Saturday Evening

OK - I´m working with a keyboard that has no backspace key - bearwith the typos! another great day. Went to Rancheria - where WGLO paysfor 2 meals per day for around 100 kids who otherwise mightnot get fed. Again,just beautiful kids. Had lunch by the Pacific Oceanñ that was fun. Took careof some other wglo business this afternoon and just arrived in Leon. Getting ready to take alittle walking tour - lead by Rudy, who assures me he does NOT know where he is going. How lovely! We´re going to Grenada afater church in themorning. Please continue to pray for our safe travel and productive efforts!! Thank you!

Friday Night in Chinindega

Wow, long day and it´s only 6:30 in the evening. Drove from Managua through Leon and on to Chinindega today. That´s where we are staying tonight. Visited the Mission Center with Roberto Carlos, our connection here. Met lots of good people there - including the former president of the Lutheran Church -Canada and his wife who are here for 3 months. Very nice people.

This afternoon went to the community of LaJolla. This community was formed when the people moved from the side of one of the many volcanoes here, for safety. There are around 600 children; currently only 25 of them attend school. Precious kids, as you can imagine. Yes, I took a couple of pictures. They really are darling.

Ate dinner (I had chicken chalupas) and came back to the hotel for the evening. I´m mentally drained, but it´s been a great day. I learned lots. Have a great evening.

Friday Morning

We are here!! Everything went well on the flights. I even got bumped up to first class from Houston to Managua!

Hotel is good. It´s actually a Best Western. Who knew?

We´re off to Leon today. Beautiful weather. Supposed to be 90 degrees.

Rudy told the bellhop we had 6 "faucets" last night instead of 6 suitcases. Needless to say I got a good laugh over that. Of course the extent of my Spanish is hello and beautiful. That didn´t help much either!

We´re off. Have a blessed day!

Waiting....

Just waiting on Mark to get here at 11:30 to take me to the airport. Weighed my suitcase and it is 49.8 pounds - whew! I actually had to removed 2 pounds of dum-dums that I'm taking for the kids!

It was weird pulling out capris and short-sleeve shirts. I think 93 is going to seem REALLY warm.

Thanks again for the emails and notes of encouragement. See you all really soon! I'm thinking I will be able to update Friday evening - we'll see.

Before We Leave

Tomorrow is the day when Rudy and I leave for Nicaragua! We are flying through Houston; we should arrive in Managua around 9:00 pm on Thursday. There is no time change and we will be in the air for around 5 1/2 hours total. We'll be staying in 3 different locations.

Rudy works with the Rancheria Child Development Program - at the "Carita Feliz" (Happy Face) child development center. They serve around 90 children. One of his goals for this trip is to see how things are going and see what adjustments might need to be made to the program.

My goal is take in as much of this project as I can. Rudy also has plans to show me a lot of different aspects of Nicaragua and some of the potential mission work that could be done. He is particularly interested in showing me the area of La Jolla. That's about all I know, other than the fact that God's hand is on this trip! I think there are many reasons for it happening at this time; I'll soon know which ones I'm right about!

Thanks for all your good wishes and prayers. I'll do my best to update this a couple of times while I'm gone.