Just to post something today

We been in ministry all day, so had no time for photos... here are various old iPhone photos from all over the place just to post something.

Mixed bag from today's ministry

Today's ministry was one of those very far away territories again; just over one hours walk. However good news... halfway there the car below showed up and picked up the walkers :)

The bicycle guys continued as per usual and it was very sweaty and tiring.

The territory itself was very strange,  nobody talked here??!! Even when asked extremely basic questions ... or yes and no answers... they just did not interact with us.

After speaking to a local guy in Totogalpa later in the evening we found out its a very tight knit comunity and they are very suspicious of strangers.
But as always there is an exception to the rule ... and we met a very old lady who helped out with guidance and was pleased to receive the message.

Overall it was another fun day out again. 

PS: Note the air conditioning in the saddle below. .. I leave it up to you to imagine which way the wind goes ;) LOL

Don't know about you guys

Don't know about you guys back in Europe.... but this video tool we use worldwide is just "the bee's knees" here in Nicaragua it really strikes both hearts and minds.... like a hot knife cuts through butter.
Everywhere we go it's all positive feedback, and I mean VERY positive.

It's not reality

When reading/listening to news in Europe it's "not reality" in a sense that we never get emotionally involved or we simply fail to grasp its real people who are involved.

This struck me here today in the ministry.
They are working SO hard in the fields and its a constant manual uphill struggle in the blasting heat. Especially nowadayd with the "El Nino" effect as they call it here (global warming).

Walking past the fields we meet people who work hard all day ... every day... and its just producing scorched yellow fields!!!!!

When speaking to them it stabs my heart to understand their daily struggle.
Whatever little they manage to get growing is hardly nothing and it's also very bad quality, not good enough to sell, and not adequate to feed the family.

They are literally living on the breadline and can't afford even the basics. .. and the last couple of years made it even WORSE for them.
How bad can it get?

If nothing changes there will be no people left in the country side here in 10-20 years time.
This will create a chain reaction and people in the cities will also get less to eat since none is left producing the food they need :(

They cannot afford to import food in this country,  they are already struggling with current prices

Great success

Quite a few of the kids can't read ... so the videos are a great tool and real success here.

Today's snaps

A couple of today's snaps.

1
Wild cotton we came across in the ministry this morning. I have never seen a commercial field here though.

2
Local baby transport, a crate on a bicycle

The Great Crowd

The great crowd out this morning in Salamasi for the global jw.org tract campaign.

Don't know

Don't know what is happening here but it looked funny so I had to snap a photo with my phone. 

Can this lion be tamed?

A photo of my bible study taken during the war, the guy on the right.

Question...
Can this lion be tamed by God's word?

Jokes aside... he is actually quite a nice guy (nowadays at least).
I never asked him what he got in his baggage from the war though; I feel it's not for me to enquire about that.... until he opens up that can of worms himself.

Deep end of the water

Im certainly thrown into the deep water in this congregation.  Again they gave me a 10 minute assignment for bible highlights and we have only been here 3.5 months. .. we are not even half way learning the language and it's an uphill struggle.  But with the help of my wife's translation skills and a top up by holy spirit it will probably work out ;)

Below is a snap I took with my phone on the way to a bible study of mine in Totogalpa. Passed these kids with their doll and thought it looked kind of funny so snapped a shot. 

Almost good news

I managed to get my old samsung phone up and running with blogger! !!

However it is HUGE  so I can not use it openly .... people will spot me and think it's very expensive and simply rob me (and they are right because with Nicaraguan standards it is very expensive).  
To make matters worse resolution is lousy on this phone as well.

Today we had return-visits in Las Cruces for a couple of Mily's studies.
On the way we met a number of kids who are very familiar with us being there now  (as most people are).
Some of the kids are very shy hiding behind trees looking at us... but some are running up to us to try to speak to us about anything they can think of.

Below is a photo as we showed some kids-videos we downloaded from the www.jw.org website.
They could not keep their eyes of the tab and wanted to see them over and over :)

The girl sitting next to Mily is the one who is so attached to her.
She saw us from a large distance on a hill and she RUN for her life all the way down a steep mountain to meet us & hug Mily. 

They seem to be very excited with this "strange looking black and white couple" that arrived in their village from another part of the world.... we are the Martians that landed on earth LOL ;)

Text update for Sunday

Sorry no more photos because my iPhone is dead :(

I can only post text updates now ... and this is what we were up to Sunday. 

