today Justin and I *Emily* went to a botanical garden and it was amazing! There are SOOOO many beautiful kinds of orchids and plants here! Very jealous of the plants that will grow in this climate!

the gospel of John goes south!

ok today. i went on a 7 or 8 (round trip) hour hike into the costa rican jungle to deliver the book of john to the Cabecar tribe. This tribe is about 15k people in total and are the only ones in the world that speak the tonal language. until recently they didn't have the language written down. The new testament is currently almost translated, but for now all we could deliver is the book of john. The landscape was breath taking for lack of a better word. i also got to eat 3 fruits growing wild that i had never even heard of. sweet lemon..some variation of an orange that was green, and a guava..which i've heard of but never eaten as a fruit. phenomenal. the indians are beautiful, mysterious, brilliant people. Pray for them if you can. :) Praise God we all came out safe...no ambulance for snake bites, heat exhaustion, mountain lions etc. i just wanted to list all that so you know we are brave. ;) jk. praise God eternally for protection. aaand i didn't even have explosive bathroom issues..such..a miracle. love you
ben

Today was a goooood day.

I became a man today.

Justin and emily went north to celebrate their honeymoon. so i was given the opportunity to do other things. I (ben) woke up early and decided to go check with Josiah (our missionary host) to see if they needed help on the house they are constructing which is a project i have spent a decent amount of time on while here. I found him and asked, "Do you need help dear sir?" He replied, "how do you feel about doing some running this morning?". I laughed. he pointed to the mountain side and said the sheep were loose on the neighbor's mountain. The neighbor found out early and made a friendly visit at 5 am saying something about female dogs..didn't catch it all. So my self and 4 indians (who live on Josiah's property with their families) went to catch the run away fold. It took us 4 hours. ha. i tried to tackle one. fail. it..jumped over me...we chased them up and down the mountain. a mountain. i asked so many times for God to move the mountain. my poor faith..or dehydration. i eventually spotted one in a thicket and over a 189 minute period sneaked up behind it...crawling on my belly..while the indians distracted it with strange whistling..then i SNATCHED it by the legs and the others came to help. this is how all 6 were caught. i became a man today. i felt like an indian. so i went and jumped into the river with my clothes on. theeeen. i went and worked on the mural by myself in a giant storm for the rest of the day. i listened to music and worshiped. it was unreal. watching a storm come over the mountains pound the terrain and then roll on leaving ghostly remnants of misty clouds creeping through the mountain tips is a spiritual journey. Furthermore, for the first few hours i had a crowd of 10 to 15 kids standing a foot away from me..watching every stroke of my brush. (to matt w: here is a sneak peak of the mural with eyes!! ;) then we would talk fragmented conversations and laugh at each other. Then i walked back a couple of miles on dirt roads and over swollen rivers at dusk to the missionaries house where a fantastic dinner and friends awaited. The kingdom of heaven is on earth!!! Praise Jesus for wonderful days. this was one of them.

sorry for so few posts!

This is Emily...
We haven't had internet sorry! We had planned two extra days in Costa Rica longer than the other countries because we wanted to get away for two days. Our two year anniversary is next week, so we got a cool tropical hotel and went away for two days. That's where we have been for the last two days. We are headed to a botanical garden today, and went for a little hike through the rainforest this morning! Lots of cool plants and humming birds and butterflies and waterfalls! It has been much needed to sleep until 8 the past two days!

I promise to put up a picture of the mural next time I have internet. Ben stayed with Josiah and Cynthia and was supposed to hike 4 hours into the jungle to go to a village of Indians to pass out some new testaments that are recently translated into their language! Not sure if they went or not...no real way to communicate with them at this point.

Things of note:
the volcanoe here is smoking!
We bought a little sculpture carved out of coffee roots.
We got to go in a thermal pool...loved the hot water more than ever after all these cold showers!
I have a new appreciation for streets with names on street signs. What a wonderful invention!
We ate lunch at what we think was a Costa Rican version of a truck stop yesterday. Gross food!
There are purple bananas!


Finishing up the mural tomorrow and hoping to seal it. Then we will head to San Jose on Friday, stay over night, and catch an early flight to Miami on Saturday morning to head home!
Oh yeah...and we got the chance to buy a lot of equipment for the church here and we are going to surprise them tonight or tomorrow! We are very excited!
A speaker, mixing board, microphone, stand, cords, etc. They didn't have ANYthing to lead worship, and when they started singing, you couldn't hear the leader or piano anymore. So, thanks to your generosity we get to bless the pastor here! praise the Lord we have gotten to give away $1400!

More later!

feeling better...

This is Emily...
We haven't written much since getting to Costa Rica, because quite honestly, our bodies are not very happy with us. Two days ago I almost blacked out...I was standing talking and suddenly I was burning hot and sweating, and dizzy and my stomach ached. I headed home and took a nap and drank lots of water, and felt a little better. But, my stomach still hurt and acted terribly for the next two days. I had to take medicine, but then that had a side effect of nausea, and then I had to take a medicine for that! Yesterday Ben seemed to get the same thing I had and ended up not being able to go to church with us. He had a fever and slept for hours. Then one of the people who lives here got it too today...boo!
But, thank the Lord, we are all much better today. Still some unpleasant side effects of the onslaught of unusual foods, etc. But, MUCH better!

Last night Justin spoke to a large youth group about relationships and marriage, and then this morning he spoke to a church about Hebrews 12. They both went very well! Tonight Ben shared his testimony with a small church here, and we lead a few songs.

