LA PAZ, CARAZO

Beginning in October, Nindirí has been invited to participate in a KH build in La Paz, Carazo.  Here, even when RBC existed, it never did in Nicaragua.  What we have are construction groups who settle in an area 2-3 months and work with the local congregation and surrounding congregations to complete the KH.  Each day, two different congregations are invited to support the work.  So far, we have gone three times.  I have attached some photos showing progress.

Taken Sept 11, 2015.  Only dirt.  The men spent all day digging a 6 ft. deep trench in a square around that high pile of dirt you see. 

Taken Oct 23, 2015.  That dirt trench is now the retaining wall that you see surrounding the KH.  Lots of progress, right?!

Because of budget concerns, just about everything is done by hand on the site.  And if you're looking for an RBC safety video, better you just turn your head and forget about it.  Shoes are whatever fits and hard hats are optional.  For instance, that trench I mentioned above could've been done easily with a backhoe, but we don't have one...we used manual labor.  On my first build here, men were manually mixing concrete all day...truly back breaking labor, but thankfully, I see that on this build, the one machine we DO have is a small mixer.  

Another big difference is comfort.  If you come to work, you arrange your own transportation and bring your own everything.  There's no snack girl walking around every hour giving you Gatorade and cookies.  And even though it's over 90 degrees, everyone is completely covered because 20 minutes in this sun EVEN with sunscreen, and you're toast.

There's also a slight difference in the spiritual ambiance.  The day does NOT start with a prayer or text consideration nor does lunch.  It often seems kind of thrown together, but then again this  IS Latin America.

To give you another example of things done by hand, we even made our own concrete...well, to be more specific, we make our own sand to mix with concrete bags.  On Friday, my job was separating gravel from concrete.  These sisters in the pictures show you how. 

Gravel was poured into screen netting first.

Then the gravel was immersed in a barrel of water.  By agitating the gravel, we separated the large bits from the sand.  The sand fell to the bottom of the barrel and as the water level rose, we scooped the sand out for later use. *My thanks to my Vanna White-ish model, Cathy Solowiejko from Pan Casán, Granada, for helping me demonstrate this.  She was a super fun partner to have on Friday!*

In the wheelbarrow is what we started with.  The other pile is the gravel and a pile behind me (which you can't see) is the sand.

 The really exciting news though is that when they're done with La Paz in about three more weeks.............THEY'RE COMING TO NINDIRÍ!!!!!!!  Yeah, we're up!  The congregation is in a buzz about how we're going to provide housing and food to the team coming, but I know that if we have a good attitude, Jehovah will bless our prayers for help.  So my hope is that a VERY SOON future post will have these kind of pictures from my local congregation.

Just as a reminder, this is the land we've purchased as the site for the future KH in Nindirí

CULTURE SHOCK

You know the saying "You can't go home again"?  What I've learned is that's 100% true.  It's the weirdest feeling to spend 11 months of the year pining for your home country...friends, family, food, everything that's familiar...and then arriving to find that nothing feels quite right.  It actually feels like a pretty unfair situation that in the country you serve you often feel on the edge of everything because of language or cultural differences, but then you go home, and you feel the exact same way.  Why?  Why is all this weirdness happening?  I mean, I lived 30 years in the U.S. before I came to Nicaragua, so why do I feel so strange when I go home?  Why do I feel like it's my home country giving me culture shock?

Well, it's because life doesn't exist in a vacuum.  When I go home, friends have moved on, congregations have changed, family dynamic is different, etc.  But in my heart I pressed pause the last time I left the U.S., so it feels strange to me.  Also, living full-time in a 3rd world country makes the adjustment to a 1st world country quite the kick in the gut.  Everything's so big and developed and easy, and it makes everyday decisions feel hard.  Constantly debating prices vs. value and feeling really overwhelmed at the amount of choices.  I have to carry lists with me of needs when I go into stores because if I don't know exactly what I'm looking for, I get overwhelmed and just walk straight back out.  My Mom has had to drive me back to a store to ensure I actually buy what I really need.  Whether I like it or not, this land of lakes and volcanoes has gotten under my skin.  We have a love/hate relationship, but at the same time, don't YOU talk smack about it, because I'll defend it in a minute.

But you know what?  In a way, all this weirdness is good.  Because do you know what's worse?  Having a roundtrip ticket back to Nicaragua but going home and feeling like "THIS is amazing!   THIS I could do again.  I REALLY REALLY miss all of THIS".  Because then you're in trouble. Then you've let yourself get comfortable maybe even dreaming of how life would be back in the land of plenty and basically just ensuring a REALLY hard transition back to your assignment and A LOT of tears at the airport.  So my personal wish every time is to feel just a little weirdness...just enough to ensure I get on that plane back each time.