We went to Las Cruces again to do some bible studies.
In between we did some open witnessing in the community and one guy came up to us and asked if we could come to his house next week and discuss the bible as well. .... how often does that happen in Europe?   ;)

We also tried to speak to a few youngsters (around 8 years or so) but since it was Sunday the whole area looked like a battle field with drunks lying in the streets and running all around doing stupid stuff.
The kids did not like it though so they wanted to relocate next to the baseball field instead. Once there we looked into some brochures and kids videos and they loved it! !!
One of the girls (we met them many times before) loves Mily so much she just can't stay away from her.

On the way home I came across another man in Totogalpa I have not seen for a while. And he ALSO asked me to start a bible study with him.

No more photo-posts?

Disaster has struck, my iPhone is now stone dead.

I don't know if/where/when/how and if ever this phone will be fixed..... and until that is done we are unable to put any more photo-updates on this blog.

We might be able to update it with text only..... but even that is not sure.

Sorry all for the inconvenience, but there is nothing we can do about it at present :(

M & M






.

Rurals

Today we went rural outside Granada. Around a 30min drive in a jeep on a bad road following the lake-side northwards..... and there we joined the missionaries in some bible studies. 

It's been a great time with them... they taught us more in a week than we learnt from Nicaraguans in 3 months. I guess it's because Nicaraguans are so used living here that they don't question or see what is around them and just perceive it as normal.
But the missionaries see this country from a global perspective; so they gave us a lot of insight practically, socially and spiritually.

Not easy here for the locals

News

It's currently tough here for the locals :(

Link

.

Granada house to house work

The other day we preached with a couple of Mily's friends who live in Granada nowadays. They have been serving as missionaries for decades and are spiritually rock solid :)

This is a snap of a man we met in the house to house work today. 

After the ministry and before the meeting we had some "juice of the day". 

Today's taste was watermelon :)

A local Kingdom Hall (in Granada) before today's meeting. 

Granada today

Some snaps in Granada today Sunday. 

This is not the sea, it's a huge lake. 

Local bus, they are colourful here. 

Likewise the ice cream, also colourful and yummy ;)

The price of booze in this country.... You get 1.5 litres of vodka for £ 2.50 only!!!

And for some reason you see more drunks on Sunday midday than you see Fri/Sat evening back in Europe... But we still don't know why this is the case though. 

We are not the only ones...

We are not the only ones who find it excruciatingly hot here.... The locals do as well (see link below). 

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13930519001207

Not artificial

Look at this juice, amazing colour!!!

It's a 100% natural juice from something called Pitaya fruit.

 

Slight European flavour

We had our first attemp to preach in Granada this morning and for the first time there was a (slight) "European flavour". 

We met 2-3 people who are not interested in the Bible and one who did not believe in God. 

A dilemma on the pavement...

Found this cat in a very bad state on the pavement outside our hostal.... I don't actually think it will survive all day in this blistering heat  :(

So how do you solve this dilemma??

1. Do I club it to death?

2. Do you let it suffer all day in the sun until it dies?

3. Or do like the locals... Just leave it there and shouldn't really care?

Today all day in hospital

Since we can't take any risks in this country I had to go to a hospital near Managua today for an examination related to my pain etc. It took us the entire day due to distance and other stuff. 

Seems like good news so far, it's (probably) an internal muscle strain inside my gut close to the kidney ... It might have been because I been carrying bags and backpacks across busses and countries,,, but only time will tell. 

This hospital is supposed to be the best in the country... and looking at it + having been inside and seen the staff firsthand I guess it's right. We were bouth really impressed by this place. 

Today in Nica

Another update today, but not weather related this time though. 

www.volcanodiscovery.com/earthquakes/quake-info/739530/M4.8-Thu-7-Aug-Nicaragua.html

How does a day look like here?

Walking and shooting in Masaya.

Walking and shooting with my iPhone  ... But this time we are back on Nicaraguan soil once more; we are in Masaya today.... And it's HOTTER than in the north :(

All shots are from the local market since we did not have time to see anything else. 

In the market we met two evangelical women that we had a prolonged discussion with; they knew JW do not believe in a literal hellfire and we tried to examine together why this was the case (they had a bible thankfully since we left ours back home). 

Seems like they actually could see what we highlighted and they might have taken some of it aboard :)

-----

Do NOT puke on the bus, you will be fined !!!

Some shots taken in the southern parts of the country

Some snapshots from Costa Rica

Various places around Liberia close to the border of Nicaragua. 

Would you buy meat from this man? We are veggies so easy answer for us ;)

Buy drinks in this place? (At least the lady at the left is washing her hands)

"Babylon the great"

City centre. 

Disciplining in righteousness or? LOL

When was the last time you saw a Phone box in your country?

I almost forgot how they look like ;)

Mily buying boiled corn. 

Strange building in the town.