Ben and I have been working hard on a mural on the outside of an elementary school. The principle asked us for a very specific design, which isn't our favorite, but we are doing our best! The wall is just about as bumpy as you can imagine.

My Toothbrush Smells Like Wet Dog

Justin here... OK, so I just went to brush my teeth and noticed that my toothbrush smells like wet dog. Yuck... guess it might be time for a new one. Josiah and Cynthia are convinced that their Costa Rican mountain water is safe for us to drink, but, if that is true then why does my toothbrush smell like wet dog after I rinse it in the water?

I must make a confession... I'm getting a little tired of cold showers! They seem so adventurous at first: third world country, tropical setting, indoor/outdoor living, and cold showers. They all just seem to go together. But, I admit, I'm not that hardy. Sure, I have a capacity to endure changes and differences and to roll with things like this. But then there are the times when I remember my nice cushy American life and want it back - right now. Just being honest.

Emily and I were talking last night about how we, as Americans, go camping and have our little hiking adventures. Along the way we find ways to think it's cool to grow our beards out, get smelly from not showering, rough it by cooking burgers and dogs over a fire, and to sleep out under the stars. We come home, pat ourselves on the back and tell ourselves how adventurous and outdoorsy we are, how we love to be out in nature, etc. We might even stroke our inner caveman as we tell our friends our stories, and think that, if we could have our way, we'd much rather live that way than have our nice houses and all the modern conveniences to which we've grown accustomed.

Then we come to a place where we meet people who are doing all of these things day in and day out and just calling it life. No adventures here, no stories they're excited to tell their friends about when they get home, just life. Hiking 8 hours to get to civilization, living in a hut, washing your clothes in a creek... no REI catalog moments, just all in a days work. No special moisture wicking clothing or gortex hiking boots either to make like a little more bearable. Just hot, sticky, lots of bugs and all the joys of a simple life to go along with it.

I admit, I'm a good American when it comes to liking and preferring comfort. But it's really good to get a fresh perspective again on what most of the rest of the world goes through to just survive.

Funny thing is, for them an adventure would probably be getting on a plane, flying 4 hours to America, going to some big city and sleeping in a hotel!

Kind of random, but what came to mind! Love to you all!!!

I Finally Touched My First Coffee Tree

If it´s about coffee then this is Justin!

Well, I finally did it; I set foot on a coffee farm and touched a coffee tree. Emily teases me and says that coffee is my love language. She´s not far off, and this past week has been full of waves of coffee love from God to me. I know it´s a little thing, but the Lord knows that for me, this is one of those tiny joys in life that I believe He delights in blessing each of us with as we serve Him.

To stand on these mountains, to see the volcanoes and the mist in the distance, to walk through the densly planted trees with their small green cherries just beginning to form; then to see the workers and the back-breaking labor they do day in and day out so that you and I can enjoy this beverage we´ve grown to call coffee... it gives me a perspective that I´ve not had before.

Yesterday Rodolfo took me along with he and Alejandro, his farm manager, as they went to check the progress of their workers. We began by sauntering down a tree covered dirt road and eventually began making our way through the dense brush on what they called a trail. Everything was covered in dew and somewhat wet, with the souds of birds all around us. Every step brought me into contact with one of the many coffee trees on this 34 acre mountain finca (farm in Spanish).

After about 15 minutes we came upon a group of about 10 workers. Each had a hoe in his hand and was busy uprooting an old tree that needed to be replanted. Standing on about a 35 or 40 degree slope, each of them dug industriously as their bosses arrived. After a few minutes of conversation in which the men gave Rodolfo a report of their progress, Rodolfo turned to me and said, "Do you have anything spiritually prepared to say to these men?"

Caught off guard, I hesitated for a moment as 10 sets of Latino eyes stared curiously at me. Then I said, "Yes, let me share my testimony with them."

These weren´t church going men. But we were all men, and I´ve come to realize that many of our cultural barriers as men disappear as we begin to talk about sexual sin. For the next 15 minutes I shared my story on the side of a mountain. The men listened respectfully to me and occassionally I would see one of them sheepishly glance around at the others to see their reaction as they heard what was probably a story to which they could very much relate. I finished by testifying to the power of God to transform our lives and how that same power was what transformed me.

As I spoke I did everything I could to direct them as to how to turn to God and make a true surrender of their lives, knowing that they may be resistant to responding in public but that they might very well get on their knees later on in private and begin turning to God.

When I was done, Rodolfo asked each man if he would like prayer and if he had any questions for me. As each was asked he wojuld smile nervously, look around and say no. But it was clear that they were somewhat touched that this stranger would be so vulnerable with them. I finished by praying for them and then we all took a group picture.

In such moments what can I say to the Lord? He constantly amazes me at the opportunities He gives me to testify to Him in the most surprising circumstances. Little by little He continues to fulfill a word of prophecy He spoke over me when I was a teenaqger - a word that I wanted nothing to do with at the time. The word was, "You will be my witness in the earth." A simple word for sure, but one He is nevertheless faithfully fulfilling now for the past 10 years.

Well... I thought I was going to tell you all about coffee and then ended up talking about the Lord! he is so good and I love Him with all my heart!

Bless you all and I truly hope that many of you some day get to visit this amazing part of the world they call El Salvador. It has a beauty I have seen nowhere else.

T is for toilet paper.

how do you spell diarreah..is that it? di..arr..eeaah...something like that.

now that we have a spelling...how do you stop it???

