Bulls, Water Nazis, and Cat Pee!

A harrowing account in which we are almost mauled by bulls, where we meet a Water Nazi, more adventures with power outages, cat pee, and theocratic gems! (Yes, really!)

This month has certainly been a busy one, but it has been quite colorful and exciting, as usual.

INVASION OF THE BULLS

A few Sundays ago was some giant pagan party in Granada. They were celebrating the birth of some saint, and they expressed their adoration by lugging around mannequins dressed as 16th century maidens with faces full of thick makeup, followed by 5-piece bands tooting their horns all over town. Ah, but the real action would begin later that evening, with the annual “Running of the Bulls”, an adventure very similar to the one in Spain that you always hear so much about.

After the meeting (English) that morning, some of the brothers told us to be careful, because at around the time of the Spanish meeting (5pm), they would be letting the bulls out and it would be dangerous to be on the roads at that time. Seeing that we’d have to come from all across town to attend the Spanish meeting that evening, we had to be even more vigilant. We didn’t really think about it much, though. I remember that I was starving to death and was more concerned with lunch than with any pesky getting-gored-by-bulls business.

Later that evening, however, we got a small taste of the weird craziness in Nicaragua, yet again. We were walking down the street, in our usual route to the Kingdom Hall, when at the end of the very narrow street we saw a bull tied up by some people, who were standing a good 10 feet away from him and holding the ropes. One man would very courageously dart towards the bull and smack him on the nose and neck, with a long rod, to get him worked up before they’d let him go.



Of course I seethed at this, seeing the poor bloody state the bull found himself in, and shook my head and commented to Marlene how amazing it is that certain people can actually function biologically without even a tiny minuscule brain in their heads, when the bull finally had enough and burst forward a bit and knocked the man down (the man on the right side of the photo above).

The bull sort of stood over him and lowered his head, and all we saw were some jerky movements from the bull, doing who knows what to the man below. (We later found out that the man was seriously injured. I tried a little bit to feel sorry for him, really I did, but it didn't work very well.)

Anyway, while all of this was going on, we heard a loud collective cry come from the crowd around us, and we saw that a different, larger bull was running down the street, dodged the first bull trying to murder his not-so-smart victim, and was charging toward us! People started fleeing down the street, and as we saw the bull running toward us, I grabbed Marlene and jumped into an open doorway lining the narrow street along with about a half-dozen other people. It was thrilling to see the bull run past the doorway, but not the good kind of thrill. More like the “I-can’t-believe-how-close-we-got-to-getting-the-business-end-of-those-horns” thrill.

The next day we learned that the bulls that had been let loose had seriously injured 14 people and had killed a horse.

Now the horse, I felt sorry for.


THE WATER NAZI

Living where we do now has been so convenient in certain respects. We have two little “ventas”, little shops that are actually peoples’ homes where they sell different goods. Soft drinks, soap, toilet paper, cookies, etc. The one directly next door, our neighbor, is where I would buy my nice little returnable 2-liter Coke bottle from. The one next door to that was kind of ignored, until a couple of months ago when they started selling the 5-gallon water jugs. (Before this, I’d had to go to a store about 4 blocks away and lug the water back, which is no big deal if it’s not 105 degrees out, but unfortunately it usually is.)

Anyway, once I found out this neighbor was selling water, I happily went to her for all of our water-drinking needs. At first, I got a very hearty welcome from the lady, whom we shall now call the Water Nazi, because that’s what she is.

She smiled and said, “We’ve got many more things, too, so come back for whatever you need!”

I took that as a nice little customer-service pitch, smiled, and went happily on my way. I didn’t know at the time that she had, in fact, issued an order.

About 2 weeks ago, I suppose, she finally had enough. She spotted me buying my usual Coke from next door. I went home, dropped off the Coke, and took the empty water jug to exchange at the Water Nazi’s place. As I walked up to her window, she LITERALLY said, “No water for you.”

“What?” I said, cocking my head to the side in confusion.

“We don’t have water for you,” she said. “All we got is Coca Cola. But wouldn’t you know, you already got it from the other store, so I guess you don’t need to come here.”

My mouth opened and closed a few times. But nothing really came out. She saw my hesitation and plowed ahead.

“There’s something you don’t know,” she said, pointing at me. “Your neighbor? The one selling all the Coke? She’s a thief.”

“A thief?” I asked.

“Yes. A thief. She sells her Coke for 21 cords, and I sell mine for 20, but you wouldn’t know that, would you?”

Now at this I started to get a bit upset. Number one, because she was talking to me like some idiot, and number two because she was flat-out lying.

“No she doesn’t,” I said. “She charges me 20 each time I need one.”

The Water Nazi just snorted in disgust and looked away. “Maybe she charges YOU 20, but she charges everyone else 21, and that isn’t right.”

“I see,” I said.

“So,” she said. “If you want to buy your Coke from me, then I’ve got plenty of water. But if you don’t. . . .”

“All right,” I muttered. “I’ll buy the Coke here then.”

“What?” she said.

I frowned, trying to figure out if she had really not heard me or if she just was having a little fun.

“I said, I’ll buy my Coke here.”

“I heard what you said,” she said.

I just looked at her for a moment. “Can I have my water then?”

“Simon!” she barked over her shoulder. Immediately a pudgy little boy came forward with a jug of water. “You can have your water,” she said.

I paid for it and left.

Am I ashamed of giving in to the Water Nazi? Perhaps a little.

But you try lugging that 5 gallon jug of water in 105 degree heat with 98% humidity, not even being able to see because of the sweat pouring into your eyes and making your hands and arms all slippery. Not to mention the very likely possibility of stepping into one of the thousand holes in the street, falling, and making yourself look like a moron, lying in the middle of the street with a broken jug and water splashing everywhere!

So the Water Nazi must have her way, don’t you see?


MORE SWEATY, MOSQUITO - FILLED FUN!

Yes, we’ve continued to have the wonderful, exciting experiences of not knowing when the power will shut off as we lie down to sleep. It’s a lot of fun, really. You start to hesitantly put your head on the pillow, peering at the light that tells you the air conditioning is on, willing it to continue. And then finally, you close your eyes, slowly let out a sigh of hoped-for relief, and then the world blinks out. And you lie there, amazed at how fast the room gets hot, not even being able to imagine what air conditioning feels like. Putting the thin sheet over you feels like you’re wearing a bear suit in the middle of the Sahara. So, you get out of bed, crack open the door to perhaps have a bit of a breeze through the night, and hear the ticking of the clock in the next room as the minutes drag by. You finally, FINALLY drift off to sleep, and practically at that exact moment the electricity comes back on, which wakes you up to a nice surprise.

“Ah!” you say, and you hastily get out of bed to close the door and to turn the fan closer to the bed so that the whole family can get maximum air flow (yes, the doggies just LOVE to cuddle when the electricity goes off! Never mind their 100 degree little furnace-like bodies!), and you lie back down, a smile on your face as you wiggle in bed, trying to get the most comfortable position for sleep, the wonderful, cool air washing over your body, thinking that bedtime is the nicest part of the day, licking your lips as you think about dreaming of nice pizzas and frolicking through fields of wild flowers, and then. . . .

Blink! The world turns off again. And you want to tear your hair out from the roots and scream. And so you get up again to open the door, finally drift off to sleep, and wake up with a dozen bites on your legs and arms, and they don’t all look the same.

But that only happened a few nights.

Right now we’re good.



DOGGIE HEALTH

As you know, this has been an ongoing issue. The poor dogs are always biting and scratching at themselves, the poor things. We really shouldn’t have brought them with us, but we didn’t want to give them away permanently, and we couldn’t see just “lending” them out for a year or more. There are limits to how much we will milk our friends and family, you will be happy to know.

But Marlene, who’s been experimenting with all sorts of drugs and potions for them, has recently found that fish liver oil is helping them out quite a bit. (Yes, she’s gone through so many trials and errors that she is now at “Fish Liver Oil”.) It’s good for human skin and, we’ve found, good for doggie skin. They don’t have nearly the same amount of hot-spots they used to, and the skin irritation is going down little by little, with occasional flare ups. There are some other things Marlene puts on them, though, that are essential, but we’ve just run out. Her brother is working on sending us some stuff, which is fantastic.

A strange thing, though, was that a few nights ago, during the nightly before-bed Tick Inspection, we found two ticks on Savannah. Now, finding 2 ticks on her is rather unusual in itself, but the weirdest part was that they were on top of each other. Now, I’m not one to impute bad motives on anyone, but it really did seem like they were copulating on top of our poor little doggie. Either that, or they were involved in an epic, desperate fight for death and glory, Tick style.

Either way, they both ended up being uprooted from their wild hairy world and flushed down the toilet, where they met a watery end.

In other animal-related news, we have this really annoying cat that likes to jump across to our roof in the mornings and pee on it. Then it scratches at something, dirt or leaves I guess, to cover it up like a litter box or something. We know it scratches because we can hear it. And by “we”, I mean all of us. Savannah goes nuts, staring up at the ceiling, growling and barking, trying to climb up the walls. On several occasions, unfortunately, the pee has leaked into a corner and run down the wall, which makes for a very stinky and disgusting environment. Marlene has done a great job in getting most of it out, but you know what cat pee’s like. Or maybe you don’t. In any case, it’s really, really bad.

On one occasion, the stinky pee got onto one of my ties that had been hanging up and touching the wall, and we took it to the drycleaners here in Granada. When we went to pick it up, I pulled it out of the garment bag and carefully sniffed it. The counter person looked at me very strangely, and so I said, “It’s just that it was really, really smelly.”

The look on her face got a bit stranger, but she didn’t say anything.


HOST VISIT

This past week we had the wonderful privilege of being the host visit for both the Circuit and District overseers and their wives. Actually, both brothers are district overseers normally.

There are only 2 districts in the entire country, and these two brothers are the 2 district overseers. There are currently not enough brothers in the circuit work, however, so the district overseers have to do circuit overseer work parts of the year. At this time, brother Luis Balladares was serving as the circuit overseer while brother Arnoldo Garcia was in his normal D.O. capacity.

This is just one example of how urgent the need is for qualified elders to be here. The branch is doing a wonderful job with what they have, but they really don’t have as many tools to work with as they really need.

The week, as you would expect, flew by really fast. We had the privilege of hosting the two couples for lunch on one of the days, and it was really nice because here, the lunch hour ranges from 12 noon to 2pm, so you have plenty of time to get to know them. The nice time cushion is very much deserved, though. The traveling overseers here in Nicaragua have such a huge job, and not a lot to do it with. They don’t have cars, unless they buy one themselves, which most of them can’t afford, so the majority of them travel by bus, boat, horse, and feet to get to where they need to go. And the circuits are very expansive, with congregations either being nestled into a nice sized city, or a 10 hour trip by horse and boat away.

The two couples were so nice to be around, very down to earth and humble, and not afraid to get their hands dirty in service, walking and sweating along with the rest of us. We had a ton of support in service, too, the majority of the publishers were out the whole week.



PIONEER MEETING

As you know, there is an annual pioneer meeting for all of the pioneers in the circuit right before the circuit assembly. This one was wonderful!

We had an attendance of 194, which included regular pioneers, special pioneers, and missionaries.



The thing that stuck out the most to Marlene and me was how much they emphasized that we have a dual role as pioneers. One is, of course, taking the lead in the preaching work and setting an example of zeal and skill in our teaching. But even MORE important, we were told, was our other role of strengthening our congregations. Working with the brothers and not just with other pioneers, attending the meetings for field service whenever we can, even if we have other arrangements. And working with the group in door-to-door work and not breaking off to do studies or return visits after only a short time.

The whole meeting was very encouraging and was very direct in asking us to evaluate how we are doing in our work of encouraging our brothers and sisters, if they feel refreshed by being around us. It also emphasized always being positive and upbuilding, and not negative or having a complaining spirit.


CIRCUIT ASSEMBLY

The next day, of course, was the start of our Circuit Assembly, this past weekend. We got to ride in a chartered school bus with the rest of the congregation, which was a nice way to get to know everyone a bit more, and it was impressive to see everyone working well together in our cleaning assignment. This time around our congregation was assigned to the cleaning of the bathrooms. Which is definitely NOT anyone’s favorite assignment, of course. But everyone showed such a willing, enthusiastic spirit and we finished it in a short period of time and it was done very well. It was really a great example for us to see.



