PRAYER REQUESTS

Just want to post a couple of things that are in need of prayer right now. Number one is that a tropical storm hit Leon yesterday (Thursday). Tamara Price called me today, thinking I had perhaps talked to Cheryl, although I knew nothing about the storm. Tamara talked to Cheryl yesterday morning and the winds and rain (around 70mph winds) were pretty fierce. Reports say the storm blew roofs off of homes, and knocked out power and telephone services. We've both tried to call Cheryl, but it's still unavailable. Please be in prayer for them and that telephone services can be restored so we can get in contact with them. I'll post details when I can get them....Second prayer request is for Mario (he's the little guy that came to church in Oct that had the tumor in his liver, for all of you Fairview readers out there). I got an email from Cheryl earlier this week that said he had a CT Scan and has another cyst on his liver. Cheryl was going to send all the information to the doctor in Cinncinati that did his first surgery to see what needs to be done. Just pray for Mario (he's only 4 yrs old) and his family and wisdom for the doctors (especially the Nicaraguan ones because we know they need alot!)...Third prayer request is for Diana. As far as I know, she is a little girl that should be leaving June 1 for the U.S. for heart surgery with HeartGift. Please pray that their travels and surgery all go smoothly and they can see God's hand and give Him thanks for what He's provided.
Thanks in advance for all the prayers!

MUCH LOVE!
Brooke

~4 days to go~

can't believe it's only 4 days to go before I'm home again!! sorta seems like I was just home, but I'm definitely excited to see familiar faces of friends and family! :) ...I actually have to pack tonight because some of us are going to Diriamba (sounds like diddy-amba) with Eugenio's ministry, and they will be taking me to the airport from there on Friday! Not sure if I'll have internet there, so if not, I'll see everyone at the airport on Friday at 10:14pm. ok!? haha
I just wanted to post a few fun pics of things that have happened around here recently (and remind you of the airport! haha)...



About to get on the boat for Monkey Island. from left to right:
Chele, Lauren, Denis, me, Wilmur (our new driver), Eugenio

Funnest picture ever!


Lola (can you tell I was a little scared?)



Chele's house (the wind made it fall)



from the inside of his house



Chele, Gabby, and Wilmur's mom, Silvia



Allan, he just got back from Houston, TX for open heart surgery with HeartGift.

a day in Managua

i am so sorry for not updating more often...it's gotten tougher and tougher.......yesterday we spent a day in Managua....we dropped Tamara off at the airport around 11am and then we waited for Lauren. She was supposed to come with a group last year, but didn't get her passport in all the madness with passports last year and had to use her ticket by this week. After we found her, we did the traditional site-seeing day for her (since we had to wait til 7:30 pm to pick Cheryl up at the airport). So we headed to Granada for Monkey Island which was alot of fun! Until we got off the boat. I tried to buy cokes for everyone, until they tried to charge me 18 cordobas when it should have been 10. unfortunately 3 of the guys had already opened theirs, so i had to pay for them. Then, we get to the van and started to leave. apparently, since we didn't use the boat at the restuarant where we parked, we had to pay to park!? well, we tried to ignore it, got in and tried to drive off. unfortunately we didn't get very far because a guy crossed in front of the van and we couldn't go anywhere....Wilmur tried to rev the engine to get him to move. but that only made the "family" around the restuarant start moving in toward the van. so finally i had to hand a 20 cordoba bill out the window to the guy so we could leave. all because of mine and Lauren's American faces! geez! :) we were all quite flustered after that, but we weren't about to let it spoil our day....after that, we went to Masaya for Lauren to shop for souvenirs, but it seemed they were on to our American faces too. but not too bad....after we finished there, it was back to the airport to pick up Cheryl. She got in about 8pm, we ate dinner and headed back to Leon....about 5 mins from Leon, the bus starts rattling. we got to the side of the road and Wilbur (our new driver!!) checked to find some belt was about to come off. So he had to call his brother Mario, who came to pull us back to the house with his big work truck, going about 3 mph!! :) .....we made a day of it, leaving the house at 9am and returning home at 11:45ish!!!! whew what a day! :)