Anyways, we are headed to Costa Rica in a few hours. El salvador, one of the more dangerous parts of our trip, has gone smoothly hallelujah. (pronounced hal leh loo JAH in español)

We spent last night at a very nice restaurant with the Rodolpho and his family (our hosts). the food and company was wonderful. then we went to a nearby cafe where justin talked coffee with rodolpho and the employees and raved about the quality of the cafe. i thought of isaac. the baurista that works there is in london in a latte art slash expresso competition. oh..and cultural side note...the US won there futbol match..and we advanced. very respectable. futbol is obsessive over here.

well dear friends..we miss you. we are praying for you. we are down to the final 10 to 11 days. pray that we will finish strong by God´s power. Pray for a shoring of bowels and a healing of coughs and creeks and pains. thanks so much for your support. we have been able to bless so many people...amazing..spirit filled people...with the money you all have provided.

God bless you all.
love ben

Day at the finca

this is emily...

On tuesday we drove up to the coffee finca. (which means farm) and stayed at a little house up there. The family we are staying with here in El Salvador owns a coffee farm, so we went with the husband. Coffee is grown in the mountains and this one is at the top of a very steep mountain. The roads on these mountains are not paved,and the rain has washed huge channels out so the drive is VERRRRY bumpy. We took turns riding in the back of the truck to see the incredible views. We could see a huge valley and three volcanoes from there. The view was all of Guatamala, because we were right on the border. It looked just like I would imagine the land before time.

On one occasion we hiked down the mountain so we could cross into Guatamala...so I guess I´ve been there now too! On the hike back up I thought I was going to die of over heating. I cannot even explain how humid it is and when you start hiking up a mountain with less oxygen in the altitude and add a very steep rough terrain it wears me out. I can´t believe men carry 150 bags of coffee up this same path! But, two cold showers later...I was back to normal. ha.

The finca is incredibly beautiful, and it was eye opening to see how coffee is grown. It´s basically like a huge jungle of coffee trees, and you´d never know you are on a farm. The only negative was the insane amount of spiders, and the cockroach the size of a small child that we found in the house.

We hiked down to church in the afternoon, and it was an insane walk. They have church every single night of the week!!! It was along this little path that was on the edge of a cliff, and then down this huge rocky mountain, and through a horse field. We got to pray with the pastors family for about 45 minutes which was really neat. We didn´t stay for the actual service because it was so dangerous to hike back in the dark in the rain. Yet they do this every night, but our host was not sure about us inexperienced Americans surviving it. A little tiny girl went with us, and I think she was there just to show me what a big wimp I am.

Sorry this is kind of disjointed, there is a lot of activity in this room and I´m having trouble assembling thoughts. I´ll let the pictures do more talking.

A Day of Divine Connections

Justin here... Yesterday was one of those days that you can clearly discern the hand of God opening doors and connecting you to new people for His purposes as it´s all happening. It was pretty amazing, so let me tell you about it...

I woke up at 5AM so that I could have ample time in the Word and prayer before our scheduled departure of 7:30AM. While reading in 2 Samuel 7 the Lord began speaking some things to me in David´s prayer concerning a word He had given me through a young man while I was down here in El Salvador in 2006. Then, in thenext few hours, our plans for the entire day changed.

We were supposed to go to this town and be honored guests of the mayor, speak to a bunch of teen interns of the town and basically hang out there all day. Well, we weren´t crazy about this plan because we really didn´t see the Lord in it, but yet it was what was planned by Julito for us. The night before, Em prayed and asked the Lord to do something dramatic if He didn´t want us to do it. Well, the phone rang at 7:30 and Julito explained to us that the event we were scheduled to be a part of was suddenly cancelled because an important man in the town had died the night before. So... our plans began to change.

We ended up having a nice prayer time together and then Rodolfo called an orphanage that we wanted to visit (I had been in 2007) named Hogar Infantil Shalom. They invited us to come and join us for lunch. Then Rodolfo walked across the street to a school and talked to the headmistress. She invited us to speak to the student body in the afternoon.

Well, while we were at the orphanage (read about it here: www.harvesting.org) we got a tour and then told them we were able to help in a y way we could. So, Em got to to do some art with about 20 students and Ben and I worked on building them horseshoe pits so that visiting mission teams could play horseshoes - hey, beggars can´t be choosers! It was good to serve and just do whatever, plus, I got to use some power tools!

While we were eating lunch I noticed a poster for "Mission Mountain Coffee." I asked what that was and was told that it is a brand of coffee they want to develop inside the US with beans from El Salvador as a way to help fundraise for the orphanage - antennaes up! So, I began talking with the founder, Donald Benner, and his wife about their vision and the vision for coffee the Lord has given me. We prayed and put it in the Lord´s hands, asking Him to lead us if this is His will that we work together in the future.

When our time was done we headed back to Rodolfo´s to shower and go to the school. Along the way, Raul called and asked us to dinner. When we got to the school, the headmistress apologized, but there was some miscommunication and it was no longer possible for us to speak to the students. No problem. So we headed back to Rodolfo´s apartment and waited for Raul.

While we were waiting, a missionary couple who lives in his apartment complex arrived home and Rodolfo wanted us to meet them. So, we began making small talk in the hallway and then I said something about having worked at Pure Life. Well, the wife looked at me very intently and then said, "Come inside." So, we followed her into their apartment and she began to pour out her heart to us. It turns out she is a medical missionary (on the field with her husband for 20 years) who was just doing some clinic with pastors and their wives. Out of 36 pastor´s wives, 18 of them had STDs. Yet only one was not a virgin before marriage. She nearly was crying as she told us this because she basically had to tell these women that the only way they could end up with these diseases was that their husbands had been unfaithful.

