A new adventure...up to speed in slowing down

In an attempt to slow down and experience God serving in missions as a family we have embarked on a 3 month experiment. We are leaving Reno for 3 months to serve in Central America and see what God does. We are traveling to SoCal to visit Disney and some family and friends then Ensenada Mexico for a couple days to visit a ministry there, then to Nicaragua for a month and finally to rural Guatemala for 2 months.

Ironically this trip to "slow down" started with a crazy schedule of getting our house and stuff in order and squeezing every ounce of time possible in a trip to Southern California and Mexico before travelling to Nicaragua. It is now our 4th full day in Nicaragua and things are slowed down enough for me to get this blog started.

Up to speed...

So Cal

The first couple days in disney were a blast but by the 4th day we were tired and our feet hurt. We took the last day slower and left mid day to see our family in San Diego. We visited Heather's cousin's family which
includes cousins the same age as our kids. It is always a breath of fresh air to visit with them. The slowing down had started.

ENSENADA

We then crossed the border in our van and visited Rancho Agua Viva in Ensenada Mexico. This ministry has a 143ac facility in the mountains and has 4 primary ministries. 1. Using that facilities for Mexican nationals to have retreats and group events. 2. Being a base camp for short term missions teams to come and minister in the community 3. Running a seminary to train pastors from all over Mexico especially indiginous and unreached areas. The seminary is a 3 year certificate program. 4. Supporting these pastors and ministries in the future as they go out from the seminary into all of Mexico.

A special thanks to Brent, Becky and Scott for the time they took showing us around and making us feel very welcome there. They showed us the site, talked about the ministry and vision and even took us around town to church and other ministries they work with. Finally we visited the beach for some fun in the sand. Such a beautiful site, wonderful people and exciting ministry. We continue to pray for them as they work toward reaching Mexico for Christ.

Our return to the US was relatively easy because we crossed over at Tecate. Tijuana typically has a 3-4 hour wait to cross and in Tecate there were 3 cars in front of us. Of course we were pulled aside for secondary inspection and sat for an additional 30 min. It was an interesting homeschooling moment explaining why they were tearing apart our car (the officers were very kind though). The dog came by and was sniffing the car when Kiya asked, "why do they have a dog?" I said, "to check if we are trying to sneak in drugs" She followed with another question, "What are drugs?" Oh the homeschooling moments!

On our way back to LAX we were able to spend the day visiting with our best friends from Guatemala the Osbornes who live just a couple miles from Heather's cousins house. We rented a van and left for LAX 100 miles away. About 8 miles to our desination I got a call from Mandy that I had left Heather's backpack with
the money and vital records at their house in San Diego! They graciously drove and met me half way. I hope this isn't going to be a pattern for our trip.

The flight to Nicaragua was easy and Scott and Jen were at the airport to pick us up even though our flight got in at 10pm. We traveled to Granada and to our house/hotel.  The housing situation has been difficult. There was a giant house that was empty and we struck a deal with the owner to rent the house at a discounted rate. The deal was that when there were other guests we would just use 2 of the bedrooms. What we came to find is that the house is less of a house and more of a hotel...and a hotel that is not for kids! There are a lot of challenges with this hotel but we are being very gracious with the staff and making it work. We are trying to find another housing arrangement but Granada is full and expensive.

The first couple days the ministry here left for us to get our bearings and relax which was difficult given our
housing situation but I was able to attend and help teach a mens bible study. Friday we went to some home bible studies. I helped teach and Heather ministered with the kids. They did crafts and told stories. At the second house we all played soccer with some of the local kids behind the tiny house/shack on a small but steep slope above a stream of sewage and garbage. The soccer flat ball frequently went into the stream. We just had to not think about it and remind ourselves that a shower at the end of the day would take care of it all. Kaiyin and the littler kids were dirt sledding amidst the soccer game. They had a small crate and were using it to slide down the steep slope of dirt. They tied a cable
to it and began pulling each other down the slope trying to get it to overturn. Once they pulled Kaiyin down the slope and right into the pile of garbage but still short of the sewage. Friday evenings they have a social gathering with the locals at Scotts house where we could just get to know each other. The ministry here is firmly based in relationships with the locals.

Today was the sports day. We went out to the ministry property with a slew of people from toddlers to adults and played baseball and soccer. We had a small bible study and prayer to round it off.

It was really a great time. Life here is hard and culturally the people don't really congregate to encourage each other. This is a practice in being the body. The believers love on each other and those who have yet to believe are included as well into the group to experience the Christ change in the community of believers. Everyone has a great time and the group continues to grow. Scott took me on a walk on the 115ac property next door and we talked about a vision for the property. He is hoping to buy the property soon. More on that to come.

Hopefully I have been able to give a summary of what has happened so far. Things are slowing, we are getting plugged into ministry Soon we will get the kids unplugged from their digital devices (it is just hard given our living situation, they can't just go out and play). I will keep pictures uploaded to our picasaweb site ericheatherh.picasaweb.com 

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