Rainy Daze

Whew.  It's been AH-RAININ'!  Today there was only a short rain and the streets still looked like rapids.  I'm talking half a foot of water going right down the middle of the street.  Insane.

In other news, sorry I didn't blog yesterday.  I was exhausted and fell asleep before cracking open the laptop and writing my blog.   No VBS yesterday, rather, we had a demonstration at the highschool in town where we ministered to 2 groups of 1,000 students each.  We did our drama "Turnaround" as we call it.  Of course we have videos but they aren't in my possession as I was performing and couldn't take a video.  From what I saw we had anywhere from 15-20 maybe a few extra come to the front after our demonstration and accept Christ.  That, for me, makes the whole trip worthwhile.

After the two demonstrations we had supper.  Rice, beans, and a pulled pork taquito with a cabbage/butter/sourcream topping.  It was much different from the other dishes we've had so far and it was well accepted by my belly.

Our first revival was also last night and 27 churches were represented(from what I heard)  WOW! God is moving! I played with the praise band and had a blast as usual.  We watched the drama from another church, performed our own, and Heath brought a great message.  That's my yesterday in a nutshell.

Today we went to the "Rainbow Community". Not TOO sure what the big deal with this community is, but it's far out there. Way far out there.  We took 2 trucks, and Krista and I sat shotgun in the cab. The driver was giving this truck the ride of it's life!  The roads are dirt out there, and when it rains it washes out.  We're talking craters dug out by the rain.  Whew it was fun!  Half way through the ride we found out our driver knew English pretty well and talked to him some.  He told us he had studied English at a university in Managua and wanted to persue a career in teaching English at the University.  Unfortunately, the course is too expensive for him to finish and he's putting his family first.  I'd like to help him and see how much it would cost to help him finish his schooling to where he could teach English at a highschool level, then he could persue the college level later in his career.  When we got out of the truck at the hostel he told me he looked forward to seeing me next year. :D

After that I went to town on some roast like meal.  Of course rice and beans were in the mix with a plantain to top it off.  I even went to get seconds. That was the best meal I've had in Nicaragua to date. It was so good it could make your toungue slap your brains out.

Shortly after lunch Rafael came to my door and said someone was here to talk to me about the floor.  He said he was willing to help me and also knew where to get a cutter for me to use.  I brought a grinder perfect for intricate cuts, but takes too long for every cut.  The tile cutter I need just scores a straight line and pops the tile in half lickety-split. No hassle and I don't even have to get off of the floor to do it.  The cutter I use at home will cost about $170. Very worth it in the business I'm in.  This one, being pretty high quality, and brand new, only cost me $40. I bought that thing in a heartbeat and gave the guy who found it a 10% finders fee(not much to us, but that's 8 people he doesn't have to drive around on his bixi today.

Revival tonight was a lot smaller because it was raining, but a good one at that.  I was volunteered to represent our group at the end of the service by saying a few words. I let everyone know that we all think of them(the Nicaraguan people) as our second families and that we will continue to minister to Nicaragua for years to come, bringing new people with us and fomimng a tighter bond with them and God.  I was told by everyone that I did a good job representing our group as a whole so, thank God for giving me the words that came out!  I didn't know WHAT I was going to say! Haha

After the service Brian, Josue, His brother Daniel, and I played 2 worship songs for fun.  We chose "Take it all" and "You are Good". Josue loves these songs and could sing every word.  People even got into the songs with us and began to worship.  The greatest things in life happen when you don't mean for them too.  God has proved that over and over again this trip.

As for tomorrow, we're taking some of the group to Managua to fly back to Florida.  Two others will be flying in to Managua to come stay with us for 2 weeks.  We're going to have 7 hours in Managua to do as we please.  I believe we're going to buy some usical equipment for the church I've been talking about and also visit the mall.  Hoo-rah!

Sorry for the jumbled-hectic blog.  I've had such a sugar rush from the fruit juice I've been drinking it's clogging my thought processes!  I promise there will be a better blog tomorrow.

Thanks for reading/praying!

Todd

P.S. My spell check must be broken.  I know I make mistakes here and there but I'm too tired to read over it again and correct them.  Sorry for the horrible spelling at times.  As I like to say, "Welcome to Nicaragua!"