As we talked more, it came out that she had just been to Alexandria, KY in May and met Jack and Ashley Ruth, some people who I used to work with at Pure Life. They even had been to Falmouth - are you kidding me! Long story short, they are looking for peopkle to help them minister in this area of sexual sin. The need is huge and they want someone(s) who have been there and really understand the issues first hand. They have a conference planned for September 2011 with the Ruths and thheir church, but want to do more in the interim.

We exchanged cards and walked away knowing that the Lord had totally just created that relationship.

Then we went to dinner with Raul and his family - lovely wife and two young daughters, 14 and 11. While at dinner, Raul was talking about their businesses in the US. They make and import tamales to various markets in the US where a lot of Salvadorians and Mexicans live, among other ventures. As I was explaining the visit to the orphanage and the Mission Mountain Coffee idea, he said, "If you ever need to ship a pallate of coffee to the US, I would allow you to ship it with a container I was sending over." Whoa, huge problem solved. It is virtually impossible to ship one pallate of anything to the US because it is such a small amount - 2000lbs. To have a connection that would allow us to source coffee from El Salvador and then ship it to the US one pallate at a time as we need it, would be tremendous.

So, we got the the end of the day and were like, whoa, that was ALL the Lord setting things up. Hopw wonderful it is and how encouraging it is to see His hand so intimately involved in things!!!

We are encouraged. Keep praying. He is answering!!!

Sabbath weekend!

This is Emily.

The people we are staying with this weekend decided that we seemed very tired. (true) So, they took us to the beach and left us there all day yesterday at a little house someone owned where we read and napped and talked all day. It was a complete pleasure and greatly needed! Jesus went to be alone and spend time with God, and we needed to as well! Ben tried to climb up a palm tree to get a coconut and scraped his body doing so, and I drank my first coconut milk straight from the nut. I think this would have been much better had it been cold...instead of sitting in the hot sun all day. But, fun none the less!

We then attended a graduation party of the gal who is staying here as well. Today we went to church and felt like total foreigners because we wore headphones that they translated into for us. Try blending in like that!

Today we went to a town a bit away and then ended up at a beautiful waterfall on a coffee farm in the forest, which was by far the highlight! It was FREEZING, and who knows what bacteria may live in it, but it was great fun! To get there however, we had to ride on the freeway in the back of a pick up truck for over an hour. I put on sunscreen for sure, but apparently I am very bad at making sure of full coverage. I have really bad burns in the strangest places. The sun is very strong here! In a little over an hour i got burned on my left hand, left shoulder, right knee and REALLY bad on my left knee. Please pray it doesn´t burn. It hurts pretty bad at the moment, despite the ice, aloe, and fan I have put on it repeatedly.

We had a chance to eat one of their traditional foods tonight called a papusa. it´s basically a glorified quesadilla. my stomache was not pleased.

Justin asked them if we could make one...which the ladies thought was very funny, but they let us! I can´t believe they cook all this stuff over wood fires still. It is showing me how much I just assume is part of life. It´s hard for me to realize that so much of the world still doesn´t even have running water in their homes or communities. This is us making one!

Giving Report: Nicaragua

We were blessed to arrive in Central America with $1200 in offerings to sow into needs as the Lord leads us. Prior to our trip we were praying and believing for this amount to come in over and above the finances we needed for expenses, and with two days to go we were at $1187! Then a few more offerings pushed us over the top and we rejoiced in God´s amazing provision.

There are so many needs around us that ifwe had ten times that amount we would have no trouble giving it away to justifiable causes. Here is a recap of what we gave in Nicaragua.

1. $170 to pay a car repair bill for a 75 year old local pastor named Donatillo. He was in a car accident while we were there and that was the total of the bill - for him, a HUGE amount.
2. $200 to put two new tires on Donatillo's 1988 Toyota Land Cruiser with 365,000 miles on it. He goes all through these mountainous dirt roads visiting churches he oversees and people he ministers to. He is a true Patriarch and elder minister in the Somoto area. His rear tires were nearly bald and I was determined to solve that. Incidentally, he has no radiator cap and uses a Walmart bag to keep the hot water in his radiator from coming out while the engine is running. Chuck is working on finding him a cap in a junk yard in Cincy. unbelieveable.
3. $60 to build a fence around the futbol field at Kids of Cascabel. Until now, they have routinely had to climb over a barbed wire fence to retrieve their futbols - running the risk of seriously hurting themselves. When Ben saw this he said we have to do something before one of these kids gets seriously injured. He wrote a blog entry about it. Check it out!
4. $20 for two new futbols. They have gone through 30 in the last several months due to the barbed wire fence.

Total: $450

Praise the Lord and THANK YOU to all of you who gave so generously. How wonderful it is to come here with an ABUNDANCE to help people with needs large and small!

The Beautiful People

(Justin) For about five days now this phrase, "the beautiful people," keeps running through my mind. For me, there is a certain beauty I see in the Latino people that warms my heart. Their soft smiles, their giggles and laughter, the inquisitive looks on the children's faces when they see "gringos" (us white Americans)... there is a certain something inside them that is beautiful.

Of course, this certain something is inside of all of us; it is the image of God. We are made in his image and it is a beautiful thing to see and hear different shades and hues of that image in these people. We are so similar, but we are so very different at the same time. Yet, with spiritual eyes we can see the beauty of our God in all of it.

El Salvador

Hello! this is Emily.

We are safely in El Salvador, and I want to say thanks to all the people who have written or commented that they are praying! It is very important!