LiFE iS JUST A LiTTLE SWEETER RiGHT NOW

very sorry to have not updated in a LONG time! but it's definitely been busy around here. Cheryl is in the states for a month, so I have been playing mommy to 5 children. definitely a full time job!!! lucky for me, I have Tamara here with me for the month and it's actually pretty fun. I love the kids and I love that they call me mama for now! :) but needless to say, I've had very little time to concentrate on the computer, especially for updating the blog. I get up at 5:30 to get the kids up and ready for school, so by the time they go to bed at 7-8, I am about to drop too! :) ...the reason I'm taking the time to write this blog is because I want to make public, the thanks that I owe God for my life. I have debated whether to write this on the blog (in part, because I have a very hard time recalling it, without getting nauseous), but it's part of my experience in Nicaragua and it is just another way God has shown me I have a purpose.........this past weekend we took the kids and everyone who helped (minus Chico) to the beach. We got some rooms at a hotel and enjoyed Friday at the beach and then had most of the day Saturday for the beach too. We had been out and about in the water Saturday morning, we'd walked around a little and came back to the water again to play some....Apparently, the water current/tide/something had changed. The waves were rougher and Chele started to head for shore and motioned for me to do the same. But the more I tried, the further I kept getting from shore. Eugenio motioned for me to come in because I was pretty far out and all I could do was throw my hands up to gesture that I was trying but couldn't get anywhere. (this is where it gets stressful for me)...I keep swimming as forcefully as I can, but I only get further and further out. Before I knew it, the ocean had taken me out past all the HUGE waves crashing on the shore. I was between those and the other occassional waves that crashed on top of me. The people on the shore appeared to be about an inch tall and I could go nowhere but where the waves wanted to take me...At this point, I began to panick. no one could come out to get me because they would end up in the same situation as me, and I couldn't go anywhere...I was in a place I had never imagined myself. I was recounting what I thought would be my last minutes of life. I was screaming, crying, begging God to not let this be the end, not to let this be how my life ends...it seemed like an ETERNITY that I just watched the shore, with a crowd of people on shore just watching me...til I was no more. Thankfully, I made myself calm down, knowing if I panicked it really would be the end. So instead, I prayed, yelled, screamed any and every scripture that came to my head. It was the only thing that kept me sane for the estimated 30ish minutes I was out there, completely helpless...I kept looking, hoping that a boat, a jetski, anything would be coming to my rescue because I didn't know how long I could continue to kick before I ran out of energy (little did I know, that Eugenio and Chele had ran 2 km to find someone with a boat that would go out and look for me)......I couldn't see anyone on shore because of the waves crashing in front of me and they couldn't see me because of the same thing, but all of a sudden I see this person coming towards me in the water, and "something" was pulling me closer to that person. because I was getting closer to the waves crashing, and they were now crashing on me and spinning me like I was in a washing machine. I start screaming for help, and it takes what seems like forever, but the guy gets to me with a boogie board, my angel from God! And then all of sudden, in like 2-3 mins I was back to shore. I couldn't believe that I was actually alive and able to carry my body with feeble legs to a table to collapse...A nice man from one of the hotels gave me a tranquilizer and some juice and some instructions on what to do for the rest of the day. If you don't know the Pacific Ocean, this thing happens quite a bit, but many people truly don't survive.....All I can say is God had mercy on me that day, because I know (along with a few workers around the beach telling us) that I should never have survived what I went through. And if I didn't know before that God still has purpose for my life, I know now! If he did not have something for me, He could've taken me easily. but he didn't. I have life...and it's just a little sweeter right now than it has been in a while. I am so thankful to God and his provision for my life!

PS - don't tell my grandparents!!!!!!! :)

THiS iS THE DAY THE LORD HAS MADE...i WiLL REJOiCE! :)