The program itself, of course, was extremely encouraging as well. One aspect that was particularly encouraging was that, although many people take discouragement and become bitter and angry because of it, we need to conquer the evil with good things. Keep working for Jehovah, letting your faith be tested and proved by endurance. Jehovah puts very little value on untested faith. But when we are tested, and we endure as we depend on him for strength, now THAT is valuable to Jehovah, like refined gold. Because he knows then that our obedience is not just there when it’s convenient, and that our serving him isn’t based on mere emotion or because everyone else around us is doing it. But that we serve him out of genuine love, and when he sees that we won’t stop, no matter what, he is moved to help us even more.

That is very encouraging for us, because there are certainly many, many challenges that can frustrate us and can make us desperate. At times we need to wait for Jehovah to fix a certain problem that we can face here in our assignment, but sometimes we are tempted to just take it into our own hands and fix it ourselves, because we want it fixed NOW. But if we do that, what have we really endured? What patience have we shown? What dependence and trust in Jehovah is there?

So the program really encouraged us to just keep praying about the matter and leave certain things in Jehovah’s hands, and to be confident that, once Jehovah is satisfied that our faith has been proven, he’ll do something. And that all of this is a golden opportunity to prove to Jehovah what our motives for serving him are.


A SPECIAL EXPERIENCE IN OUR MINISTRY

I saved this for last because it’s really something extraordinary.

As you know, Acts 10:34, 35 says that “God is not partial, but in every nation the man that fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him.”

The faithful and discreet slave class has often referred to this scripture when it encourages us to seek out all sorts of people in our ministry, to not deny someone the right to hear the good news based on their appearance or lifestyle. Our obedience to this was recently put to the test, and the following account has by no means told its final chapter.

It all started when Marlene was visiting an interested young woman (I wasn’t with her then.) While speaking to her, her friend “Perla” came out and joined in the conversation. It turned out that “Perla” was actually a man who, obviously a homosexual, had gotten a “gender reassignment” surgery a while back and lived his life as a woman. He dresses as a woman and behaves as one. During the course of the conversation, he asked Marlene why it was that God would destroy him for being homosexual, if God was the one that made him that way. Marlene later told me that he began to cry as he expressed his fear and confusion. She kindly assured him that, although Jehovah condemns such a lifestyle, he doesn't hate the actual person and hopes that he can change to become approved by Him. After the conversation, she told him that she would come by again to speak with him, and he readily agreed. Under pressure from his friend, he begrudgingly admitted that his real name is Cesar, and Marlene said that that was what she would call him from then on.

We spent a few days the following week looking for him. Although he has the habit of often being at his friend’s house, he seemed to disappear. We were told of two different houses where people were sure that he lived, but he had moved out of both places. Of course, we took this as yet another indication of Satan trying to cut across our path, but we kept at it and asked around for him.

Finally we heard that he was always at this particular corner selling food in the mornings, and that was where we found him. The conversation started easily enough, speaking about the wonderful hope that Jehovah gives us for eternal life on the earth. Marlene then brought out the Young People Ask Book, volume 2, which she had promised to bring him, and showed him the Table of Contents. When he saw the chapter on homosexuality, he pointed at it and said “I want to read that!” We then got into another conversation about his situation, and it was very obvious to us that he has a sincere heart and wants to be pleasing to God, but thinks that he is who he is and he doesn’t know if he can change that. He also seems to be accepted by most of the community as being a woman, and so that is an added incentive to staying the way he is.

As we spoke to him about what God feels on the matter, he agreed with us that these feelings are an effect of living so far below our perfect origins, and also living in Satan’s world. We read to him 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 which shows that some of the Christians in the 1st century had practiced homosexuality before coming into the truth, but had been able to change because of help from Jehovah. We told him how, in Jehovah’s eyes, homosexuality was no different than a man or a woman committing fornication or adultery. He agreed that, just as a person who has strong tendencies to commit immorality doesn’t have an excuse to engage in it, a person who has homosexual tendencies doesn’t have to give in to them either.

Instead of painting Jehovah as a cruel God who implants wrong desires in the heart of a man and then punishes him for acting on those desires, we told him, “This is the kind of father we have. Look at what it says here in Isaiah 41:10: ‘Do not be afraid, for I am with you. Do not gaze about, for I am your God. I will fortify you. I will really help you. I will really keep fast hold of you with my right hand of righteousness.’”

He was very moved by that scripture and broke down over it. We assured him that as long as he asks God for help and makes every effort to obey his righteous standards, he can be clean and upright in His eyes. He really seemed to appreciate what we were saying. To us, he absolutely has the 3 “H”’s required of a sheep-like one: Hungry, Honest, and Humble.

Time will tell if God opens up his heart and makes the seeds of truth grow. But we won’t give up going by and talking with him. This week we will attempt to establish a study with him using the Bible Teach book.


A BUSY TIME AHEAD

Well, that is all for now. We are looking forward to starting off the new service year at full speed towards our yearly hourly goal. Marlene and I have been invited to go again to the group at the Isletas, which you have surely read about in the recent September Watchtower!!! Hopefully we will get to be on the floating Kingdom Hall and get some pictures this time, since we will both be there.

Also, we have received the wonderful privilege of being invited to this year’s Pioneer School. That takes place the last two weeks of October, so the almost-2 months that remain will be full of anticipation.

We sincerely hope that Jehovah continues to be with you, our dear friends, and we mention many of you by name in our prayers. Please do the same for us.

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Thoughts on Death - By Motorcycle, Drowning, or Swine-Flu

I sit here before the computer, contemplating the fleeting nature of man’s fragile life, as I cough and wheeze, hoping that my life will not be cut short. I slowly shake my head, thinking what a pity it would be if I really do have that much-maligned pig flu.


I cough again.

“Put a cough drop in your mouth!” comes the call from my dear beautiful wife. It’s apparent that my coughs are irritating her sensibilities. I hack up another lung in her general direction, for good measure.

“Sorry,” I rasp in my sick-voice. Then I begin to write.


SEEING THE SIGHTS AND GETTING LEFT AT THE CURB

When I last left you, my friends, we had just gotten home from our wonderful trip to Chicago. Ah, what a fine vacation that was! We still talk about the wonderful food and friends to everyone here.

When we returned, as you will most likely remember, the power went out. This time it was nothing too major; it has gone out sporadically ever since, never more than 6 hours at a time and never after 9pm, which is good. We really would rather not go through the whole sweaty-mosquito-filled nights any more. We’re not sure what the causes are. It seems to us that in order to conserve power, the city is cutting off electricity to different sectors of the city on certain days between certain times. We hope that it doesn’t continue to be regular, but we will really never know. They don’t actually tell you. They just assume that you will figure it out sooner or later.

Anyway, the weekend after we got back we went down to a place called Nagarote near Leon for a visit. It started out as a nice day, the bus ride down was easy enough. We got hold of a taxi driver that actually pedals people around, like a rickshaw driver, and he took us out to this lake overlooking Momotombo Volcano.



It was very nice. On the way back to the main town, however, it began raining and then the rickshaw driver pulled over and told us to get out because he had damaged a rim. After we got out, he waited for a few minutes in the rain and then basically abandoned us on the side of the road. We aren’t really sure what happened there. He didn’t flat-out leave us there without a word, but he told us that a bus would be coming along very soon and he had to get back to town so he didn’t want to wait, and he couldn’t carry us in his pedal-mobile because of the busted rim.

After a few failed attempts at flagging down a bus, however, Marlene and I realized that the buses don’t stop there, and so we started walking towards town. We eventually made it back on a bus and were in Granada right on time for the Spanish meeting that evening. It really was just a very strange day. We attended the meeting in severely wrinkled clothes and were all sweaty, and we were very, very embarrassed, but the bus stop is literally a block away from the hall and it dropped us off like 10 minutes before the meeting. Besides, the friends were happy to see us anyway and didn’t ask why we looked so disheveled. But I’m sure they wondered.


(ALMOST) DYING FOR A RETURN TO THE ISLETAS

The weekend after that, I was invited to give a talk at the Isletas group, the group that meets on the little islands off of Granada. Marlene and I were excited about it, because we were hoping we’d get to be on the floating Kingdom Hall.

The Friday night before, however, I called the brother over there to confirm, and he said that there had been a slight problem. The boat that normally would pick us up at the dock in Granada was not working well, there was something wrong with the motor and would start acting up on long distance trips. So the boat could only pick me up at Dock #2, the closest one to the Kingdom Hall, so that we wouldn’t overwork the engine. The other problem was that Dock #2 was accessible only by a 30 minute motorcycle trip, and there were only 2 motorcycles available. One brother would be taking me to the dock, and another would be taking the Watchtower conductor. So there was no room for Marlene. Oh, and instead of it being on Sunday, it would have to be on Saturday afternoon at 2pm.

I had to break it to Marlene that she couldn’t go, but I know she doesn’t like riding on the back of a motorcycle anyway, and she was fine with it.

Little did I know that I was about to embark on two harrowing trips that would almost cost me my life. Well, maybe not so much, but it really was rather frightening.

I took a taxi to the place I was supposed to meet the brother the next day, at a little junction called the Three Crossings, because of a 3-pronged fork in the road. The motorcycles were already there with the brothers waiting. I could see that the three roads were all dirt roads. Well, two of them were dirt roads and the third one, the middle one, looked like someone had tried to recreate the Grand Canyon using bulldozers and bulls dragging steel implements behind them.

“So, which road are we taking?” I asked, already fearing the worst.

One of the brothers, Danny, smiled and said, “The middle one. But don’t worry. If we make it there before it starts raining, we won’t die.”

“Ah,” I said. I see.

After hopping on the back, I held on to the support bar behind the seat (I wasn’t going to hold on to the brother’s waist, obviously) and we were soon on our way. For the first 3 seconds I thought it wasn’t going to be so bad, until we hit the first of about 2,000 ruts. At least the first part was hard ground.

After bouncing around for a few minutes, I asked him, “How long is it til we get there?”

“About 30 more minutes,” he yelled back.

Wonderful.

Soon we started on a long, winding patch of road that was made up of loose gravel and dirt. We really almost went down about 5 times. And the brother was driving pretty fast, since we were going to be late for the boat. At one point I began to pray that I wouldn’t die, not like this, not in the middle of the jungle on a gravel road. At that moment the brother’s cell phone rang and he slowed down to about 40 miles per hour to answer it and stick it in his helmet, talking and laughing at whatever the person was saying. During the phone conversation we wobbled a bit and almost went off a bridge into a river, when he realized he probably shouldn’t be talking on the phone and put it away.

Finally, after what seemed to be about 45 minutes through dense jungle, we made it to a tiny little dock. My brain told me to quickly jump off the death machine, but I had been holding on so tight that my hands wouldn’t let go of the bars and I basically fell off. My butt didn’t stop buzzing for a good 5 minutes.

“Thanks for not killing us,” I said to the brother, who laughed and said that the guy who had tested him for his motorcycle license had said the same thing.

“But I’ve only fallen a few times, and only twice with someone else on it,” he said.

Anyway, we were soon on the boat and headed out to the Kingdom Hall. About halfway there, we met up with a few other boats full of brothers and they tied onto a small island and hopped on with us, since we had a motor and they had rowed there from their homes on the other islands.

We were soon at the meeting site and we did get to have the meeting on the floating Hall after all. It was a pity that Marlene couldn’t be there, but there was no way she would have made the motorcycle trip.

The meeting was well attended, about 30 people. About 25 of them were under 18 (it’s a very young group), so it was extremely appropriate that the Watchtower study was about young ones serving Jehovah.

Immediately after the meeting ended, the wind really started to pick up. I looked out over the lake and was amazed at how high and choppy the waves were.

“Are we going out in that?” I asked the boat driver.

“Yes. Either we go now or we catch the rain and it gets rougher,” he said.

So we quickly locked up the chairs and equipment and the Kingdom Hall and set off.

I don’t think I have ever been as terrified in water as I was that afternoon. Not even when I saw a giant R.O.U.S. in the shower with me a couple of months ago.

The waves were incredibly rough and we were all hanging on for dear life to the rails. At some point we were practically nosing straight up and coming down with loud, wet crashes. It seemed to go on forever.

At one point, in between the splashes of water on my face, I yelled out to the brother, “Have you guys ever flipped the boat over?”

“Yes,” was all he said. And he wasn’t smiling. I decided not to ask any more questions.

Eventually we made it to land and tied up the boat. We waited a bit for the winds to die down and for us to dry off. We had some refreshments at one of the local Witnesses’ house. Finally after our short break Danny said, “Are you ready to go, brother?” and motioned over to the waiting motorcycle.

I stared at it and said, “Perhaps after another drink,” and dragged it out a little bit more.

Finally it was no use putting it off so I hopped on the bike once more and we were off. The ride back was basically the same as the ride in, except that the brother took me straight to our house. I very slowly unclenched by hands and gingerly stepped off, checking to see if all my body parts were intact.

So, all in all, it was a very terrifying ordeal, but in retrospect it was a good experience.

In retrospect.


FRIENDS AND PESTILENCE

The same afternoon I returned from the Isletas we received a visit from some friends in our old assignment, Luis and his wife, Jesse. We knew they were coming and they planned on staying the night so they could attend the meeting with us in English the next morning. It was a very pleasant visit, and we went out to eat a couple of times, which is always my favorite thing to do. They enjoyed the meeting in English, for which we had a nice attendance of 30, and we went out to eat again afterwards. That evening, however, we found out that they had missed the bus ride back to Santa Teresa, so they stayed another night and left early the next morning.

It was a nice visit, but near the end of it I began coming down with something. I don’t know where I could have gotten it from. Luis, Jesse and Marlene weren’t sick, and I couldn’t recall anyone at the Isletas being sick, either. Perhaps it was from some lake water that had splashed into my mouth when it was gaping open at the shock and terror of that harrowing boat ride. I don’t know.

But I felt terrible pretty soon and on Tuesday I even slept through Marlene going out and coming back from service.

My beard grew out and everything. I looked like a disheveled homeless person. For a moment I thought that I might perhaps have the pig-flu thing, until Marlene suggested that we go to the Hospital and have them take samples. Yeah right. I’m sorry, but I’m still majorly paranoid about Nicaraguan hospitals.

“Maybe it’s not the pig-flu,” I told her. She agreed.

Normally I get tempted into milking my sickness a bit, because Marlene tends to feel sorry for me and gives me extra attention. But along with that loving care she is very, very strict on what I can or can’t eat. No candy, no Coke, no ice cream, no pizza. Only chicken soup, chicken broth, disgusting Vitamin C drinks, and orange juice.

And medicine after medicine. Sometimes she’ll wake me in the middle of the night and give me a small pill with a glass of water. I tend to be quite paranoid when I wake up in the middle of the night. “What is this?” I ask.

“Just take it,” she says.

“Why don’t you want to tell me what it is?”

“Just take it and go to sleep.”

“All right.”

And I swallow it, hoping she is not poisoning me. But I always wake up just fine in the morning.


A VISIT FROM A HIDEOUS MOTHER AND HER DISGUSTING CHILDREN

Don’t worry, I’m not talking negatively of anyone in our congregation. This mother was a truly hideous creature. Literally.

A few nights ago Marlene and I were reading or something when I got the urge to get a snack. On my way out of the back area of the house, I unfortunately happened upon a gecko that had recently died (I didn’t measure its body temperature, but the lack of a swarm of ants eating it indicated that it had been a recent demise).

I switched on the light to look for a plastic bag to pick it up with, when my eyes were immediately riveted to a large shadowy insect-like creature crouching near the wall trying to avoid detection. Upon a closer look, I could see it was a scorpion about 4 to 5 inches long. But in the gloomy darkness, it looked like it was lying upside down. I squinted at it, thinking that perhaps it had died, and noticed probably 30 legs on it. I frowned, trying to remember if I had ever heard of a weird centipede/scorpion creature. I decided that although I didn’t remember hearing of any such thing, one encounters many strange never-before-contemplated creatures in Nicaragua, so I yelled for Marlene to come take a look.

She arrived and promptly freaked out. Fortunately the dogs were asleep somewhere in the nice air-conditioned bedroom. I could tell that the creature knew we were talking about it, but it didn’t move. I asked Marlene to get me some sort of heavy, blunt object to kill it with, preferably a cement block or something.

“We don’t have any cement blocks,” she said. “But I can get you the machete.”

I shook my head and told her that I didn’t want to risk getting it angry but chopping off one of its pincer-claws and then making it attack us. (Some of the scorpions in Nicaragua are very aggressive, although I didn’t know if we were looking at one of those species or not.)

I finally just took the broom in my hand and raised and lowered it towards the creature, practicing my swing. I knew I would have to get it with the hard wooden edge above the bristles if I was to kill it. If I missed, it would probably scurry away from me and towards Marlene.

“One, two, three!” I exclaimed, and gave it a good shot. Unfortunately, the creature didn’t die instantly, but scurried away towards Marlene. And if that wasn’t horrible enough, I now realized that all of the multiple “legs” that I thought I saw were actually about 100 baby scorpions that had been resting on their disgusting, hideous excuse for a mother.

Upon the first glancing blow, they scurried in all directions. I stepped on as many as I could, at the same time as I repeatedly beat the mother to death. It was really rather disgusting. After I killed her, I started killing as many of her children as possible. (It sounds terrible, but it was in self defense! Their poison could easily make our dogs very sick or even kill them.)

After I was sure that I had gotten most of them, I poured bleach on the whole cement area and also in the dirt that some of the children had run into. We then thoroughly washed the whole area and went to sleep. Marlene had nightmares. I, for some reason, dreamed about being at Giordano’s pizza in Chicago.


OUR TRIP TO CHONTALES

Last Saturday we took a long anticipated trip to Santo Tomás, Chontales, to visit the Lau family. We ended up renting a car in Granada and drove a good 3 hours around the lake into the interior of the country. It is a breathtaking drive, going through rolling green hills and past picturesque lakes.



We finally arrived and ate a nice lunch that they had prepared for us, and then went to the meeting at the group. It was a very nice sized group, and it was actually the Congregation Bible Study, Theocratic Ministry School and Service Meeting (they have that on Saturday, and the other meeting on Sunday).



We got a kick out of a very young publisher doing the reading. He was very enthusiastic.



There was close to 30 present, and they all seemed to be very cheerful and zealous.

Afterwards we spent some time at the Lau’s new house up there, which is actually quite comfortable, and then we went to dinner where I had a pretty good steak.

We had thought about staying the night and going to the meeting the next day, but we didn’t want to leave the doggies by themselves so we headed back later that evening. It was night time on the way back, through a winding mountainous road with about a hundred semi trucks blowing past us at ridiculous speeds. Combine that with some gory details Silvia told us about some recent accidents on that same road, and it made for a very stressful drive back. I don’t think I want to drive in Nicaragua at night anymore. There are no lights on the roads, the stripes on the road are not reflective (they’re just painted on with regular white paint), everyone drives with their high-beams on regardless of whether you flash the “hey-man-turn-down-your-lights” signal at them, and they drive like they’re being chased by someone. It was amazing that we made it home alive.

And now, for the last subheading:

NOW WHO’S THE SICK, DISGUSTING ONE?

Well, not disgusting. Just sick. I speak of my beautiful, wonderful wife.

As of this writing, about a week after I started this post, I am no longer sick, you will be happy to know. However, Marlene is currently battling a serious cold. She sticks it out, but unfortunately the other day we were in service when she started to get sick, and a rain broke over us. She has since gotten worse, although she denies that the rain did anything.

She’s getting plenty of rest, though, and it’s not a serious thing. But now it’s my turn to cram cough drops down her throat, ha ha!

And restrict her from all sugary drinks and snacks.

Isn’t life beautiful?

[Continue reading...]

Whirlwind Visit to the Windy City

The last time we parted, dear reader, Marlene and I were anxiously anticipating our visit to Chicago. At the time, we believed that there was absolutely nothing that could dampen our enthusiasm here in Granada while we worked in service and looked forward to our vacation.

And, with a little help from some alcohol-based sleepy medicine, we were right!

About two weeks before we left, we were sitting in the living room watching tv when all of a sudden the power went out. We just shrugged in the dark and turned on some candles, which are strategically placed throughout the house for just these such “emergencies”. So we turned them on and placed them on our kitchen table and pulled out the old Scrabble board and began to play, all the while confident that the electricity would come back on in 20 or less minutes.

But for some reason, it didn’t. As the night got further and further along, we began to be somewhat perplexed and irritated. At about 10:00pm, after waiting for it to come on for a few hours, we went to bed. We positioned the fan to be directly on us so that we could be quickly cooled off whenever the power decided to come back on later that night.

As the hours dragged on, we found ourselves unable to sleep. The heat was oppressive, at least in the high 90's. The windows were open, but there was no breeze. The door needed to remain shut because of the mosquitoes who busily hunt for human blood in the night. It soon started to feel more and more like a tomb.

We sweated and shifted in the bed, trying to find cooler areas that our bodies hadn’t yet touched. Unfortunately, the dogs seemed oblivious to our predicament and snuggled their furnace-like bodies close to us as usual, but were met with firm denials.

Around 3 in the morning we finally fell asleep from utter exhaustion, dreaming of fans and air conditioning.

We woke up at around 6:30 in the morning, and the power was still out. Thankfully this did not affect the water flow, like it used to in Santa Teresa, so we were still able to shower and get ready for the meeting in generally the same way we always do, except we couldn’t use the hair dryer obviously. We went out in service, confident that it would be back on by the time we got home.

Only it wasn’t.

At this juncture, I’ve decided not to bore you with a day-by-day account of this ridiculous situation, only to say that we did not get power back for a whole week. When the second night started out much as the first, only hotter and sweatier, we decided to take a few “helpful” sleep droughts, my choice being a nightcap of NiQuil. It sort of worked, sinking me into a dreamless sleep, but the entire next day I was swimming through life, and it was just very, very irritating. But alas, it was the only way we could sleep and sort of function the next day.

The problem with the electricity, it turned out , was that the transformer down the street had burned out. From day 1 to day 5 we called the electric company several times, and they always told us, “We’ll be out there today to fix it, there is a work order already in effect.” Of course, we soon learned that it was really only a lie.

What had happened was that once the transformer blew, the electric company saw it as a wonderful chance to get a ton of money that was owed to them from the neighborhood. Most of the people on our block hadn’t paid their bills for many months, some of them owing up to 10,000 cords (around $500). Taking into consideration that the average person takes about 5 or 6 months to make that amount of money, the company wasn’t expecting them to pony that up any time soon.

So, they sent a representative to the neighborhood who almost got mobbed by a crowd of about 50, and told them that unless they paid up certain percentages of the total owed, they were going to have to do without power.

This really irritated us since we had nothing to do with it. But thankfully, at the end of the week the people had worked out payment plans and had paid off a percentage of their bills and the transformer was replaced.

When the repair people finally arrived, their truck was met by cheers and people jumping up and down. When they hopped off the truck they were literally hugged by little kids.

We really must say that having no power for a week was probably the worst it has ever gotten for us here in Nicaragua. But while all of this was going on, we drew great encouragement from reading the yearbook. I remember that during one of the worst days, we remembered the experience of a couple in Samoa who had to sleep on a flattened cardboard box in a one-room house with another family. So we figured it could be a lot worse.

During the power-outage-misery-week the Lau family returned from the States, and we were able to meet up with them for lunch in Managua. It was very nice to see them again. They got us come edible goodies which were greatly appreciated, and told us that it was going very well in Chontales. They are serving primarily in the group there, and to hear them tell it, it is very productive and enjoyable to work in. We do miss being around them and hope we can go up and visit some time within the next month or so.


CRISIS? WHAT CRISIS?

You may remember from the last post that we were majorly stressing out over the fact that our tenant in New Mexico was moving out and the ugly possibility of being unable to stay here in Nicaragua loomed on the horizon. Of course, we prayed to Jehovah about it repeatedly and hoped that he would do something about it, since we were not able to.

We also mentioned our worries to some friends in New Mexico. Strange to say, they almost unanimously expressed that “Oh, we hope it works out so you can stay down there,” but also said in different ways, “But we really hope you don’t find anyone to rent your house so you are forced to come back and be with us again!” (You selfish people know who you are!) Actually, we appreciated those sentiments because it shows that we are at least a little bit missed. It was also good for a laugh.

We were in constant contact with our property management guy in New Mexico, and we agreed to try and get someone in fast. We lowered the rent by a bit, and were pleasantly surprised to get a couple with a small dog almost immediately. They ended up moving the weekend after the previous tenant left, and we had no gap whatsoever in the income coming in from the house. Jehovah truly answered our prayer for help.

CIRCUIT ASSEMBLY

The weekend before we left for Chicago was the circuit assembly for our previous assignment in Teresa. We were no longer assigned to go, but when we heard that Santa Teresa was having 9 baptized, we felt impelled to go.



We were thrilled to see everyone again, and were happy to hear that the congregation is going strong and smooth. They made us promise to go and visit soon.


OUR TRIP TO THE WINDY CITY

Two days before we left for Chicago, we went to Managua to get our exit visas at the mall. (They have a little immigration office there.) It went by without incident, and we went to the pet store to get some treats and vitamins for the doggies to have while we were gone. Of course, as it inevitably happens whenever we go into a pet store, we wandered over to look at the puppies for sale. There was a tiny black thing that Marlene fell in love with and asked to hold.

My brain was instantly filled with traumatic flashbacks of when we got Molly. We went inside a pet store by the house in New Mexico to get some cat food and Marlene asked to hold a tiny Shih-Tzu. The little thing was beautifully colored but ran around the holding area like the Tazmanian devil on stimulants. We walked out of that store with some cat food and a puppy that was so expensive that my stomach still hurts when I think of it. And yes, Molly is still a little Taz, but we love that little rat.

Anyway, while Marlene was cooing over the little fluffy black dog, she asks, “I wonder how much it is?”

“You know we already have two dogs, right?”

“Yes, yes.”

“And you know we have to pay an arm and a leg to get them out of Nicaragua when we go back home, correct?”

“Yes, yes, I know.”

But she still buried her nose in the little thing’s neck, smelling it and running her fingers through it.

I reached out for it and said, “Here, let me hold it.”

She reluctantly handed it over. It immediately growled and bit me.

Of course, I was deeply offended and handed the monstrous thing back like it was a dirty, smelly rag. “Put it back,” I said.

After whispering soft reproof in the puppy’s ear, she slowly put it back in its cage with a pained look on her face. Then she looked at me.

“It bit me,” I reminded her. She nodded and walked away.

That was a close one, but she later realized that Molly would have terrorized the poor thing, and Savannah would have been very resentful and would probably have attempted to murder it before too long, which is really true. Savannah has no conscience whatsoever.

Finally, on a Wednesday, it was time to fly to Chicago.

We were very excited as the plane touched down at O’Hare. As my sisters, Lizette and Sandra, picked us up amid cries of intense happiness at seeing our wonderful faces once more, I was inundated with very strange emotions. I expected it all to feel very alien, to be overwhelmed at the modern world in which we now found ourselves, but strangely enough it seemed to me like we hadn’t missed a beat. Nicaragua felt like a dream from which we had just woken, filled with wonderful scenes and vague memories of nocturnal terrors in pools of sweat with mosquitoes buzzing about. It kind of amazed me at how seamless the transition to our past lives was.

Anyway, Chicago was hot upon our arrival, at least to local standards. It was like a cool spring morning compared to Nicaragua.

We soon made it to my family’s house, which was filled with family (my little nieces had made a very nice banner welcoming us back) and glorious, glorious chinese food. A banquet, really.

It was too much food and I really do think I ate 4 heaping plates of it. My stomach, not accustomed to anything except for chicken with white rice, accepted the edible happiness at first, but grumbled for a few days afterwards. I, however, repeatedly and very sternly told it to shut up and shoveled more and more unimaginably delicious meals into it.

The following day we set out for the district convention which was to be held in Bloomington, a charming town with hundred-year-old houses about 2 ½ hours away.

The district convention deserves its own subheading and a long-winded account, but I will refrain from doing so only because many of you have not yet attended it. So I won’t spill any secrets and I won’t talk about the wonderful possible new release(s) that may or may not have been presented. But I will tell you this:

Do. Not. Miss. Friday.

And the drama was so beautiful and SO timely. The faithful and discreet slave cares so much about us and hurries to help us in any way that it possibly can. And if that drama doesn’t move you and help you young ones in the congregations, I have no idea what will.

While at the convention, we ran into many of our oldest friends. They were very happy to see us and we were thrilled at the news of new congregations and the unrelenting growth of the circuit. All in all, the program was wonderful.






We also had a nice treat in that Marlene’s brother, Sal, came up from near St. Louis to visit her. She had not seen him in about 6 years, and I had never met him. She described him as an impossibly tall, intimidating person (thanks for the confidence-builder, honey), but he turned out to be impossibly tall and very, very nice. He and Peggy were very easy to get along with and we had a bunch of easy laughs. We were sorry that we couldn’t visit with them longer.



The Monday after the convention, once we returned to Chicago, was spent in a nice reunion with the girls that visited us in March. We met up with Briana, Lidia, Ashley, and Tahlia, as well as other friends. We met David, a very nice brother from near Wisconsin who was visiting, and Luis, Lidia’s husband, who turned out to be nothing like what I had imagined. I don’t know why, maybe it was from talking to him briefly on the phone while Lidia was here in Nicaragua, but I imagined him to be a stuffy-lawyer type of a person, but he turned out to be a very kind, encouraging, and easy-going guy. And we got to walk around and eat in the city, which really is just beautiful.









The rest of the week was spent lounging around with family, going out in service with a friend, dinners and more dinners with old friends and family, shopping for absolutely necessary things, and more and more eating. We were very happy to meet up with family that was also visiting from Texas, who I hadn’t seen in about 15 years. And we also got to spend time with some very good friends that we had missed.



We also got to show some friends a slide-show type thing we had put together of our adventures in Nicaragua. They laughed at the cool little animals we see here from time to time, and were impressed with the way people respond to us in service.

And the showers! The hot water was amazing. Our shower-times went from 32 seconds flat to a leisurely 10 or 15 minutes. You people have it made. You can’t hear me, but I am grumbling as I type this.

Our family was very accommodating. Actually way too accommodating. They made sure that we were very comfortable and VERY well fed. They bought us some much needed clothes and never complained about having to share us with way too many friends. Of course, we always appreciate them, but we were just so taken aback from how they treated us and we keep asking Jehovah to reward them for their kind hospitality.









While we were up in Chicago, we got to talk to the Morales family up in New Mexico by phone. It was so encouraging to talk to them, and we were very happy to hear that they are building an extra room in their house. I think that Daniel always had the plan to do it, and now that we are coming up in December for a month, they tell us it will be ready for us. They are so awesome. I just really hope they don’t hate us after being around us for a month, which is definitely a possibility. Marlene is an angel, but I have to admit that I am an acquired taste.

During this trip, I was also trying to look into buying a guitar because I now have some time to learn it and I have always wanted to. My dad, very surprisingly, still had a guitar he had bought for me when I was probably 12 years old (I was a very impatient child and quit after a short time. Marlene still thinks that I tend to be an impatient child, but we will see!). Lizette bought me a really nice guitar case for it, and so now I’ve got it down here in Nicaragua. Hopefully I will be able to learn it in the next year.

So, with sad hearts mixed with excitement, we boarded the plane and headed back to Jungle Land. The day we left Chicago we had to wake up at 2:30 in the morning to make our flight, and when we got home it was pouring down rain like a monsoon. We were so tired that we basically just lounged around and waited for it to get dark. I think we made it to 6:30 pm before we fell asleep. And as soon as we did, the inevitable happened.

The power went out.

Welcome home.

[Continue reading...]

Country Mice have become City Mice

And we're still trying to decide if that's a good thing or not. . .

You will remember from our previous post that we are now assigned to the English group in Granada. We had some mixed feelings about the whole thing. Now, about 6 weeks into it, the feelings are still mixed, but we are glad we came. And we aren't as terrified as we once were.

From the beginning we’ve really liked the English group. It is small but there are some very colorful personalities with us. No one is really very similar to another, which serves as some very funny happenings and also some that can be irritating. But that is to be expected.

Our small group has 10 publishers. Us two, the Brooks family, Cindy and Francisco, who are fleshly brother and sister as well, Edith, and the Mosca’s (Steven and Debbie have been here the longest, and they just got back from the States a few weeks ago. . . .they constantly have to put up with laughter at their last name, which means “fly” in Spanish. The insect “fly”, not the superman “fly”). There was one other person with us, a retired sister from Hawaii who arrived about a week after we did, but who eventually went over into the Spanish. (It really is tough in the English, since we have to walk a LOT each day to get to some far-flung territories.)

Over this past month, we have seen that it will be a challenge to support the group, but that it can be deeply satisfying as well.

We have the entire city as our territory. Some of us have more of a physical limitation than others do, and others have their plates a little fuller and can’t be out in service every single day. So this leads to finding a way to get and give enough support in the ministry to the others in the group so as to avoid discouragement and a slacking off.

I get the sense that it’s kind of like jump starting a car. It can be challenging and frustrating, but once it gets going it will kind of take care of itself, in comparison to the effort made at the beginning.

The first part of the month was just spent getting everything settled and getting everyone’s schedules so as to figure out who goes out when. It has basically gone down to going out as a group from Wednesday through Sunday at various times, which works well with us.

The cool thing is that we have been used a lot in the Spanish congregation which is supporting the group, Granada West, and Marlene is going out 2 days per week with Spanish and I am going out 1 day a week with them. We are going to double meetings on Sundays, which is a challenge, but for 2 very good reasons. 1, so that Marlene doesn’t lose her Spanish, which is possible when you are in English 80% of the time and you live in a city where you can very possibly live without knowing a lick of Spanish. The 2nd reason is so that we can establish friendships with the Spanish friends. We are trying really hard to avoid forming a “clique” with only the English group, since it isn’t fair to us or the Spanish, and since it really will only add to our joy and satisfaction while being here.



The English group is so small and so contained, I can easily see it becoming claustrophobic after a while.

Being with the Spanish as well is a great release valve, and with a congregation that has a good 100 to 110 at the meetings, it has a large variety of people in it. For example, of the two elders, one (Tim) is a missionary who lives in the missionary home on the same property along with 2 other missionary couples. His wife, Glorie, is a really nice sister. Marlene and I have had several opportunities so far to work with them, and we are really impressed by their great examples in service.

The other elder, Benjamin, is a very experienced older man who has been an elder for about 40 years. He was an elder throughout the civil war of the 80's and lived through all of the tribulations that brought. He is extremely humble and always has a twinkle in his eye.

As far as the English is concerned, we had two brothers leave to go back home. David went back to England and Torrey went back to New York. So we’ve taken quite a hit.

Gary, Steven and myself get to be used a bit more, but it’s really a danger because it can get really boring week after week seeing the same people give parts, and we are worried that it might cause the attendance to lag a bit.

The past couple of weeks we’ve had no-shows for the public talk, so that kind of made it worse. But hopefully we can get a bit more organized and make sure that whoever is coming will actually come. But, it truly is a really cool blessing to be a part of this little group. This is us. It's up to date, except for the tall brother in the back (red shirt, striped tie), Torrey, who went back home, and the sister in the front in the white top, who is still here in Granada but went to the Spanish congregation.



THE MINISTRY

Remember how I told you that I was convinced that the ministry would be really, really hard? Well, it is. But not in the way I thought.