El Salvador is in waaaaay better shape economically than Nicaragua, ironically because so many of their people live and work in America and send money here. Their currency is the U.S. dollar! isn´t that crazy? They have malls and fast food in the capitol city which was unheard of in Nicaragua. KFC, burger king, etc. Not that we were hoping for any of that! ha!

Last night we started in immediately by leading a Bible study and then today by 7 am we were at a high school. It was such a crazy experience! We went in to different classrooms to talk about lies of the culture and sexual purity again. This time many times to groups of only girls. I got a chance to share once I got my nerve up. :) Then, because this culture is soooo big on honoring their guests, they put on a folk dance for us. Seriously! It was like earth day or something...hard to tell what they were doing, but they had a celebration that the whole school came to. And, they asked Justin to speak about saving the earth about 3 seconds before he was on to speak! Poor guy! So, he did suprisingly well, and then they had a folk dance and a song just to honor us. How crazy! they all took pictures with us and wanted to meet us...just because we are American I guess??? Then the high school girls were giggling like crazy about Ben. Ben and i are quite a sensation with blond hair. We have literally not met or seen a single person with blond hair other than ourselves. Well, onetime we saw some on a bus go by and we were shocked. ha. So, we spoke 4 times and they served us a special lunch and took a million pictures with us and all wanted our names to look us up on facebook. That should be interesting! Then we got a tour but we were so tired we could barely enjoy it. so, we came back and got a two hour nap. I feel like a new person! Here´s some photos for you to enjoy!

About the pictures...this is Emily

So, two days ago while Justin was speaking, the rest of us took a trip by a factory....which is a loose term, because as you can see they are making the cookies in giant handmade ovens. But, for here it is a huge company. It was so hot in that room I can¨t imagine working there! First, a few women boil and cool corn, then they mash it up, mix the cookies, put them in those wood burning stoves, and after that they have four people in a room count them and put them in bags. And, they sell at gas stations and all over the place. They sometimes donate food to the Kids of Cascabel, so that is why we stopped there. We prayed with them. On our way there was got to ride on a rickshaw or a tricycle thing. Ben and I had thought it would be fun to pay the guy, but then ask if we could actually do the work of riding the bike. His guy let him, but my guys tires were so flat I knew I couldn{t make the bike move!

My parents just left for their flight back to the United States and we are off to El Salvador today. Please pray for our safety, as it is not as safe as here.

You can see a picture of the bathrooms at the schools in one of these pictures. Soap, water, tp not included! The doors don't actually fit in the door frames, so modesty is a joke.

Call me a rich American, but I like toilet paper AND soap.

Pictures!

cascabel fútbol proyecto

ok. so the kids of Cascabel adore fútbol. they have gone through 30 plus soccer balls courtesy of the barbed wired fence surrounding their dirt and rock futbol field. to make the adventure more climactic, each and everytime the futbol went over the fence the kids...someetimes only 6 or 7 would jump the fence. therefore i prayed everytime that their necks would not succumb to the barbs. so a few of us got together and drove to a neighboring city where the hardware store is. everything is an experience in itself. long story short..because we are leavin in a half hour for el salvador...we built a chicken wire fence about 6 to 7 feet high in front of the barbed wire most of the way around the field of rocks. lord willing ...this will save the kids from cutting themselves or by being gord by one of the many bulls roaming the woods for food. ha. in the picture here we used the extra material and made soccer goals to help reduce the cost of failing futbols. then we played futbol for 3 hours...well they played..i failed..and fell..and bled...but it was incredible. god is so good. and so big...that{s all i know. so here it is...minus fancy writing and any form of real punctuation or capitalization due to these crazy keyboards. love and prayers dear familia...we miss you.

namaaaste!

ben

Wednesday!

This is Emily. I´m so tired I can barely think. We are traveling to El Salvador tomorrow, and my parents are headed home. Please pray for our travels. I will have some time before the flight tomorrow, so I¨m sure one of us will write and upload some pictures!

Speaking the Truth in Sex Ed

Justin here... For the past two days I´ve been having an experience that has really surprised me. In fact, you can say I was totally unprepared for it. Nicaragua is a solcialist country - that means, they don´t do our whole God thing. Every year in their schools they take a week to address sex education, and as of late the focus of the curriculm has been what they call "Healthy Sex." Think the "Safe Sex" campaign in America and you´re just about dead on.

There is an elderly pastor here named Donatillo. He is 75 years old, well respected by most people, and because of that was able to get me into 5 schools to talk about sex this week - which just happens to be the week they address this subject - gotta love God´s timing!

I was admittedly nervous about this whole idea. All I could see as I played out the scenarios in my mind were eyes rolling and kids doing anything to distract themselves from the talking head at the front of the classroom. Turns out my fears were unwarranted, big time.

Over two days, we visited 5 schools and went into 9 classrooms. We spent about 50 minutes with each, giving a presentation on what I called, "The Lies of Our Culture." Then we did a Q&A in which they wrote down their questions anonymously. In all we spoke to more than 300 students.

I am not overstating it when I tell you that I became a sort of small time celebrity among these kids (mostly 15 - 19 years old) nearly instantaneously. Why? Simply because I was an American who had come to talk to them about sex.

In my presentation, I talked about three lies our culture is telling us. They are: 1) You become a man by having sex with girls. 2) The most valuable thing a girl has to offer a man is her body. 3) You can have sex before marriage or even outside of marriage and not experience any consequences.

I used Proverbs 7 and alternating between telling that story and my own testimony in non-churchy terms. I showed how I believed these lies and how they eventually ruined my life, and how when I turned to God, repented of my sins and gave my life to Jesus Christ everything began to change.