Today has been a good day in the Lord! We went to Managua today, making a trip to immigration and a trip to the burn center at a hospital. The rest of us were sitting in the bus while Giselle and her mom were in to see the doctor at the burn center. Well, I decided I needed to go to the bathroom, so Eugenio walked with me to the building. After I come out, he starts talking to me a little, in his broken English. And across the room, a guy that had just walked in starts snickering a little bit at our inability to communicate. So Eugenio asks him if he knows English. He did. He was actually from somewhere in the Carribean (pretty hard for me to understand through his accent). Eugenio asks him a few questions. Then he came over to sit with us and he began to tell me about his little girl that has burns (she's only 6 months old). I had a very hard time understanding him, but he started talking about God and how he prayed for help with his daughter. And he had all the answers, that God is the only way, He's the one that knows the number of our days, etc. He talked about getting baptized soon, but he was waiting til he knew exactly what it was, I guess making sure his life sizes up to the commitment that comes with baptism!? So, that was my entry way. I just started sharing that baptism doesn't equal salvation. gave him Romans 10:9-10. That if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart, you will be saved. I asked him if he wanted to do that today and he said yes. I asked him if he wanted me to lead him through a prayer or if he wanted to pray. And this is where his accent was a problem, I'm not sure if he prayed or if he was telling me what he does pray on a regular basis, but what he prayed was in line with the scripture. So, did he pray to receive Christ today or had he already?! I'm not sure. But I know that he received truth today. And after a few more minutes of talking, he told me that he was not married but would hopefully be in the future, but he and his girlfriend are living together. So, then I couldn't just let that stand, so I had to confront him on the sin he was living in. Pretty hard, for someone (me) who has the hardest time with confrontation!!! (has seemed to be a trend for the week...is God stretching me like I asked!?!? ut-oh!) :) ...He seemed to take it pretty well and I asked if Eugenio and I could pray for him. So we did and that was that. I pray that God sprinkles the words in a way that help this man find the Lord and/or help in his walk with the Lord and convict him of what he's doing wrong in his life. But praise God, that even through the pounding heart, I was able to allow God the opportunity to work in this man's life!!! ...God is SO cool...using a bathroom break for an opportunity to share about Him!!!!!! :)
Let's see what else I've conquered today (haha)...when we visited Eugenio's uncle for the legal papers to be a legal ministry in Nicaragua today, I drank part of a glass of tea (GAG) because I didn't want to offend the lady who offered it. I tried so hard to like it, pretend it was anything but tea. I choked down about 3 big gulps before I had to surrender the glass to the table!!! But hey, I consider it a victory, that I drank it at all!!!!
what else...tonight, I became Chele's teacher! We waited and waited for Chico to come back to the house, but he didn't come back tonight. And Chele has school in the morning but hadn't finished his homework. I was going to just fill in the answers for him and let Chico help him after his class tomorrow, but I knew that was not the answer...So instead, me in my broken Spanish, gave a lesson in Addition. We used 2 sets of hands and conquered about 15 problems in about 30-45 mins. He is definitely just beginning to learn, but the fact that he is trying makes me so proud! And that I got to be a part of that tonight, I was honored. God has done a transformation in his life, I know it. Maybe he doesn't even know it, but God is there and even though it's going to be a LONG ROAD, I can't wait to see the growth throughout the process of him learning (and one day learning to read the word of God for himself!!). Please continue to pray for him. for the desire to learn and that God would ease the pain (& difficulty) of learning!

"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever." - Psalm 118:1

MUCH LOVE!

AMERiCA...THE REAL WORLD...OR FANTASY LAND?

I could spend tons of time ranting and raving about all the things that have went wrong this week...the diarrhea and nauseousness (and apparent parasites living in me), the sore throat & runny nose & constant cough, and today the aching legs from dehydration.....But, why in the world would I spend time on those things to get sympathy for anyone would might be reading this.....when this time could be better spent on the intricate work of the Lord in the lives of those who love him!? It's so cool how God works and networks. Right now, we have 3 Americans staying in the house from a organization called AIM (Adventures in Missions). They are on a World Race (theworldrace.org) and travel the world, a country at a time, a month at a time. How did they get to our house, you ask?? Simply because they walked past our door a few days ago. The 3 of them (Esther, Tamara, and Mark) are in a period of ATL (Ask The Lord) ...in which they go by faith where they feel God leading and depend on him for all the resources and the work when they get there. It is so amazing to sit down and talk with them, and the experiences they have had in so many countries (Africa, South Africa, China, etc). Cheryl and I were talking with Mark tonight and it's amazing how much Americans are ignorant of life outside the U.S. I'm not sure if it's true ignorance, or if it's a choice of ignorance b/c it scares us to open our eyes. Mark was saying the missionaries in AIM talk about getting back to "the real world" (U.S.) after their year is up. But then it dawned on them, that America is not the real world. America is this fantasy land, and then there is the rest of the world. Outside America is the true, REAL world. I don't want to be Debbie Downer on Americans, but it just seems we have no sense of what the real world is, because we don't get out of fantasy land. If we did, I don't know how we could ever go back & truly live our lives the way we do...with the next biggest toy, the complete debt to "provide" for our families with $300,000 houses and $30,000 cars that are our "needs" (when some of my friends here live in cardboard and tin piece houses)... I knew something had happened when I went back to TN in January. At this point, I just don't see myself being able to truly live in America again. I cannot live in a fantasy, with now having at least some knowledge of the real world. When I'm here, my heart is in America with my family and friends. But when I'm in America, my heart is here...I feel as if I'm a girl without a home...at least an earthly home. a somewhat hard place to be in, but truly it makes my heart yearn for Heaven in a much more passionate way. Knowing it's my only true home!
I'll end with a song from MercyMe. I know it's not a perfect fit to what I was saying, but just a way to prove, this world is not our home...in Nicaragua or America!
MUCH LOVE!