The hard part about our ministry here is that there is a TON of walking! I thought back in Teresa, with all of the rural territory we had, we walked like we had never and would never walk again. Well, I was wrong. We walk 30 minutes at a quick pace just to get to the Kingdom Hall, and then sometimes we walk another 30 minutes to get to the territory. AND, Granada is the hottest place I have ever set foot on in my entire life. It is relatively cool, maybe 75 degrees, at 6:00 in the morning, and then it quickly shoots up to 98 or 100 with probably 100% or more humidity. This means that as soon as we put our service clothes (and I mean “as soon”, like, as soon as the cotton touches my back), we break out in a fine sweat all over our bodies. At first it was really disgusting, but now we are used to someone being able to see through my shirt and just being all sweaty and gross. We just have to make sure we bring plenty of water with us and we always walk in the shade. Part of the reason for the high humidity is the lake.



The easy part is actually the preaching. Yes, even in English. Marlene currently has 2 studies in English and 1 in Spanish, and I currently have 6 studies in English. (Granted, some of mine were given to me by Torrey when he left, but they are all past Chapter 6 in the Bible Teach book, and some have already come to meetings, so they are progressive!) I would never have thought it to be possible.

On one occasion, we were walking to the territory and Paula, one of the sisters, was with us. She wanted to stop by a gas station to get a bottle of water, and the counter clerk happened to speak English. While Paula and I were selecting our refreshments, Marlene struck up a conversation with her based on the New World tract. The girl just very directly asked Marlene “Do you really think this is possible?” So that started a nice conversation. When we were ready to go, Marlene asked if she could stop back in some time to continue the conversation, and the girl (Maria) said, “But I thought you Witnesses visit people in their homes! Can you visit me instead?”

The next week Marlene started the study with her and she is studying regularly.

One of my studies is a lawyer on La Calzada, a very major tourist street in Granada with a bunch of restaurants and offices. His father happens to be a Witness, but he was baptized when Marvin (the lawyer) had already grown up and moved out on his own. Marvin never really gave the Witnesses much of a chance, until we tried talking to him in English. He, too, is a regular study and was very impressed with the Bible’s teaching on what happens to us when we die. He is a very logical person and had reasoned that since no one had ever come back from the dead and spoken about Heaven or Hell, that there really wasn’t any proof that when someone dies they go there. When I showed him the scriptures in Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10 and John 5:28, 29 he smiled and said that he completely agreed with the Bible. He was raised a Catholic but has not gone in years because of the false doctrines that are taught there which have no basis in the Bible at all.

So we are really enjoying ourselves in the ministry here, although I have probably lost another 10 pounds which I really couldn’t afford to lose. Marlene is pretty happy that she is able to sweat her weight off, but I am getting slightly worried. As a precaution, though, I have taken to picking up a few Snickers and American donuts when I can!!! (Marlene, when you read this, it will already be too late, ha ha!)


THE FRIENDS

We are really enjoying the friends here in Granada as well. Nikki is really attached to Marlene which is great, since Marlene is so good with little girls. I, on the other hand, tend to antagonize little girls in general and make them mad at me, but I am really trying to curb that (although I really don’t know why it happens, honestly).

We’ve taken a few day trips to Managua to the mall (and our favorite Mexican restaurant!) and to Catarina to take a look at the Laguna de Apoyo. We took the Brooks to the market in Masaya so that they could pick up a few things they needed, and they were pretty impressed with it all, although it was really, really crowded as usual.

I think at some point soon we need to check out a movie in Managua and go to Price Mart to stock up on some Star-burst and Snickers. And frozen vegetables, per Marlene.

We’ve been to 2 parties this month, one at the Brooks’ old house (the house they lived in when they first arrived, while they looked around for permanent digs) where we were treated to a really nice folkloric dance that the brothers planned, and then the rest of the friends had a great time swimming in the pool for the rest of the evening.



The other party was at Benjamin’s house, it was a going away party for one of the sisters who is moving to the States, and there was some really good food and a lot of dancing. It was good to spend some time with the friends in Spanish, in a more informal setting.

One really nice thing is that Frank and some other friends from Teresa came out a couple of weeks ago to visit us. It was very nice to see them again and they commented on how nice the city was, and also how much hotter it was than Teresa!



Some cool news: The Lau’s made it back safe and sound from the U.S. They arrived last week and gave us a call. They have already made their move to Santo Tomás and are enjoying it, especially since during their first weekend back they had their circuit assembly. We have ours at the end of June, a few days before we leave for our “vacation” in the States. We are actually going to be meeting up with them in Managua this Friday to have lunch together and catch up a bit.


HOUSE TROUBLES

This subheading is a double-edged sword, almost literally.

You might remember that in Teresa, we had to live next to this horrible, screechy disco bar. When we got away, we felt so relieved. However, it seems that misfortune tends to follow us.

I once had a horrible nightmare in which I was running away from some crazy masked killers. I managed to slip away from them and, scared to death, I ran to a house in the middle of the night that happened to have their front door open. I pulled open the screen door and just ran inside, babbling to the people in the house that some crazy psychopaths were after me and I needed help. Unfortunately, I soon learned that the people in that house were crazy psychopaths as well, as they closed the door with a very scary grin on their faces. (I know, I know, it’s very weird, but my dreams are always really weird. And no, I don’t watch horror movies or really bad stuff. All that junk is already in my head for some reason.)

Anyway, it KIND off feels like that here in Granada. We were so happy to come into this beautiful house in Granada, and everything was fine for the first few days. And then we noticed that the punk kids across the street love to blast their speakers directly at us. What is most horrible, however, is that most of their musical tastes run in the range of total filth. It’s hard to not get very upset when you hear very loud music screaming F-bombs into the air about shooting and raping people. It’s really, really bad. We have to shut (slam) the front door some times and just retreat to our bedroom in the back to watch tv on the portable player.

However, the music is just about 3 to 5 days per week. The one thing that is a bit more frequent are the drunks who love to sleep on our front porch or just sit on it and look inside to see what we are eating or what we are doing or what we are watching on television. It is SO annoying. The local friends tell us that it is a pretty common “problem”. It’s more a problem for foreigners, who tend to like their “personal space” than for locals who have grown up around that behavior. I definitely don’t get any “Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!” vibes from the drunks, but it is still extremely annoying.



One good piece of news regarding that, however, is that we convinced our land-lady to put up a wrought-iron fence and gate around our door, and so now the drunks can’t sleep or sit right there. In the week or so that it’s been up, it has actually gotten like 70% better, so it’s not terrible.

But the street is not good, even by local standards. Whenever we tell the friends where we live, they always say, “There? Why would you live there?”

Well, we didn’t know the area, I tell them. And besides, the truth is that we cannot afford anything even similar to our place in a nicer part of town. So it’s either live in a really, really nice house in Trash-ville, or get a really terrible, rat infested hole in a really quiet and pleasant neighborhood. It’s a toss-up.

We are keeping our eyes open for anything else around town. We actually spied this nice looking house in a nearby neighborhood, but it came with some familiar trappings that made us not bother calling.



Now, I mentioned that this house thing was a two-edged sword. The other edge is our house up in New Mexico. Unfortunately, the tenant (who has been great) lost her job and is moving out on June 15. That could either be a small blip in our life that will be resolved when it needs to be resolved, or it could be a disaster that will force us to go back home. (And it WOULD be a disaster. In spite of the challenges of the house, etc., we love it here and we still can’t believe we get to be out in service almost every day and be a part of such a special thing as helping to start a group.. . . the house thing is not a gigantic problem, it’s just when we come home that it’s a problem.)

Anyway, our property management guy in New Mexico feels pretty confident, apparently, that he can get someone in there as soon as the tenant leaves.

This is definitely something that is adding stress to our lives, but it’s really just something that is out of our control and we can’t do much about it. So we’ll just have to see if it works out. I’m sure Jehovah will help in whatever happens.

So, this is it for now. I know it wasn’t a huge book as usual. Although we have been extremely busy, the dynamics in Granada are much, much more different than those in Teresa. There are no more rural territories or piglets or horses or crossed rivers or Japanese friends to write about anymore, unfortunately. Granada is just a big city, and we just go out in service, much like we do back home. Not much “out of the ordinary” happens, at least not as much as it used to back in Teresa. Things here are so much more “routine”, kind of like back home.


But we are grateful to have a little bit of extra space for the doggies (who are doing fine, by the way) and a very nice mixture of cultures and languages which makes things a lot of fun.

We leave for the States on Wednesday, June 24 for 2 weeks. I might write again before then, but if nothing spectacular happens, I will write after we get back, which will be a nice post.

Anyway, we will continue to plug along here, and we pray that Jehovah be with all of you.

Ciao!

[Continue reading...]

A Glass of GOOYCZ with a Twist of Old English!

I know that the title of this post makes no sense to you yet, but I promise you it will. Just be patient!

First, let me get you up to speed on our latest extremely busy month. Extremely busy and extremely fun. First an exciting account concerning a visit from Briana and her friends, in which we make wonderful new friends and in which Marlene almost gets attacked by a hemorrhoid-infested monkey!


A NICE VISIT FROM SOME GREAT FRIENDS

We had been looking forward very much to a visit from Briana, a very good friend from Chicago, since we received an email from her in February telling us that she had bought a plane ticket and was coming.

A little while later, she e-mailed again and said that her roommate, Ashley, was coming along, and would that be all right? “Of course,” we said. Then she wrote again, saying that another sister, Tahlia, was coming along as well, and was that okay? “Sure!” We exclaimed. And then, another email telling us that another sister, Lidia, wanted to come as well. Of course we agreed, and suggested that she might want to announce the Nicaragua Adventure Tour on the bulletin board in her Kingdom Hall and take names.

Since there were now 4 of them, we decided to book them a room in a local hostel in Jinotepe, which turned out to be a great deal for them and also very convenient.

The day they were set to arrive, Briana called at about 6:30am to warn us that there was a blizzard in Chicago and that she wasn’t sure if they would make it that day after all. It was very strange, thinking that it was actually cold in some other place of the world.

We had a good idea, though, that there wouldn’t be any problems and so we set out for Managua after the meeting that morning. The Lau’s were very kind and drove us up there, and we spent the day kind of lazing around the malls and eating a couple of times. Finally it was time to meet the girls at the airport.

Lidia was supposed to arrive on an earlier flight than the rest, so we had an eye out for her first. We didn’t know what she looked like, though, but we knew she was a Mexican sister. It was a little hard to single out a hispanic-looking sister in an airport in Central America, but a few kind of fit the description. Marlene would shout out “Lidia! Hey, Lidia!” a couple of times, however, and would receive puzzled looks in return.

Finally, after not too much of a wait, we got them all in safely and rented a car without incident. It was a pretty late night so it was basically just getting them checked in with a promise to get them the following morning for service. Briana, however, gave us a suitcase full of goodies from back home. Which were EXTREMELY appreciated. 2 giant bags of Laffy Taffy and 3 big boxes of Milk Duds! Unfortunately, the Laffy Taffy is now gone and the Milk Duds have a good 4 or 5 days left. I really need to be more balanced! Seriously. When I break open that Milk Duds box, it is not safe to be within a 5 foot radius of my mouth.

Marlene got some cool gifts as well. Some Snickers and Milky Ways from the girls, and her brother sent some shoes and movies to Briana to bring down to us. Those were a nice surprise, since they are very much needed here.

The first morning in Nicaragua for the girls was spent in field service. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to go since I was pretty swamped with work that morning (Mondays are my work days), but they said that it was a wonderful experience. They did quite a bit of walking and rode part of the way on an oxcart. They really liked that part.





You might remember that our doggies were near death with some nasty fungus thing. Well, at least that is how the “vet” put it. That Monday, since we had a car now thanks to Briana, we decided to take the pups to a real veterinarian in Managua. Immediately upon walking in we were pleasantly surprised. You couldn’t tell the difference from a good vet back in the States, except for the Spanish of course. The vet, whose name is Clarissa, was actually recommended to us by a very kind sister at Bethel, and she was right to do so. She was very professional and told us off the bat that the dogs actually never had “fungus”, like our farmhand/vet from Teresa told us. Surprise, surprise. . . .They actually had some bacteria that some medication would take care of. She gave us a very strict regimen to put them on, and almost immediately it worked. They still occasionally chew on their paws, which we asked her about, and she said that they have very dry skin and she could tell from their paws that they had serious vitamin D deficiencies due to lack of sunlight, which leads to cracked and weak skin on their paws. Poor doggies. We really haven’t been taking them out for walks because the streets are filthy with dog and horse poo, not to mention oil and dirt, and there are no places in our Teresa Shoe-box for them to get some sun. But we assured her that we were soon moving and that they would be getting plenty of sun. Hopefully that will work out.