When I asked each of these classes if the people who are believing these lies have made Nicaragua a better place you could hear a pin drop. Then, undoubtedly they would start to say

"no." It was powerful to see their response.

I really believe God may be showing me a new ministry here. We were preaching the Gospel in school and also giving biblical answers to their questions. It was AMAZING to see that not one person - not even a teacher - ever said anything negative about it or reacted negatively.

I ended by challenging them to reject these lies and to believe the truth. And encouraged them that, in doing that I believe they will change their families, cities and even nation during their lifetimes.

The Q&A times were unreal. I have a stack of questions that is nearly 5 inches tall that we are

hoping to translate and answer, turning the best into some kind of booklet or webpage. They asked everything from "How can I stop masturbating" to "How to I stop the pain of my parents divorce?"

Sometimes I was taken back by their willingness to be so vulnerable in school. But God was doing something. I really believe that. I´m not sure where it will all go, but I do believe that this was just the beginning and that we will be back doing more of this in the future.

Pictures for you!

Nosotros Casadamos

I think....that is how to say we are tired. (this is emily.)

So...it´s weird writing on a blog. Who knows if anyone is really reading this? Justin spoke at two schools today on sexual purity and the lies that the culture tells us. They allowed the students to write down questions to ask him. They asked so many questions, and were so hungry for the truth that they actually stayed AFTER school to get more answered! EVERY student that was there!!! No one left when they had the chance! We are seeing a real need for this here.



I stayed back from the second school and painted the phrase ¨jardin del ninos¨ on the side of the bus that people from Cincinnati bought for them. I did some more art projects with them and worked on my spanish with the kids. It´s actually coming along pretty well! I can communicate most of the things I need to, although I can´t seem to figure out how to say anything in past or future tense.



Poverty must be so exhausting. Everything is so much harder when you can´t afford the correct tools for the job. It takes so long! You have to walk to get the tools, walk them back, or not use them at all. Stand in the blazing sun to do the job, not have water unless you walk for it, etc, etc, etc. It just adds up to a life that is so much harder and more tiring than I can imagine.

Morning Walks in Somoto

Justin again... For me there´s nothing quite like taking a walk around a Latino town as people are getting going in the morning. I just love it. The sights, the smells and sounds, the colors of the buildings, the people driving by me on their bikes or riding their horses... or if I´m really lucky, a teacm of yoked cattle. It definitely pays to rise early here and to get outside.

Yesterday I was walking and heard the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" being sung in Spanish. When I got to where the music was coming from, I saw an old Catholic church. They were having 6:30AM mass and it was packed. So, I stood outside in the back for a while (it was standing room only) and listened.

Along the way I passed numerous men standing in their doorways, holding a small mirror and shaving with disposable rasors. Here very few houses have windows because of safety concerns, so in order to be able to have enough light to see they stand in their doorways. I wonder why they just don´t use their vanity lights above their sinks... Oh wait, that´s because they probably don´t have a bathroom. Those darned outhouses... their so cramped and lacking in amenities!

The streets here are made of stone pavers, so just about everything that drives over them makes a cool sound. Most of the houses in this town are made of some kind of stone or brick or stucco. About half of them are pretty drab, but the other half are painted really fun colors. Salmon, pink, sky blue, interesting greens and oranges. And many of the people sell things out of their homes. Door after door will have small handwritten signs on them letting people know what´s for sale: Cheese and eggs, milk or cream, juices or icecream. Here making money is all about doing lots of different small things. You may have a job, but it probably doesn´t pay enough to supply all your income needs. So, you sell stuff, or collect firewood, or fix cars or do some odd type of jobs on the side.

Yesterday I passed a lady who was cooking over her wood fired stove. I could see in her house and see the fire burning and the smoke rising out of the house. Cooking with fire is the common method here. Can you believe it? A few hours plane ride from the USA and these people are still cooking with fire.

Well, it´s 6:00AM now. While I´d love to write more, I´d rather get outside and take a walk while I can!! So, more later.

I love all of you and am so grateful to be able to share this trip and all that God is doing with you!

Justin

A Little Something About Saturday

This is Justin... Friends, thank you for your prayers. The Lord IS answering them and IS moving among us as we come in contact with people and minister.

The past two days I have been preaching my heart out and I´m a little wore out by now. But that´s a good thing! On Saturday we had a conference with leaders on "How to Help Those Struggling with Sexual Sin" and it was very well received. I was a little nervous, given that this subject is very rarely talked about in churches in this culture. But the pastors and leaders opened their hearts and the Lord really blessed our time together.

I have a wonderful translator named Hector. He is a retired US Airforce man who married a Nicaraguan and moved to Somoto. He is a native of Puerto Rico but lived most of his childhood in Brooklyn, NY. So he has this great NYC / Latino accent that makes me smile when I hear him talk. The Lord is knitting our hearts together and that is making speaking with him very easy.

On Saturday night it was "Kid´s Night" at a church we visited out in the mountains. I´d tell you where it was, but it was so far out there that it doesn´t really matter! We arrived and there were kids everywhere - but we didn´t know that they would be staying in the service. Imagine trying to preach in a small church with about 50 kids under the age of 7... I was all ready to share this teaching on sanctification, and when we arrived I thought, "OK, what´s plan B!"

But the Lord is SO good! He reminded me of a time in Romania when I simply told the three stories in Luke 15 to a group of Gypsies. So, I looked around and thought, "Well, we have outhouses here, chickens everywhere, a few pigs hanging around outside, a mountain village and a church full of children and simple people... seems pretty close to a Gypsie village to me!"

