We’re Home!!
Our driver dropped us off at Price Mart(Costco) in
Managua, where Milo and Raquel picked us up, but first we went shopping at
Price Mart, as our town of Nagarote does not have many of the items our
beautiful city does not have. i.e tomato sauce, etc (Milo and Raquel Seravalli are a young
couple from Costa Rica, who came to Nagarote to start their ministry here two
years ago. If any of you remember this
is where Kristine interned here two years ago. Milo and Raquel worked with her and made her feel welcome they
spent so much time encouraging her in the Lord and teaching what it means to be
a missionary. Our time in Nagarote will
be assisting Milo and Raquel with their ministry. They are here in Nagarote alone and could
really us the help with the children and youth group as the church is
growing. .
Nagarote is a
small city located one hour away from the capital of Managua. It is an extremely hot part of Nicaragua with
temperatures easily reaching 95 degrees every afternoon. Most of the town stops from 12 to 2 and most
businesses close down for those couple of hours. It is even to hot here for the people to do
anything. However the mornings and
evenings are very nice. The town is very poor and I am told most of the
families survive on 500 dollars a month.
We love the town because everyone is very friendly and welcoming. Surrounding the city of Nagarote is farms and
ranches, while most of the work here is simply local small businesses run out
of peoples home. To find better work,
people have to travel to Managua. The
city is laid out in blocks of many small homes.
To buy food or things, you need to find out where everything is in your
part of town as most things are sold from someone’s home and doesn’t have a
sign. It reminds me of Queens a little
bit, just that houses are much smaller, and the town is much smaller. There are many homes next to each other with
little gardens in the front. In the
evening everyone is outside hanging out.
There is a nice central park, with food and it is a nice place to walk
to and hang out and also it has Wi-Fi as we do not at the current moment. We can travel everywhere in our city with
bikes. If we want we can take a bixie( a
bike with seats in front of it for you to sit) It costs 7 cordabas or 25 cents
per person to go anywhere in the town.
We stayed at the Seravalli’s home for the first week
while we searched for a home. The second
night we were there a few families stopped by to welcome us back. We feel we already have a number of friends
in Nagarote and many people who have welcomed us to their homes. Milo and Raquel also have welcomed us into
their home and into their life. It is
very difficult to find a home, because the only way is to know someone or live
here and ask people. It was a little discouraging as the first week we could
not find a home we pray and prayed. I know my time is the Lords hands, so
patience is so important as you wait on the Lord, even when it seems to be
taking time. There were a few things I
had asked the Lord for and they weren’t huge things. 1. Was a porch to talk to
the people on the street and 2. For a house close to Milo and Raquel. I want to
remind you of something again, Gods timing for everything is perfect, and just
when you want to say Lord please can you just answer. He answers in ways beyond anything we could
have possibly even imagined.
At the same time
all of this is going on we are trying to adjust to the culture and pray that
the Lord will lead and guide us through this whole process. The first few days were very
frustrating. We both prayed every night
as we were feeling anxious. After 7
days, we suddenly had 3 very good options for a home, basically all in one day. For $250 per month we found a beautiful house
near central park. It has 5 bedrooms and
2 bathrooms, with 2 floors. It is one and half blocks from central park and it
has a kitchen with a refrigerator and stove, 2 actual beds with mattress’s,
rocking chairs and plastic chairs. It has my favorite color walls, my favorite
mop and all the things I didn’t even pray for.
It is such a blessing to have so much stuff already here, the Lord not
only shows up but as we wait he will do exceedingly, abundantly more than you
could ever ask for or imagine. For the
first three days the refrigerator and stove did not work, but hopefully soon it
can be fixed. We cooked our eggs in the
toaster oven. (not bad) The trouble is finding a person that can fix it and
then have him actually show up. We are
getting used to the pace of Nagarote which is slow and steady.
Our time here we will be assisting Milo and Raquel with
all their ministries. We have a youth
group, bible studies, regular church, personal discipleships and children’s ministry. We are
specifically going to be running the children’s ministry. We gave our first lesson on Joseph and his
coat of many colors did a craft and few games.
It is definitely intimidating speaking in Spanish, but we are both
trying to stay positive.
We found a wonderful academy in Nagarote that teaches
English. The owner speaks perfect
English and is going to teach us Spanish every morning for 2 hours. She is a wonderful lady that has become our
friend and is going to start to go to church with us, we see the Lord working
in her life also.
We have now gotten into a little bit of routine. Everything is at an extremely slow pace. Normal tasks take hours. It is something we are getting used to; I
think we will have problems adjusting back to the New York pace when we return
in a few months. We are getting to know
more and more people every day and are starting to establish real relationships
and inviting many to church and a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Milo and Raquel are leaving today for a wedding in Costa
Rica for 10 days. So we will be doing
everything on our own now. It is a
little bit scary, but we are confident we can do it, with the Lords help.
Even though we have no TV or internet, the days go by so
fast and feel we never stop. We can walk
to central park to get Wi-Fi as needed, but is very different from American,
where we are constantly using our phones. Already we feel Nagarote is our town
and where we belong.
We have many personal stories we would like to tell, but
for now, just wanted to give an overview of where we are at.
FYI: We don't have a washing machine, so I wash my clothes in a Pila. I am actually liking it.
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