Afterwards we stopped at a Mexican restaurant in Managua. The food was so-so but the conversation and association were excellent and we were able to get to know the other sisters better. Lidia is a very nice and funny sister who used to be in the Spanish back home but switched to English a few years ago. Her husband was very kind in lending her to us for the week. Ashley was Briana’s roommate before Briana decided to move to the actual city of Chicago. She cracked me up so many times during her visit. Sometimes, even now, I’ll be walking down the street and think of something she did or said and I’ll just laugh. Tahlia is a very sweet and kind sister who is studying to be an EMT and likes to travel. She is very creative and left us a bunch of money folded up in little cool shapes. We almost didn’t want to unfold them to use them, but of course we did. And Briana, well, we already know her very well. She has been Marlene’s friend since forever (Marlene actually studied with her way back when), but I really got to know her better a few years ago. She is a really great friend and we were so thrilled that she could come and visit.

The picture below is of our four visitors. From left to right, they are Ashley, Lidia, Tahlia and Briana.



A few days after they arrived, we took the girls to Granada. It was a bit hotter than we remembered, but this time of year is the hottest no matter where in the country you are. We had planned the trip, but we asked the girls if they wanted to take a canopy tour, which is a thing where you go zip-lining from tree to tree down the side of a volcano. It is something that Marlene and I have wanted to do for a long while, and the sisters agreed enthusiastically. They all had quite an adventurous spirit, which made the trip a lot more fun. Lidia was a little hesitant at first, but even that made everything more fun since it was so funny to see her progress from terror to eventual acceptance.



When we got to the volcano, we immediately felt how much cooler it was than Granada. It must have been 70. And it was very beautiful. Although it is the dry season, there was still a ton of green trees and vegetation, and the 15 platforms were actually all suspended over coffee plantations. At one point we could hear the distant growls of howler monkeys, and we saw them on our way back down to the main road later.

We got our gear on, which I think made us all look like coal miners, and were instructed on how to hold ourselves while on the lines. It was a lot of fun. After a few normal trips, we went across the lines upside down and horizontally like Superman. On one line, Briana finally got the courage to go over hanging upside down, but got a small branch in the face when she started off. It was hilarious.

The last line was very steep and instead of swinging over to another tree platform, it ended on the actual ground. Marlene went first, not really sure what to expect. As soon as she pushed off the platform, though, the guy on the other end, one of the guides, started pulling like a crazy man on the line, making her bounce all over the place wildly. It was for dramatic effect, and it made it all a lot more fun. I thought a couple of the girls were going to hit the ground a couple of times, but of course no one did.

After the canopy tour, we went on a quick boat trip through the Isletas, over to monkey island. We had brought a few bananas along and everyone had a lot of fun throwing them to the monkeys. I always like going out on that water, it is very relaxing and peaceful. It is cool, too, because it is so different from anything else in Nicaragua.



It was on our way out of Granada when Marlene was almost savagely attacked by the hemorrhoid-infested monkey. Well, maybe not savagely attacked, but she could have been messed up big time.

You might remember from a previous post about this monkey that is tied to a tree in a restaurant parking lot. He is obviously someone’s pet, and he stole Marlene’s lolly pop on one occasion a couple of months ago. Anyway, we wanted the girls to see him so we went there, and there he was, tied up and sitting in a tree branch. We all took turns trying to get him to climb up on us or wrap his hands around us or something. And he did, for the most part. And then we wanted to give him something to eat for his trouble, and Tahlia had this nutri-grain nut bar thing that was still wrapped. The monkey immediately saw it and wanted it, of course. Marlene, however, still wanted Curious George to give us hugs, so she put the nutri-bar inside Tahlia’s strap on her top, to lure him. Well it did, and he promptly took the wrapped bar and climbed up the tree. (Man, that monkey is really cold. And selfish. Once he gets what he wants, he kicks you to the curb. I really thought he was cute at first, but he is so “me-me-me”.)

But anyway, he climbs up there and is tearing at it with his sharp teeth, and Marlene looks up at him and says something like “Aw, he can’t get it open. He needs someone to open that package up for him, or he will choke and die on the wrapper!”

So she proceeds to half-climb up the tree and is reaching for the bar that this frenzied monkey with huge hemorrhoids is tearing at (hey, I didn’t look for them. . .he just climbed up the tree and gave us all a show). Anyway, Briana and me start yelling at her to come down, that she is crazy. She keeps at it, though, and then we start getting a little upset at her and start yelling a bit louder. Finally she came down. It is hilarious in retrospect, but seriously, if she would have touched that bar, what do you think would have happened? This is a wild animal, right? Would the monkey have said, “Oh, why thank you Madam, so kind, so kind!” I don’t think so. I think there would have been a lot of anger and someone would have had a majorly scratched up and/or eaten up face. Am I right? But thankfully that didn’t happen and we all really enjoyed the whole Granada trip.

Later on Ashley, Tahlia, Briana and Lidia got to experience a meeting Nicaraguan style. Everything was going perfectly well during the Theocratic Ministry School until, of course, all of the lights went out. No problem. Someone was prepared and a flashlight soon came on. Frank, the school overseer, stood over the sisters with the flashlight on the notes and they continued giving their talk. Afterwards everyone clapped for them being such good sports. And thankfully, as soon as the school was over, the electricity came back on and the meeting concluded normally.

We also got to visit Bethel that day and the girls really enjoyed it. They got the tour and got to meet a really cool missionary couple who are serving in the country, but I don't remember where exactly.



The following day, Friday, we finally went to the Montelimar beach resort. Marlene and I have heard about it a million times and everyone has told us to go there, it’s the best, and we were thinking that it was just so overhyped and it wouldn’t be as good as everyone says it is. But with the girls visiting, it was a good excuse to go, and it was definitely worth it! There is an entrance fee for the day, and it includes breakfast and lunch, all you can eat at their restaurant/buffet, and free drinks (even alcohol) and snacks all day, with use of their pool and beach. After a great breakfast of eggs, sausage, pancakes, fruit, potatoes, bacon, really good coffee, and a ton of other things, we went into the ocean and spent a few hours getting knocked over by the ocean waves. It was a ton of fun. Ashley, however, had this thing where she would come out of the ocean and spit out water like a fountain with her eyes closed. I didn’t mind at all until I was unfortunately standing right in front of her one time and got a full stream of salt water and Ashley Spit right in the face. (I told her “That is SO going on my blog!”)



All in all, it was a great day. The pool there is gigantic. For lunch we had really good cuts of steak, greek potatoes, pork chops, chicken, ice cream, fruit, flan, and a ton else. I really probably ate way too much. It’s like your mentality is “Well, I want to get my money’s worth” and so you just stuff yourself. I felt ashamed of myself afterwards. It was really a fleeting joy, and just left me feeling dirty afterwards. I gobbled up ice cream at one point, and pulled the plate full of flan in front of me and looked down at it, and I thought I was going to be sick. And I love flan. But I couldn’t even look at it.

After lunch we went back into the ocean, and then played Marco Polo in the pool, although I suspect that Lidia was cheating because she would just kind of squint her eyes, and when she would yell out “Marco!” I wouldn’t say anything and she still knew where I was.

After that I learned how to finally play chess by watching Tahlia and Marlene play on a giant board where the pieces were as big as 5 year old children.

Of course, we continued to eat and drink from the pool bar and finally were able to stuff our packed tummies into the car for the way back. We all got really baked by the sun, and my back and shoulders are still peeling. My face turned red a few days later, for some reason.

The following morning we had the privilege of cleaning the Kingdom Hall, and they got a kick of how we mow the lawn with machetes.

Later that day we had the meeting at La Conquista, where the sisters were able to share some comments they had prepared. They did really, really well!

After that we had a last dinner at Coliseo, the pizza place in Jinotepe, and then went to the hostel they were staying at and played some cards. We learned a new game, Golf, which we shared with the friends after the girls left, and we played one of my favorites, Mafia. I learned during that game that Briana has a very good poker face. I’m not sure if I trust her anymore, though. And I was also surprised to learn that my wife is quite willing to throw me under the bus if she suspects me of murder. She actually pointed at my face across the room and shouted “He did it! Trust me! It’s him!” Hmm, there goes my confidence in her if I ever need an alibi for something. (Thanks, honey. At least now I know!)

The next morning it was time for the sisters to go back home. We needed to start out early, since their flight left at 6am and the airport is 1 hour away. Marlene and I set the alarm for 3:45am, but for some reason it didn’t go off. Savannah did, though, and her barking at the door got us up to meet Lau. We quickly dressed and were off.

Tahlia, Ashley, Lidia and Briana got out okay and left us an envelope with very nice notes and some nice gifts. Afterwards I seized my opportunity to go to McDonalds for their greasy brick breakfast that makes you not be hungry for the rest of the day but tastes oh-so-good. I was totally dead the rest of the morning and slept another couple of hours.

We were surprisingly sad to not have the girls around anymore. I say “surprisingly” because we only were able to spend a short and very busy week with them, but we really established friendships with them that I think will last (“that I think will last forever” sounds so corny, but I guess it’s true!).

They were extremely kind and were very spiritually encouraging to be around. A very good example, the way they chose to spend their vacation in such a theocratic way.

It gave us a great boost. The only drawback, however, was that we got majorly homesick after they left. Some of the friends here have told us that it happens. When they get company from the States they get really homesick when the visiting friends leave. I was so jealous that they were going back to Chicago, even with snow and freezing rain. Sometimes you really just miss home. But we quickly kicked into high gear with preparation for the Memorial. All in all it was a perfect week, and we will see them all again in June when we go up to Chicago to visit. Tahlia has promised to make us our favorite desserts. Marlene is looking forward to a nice fudge cake. I’m just really missing some Cherry Garcia or Sarah Lee’s strawberry cheesecake myself.


THE MEMORIAL

The week afterwards was extremely busy. We held the Memorial in three different locations. One in Teresa, one in La Conquista where the group is, and one in El Cacao, where there is actually an old unused Kingdom Hall and five publishers. The cleaning in El Cacao was fun because there is a family of Witnesses living right next door and they have a ton of animals. I cautiously approached a baby cow, about 3 months old, and petted his gigantic forehead. It smelled my hand and I was surprised to have him lick me like a dog. (In this picture, for some reason, I look like I am balding. Don't worry, Mom, I'm not! I think I just put on too much gel that day or something.)



I got to play with a couple of the piglets and Marlene and I got to ride the brother’s horse a little after we were done cleaning. The family also happened to have some nice ripe mangos falling off of a tree, and they were delicious.

Later that day when we got back to Teresa, though, there was no power because some drunk guy had rammed a power pole and knocked it over. So the power was gone all day while they fixed it.

The Memorial was a smashing success all the way around. The congregation had a total of 277 in attendance, although that figure included the ones in el Cacao and la Conquista. We were not expecting hardly anyone at all in El Cacao, but we had 52 attend. Marlene met me there after she dropped off a couple of her studies at the one in La Conquista, and they had, I think about 55 there. We had to hurry back for the Memorial in Teresa after Cacao, and Frank let me borrow his motorcycle for the way back. It was over a dirt, rocky road in the dark, so Marlene was a little nervous sitting on it behind me, but we got there okay.



The Memorial was really a bittersweet occasion for us at the time. Sweet because of the importance and success of the occasion, but also bitter because we thought it would be our last time at the Kingdom Hall in Teresa. (You remember I told you we were moving in the last post. Well, we did move, but we moved 2 days later than planned and so we were able to get one more meeting squeezed in. We originally were set for moving on Wednesday the 15th, but it actually happened on Friday the 17th.)


THE SPECIAL ASSEMBLY DAY

The weekend after the Memorial was our Assembly day, and we had an assignment to clean the day before, on Saturday. It was pretty standard, just picking up trash, wiping down the chairs, cleaning the bathrooms, etc. The Assembly Hall is on Bethel’s property and is regularly maintained week after week by volunteers, so it was not a lot of work.