So, by the grace of God, I told those three wonderful stories that show the love of Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the Father for people. I can´t tell you properly in words how great it is to be able to simply tell some stories right out of the word - no adding to them, no explaining them, just telling them - and then see people´s hearts open up... so wonderful.

That night we went back to Cascabel (the orphanage) and had a nice long meal with Carlos, his wife and Hector. Chuck asked Carlos to tell us some of his testimony and we were all blown away to hear what God has done in this man´s life. To see where he brought him from - a father with three wives living in the same house, one of 19 children, being forced out of his home at age 12, serving in the military by age 15, diagnosed with lung cancer at about 30 years of age - and then to see what God is doing through him now is such a testimony to the power of the grace of God!

Fun picture for you!

If you´d like to see more pictures, there are a few uploaded at http://justinandemilycarabello.shutterfly.com/822

This is Emily. Today I taught about 5 lessons, although I only planned on one. Thankfully, I had a feeling that would be the way, so I prepared for way more than they told me to. We drew Jonah and the whale pictures, after I told them the story, and made puppets, and learned how to draw roosters, and made pictures with our thumb prints and drew all sorts of things. Tomorrow I paint the bus and teach the older kids. Cascabel is very green and lush this time of year! Thank God, so far no one has gotten sick from any food we have eaten.
Please pray for energy as we are going pretty non stop. Justin preaches for the third time today this evening.

hooola Day 2

thursday, june 10th, 2010
day 2 (ben)

After a night of wonderful dinner (giant sea bass) and cheescake and swimming, we arose around 7 for breakfast. The complimentary breakfast was a buffet with a chef at the end taking specialty omlet orders. so blessed. muy bueno. We stuffed ourselves and then went to the pool side to pray and read and discuss the day ahead. while sitting we met a man and his daughter. the two were also here on mission work. they are wonderful christians. so refreshing. they are ministering to the same mesquite indians that chuch is going to see in the fall. that same day chuck met other people there AT the hotel we were staying at the were missionaries to the top, middle and bottom portions of mesquite indian country. an absolute miracle. he was able to give each one of them proclaimers (solar powered audio bible in the mesquite language) or set them up with the people who can give them many more. apologize for the disjointed nature of this writing. the keyboard is a bit strange and i don´t have much time. at 9 oclock we met a 75 year old man with a white abe lincoln beard. His name is Perry. He has a ministry working with the kids of the managua dump and also runs feeding programs all through out the city. fun fact...nicaragua has 80% unemployment. just to put that in perspective...the great depression (the world´s worst economic collapse) only hit approximately 24% unemployment in the US. its a different world here.
back to perry..who calls me gentle ben (like booger)...he took justin, emily, chuck, nancy, abu (our translator and dear friend) and myself to the managua dump. the managua dump is the largest dump for nicaragua. currently hundreds live there. Many live on the top of the trash. they build temporary lean tos and permanent structures made out of bits of tarp, wood and plastic. because of the harsh economic times they are forced to sift through the garabe looking for recyclable pieces. From dusk to dawn every day the people go through the trash. vultures, in the hundreds, swarm consistently over head. many of the kids are unable to go to school because they must work in the dump to get enough for food. the average person can make about 2 to 3 dollars per day. many of these kids, not joking, walk and run and work all day bare foot on the top of the dump. these are normal dumps...glass, syringes, metal, yard waste..every imaginable thing...they walk on top of it. the small villages they live in are constantly filled with smoke because of the burning trash. woman...sitting in the midst of the burning plastic and metal are nursing babies and stirring food. these are the realities of life for them.
we met abu´s grandmother. she lives on the top of the dump. she is 90 years old. she ways under a hundred pounds i would speculate and has no teeth. however, i have never met a woman so full of the holy spirit. she was overflowing the the joy of the lord. i asked her if we could pray for her and she asked if she could pray for us. she prayed with power and faith. i have never been so moved by a person´s words that i could not understand at all. she poured out the holy spirit on us all. i asked her how she was doing ...she said through a translater that she and her family are blessed because of God. she complained that her house...a see through structure of tarps, wood, tin and metal was too big. flys surround her every move. chickens and dogs roamed her house. however, she offered of drinks and food and welcomed us to her house. i am so humbled. i can never ever explain this day. the pictures and video can´t possibly tell the story. i watched grown men push little kids out of the way for a can of vienna sausages...women, men and children tried to board the bus and take us over to gain access to the food we were giving out. the cops that joined us held the hands on their guns and screamed at the people to move back, but were ignored. its impossible to describe the fight for survival. abu and myself left the bus and walked across the top of the dump.
abu lived there himself a year ago until perry rescued him. as i said early much of his family is still there. a woman warned him that i shouldn´t be there..that local gangsters would take me. i had no words for people. all i could do was say Jesus..and beg for him to come back to these people. they some day soon will be the greatest in heaven. i look forward to being least. this is such a small portion of everything that happened. please...get on your knees and beg for mercy for the people of this country and ours as well. the world is in so much pain. pray for the kingdom to come. pray for the people of the dump of nicaragua and just in general the people here altogether. the grocery stores are guarded by guard towers with men with machine guns. everything ...everywhere has a guard. socialist proproganda is everywhere...we need Jesus!!

a side note...we visited some of the feeding programs as well. perry feeds, with help, hundreds and hundreds of widows, elderly and children. justin and i got to play soccer for a while with some of them after the meal (corn and beans...literally what sustains the entire country from starvation). the amount of filth and flies were astonishing. the kids were so used to the flys that many didn´t even brush them off of their faces. there is so much water. the rainy season is harsh. 20 minutes of rain creates widespread flash flooding...
well..this was one very disorganized jumble..but thank you for your prayers. please continue to pray for the people plagued by leeches, parasites and poverty..you can´t possibly imagine the depravity they have come to find as normal. praise GOD for knowing all things and being with his people. we anxiously await your return oh father.

