Hey all, I just wanted to give you a quick update about our upcoming trip to Nicaragua. We’re getting really excited about going!

Health Education

Sheryl and Jann have assembled a bunch of supplies and materials for the health education classes. I sat in on a meeting last week and listened to them put the final touches on the schedule. I made sure to chime in with a joke or statement every now and then. I didn’t receive any eye rolls, so I know I didn’t over do it.

Micro-Finance/ Business as Missions

This will be an ongoing work on my part. I will be doing an assessment and identifying some projects to focus on over the next year. I’ve just been doing a bunch of research. I would tell you more but I don’t want to blather on about something that you are not interested in. If you would like to hear more about this stuff let me know.

Clean Water

We will be installing clean water filters and supplying clean water kits. A couple different teams have been working to get to this point and we will be picking up with where they left off. We have some documentation that we are reading through to prepare for things when we get there.

Second Week Activities Planning

The second week is going to be a little less structured. We will be moving from Leon to Managua and meeting up with a few different orgs. We’ve identified a few things to do, and remain flexible for changes.

We just wanted to thank you for your support and prayer! We will give a full report upon our return.

Seth started taking lessons for Miniature Horse lessons.  It looks like so much fun!

Boy and horse walked away from me. Seth had the lead rope tightly gripped in his hands, he was stiff and jerky. Emma’s head was high and she was looking around with whites showing in her eyes. She was prancy and twitchy. They both had a fight/flight air about them. As they walked, Emma’s posture slowly relaxed. She dropped her head so her ears were below Seth’s shoulder and began licking and chewing. Her ears drooped and her feet dragged. She became as docile as a 30 y/o kids pony. At the same time, I saw the tension slowly leave my son. The rope loosened in his hand and his shoulders slouched. When he had circled around I looked into his face. The wild-eyes were gone. This is not the first time this has happened.

I told this story to a friend who also had similar problems as Seth in his boyhood. He said that Seth is out of control and knows he’s out of control. He can’t control his own thoughts and is therefore unable to control his behavior. The feeling of complete loss of control is totally overwhelming. When he walked Emma, he was controlling a huge creature. He was put back in control. He was given power to control a force outside of himself and therefore was able to control the wildness inside. I like this explanation. I am very thankful that God creates a link between Himself and us through His creation.

My mom and I took the kids to Lake Selmac for a camping trip.  We had a lot of fun.  I’m afraid I was a bit cranky the first few days.  I just don’t do heat well!  It was 110F one day!  The night before we were going to leave a HUGE thunderclap woke us all up!  The kids all ended up in our tent.  We didn’t have the rain flys on and we got SOAKED!  It was fun, though.  At least it was warm and wet.  We also visited the Oregon Caves.  It was nice and cool in there.  If you’re looking for a place to go camping, I’d reccomend it.