During the actual assembly I was assigned to be an attendant backstage, basically telling the participants where to stand, how to hold the microphones, and to tell them if they weren’t dressed appropriately. Thankfully all were. It was really nice to see the brothers and sisters that had parts. They were very nervous but you could tell they really appreciated the privilege they had. It was a great feeling to be able to congratulate and encourage them afterwards on their way back behind the platform.

It was kind of a shock to us, the whole experience, because we realized that we would really miss a lot of the friends. You know how you get used to seeing the same faces in the circuit? You aren’t friends with all of them necessarily, but they are there, they are part of the spiritual paradise that we all enjoy, and we were really starting to get used to seeing them, and so we were a little saddened that we wouldn’t be able to do that anymore. But we exchanged email addresses and phone numbers with quite a few of them.

The following day, Monday night, the congregation threw a going-away party for the Lau’s and us. It was a lot of dancing. Also a lot of tears, for the Lau family. We could really tell that the whole congregation will really miss them. And they have reason to. They have done so much there, they’ve really let themselves be used by Jehovah. When they first arrived there would be about 20 in attendance at the meetings, and now we have attendances in the 90's at times.

During the party one of Marlene’s studies, Eugenia, happened to be in the street and saw us and waved us over. We were able to say good bye to her and she expressed how much she appreciated Marlene’s help.

And now, for the last section of this post, and the most exciting. The move.


You will be shocked.


GOOYCZ WITH A TWIST!


GOOYCZ

What does that mean?

It didn’t mean much to me when I first saw it either. I saw it stenciled on a sign that a brother was holding up while speaking on a stage after a district convention program. It happened a few years ago. Marlene and I were attending an English district convention in Mexico, and we were considering the possibility of serving there eventually in that field. It didn’t work out in the end, but that sign served as a wake-up call of sorts and we have never forgotten it.

The brother held up this sign that read GOOYCZ on it, and nothing else. The talk he gave was part of an orientation meeting for all those that were interested in serving in Mexico English. He eventually revealed during the course of his talk that the sign was an acronym for “Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone”.

The talk was all about how, if your circumstances permitted, you could expand your ministry into avenues that you hadn’t before considered. But in order to do that, you had to get out of your comfort zone.

Back in the States, we certainly had ours. You know the routine. Service on some evenings when you had a study or two, a couple of hours on the weekend, afterwards a nice lunch spent with your friends, go to the meetings and share your comments, go out to eat afterwards, and occasionally take a nice day trip and get to know the friends better. And that is such a great life! And, of course, if you have that life it doesn’t mean you aren’t working hard for Jehovah and giving him your very best. The vast majority of Jehovah’s servants on earth do, within what our circumstances allow. For example, we know that many of you would love to be in our place but you simply can’t. We all have different circumstances. Marlene and I, too, would like to do certain things theocratically that we aren’t able to do, and so we just have to accept that.

However, if you ARE able to expand your ministry, if your circumstances really do allow you to be a regular pioneer, or to serve as a missionary or as a need-greater or as a Bethelite, or to learn a new language and help out in a greater need area in your own territory, then you have to simply get out of your comfort zone in order to achieve that. More self-sacrifice is required. You have to push yourself a bit more and spend even more time and energy in service to Jehovah, and sometimes you just don’t feel like it but you do it anyway.

Well, we recently learned that even though we have moved to a foreign land to serve in a greater need area, we needed to do more. And to do that, we needed to completely shatter our comfort zone. And we have. It is gone. And we are terrified and thrilled at the same time!

Let me explain.

During the last post, I explained to you that we had decided to move to Chontales with the Lau family. We genuinely loved the house there and also the weather. They have a group out there and so it would be a greater need area. And yes, we would have a nice little “support group” in place, since the Lau’s are good friends of ours. There. A nice little comfort zone.

However, it has all changed.

About a month or so ago, when we decided to move to Chontales, I called Bethel to let them know, since they like to know where all the foreigners are at any given time. They were fine with it, so we plowed ahead. Then, however, Bethel asked us if we would consider a different assignment. All they said at first was that they would be fine with us going to Chontales, but if we could, would we like to accept an invitation to serve in Granada?

“Granada?” I asked.

Granada is a beautiful, colonial style city on the shores of Lake Cocibolca, that gigantic lake with the 365 little islands in it that we visit from time to time as tourists. Actually, it is the most tourist-heavy part of Nicaragua, and many say that it is the prettiest, which I happen to agree with. (It has a very “European/Spanish” feel to it, what with all of the architecture from Spain of the 1500's, and all the different nationalities that stream throughout the city.)






I already knew that they had quite a few strong congregations there and so I didn’t see why they would invite people to serve there. But then they dropped the bombshell.

“It would be in the English field,” they said.

English?

My immediate and total reaction was NO WAY.

Now, Marlene and I love theocratic English. All of our personal study, Watchtower reading, Bible reading, all of it is in English. English touches our hearts and motivates us. But I, for one, don’t relish the thought of preaching in English. That field, to me, is full of people who don’t respect the Bible, doubt even the existence of God, and are very difficult to draw into the truth. (For the record, I may well be completely and totally wrong in my opinion, and I suspect that I am. This is the opinion of someone who has never been in an English congregation and has never done a return visit in English, other than a tiny bit of informal witnessing at work.) And I definitely think that I would sound like a total idiot giving a talk in English.

So, my reaction was NO.

Of course, I didn’t tell them NO. I said, “Well, brother, I understand that it is very expensive to live in Granada. How about we do this? How about we go down and check it out, and if we can find a house that we like and can afford, then we will move there, okay?”

“Okay.”

Later that evening we put it in prayer to Jehovah and told him that if, after our best efforts, we found a house that we liked and could afford, we would do it.

So, we took a day, not even a day really, just a couple of hours. We looked at an overpriced trashy house on the outskirts of the city and at a hotel room that someone was renting out that, while beautiful, didn’t allow dogs.

Oh well. Too bad. At least we gave it a shot!

So I told Bethel “Sorry brother, we tried but it just won’t work with our budget.”

Whew! I thought. That was a close one!

And Bethel smiled and said that was fine, and to let them know if we changed our minds.

So we plugged along and planned our move.

However, I must admit, during the following few weeks my conscience did start to bother me. Had we really given it our “best effort”, like we promised Jehovah? I knew that we hadn’t.

The conversation between Marlene and I started to turn towards it. “I wonder how it would be preaching in English,” we would say. Marlene hasn’t done it in years, and I never have. “I suppose they really do have a need,” we would say, before shaking the thought from our heads and focusing on our move to Chontales.

However, as I mentioned, we had prayed to Jehovah before and we told him that if he wanted us to help out in Granada, to let us know his feelings on the matter in some way.

During Briana’s visit, when we were in Granada, I walked into a tourist office to see if they did the canopy zip-line tour, and I had to wait a few minutes for the person to get off the phone. So I kind of wandered around the office a bit and suddenly saw a phone number on a bulletin board saying, “Homes for rent, plenty to choose from, just call ###-###”

I wrote it down and stuffed it in my wallet, but it was soon forgotten in the midst of our zip-lining fun.

The Friday before the assembly day, however, another opportunity presented itself to investigate Granada.

And Marlene and I were filled with shadowy regret about the way things had been handled. After all, we had come to Nicaragua under the branch’s direction, and to refuse an assignment is not something that we would like to ever do. We felt a tugging on our hearts towards Granada.

We would justify ourselves, saying Granada was too hot, too expensive, too this, too that. And Chontales was cooler, and Lau’s would be there, etc. But the tugging continued.

So we prayed about it again, wanting to see what we should do, and I called the number in my wallet. A real-estate agent answered. I told him that we were interested in finding a house that allows dogs, is in a secure area, close to Central Park, and would be no more than $250. (That is the absolute maximum we could pay for rent.) He told me he didn’t think he had anything that low in rent (Granada really IS expensive - a brother I talked to there says he is renting a ROOM for $300 per month) but that he would take the weekend to look and I could call him again on Monday morning to see if he had found anything.

So the weekend went by very busily, with the cleaning at the assembly hall and the assembly day itself. But the idea of moving to Granada nibbled greedily at the edges of my thoughts the entire weekend.

Monday morning arrived and I called the agent.

“I found one house that might fit what you want. But she doesn’t allow dogs and she wants $400 per month.”

“How does that fit what I want?” I asked him.

“Well, it is close to Central Park, it’s in a secure area, and it is a very nice house. We can talk to her and see if she can bring down the price, because she wants to rent it out and she might lower it if it is unfurnished.” (We didn’t need furnishings, of course.)

So I made plans to meet him in Central Park in a couple of hours.

I didn’t even see the point in Marlene going since it was most likely going to be a wash-out, and she had stuff to do at the house in preparation for our move later that week to Chontales anyway.

So I went on my own. I saw the house, and I really liked it. It is a good deal bigger than the house we had in Teresa. When you first walk in, there is a high, bamboo-cane ceiling with a dark mahogany ceiling fan. There is a walkway outside in the back that leads to the bedrooms that is bordered by a tall ivy-covered wall. There is a good number of windows and cross-ventilation areas, fans, and the master bedroom has A/C. In the back yard there is a nice little garden with ivy-covered walls and bougainvilleas cascading over. The neighborhood itself is pretty mild, about 4 blocks from Central Park (a 5 minute walk) and about a 10 minute walk from Pali, the main grocery store there. It is also about a 10 minute walk to the lake.

So I took a bunch of pictures to show Marlene, and took a look at the contract. It flat out said “No dogs allowed”. The agent told me he might be able to get her to waive that and to lower the rent to $250 unfurnished, and if we were interested, he would talk to her and let us know what she decided.

I went back home, the beginning of excitement building, and showed Marlene the pictures. She liked it and said it was up to me what we do, since she also liked the house in Chontales. I don’t think she wanted to influence me in case I was leaning in one way or the other. My own desire for comfort and stability screamed Chontales, but my conscience and desire to do what Jehovah wanted us to do continued to question me.

So I called the agent and said, “Okay, if you can get her down to $250 and to allow dogs, we will do it.”

He told me he would call me the following day.

That night we went to the going-away party I mentioned earlier. I didn’t feel guilty being there and eating the nice cake that was meant for us (the Lau’s got a nice cake, too), since we really WERE going away, I just wasn’t sure where to yet.

The following morning we decided to go to Granada so that Marlene could look at the house for herself. She was starting to get excited about the possibility as well. She walked through it and she liked it and was willing to go there if I thought it was best for us.






The owner of the house, a lady from the States named Susan, was in Granada and the agent said that he had an appointment to talk to her and would call me in an hour to see what she decided to do. So we walked around Central Park a bit and then went to Tip Top, a very good rotisserie chicken place, to eat lunch and kind of talk about everything. When we sat down to eat, there was a small group of 3 people behind us sitting at their own table talking.

Immediately after I said my prayer for lunch my cell phone rang. I picked it up and it was the agent. He said, “I’ve talked to the owner of the house and I think it will work, but she wants to meet with you.”

“Okay, we’ll be able to do that in a short while, after lunch. Where do you want to meet?” I asked.

“We are at Tip Top,” he said. “Come by when you can.”

A puzzled look came over me and I started looking around. “Well, we are at Tip Top too–“

Then we all suddenly realized that the small group of people behind us was the owner, her husband, and the agent. I hadn’t recognized him when we walked in. After an incredulous laugh, we made arrangements to talk after our meals.

Afterwards we had a very good conversation. The owner had no problems renting to us for the price we wanted, and when we told her that our two doggies were small and very well behaved, she crossed out the “No dogs allowed” clause in the contract without a fuss.

She later told us that she had a good feeling about us when we walked into the restaurant for some reason. (I guess it was a good thing we had come to Granada after service that morning, and we were still dressed in our service clothes.)

She certainly is very accommodating with what we want. Although she is renting it out “unfurnished”, she very quickly agreed to leaving a few things we liked, like a large armoire/dresser thing in the master bedroom, all the fans, some stools around the “breakfast island”, a desk and chair (for work and study), a TV stand, and a couple of other things. She also agreed to install mosquito screens on a couple of windows that don’t have them. She didn’t even want a security deposit, just the first month’s rent and that was it.

