Ministry Day 2

Hola amigos y familia!! (it's me, Maria Elana, and my Spanish is improving!)

We are so very grateful for all your prayers & support; we can feel the covering of the Holy Spirit and you are making a difference here in Nicaragua :). Today was a phenomenal ministry day!!! Our core time this morning (core women pictured above-these are the ladies that run the ministry at New Image) was really REALLY refreshing (for all of us). We did an activity that would normally seem really simple, but here in Nica, it was a really BIG deal. We each drew a name out of a hat and then said something nice about the person whose name we drew. ALL our names were included and some of us had just met 20 minutes prior to this activity. I wish I could recall some of the specifics about what was said, but let me just say that the Holy Spirit was ALL OVER THAT ROOM. The Nica women are NOT PRONE to sharing 'encouraging' thoughts with each other, whether Christian or not. This morning though, you would never have known it; tears, laughter, and the sheer element of surprise were on many faces. And if that wasn't enough, Nancy then shared much of her heart about the women's role as a wife and/or mother and then the women opened up even more; it was beautiful. Kim shared a bit as well, seeing as how she is a mother of 3 'little ones'; we were all encouraged and uplifted :).

Our afternoon time with the large group was also wonderful. We saw many women again today, and that isn't common; usually the number of ladies coming in the afternoon drops after the first day. Our activities were FABULOUS! We'll add more pics later (there were multiple cameras but not all were ours) but what you need to know is that there's a "shoe ID" game that is simply genious! Basically, everyone stands in a circle and removes one of their shoes; the shoes all go in a pile and on a 'ready / set / go! ' qeue, everyone grabs a shoe (not their own) and has to find the matching 'person' and then get to know a couple of things about that person. When you factor in the language part, it gets pretty funny. The best part was watching the women laughing and playing like little girls, absolutely carefree for a few moments. For the sharing part, I (Maria Elana) got to talk about conflict resolution (I've had quite a lot of practice with that these last couple of years!!!) and it was really cool. Nancy shared again as well and we played a couple of other games; it was really a fabulous day. Did I mention that inbetween these two group times, we got to go "shopping" specifically for jewelry and/or pillows that were hand made by the core ladies and laid out special for our viewing? We have many goodies to show you when we get home!!

There are a couple more pictures below and since we leave for the Pastors' Wives Retreat in the morning, we're not sure if we'll be able to post again tomorrow night (while at the retreat location). If not, we'll post again on Friday night so don't worry if you don't see anything until then :). As I type, Nancy, Kim, Carolina & I are sitting at the dining table, hole punching some laminated bible verses we made (THANKS PAM!!!) and chatting like school girls. Emily went to bed early, it was really hot today and she played with some of the little children for quite awhile. And by the way, a beautiful lady named Yolidia has been cooking (and cleaning) for us since we got here . . . . WOW! For any of you who've been privileged enough to travel here and stay at the Baptist House, you've had her cooking before. It's not something you easily forget, but it's definitely something you miss when you get home!!! Truly, we are 'suffering for the mission'! Since we are the FIRST GROUP to officially stay at the new CFCI offices (aka "Hospitality House"), let's just say the red carpet has been rolled out and the bar is now set really high! But we're not spoiled . . . . I mean, some of us (not me!!!) are really having trouble sleeping . . . due to the . . . . cold air . . . supplied . . . by . . . the . . . air . . . . conditioner!! Yep, I said it, you read it right, this place is air conditioned! We're talking straight up condensation on the glass door based on the immense heat outside. Ahhhhh, this is the life!

Okay, back to work . . . we thank you for your prayers, again, it truly makes all the difference and you are very much a part of our team and God's work here! Much love to all, we'll tell you more again soon!!

PS - forget the fact that I reference 'pictures below' because really, they're up top . . . I can't figure out how to load them into the blog so that they are below the text . . . okay, don't judge me!! :)