Jesus please come back. please come back and gather the least of these. your people are crying out. they are desparate.

First full day

Hello! Ok, this is Emily, and I wanted to tell you a bit about our first day. We went with a man named Perry that is 75, and from North Carolina. He has started a ministry that now had 250 feeding programs feeding children 3 to 5 days a week. We went to the compound they have built that houses ministry groups, feeds locals, has a school, and a church where they train pastors of each feeding ministry. He has to go check on these feeding locations regularly because the men sometimes decide to get greedy and then don´t feed the children. Please imagine the weather here with me if you will... imagine the hottest day you´ve ever had. Now add 97% humidity. Now add jeans and work boots. Now add a shuttle with no AC and the smallest windows ever. Now add traffic with leaded gas smelling the place up. Once we left the city it was these terrible washed out dirt roads. This is their rainy season, so about 5 o´clock it seems to start pouring like our strongest storms!

We went to the Managua dump today which was very sad. I just can´t imagine a life without hope or relief from the heat and flies. Flies everywhere! Skinny dogs and pigs and horses living with them, and horses with carts in the same traffic lane as the buses. The buzzards are always circling here, and the men are picking through the trash right behind the trash trucks looking for any recycling to pick up and turn in for money.

The government is actually attempting to help relocate many of these people by giving them a tiny plot of land and a few pieces of wood and tin to build a house. So, believe it or not that seems like a really great option for them.

We have met several other people ministering in Nicaragua already at this hotel. Never so thankful for a shower in my life. I got in with my clothes on and rubbed soap all over them to kill any parasites or weird germs that may be traveling on them. It´s hard to understand why I am so priveledged. I have done nothing to gain a nice house, a car, and an education. Thank you God, and help me to never grow ungrateful.

we´re here!

Just wanted to let you all know that we are here safely. I am typing on a Spanish keyboard, and hilariously, it is telling me that every single word I type is spelled wrong. We will update tonight. I can´t get it to stop being italic. sorry . ha!

What can you pray for?

General Prayer requests:

1. Presence of God to go before us
2. Unity in the Spirit
3. God to put His love for these people in our hearts
4. Physical and spiritual protection
5. God’s anointing to rest upon us
6. Grace to be humble, gracious servants
7. Protection over the supplies we are taking
8. Divine connections and relationships

What's happening first?
Nicaragua (June 9 – 17)

Ministry
Emily blessing children with art – We believe the Lord for inspiration and blessings as she creates art with the kids and also paints some murals to brighten the orphanage. Ask the Lord to show her how they can use art to create sustainable sources of income for the orphanage.
Weekend conference at Kids of Cascabel – Pastor Carlos is hosting a conference where Justin will be one of the speakers. He is expecting close to 200 people to come from long distances. We are believing for open hearts and open minds and for the Lord to move and bless His people. The subject may be sexual purity, but we are not sure
Sexual Purity ministry in local schools – Justin, Ben, Chuck and Carlos will be going into local schools in the surrounding mountains to address sexual purity. We do not know what we may / may not be able to say, so we are asking for God to move on the hearts of these young people and to destroy the power of lies in this realm.
Love, Love and more LOVE – More than anything we are there to love on these kids. The needs are many and it is impossible to know just every scenario we may be faced with. We want the Love of God to pour out of us.

Count down!

One day left! God is so good, and we now have 1181 dollars to give away! Justin had been praying for 1200, and I admit that I really doubted it, but it came through anyway. So, we are blown away by everyone's generosity. Today has been a total whirlwind with buying rain jackets, going to the bank, shopping for waterproof shoes unsuccessfully, (apparently only men want these??) writing a million emails, random things we need, etc, etc. We are feeling tired, which is the exact opposite of how we were hoping to feel, but excited none the less!
We leave at 6 am on Wednesday morning, and will be in Managua, Nicaragua by 6pm that night. On Thursday we will be visiting a dump where kids still live. (All the kids that are in the orphanage in Somoto used to live in a dump, but have been rescued out). There is another ministry working there that we will go and help for the day and see what they are doing. Their goal is the same as The Kids of Cascabel, to get them out of there. I (Emily) am admittedly afraid of this particular day.
Anticipation is mounting, and it's getting harder and harder to fall asleep at night! Pray that our home is safe while we are gone, and that we figure out how to pack all these art supplies into our luggage.

Gearing up!

Well, praise the Lord, we have raised enough funds for Jus and I and Ben to cover all our expenses. Plus we have raised 400 dollars to give to whatever needs we see in each country. I have been spending my days dealing with the details of people staying at our home, buying all the art supplies, medical supplies, and toiletries that we need. We have been notified that the bugs are especially bad this year (OH GOODY.) so I've bought several kinds of bug spray :) Also, it is the rainy season so I've been shopping for shoes that dry quickly and ponchos. It only rains for about one hour a day supposedly and then it is about 80 degrees after that. Lots of things to think about...mowing our lawn while we are gone to praying for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit while we are there...to a good send of humor about the large insects. The countdown begins! Only 5 days until we leave!

Welcome to our blog! We wanted to start this blog so that all of you can follow what is happening with the preparation and then the actual trip to Central America and beyond.