So we signed the contract and made arrangements to move in that Friday, a mere 3 days later.


PERCEIVING JEHOVAH’S WILL

Ephesians 5:17 says, “Cease becoming unreasonable, but go on perceiving what the will of Jehovah is.”

Perceiving Jehovah’s will is so much more than merely reading in the Bible or in the Watchtower that he doesn’t like fornication, drunkenness, lying, etc., and then abstaining from those things. Perceiving Jehovah’s will is really feeling what he feels and thinks about the specific decisions that you are making.

The whole plan to move to Chontales wasn’t a wicked decision or anything bad, but it was selfish, really. We wanted to serve in an area that has a greater need than Teresa (and Teresa really is being well taken care of right now), but we also wanted to be in our comfort zone. So we were really putting a limit on what we would do for Jehovah. We were willing to do something, but only if it fit with what we wanted for ourselves.

From the way that we kept being bothered by our decision to not go to Granada, and the way that the house in Granada worked out so well, without any obstacles whatsoever, it just really showed to us what Jehovah’s will for us in this matter was. Something that also proves it to us is the way we feel now about the decision we made. Although we were very sad to tell Lau’s that we wouldn’t be moving to Chontales after all (they were disappointed but were also very positive, encouraging, and happy for us), we feel, I don’t know, lighter. Like a weight is off of our shoulders. We feel very happy and glad that we were obedient and able to accept an assignment from the branch.

As for the Lau family, they are in the United States working and visiting family for the next month and a half. I have a feeling that they will really enjoy their new home in Chontales, and we will be keeping in touch with them regularly.

Now, we have to admit, even at this juncture, that we don’t fully understand the reasoning behind English in Nicaragua. But the truth is, you don’t have to understand the reasoning. Obedience is what Jehovah values. If we see the whole big picture and understand the logic, great. But we don’t always have the whole big picture available to us, right? Whenever I think of this, I always think of the Israelites camping at the Red Sea. They didn’t understand why they should stop and camp in such a dangerous area, with a mountain cutting off one avenue of escape and the sea cutting off the other. But they didn’t see the big picture, they didn’t see what Jehovah saw. Moses didn’t either, but he was obedient and he was rewarded generously for it.

Jehovah, and the organization he uses, see things in a way that is perhaps very different from what we see. They can see the preaching work in its full panorama, where the potential is, where the pockets of urgent need are, and then they see what tools they have, and they use them. That’s all we came down here for, after all. To be tools to be used as Jehovah sees fit. Not for vacation.

Preaching in the English field will be a huge challenge. Giving talks in English is a terror I can’t even imagine yet. But if you remember, the Kingdom Ministry last week talked about how the preaching work can do wonders in developing qualities in us, like humility. I think that this assignment will really teach us a lot and will help us to refine many (although not nearly enough) of the rough edges in our personalities. Also, we are very confident that Jehovah will give us enough holy spirit to be zealous and joyful in our ministry.

Marlene is really excited about this move. She is a little bit afraid, because she is not used to preaching in English, but she is really thrilled with the direction we are going. She is a little bit afraid that she will lose her Spanish, but that is not likely since we are still living in a foreign land and we will have frequent contact with the Spanish congregation.

The English group has its Watchtower and Public Talk every Sunday, the Congregation Bible Study every Thursday, and the Theocratic Ministry School every other week. All of our Service Meetings will be with the Spanish congregation, as well as 2 Schools per month. So it will definitely be an interesting mixture of language.

Once we definitely decided, we immediately spread the word in our congregation in Teresa. And the response, from every single person we told, was overwhelmingly encouraging. They were very happy that we would be following the branch’s direction, and also that we would still be close after all, a bus trip of less than 1 hour, so we could still meet up in Granada or visit Teresa conveniently.

We are happy. Granada is an open door to greater activity, is a beautiful city, and has very nice places to eat, which is very, very important to me, ha ha. I actually discovered, to Marlene’s disappointment, a donut place specializing in American donuts!!!


OUR FIRST MEETING IN THE ENGLISH GROUP

I meant to post this update on Friday or Saturday before our first meeting here, but we were very busy moving and settling in. But I suppose it was a good thing, since now you can see what our first impression of Granada English was.

We said all of our goodbyes at our last meeting on Thursday night in Teresa, and everyone was so touching in their expressions of appreciation for our friendship. We know that, without a doubt, we have made friendships there that will continue to develop even while we are in Granada. The day we left we even got several phone calls from the friends in Teresa wanting to make sure we got in okay and that we were happy.

Friday afternoon was spent moving in. Thankfully we don’t have a lot of possessions, so loading and unloading Roberto’s big truck (the brother who helped us) took about 20 minutes each way. We quickly set the basic furnishings the way we wanted them and went out to dinner in Central Park.

Our first night in our new home was fantastic. We put the AC on and it totally felt like we were on vacation. We really couldn’t believe we had actually moved to Granada, but we were deeply, deeply satisfied and happy that we had followed Jehovah’s direction.

We awoke the next morning to the calls of several different birds. Saturday morning was spent going to the cable place to sign up for cable TV and internet in the house (a must!), going to the Pali and outdoor market nearby to shop for groceries, meeting and chatting with our new neighbors, studying our Watchtower for the next day, and cleaning up and touching up some areas of the house.

The doggies love their new place! There is a walkway outside in the back that leads to the bedrooms and bathrooms, and they run up and down it. It is also great because even if the sun is really hot on a particular day, the walkway is always shaded so they don’t overheat. Savannah loves watching the kids walk by on the street and still gets majorly ticked when she sees a horse walk by.

Sunday morning at 10:00am was our first meeting with our English group.

It was very strange, as we were walking up to the Kingdom Hall’s doors, to hear people inside talking in English and laughing. We walked in and noticed that there were more than we had thought. We were expecting to have 8 or 10 at the meeting. Roughly 20 minutes before the start of the meeting, there were already close to 20 (We ended up having around 25. But on the bulletin board I saw that they sometimes have attendances in the 30's). We were immediately approached by one of the elders, Tim, a tall brother who is a missionary assigned to the Spanish congregation in Granada (the same congregation that we are technically assigned to). I handed him our publisher’s cards and letter from our previous body of elders and then talked to him for a bit. He broke into a really big smile when we told him that we were there at the request of the branch. He motioned to a small family of three standing nearby, the Brooks (Gary, Joanna, and Nicola, their 10 year old daughter), and during some pleasant conversation they told us that they had just arrived in Nicaragua last week, from Canada. We have mutual friends, Nathan and Candy Howes (also from Canada), who serve in Jinotepe, close to where we used to be. Anyway, the Brooks family were originally going to go to Jinotepe, but just before that happened the branch asked them to serve in English in Granada as well.

Joanna was so pleased that we were assigned here, too, and said that she had been praying to Jehovah for some friends in the congregation, and it seems like we will really get along well.

The meeting itself was very nice and strange. Strange because we are just so not used to being in English. Marlene says that for her, it is much easier to comment in Spanish! (She says that in Spanish, she just does the best she can and she is happy. In English, she over-analyzes everything and then thinks she sounded like an idiot). For me, my first comment in English, during the Watchtower study, was totally dumb and I hated it. Not for any particular reason, I just think I sounded like I was “trying” to sound “English”. I don’t know how else to explain it, but that’s how I felt about it. My other comments, though, I just talked and said what I thought, and it felt much more natural and I was fine. I am still really, really scared of giving parts in English though. The good thing is that although we are assigned to the English group, we are technically assigned to the Spanish congregation, called Granada Oeste (West). Tim, the elder from the Spanish congregation, told us that we would be used in Spanish as well for parts, so that means that we don’t have to worry about losing our “Spanish” feel for things.



After the meeting we continued to talk to the friends. Cindy, a local Nicaraguan sister who knows English, is supporting the group along with her brother, Francisco, and their mother goes with them for support. Francisco read the Watchtower and did an excellent job, and you can tell that he takes his privileges very seriously. Cindy’s English was surprisingly good. There is also a young Canadian mother who is not yet a publisher but used to study when she lived in Canada. She married a Nicaraguan and moved here to Granada. There is also a brother from England named David who is, unfortunately, going back to England very soon. Tory, a young brother from New York, has been here for the last month and a half and is leaving for good in another month or so. So we will be losing two brothers in the next month, which is not good news, but the elder who is actually assigned strictly to the English group, Steve, is in the States right now but will be arriving in two weeks. (Tim is kind of filling in for him until he gets back. I know Tim has a wife, but I’m not sure if she goes to the English with him or not. Marlene and I will meet her at our meeting on Thursday night.)

Afterwards we walked home and had a very good lunch, and then the cable people arrived to install our cable! We aren’t addicted to TV really, but it makes us feel at home and “normal” at times.


OUR FIRST TASTE OF FIELD SERVICE

On Monday afternoon at 2pm we met with our very first service group in the English field. It was quite a small group. I think that it is mainly because it was at 2pm, which is the hottest part of the day, and we are currently in the hottest part of the year. No one was sure why the arrangement was at 2, but one of the brothers told us that it would change very soon. But we made the best of it and we got surprisingly good results. I spoke to a woman who is an English teacher at the local high school, and her English was really good! I left the April Watchtower on being born again, and it was very interesting to hear her opinion about it (she thought that “born again” means to start life over as a dedicated Christian, which is what most people we’ve talked to think. The magazine has a GREAT illustration when it asks us who chose our physical birth, us or our parents? So it is reasonable to conclude that we don’t choose if we are born again in a spiritual sense, but the Father is the one who chooses. . . .that made her think, and she accepted the magazine. And all of this was done in English! It was really fun actually.) Marlene found a man who works as a tour guide in Costa Rica during certain parts of the year, and accepted the Bible Teach book. Marlene thinks he will study, and he accepted an invitation to attend the English meeting on Sunday morning.

After service we went down to the outdoor market, which is very similar to the one in Jinotepe but bigger. We were able to find a couple of things we were looking for, and during our shopping my phone rang and it was the Brooks family inviting us over to their home for dinner. We showed up about an hour or so later, and their place was nice. It’s not their actual home yet, it is a house that they are staying in for 1 month while they look around for a place to rent. It has a small swimming pool inside, in the center of the house between the kitchen, dining room, and living room.



Anyway, we had a very pleasant dinner with them, and they kind of picked our brains about living in Nicaragua and what to expect. We are all, of course, very new to Granada, but the same basic principles apply to almost everything. We made plans to go with them to Masaya on Friday so that they can shop for some things for the house. Marlene and I later commented on how it was nice that we are now able to help someone else settle into life in Nicaragua, just like the Lau family helped us so much when we first arrived.

After we left, we felt a lot better about being in Granada. We had been really worried about not having friends here, and maybe not meshing well with anyone. We had prayed about it, and Jehovah very clearly (and very quickly!) answered them. When I think about this, I realize that when you put Jehovah first, you can worry about the little things and kill yourself over them, but you really shouldn’t. We shouldn’t forget that Jehovah knows exactly where we are, what we are doing, and why we are doing it. And if he is pleased with our course, if we have an intimate relationship with him, it is the easiest thing in the world for him to just help us out in really wonderful ways. It’s like he is saying, “What? You’re worried about this little thing? Well, watch this!” and he just does it.

That is one thing that we absolutely LOVE about being in Nicaragua. In the States, we definitely saw Jehovah’s hand in matters in our lives, and we were so enthralled whenever it happened. Here, though, we see him really helping us out in very specific ways, and in ways that we had never even imagined. And it happens quite often, too. It just really amazes us. You might remember that in a very recent Watchtower study, in one of the paragraphs it talked about how Jehovah’s servants, both of the anointed and of the great crowd, can “see” him. And we can honestly say that we really do see him much more clearly than we ever did. It is just such a cool experience, and very awe-inspiring to realize that Jehovah knows you and that he hasn’t forgotten about you, even though you are just one person in a sea of 7 million who are serving him on the earth today. It’s just amazing.

Okay, so that is it for now.

Please keep us in your prayers. We will try to be a bit less hysterical and terrified, with Jehovah’s help.

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