Our accomodations for the time being are great, though the orphange as a whole isn’t what any of us really expected. CICRIN (I can’t remember all it stands for other than Cristiano Infantil …) houses 27 children, many of whom are teenages rather than young children. There are still a good number of younger ones, the youngest is five years old.
The get up around 5am, do chores, each breakfast and then either go to school or work on a project. (There is a couple here from Managua that is teaching them to make jewelry, so they spend several hours a day on that.) The younger kids attend school in the morning, with chores and homework all afternoon till dinner, and the older kids have school in the afternoon, with chores and homework before and after as well. There is actually little time to spend with the youth except for in the dark hours after dinner. That was a bit of a disappointment in some ways, because I think I expected them to be around more and there to be more really young ones, but I know that God is in control of all that is going on.
Communication is still really hard for most of us, because few of the kids speak English and our Spanish is poor. I am learning to understand more, but still am unable to speak it. A conversation is hard, when I can’t speak the same language, and some questions that I DO know how to ask may be touchy points – I know mostly how to ask about the family. I want to know more of the background stories of some of these kids, so my prayer is that I will have a chance to sit down with the very busy director, Helen, and chat with her about them.
Helen came from Costa Rica 17 years ago to assist an American couple in re-opening CICRIN, as it had be closed and used as a military base for the Sandanistas during their civil war. The couple left after only a month, and Helen, who had planned to only be there for a short time, has been there ever since. She has a beautiful heart for all the kids and has raised them to love the Lord. We will be staying at the orphanage, for at least one week, possibly more. It sits right on the lake, though the beach is not lovely at all, and is very dirty. (For nice beach, we have to hit up the other side of Ometepe!) We will be helping to serve Helen and her staff during the mornings, and working with a church in some of the evenings, along with playing with the youth at the orphanage.
I am really excited to begin working with Pastor Miguelangel and his wife Ruth, at Centro Crisitano de Ometepe. We met with them on Thursday morning and then again for prayer with Ruth yesterday, Friday. They are cell group based, with 17 groups meeting throughout the week in people’s homes! Their church is only about 175 people, children included, but their vision is to grow to 3000 in the next 3 years! That is nearly 1/10 of the population of Ometepe Island! There are groups for youth, led by youth; groups for women, men, young adults, etc. This body of believers has a vision to enlarge their cell groups, divide as they grow larger than 12 persons, and birth new ones, all the while discipling people to walk with the Lord. I am super excited to attend church on Sunday, and join the body in worshipping God and meeting with him.
We have a meeting today at 3:30pm with some of the cell group leaders to discuss some ministry plans and opportunities for the next 3 weeks. We would like to have an outreach a time or two somewhere, and they would like us to help evengelize and draw people into small groups. Pastor would like us to assist in planting a completely new cell group in a town where there are none as of yet. We don’t know what it will all look like yet, but I am still excited.
Please pray for us that we would have wisdom about where God is calling us specifically, to work and to live for this next period of time.
I am praising the Lord especially right now for the time He is giving us to build ourselves as family. We are not running too fast yet, and have plenty of time to spend alone with Jesus, and also together as a team. We are the only World Race team here for now, and so we are truely able to focus on each other and build one another up, and pray more often as a team. I sense that God is going to prosper this time for us significantly, as we focus on Him, prayer and his call for us here.
I pray blessings on all who read this, in the coming days, wherever you are. May the love of God penetrate your hearts and minds, and His abundant life overflow into yours.
