Notes on the week of October 1-5 - written by Bev on October 5
It's been an interesting week, to say the least, and since I find myself awake at 3 am I must take advantage of the fact that there is electricity. There have been heavy rains and some flooding since Wednesday of last week. We've been without water and electricity much more than normal this week. I could say it's because we have company this week and that is something that seems to happen when we have company. At least the problems started 6am Monday, not on Wed.
Wed. afternoon we had a very hard and long rain. It came from the west instead of the north, and rain blew into the front of the house and came down the wall on which the bookshelf is. We had a time moving all the books and mopping up the water, unaware of the dangerous and more serious trouble of those along the river. Apparently the rain was also heavy up in the mountains and the river swelled up incredibly fast. With very little warning forceful water flooded several homes, carrying away all lighter items in its path. We housed 2 girls for the night, who arrived in a panic-stricken state after evacuating their house as it filled with water and mud. We were unable to communicate with many of our people who live along the river until Thursday, since the phone lines were cut off. One of our families had the water stop at the threshhold of their house. Another was able to move all damageable items up to their second floor before the water entered their house. We praise God for His protection.
Another tradegy we didn't hear about until late at night when Yolanda called to request prayer for her sister. (Yolanda is one of my leaders, married to Alejandro, one of our elders.) Her sister rides a motorcycle in her work duties, and was stuck on the edge of the river trying to get out of it's pull. Along with some others, a 17 year old young man entered the river to try to help her. He was swept away and we have still not heard if he's been found. [He was later found, dead.] Please pray for Miriam, that the images in her mind of him being swept away and the sense of guilt she feels can be dealt with correctly, and that this will spur her to seek the Lord with all her heart and that she will find a real relationship with God, peace, and wholeness through all this.
Then Wed. about midnight, an electrical fire broke out in the north-market when a transformer exploded. Between 20 and 30 "tramites" were destroyed. A tramite is a business booth, anywhere from 5 to 15 square yards each. Products vary from fruits and vegetables to shoes and clothes, toiletries, plastic items, etc. So pray for those who suffered loss, both in their housing conditions as well as their businesses.
Pray also for the girls we housed Wed. night, Indira and Waleska, motherless 18 and 16 year olds who have resisted counsel in the past, but turned to us in time of crisis. They both need to make serious changes in their lives now before irreversible consequences start to make their lives more and more miserable. The desire to change is not there. Pray that they will be able to see with the same clarity they had of escaping the river's strong currect, their need to escape the forceful current of sin and destruction around them.
On a lighter note, our trip as a family to Jinotega on Monday went very well. All the children liked it and had positive things to say. The biggest thing is that we are giving them plenty of time to adjust their thinking to embrace a move there, the thought being that we'd like to take a family trip to the States April/May and then come back to Matagalpa to prepare to move sometime in July, our favorite moving month history says.
Monday evening our guests arrived, a couple with Covenant Players, a ministry in drama who are working at establishing contacts with the other churches in this area. They will leave on Monday or Tuesday.
This week we also lent our church to a group from the Second Baptist Church in Springfield, Missouri who taught a 4 day seminar for all the pastors/leaders in the area. Earl was impressed with the quality of teaching at all the sessions he was able to attend. The seminar ended yesterday [Thursday, Oct 4]. Today, I hope, we are back to a more normal schedule. As always, it's school that usually suffers the most with the unexpected. We actually did better this week than we have during past interruptions, so that is encouraging.
Well, that's the news for the moment from Matagalpa, and I will send this as we have no guarantee of how long we will have electricity AND water pressure and there are clothes to be washed.
Continuation written October 9
Both water and electricity have been luxuries this past month. It keeps us humble and grateful. We are so blessed to have a large tank that can fill automatically when the city water does come through the pipes, and also have lanterns, emergency lights and flashlights. Many here do not have these luxuries.
We appreciate your prayers so much! Thank you for your faithfulness in co-laboring with us.
In our work focus we have been concentrating on two main areas: keeping up with the daily homeschool schedule, which keeps me plenty busy, and also delegating more and more responsibility to our leaders. We are moving ahead with plans to start another church in a city north of Matagalpa next year, and are therefore entering into a transition phase in order to give everyone plenty of time to adapt and make the necessary changes. We are still praying about all that this will entail with us as a family. Our children enjoyed a recent trip up to our target city, so their minds and hearts are also being prepared.
The idea that both Earl and I received separately in prayer as our method of entrance into people's lives is that of offering an English course. We have both resisted this idea for some time now, but believe it is the Lord's leading and have received confirmation from some of our leaders here, so we are checking out different courses to make the best purchase to start this venture. We will pilot it with our leaders here to work out some of the bugs that are inevitable.
Pray for more detailed directions as we follow the steps we have been shown.
A Sunday, Family picture
My Lady and Me
Precious Little Esperanza - 22 months
Posts
