get to see blockbuster movies before those Imperialist Americans do! (More on the mask-wearing machete wielders below.)

BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE MANAGUA

Some of you might have heard of the recent trouble in Managua. They had some elections about a month ago for the mayors of each town, and the winning party was accused of rigging the elections and throwing away thousands of ballots that had been cast for the eventual loser. We have no idea if this is true, and we really don’t care one way or another, of course, but it got a little hairy for a while. There were busloads of political activists going from all over to Managua, but not really to “activate”, or whatever it is that they do normally. They were armed with machetes that were supposedly given to them from the government (this was suggested because some of the friends saw on T.V. that the “activists” had new, shiny machetes, and so they concluded that “the government must have handed those new machetes to them! No one has shiny machetes!”) and went up to Managua, where they all started rioting with masks on their faces and one reporter either got stabbed and injured or stabbed and killed. We have heard that others have been injured and/or killed, although we can’t corroborate any of it, because every time I turn on the news they are talking about the latest soap operas or I get too tired of the Spanish and switch the channel. (Yes, I know I was raised in Spanish, but it is just very strange, and I have a very low tolerance for it. We actually have cable, and CNN is on a lot, but they haven’t run anything on it as far as I know).

Anyway, the good thing is that it is now completely over, and none of it ever reached here to our little town. Probably because the entire town seems to be allied with the winning party, and so no fights broke out.

As far as our daily life goes, it continues much the same. We are very busy and our routine is much more stable now. Almost TOO stable. Some of you know that I’m not a big fan of routine, and so I get a little stir-crazy sometimes and I need a breath of air once in a while. But the conventions, with theaters and good restaurants nearby, did the trick.



We are also looking forward very much to my parents visiting in late January, as that will be a break from the routine and we can go and have some fun. After that, when I get really bored again, it will be time for the circuit overseer’s visit, and then after that the Memorial season, and then after that who knows. Time is really flying by for us, and we are still having a blast. We haven’t gotten sick yet, and so we are hoping that stays the same as well. And we are very, very thankful that we have cable TV, which means we get ABC, NBC, FOX, CNN, and other american channels. We’re much too busy to watch a lot of TV, but we like to occasionally get our fix.

Well, this is it for now. You might have realized that I am not writing as often anymore, and that’s not because we are too busy or because we don’t have time. I love writing to you all and letting you have a glimpse of life here. It’s just that lately, there hasn’t been anything really out of the ordinary that has happened. You can only read so many times about us crossing rivers in our preaching campaign, or how I long to keep a horse in the house, or how we chase the monkeys from tree to tree trying to get a good picture. So, when something out of the ordinary happens, I will write. I expect that my posts will be once or twice a month, but I will let you all know as I post them, as I have been doing up to now. Of course, if any of you have any questions or would like to make a comment on anything, you can e-mail us or give us a call.

Stay safe, take care of each other, and keep serving Jehovah faithfully. We will try our best to do the same!

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