WHAT KIND OF NEED?

I know that most of you who read this blog are wanna-be need greaters or may already have some plans in the works.  I think it's important to address the question, though, of WHAT KIND OF NEED do you want to fill?  Let me explain a few options so you know what I'm talking about.

Are you an appointed brother?  Then there's an excellent chance that the need you'll be asked to fill will be elder in a congregation.  Here in Nicaragua the maximum elders you'll ever find in a congregation are four.  Four elders for 100 people!  We have a DESPERATE need for elders.  So it may be that although you were thinking you'd be sent in the middle of the country with no running water or someplace like pictured below, you're sent to the middle of the capital!

There are other congregations here who focus on foreign languages within Nicaragua like Miskito, Chinese, or English.  They have vast territories they need to census on a regular basis, so you may find that your service with them is made up mainly of search work rather than conducting a million Bible studies.

Then you have congregations where the need truly is the territory.  It may be covered somewhat often but quantity has trumped quality.  Or it just needs to be worked period.  Here would be your opportunity for those million Bible studies.

How would you know what's best for you?  Well, if you're only able to come for a month or so, pick a congregation where you can do lots of census.  Or come during a campaign to help a congregation with a vast territory.  If you're coming for a longer period of time, you can actually cultivate those studies in a need territory, so go for it!  Are you married?  Although you, as an appointed brother would have plenty to do in a busy, metro congregation, what about your spouse?  Would she feel ok working a territory that's possibly covered every two weeks?

These are all important things to be considered before choosing a congregation.  And I can't stress enough that these are items you NEED to include in your letter to the branch when you ask about need areas.  Make sure you are specific in the TYPE of need you want to fulfill.  And make it a matter of prayer.  Tell Jehovah the exact type of need that interests you most and let him direct the rest.

Side note: don't forget about your own needs...physically, emotionally, spiritually.  If you're the only appointed brother in the group and have to direct every single meeting, will that be a detriment to your spirituality?  If you're put in a vast territory alone in the middle of nowhere, will that effect your physical health? If you're the only foreigner in your district, will you feel too lonely?  What about your emotional health?  Know thyself...then act accordingly.

PUBLIC WITNESSING

Who doesn't love service experiences?  Well, lately we've had some really good ones while occupied in our public witnessing with the cart.

Last week, a man was parked in front of the bus stop we were set up at waiting for a coworker.  He got out of his vehicle and said the WT cover caught his attention.  In talking, he revealed that a few months ago, his teenage daughter was very depressed and even had started to have suicidal thoughts.  However, she was given the Awake! which came out recently about why life is worth living.  He said it really helped her, and he credits Jehovah's Witnesses with saving his daughter's life!

Then yesterday, a woman approached the cart and asked specifically if we had a Bible Stories Book.  I said we didn't, but we're regularly in the same location if she'd like to come another day I'd have it for her.  But she was from out of town.  She was willing to give her address and phone number and agreed to have a local sister call on her to bring her the book.  She explained that when she was a girl, she always saw her father reading a large red book edited by Jehovah's Witnesses.  The way he read it made her think it was important, so she wondered if we had one.  I assumed she spoke of the Live Forever book and explained it's no longer in print, but all the things her Dad was learning was transferred to the new Bible Teach book.  I showed her the book and asked her if she personally had ever had an opportunity to study the Bible.  She responded that no, just her Dad years ago.  So I offered for the local sister to also demonstrate for her a Bible study when she stops by with her Bible Stories book.  She agreed to that too!  Now it's in Jehovah's hands to make sure she's rapidly followed up on.

A few weeks ago, a man approached the cart after watching it for over an hour.  He explained that about a year prior, he was in a car accident that killed everyone involved but him.  He figured that meant that God had a plan for him and he'd been attending a local church trying to figure out what that plan might be.  We were able to share various Scriptures with him, placed a Bible Teach book, and got his information.  One of our local brothers now has the information to follow up.

We regularly have people who are on the buses and momentarily stopped point to literature and we run it up to them before the bus takes off again.  And when the schools let out, all the students come to ask for YPA books.  They've seen classmates with them and LOVE them!

Jehovah's really making the work grow through this ingenious idea, and I'm just trying to do my part in cultivating conversations and extending the conversation past the cart.