"Homesick" by MercyMe

You're in a better place, I've heard a thousand times
And at least a thousand times I've rejoiced for you
But the reason why I'm broken, the reason why I cry
Is how long must I wait to be with you
I close my eyes and I see your face
If home's where my heart is then I'm out of place
Lord, won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
I've never been more homesick than now

Help me Lord cause I don't understand your ways
The reason why I wonder if I'll ever know
But, even if you showed me, the hurt would be the same
Cause I'm still here so far away from home
I close my eyes and I see your face
If home's where my heart is then I'm out of place
Lord, won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
I've never been more homesick than now

In Christ, there are no goodbye
And in Christ, there is no end
So I'll hold onto Jesus with all that I have
To see you again
To see you again
And I close my eyes and I see your face
If home's where my heart is then I'm out of place
Lord, won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
Won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
Won't you give me strength to make it through somehow

I've never been more homesick than now

MY 25TH BiRTHDAY CELEBRATiON...AND LiTTLE KEViN

We celebrated my big 2-5 birthday this past Friday (Feb. 29) It was a good birthday celebration. Tamara treated me to a pedicure which cost around $2.50-2.75!! Then she took me, Chele, Luis, and Dennis to El Sesteo, a restaurant in central park. After that, we rode the Bus Palon (sp?) around town. It's the bus without a top so you can enjoy the air and it goes all around Leon.

It was a good thing we celebrated on Friday b/c I spent my actual birthday in bed (& in the bathroom with vomiting and diarrhea). I might not eat beans and rice for a while now!! yikes!! :) ....also, at the end of the day we found out that little Kevin had passed away. He wasn't doing good Saturday morning and so Cheryl was going to take him to the hospital. But his mom came and refused to take him to the hospital, b/c when he was little she took him to the hospital for dehydration or something relatively small and they ended up cutting him open to do a surgery that wasn't for him. So the mom took him home and he lived about 5 more hours before his little body gave out. The mom had called Cheryl and asked her to come to the house b/c Kevin wasn't doing good. So I stayed with the kids...Then, Luis and Eugenio come to the house and tell me that Kevin had passed away. And Magaly heard him. So I got to play mama. I had to console her, who was attached to Kevin from the second he got to the house (they both had cerebral palsy). Then the other kids want to know what is wrong with Magaly, so I have to tell them about Kevin!! Talk about a real mom moment!! That was hard. And then that night I rocked Gabby to sleep in the hammock, and then Magaly (they are the ones that had the hardest time coping with it)....then yesterday (Sunday) we had the funeral, which lasted pretty much all day long. They are much different here than in the U.S.....we left the house yesterday morning at 9:30 and went to Kevin's house, where we sat around until 2:30ish. That was part of the wake and family members were coming to visit. At 2:30, they loaded the casket into the back of a pickup truck and we took the family in the bus to the cemetary. At the cemetary, they had dug the hole for the casket (where anyone could walk by and fall in) and the guys that dug it were sitting to the side with their shovels, waiting for the service to be finished. Eugenio spoke a few words and Carlos sang. Then, while we were still there, the guys put the casket in the ground and started throwing the dirt on top. Talk about a hard sight to see!! BUT, Kevin is now a perfect little boy in Heaven, Praise God!!!

Here's a couple of pictures: