Streets of Somoto

This video is the perfect glimpse of life in downtown Somoto. We've got oxen, firewood salesmen, motorcycles, bikes, people, and regular cars. Enjoy!

Nicaragua 2011

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FINALLY home!

Hello! This is Emily. It's Sunday afternoon, and we are finally back at home, doing laundry, resting, and trying to get rid of a stomache thing that Dan and I seem to have brought home with us. Thank the Lord we are home, and our house is safe, and our car is fixed. (we hit a deer a few days before we left.) I am busy uploading tons of pictures, and I wanted to share a few good ones with you! Above are pictures of the kids with Dan and Justin, a team member named Chris from Virgina with a little girl named Amalia, Jeff fixing bikes, and Justin and I in our raincoats standing in front of an active volcanoe that is considered by the Catholics to be a gate to Hell(!). Nicole, (team member from Cincy)Justin and Dan on the property, artwork the kids made about Joseph and his colorful coat, and a reflection of myself in front of the hotel.

FLIGHT IS CANCELED

So...we are all packed up and at the airport in line and we discovered our plane is cancelled. We cannot get on another flight for 12 hours, so needless to say we will not be catching our next 2 flights home. We thankfully purchased travel insurance so we do have phone, food, and hotel paid for us for today. Thanks to my husband who thinks ahead!

So, back to our old hotel to hang out until we leave tonight at 9 pm. I guess it´s good I have a book and a bathing suit. Even though I assure you we´d rather be at home, we´ll make the best of it! The worst part is that we are missing the Farmers market tomorrow, which we so carefully planned our trip around to make sure that did not happen. Blah. We will get to Miami at 1 in the morning tonight and see what happens from there.... lots of unhappy people in line at the airport!

Our stomaches are all like...please...no more Nicaraguan food. Oh for some salad.

Slurping and Spitting at the Beneficio... Apparently Sideways!

Sorry this video is sideways. I will try to fix it.

This is Justin... Emily, Jeff Brooks and I did some serious slurping, spitting and sniffing of coffee (otherwise known as "cupping") at the Beneficio Las Segovias in the town of Ocotal, Nuevo Segovia in Nicaragua a few days ago. This short video gives you a look at what we did for more than an hour as we attempted to zero in on which coffee we wanted to walk away with from the finca "Un Regal de Dios" of Luis Alberto Balladeros.

A beneficio is a place where coffees are processed for roasting and prepared for exportation. A finca is simply the Spanish word for farm. Luis is a pastor and a business man. His vision for his business is very similar to what Emily and I desire to do in that they give a hefty portion of their yearly profits away to provide for a better life in the immediate community, but more importantly, to build the kingdom of God. For example, this year Luis took his profits and bought a slew of mountain worthy motorcycles for area pastors who live up in the mountains. It can take as much as a day for a mountain pastor to walk to town and back. A motorcycle that can go where cars cannot (and even where the government refuses to go) can go a long way in spreading the Gospel and meeting the needs of the people.

At the end of our time cupping we chose a coffee and then had it vacuum packed in 20lb increments so that we could transport it back to the States. We pùrchased 120lbs of what I expect will be a very popular coffee (though short lived).

The funniest thing about all this is that we had NO IDEA what in the world we were doing. These guys were very gracious as they´re used to doing this with seasoned coffee cuppers who come to their beneficio to buy large quantities. Incidentally, while we were there they loaded and shipped a 20,000lb container of Cup of Excellence winning coffees to the USA. These guys are in the big time, but their heart are for the Kingdom! 90% of their employees are born-again Christians. The atmosphere there is tremendous!

Enjoy... and put in your ear plugs!

Sweet Photos on Our Coffee Website.

Hey guys,

This is Justin... we are back in Managua and are heading out for a day of relaxation at the colonial town of Granada. I posted some cool photos and an entry about our day at the coffee Beneficio on our Carabello Coffee website. Check them out here: www.carabellocoffee.com. More soon!

Justin

Justin´s dream day

It´s Wednesday morning-our last day here! hard to believe! This is Emily. Justin is doing a youth seminar until noon, and we just went to a closing ceremony with the kids at the orphanage. They are so sweet. They sang us songs, and we prayed for them, they prayed for us, it was good. Unfortunately Justin did not get to come with us.

Anyway, he hasn´t had time to write a whole lot about the coffee farm yesterday, but pretty much it was nuts. We were informed that we would be going on a tour of the place where they process coffee, which is called a beneficio. Well, we arrived, planning on being home in two hours. They started driving us up a mountain...for an hour and 15 minutes off roading through rivers and the craziest roads that had been washed out by the rain. We saw very clearly we were going to miss our appointment at the school. But, yet, they insisted that we were going to be there on time. They have the most ridiculous lack of time management that I´ve ever seen. We´ve titled it time and distance optimism.

When we got to the end of the road, the armed guards that were with us started going up a trail to make sure it was safe. They then started us on a hike that we were completely unprepared for. I was in a skirt for crying out loud!!! We hiked up and over a mountain in the rainforest in about 100% humidity. All of us were soaked and our hearts were pounding in a matter of minutes. The altitude was killer. Not enough oxygen! So, we must have hiked like this for an hour maybe? Fire ants attacked our feet, and my legs were covered in mud. It was an awesome adventure!!!

We finally drove back down the mountain the back of the truck, hanging on for dear life, and they took us to cup coffee. If you don´t know what this is, they make all this coffee by adding the ground and hot water together. It´s like a wine tasting. Line them up, smell them, spit them, slurp them. Well, I guess they thought we were a big company or something because they gave us the treatment!!! We had NO clue what we were doing. We faked it big time! Our translator was cracking me up. He kept saying...I have NO idea what you are doing!!! Why is everyone spitting this coffee out? I swallow it when I drink it!

We got to go watch the women pick out defects on an assembly line, and I tried my hand at it. So hard! I have to go finish packing, so I´ll let Justin tell more soon. We are about to have a 3 hour bus ride....

WOAH.

This is Emily.

Justin will be writing all about the adventure we had at a coffe farm today, but I did want to point out a few highlights.

-fording several rivers in a truck

-fire ants attacking our feet and swelling and burning

-hiking up and over a mountain in a skirt and sandals because no one told us where we were going

-Pretending we knew how to cup coffee when they thought we were a big coffee company and set up 20 coffees for us to test

-Speaking Spanish for an entire hour with no one to help me translate

-Having two personal body guards to protect us from bandits on a hike.

Justin will share more!

The angels rejoice today!

Hello, Daniel here..

Today was wonderful. Everyday is wonderful, except for the day I was sick... eh, that was pretty wonderful too. There is a new experience every day. Really every couple hours. :) I love the pace of Nicaragua. Especially in the mountainous rural areas. So chill.. Best way for me to describe it. People hang around with little to do pretty regularly and you´ll often see some guy walking slowly behind oxen on the street.

We took an hour and a half ride to Jalapa today in a little 3 cylinder Suzuki something or other. Let´s just say it was kind of a wild ride.. haha First of all we are following a former taxi driver in a four wheel drive who made great distance between us at all times, and second, there were random, huge speed bumps that would catch us off guard, to say the least, when we would see one and come skidding to a (somewhat) slower speed to hit the bump and nearly go airborne! Ha It was a fun ride! The scenery was amazing. Hills were everywhere, covered in beautiful green grass and dispersed pine trees. This part of Nicaragua was a bit more tropical. We were near Honduras. Another fun part were the bridges that would span over small rivers 20 feet in the air. The fun was in the fact that there were no guard rails, and barely big enough for your car to pass by on it´s own. About 50 cows in the road and four unprepared run in´s with the sleeping cops (speed bumps) later, we reach our destination! Hallelujah!

We were speaking at an Assemblies of God church today. It was cool to think about the men and woman that sowed years ago to plant these churches out in the mountains. The areas are transformed because of the gospel message! The room was packed full of youth. After long introductions Justin broke the ice with some light humor and his notorious body language. :)

He begin to speak about our creative origin and the beautiful creation of sex as it was meant to be. It was interesting to see their reaction to it all. After laying the foundation, Justin shared his testimony and the Holy Spirit began to do what He so wonderfully does. The opportunity to respond was given, and many came forward for prayer. We found out from the pastors that 9 accepted the Lord for the first time, and two others re-committed. HALLELUJAH! Because of the language barrier, we didn´t realize so many were receiving salvation for the first time. It´s amazing how weak vessels can go and share a story about the Lord´s work in their life and get to see captives set free! Praise the Lord for this opportunity. Praise the Lord that we are heirs in God´s Kingdom! Thank you Lord.

I was privilidged to share on the importance of discipleship and accountability and how it has changed my life. The Lord is good and His ways are flawless!

The rest of the team had great adventures with visiting feeding centers, painting, bike repair, and wearing themselves out with the kids!

We made it back to the hotel safely, ate a wonderful meal, and are having a relaxing night. So much to write and share about the Lord´s Kingdom, but we have a long day tomorrow. We will be heading into the schools! Thank you for your prayers and support.

We love you,

Daniel

Emily on Monday am

This is Emily... while Justin has been sharing, the other Emily and I have started painting a mural on the bus. It´s an interesting thing because we have NO idea if it will stick to the bus or peel off. We are hoping to seal it and make it stay. There are 4 boys who are really interested in art that have been assigned to us to help us. We have to keep it simple, so we are painting a garden scene with a bike and a tree (we think!) around the words Jardin del ninos. That is the actual name of the orphanage, which is garden of children. The boys are really excited about helping us, so we are letting them do as much as possible without sacrificing the success of the project!

We taught a class about drawing faces yesterday, as well as talking about thankfulness, and making cards for people who we are thankful for. We talked about Joseph and his colorful coat, and how God uses bad things to create good.

Jeff built a gaga pit, which for those of you who are not familiar with that...has NOTHING to do with Lady Gaga. ha. It is a game with a ball where you have to stay inside this wooden wall while you play. He has also fixed some bikes and replaced a toilet seat that was held on by one rusty wire, so it was like an adventure every time you sat down.

I don´t know how many of you have traveled to places with outdoor latrines, but the night time is um....very exciting. I have a headlamp, which I am eternally grateful for...but man, it is SCARY to go into the complete darkness, open a scary little tin and wood hut and lift this lid and peer into a hole that goes until you can´t see the end. I feel so vunerable like a huge monster or insect is going to come out and eat me at any second. But, nature calls. I guess my other option is just go in the street like lots of other people do.

I love the chickens that are always wandering around. ,Eating bugs and grass and anything that might have been dropped. The cows and mules that have decided to hang out in the middle of the highway and have no intention of moving just because you are in a bus honking at them. The oxen that live in the front yard of a home in the middle of the city. It´s just great that the government isn´t like....no chickens allowed. It really is kind of silly that we have created places where we can´t have things that would make us self sustaining! But, this government doesn´t do much else right, so I guess it´s a massive tradeoff.

I am off to breakfast!

Hombres Para Dios

Justin here... Yesterday was a day I will remember for a long time. Before I say any more, it seems like I am being stalked by a mosquito that is making a stealth attempt to enjoy some Gringo breakfast. I must look silly typing and waving my hands around me at the same time!

Oh well... between pigeons cooing, roosters crowing and flying

insects, I will attempt to share a few things with you.

Yesterday we held a conference for pastors, leaders and men at the orphanage and the Lord surprised me with how stro

ngly He showed up. It is clear that His heart is mightily prevailing upon the men here to engage in a righteous battle against the sexual sin in this culture. Keep in mind that this is a place where this sort of issue i

s simply left alone and not dealt with - even in the Church.

When Chris Yates, who did one of the sessions, asked how Nicaraguan culture defines manhood, a translator of ours named Marlon gave some poignant answers.

A few of the things he said were that, in Nicaragua manhood is in part defined by:

• How many women you have
• Your ability to exercise manipulation and control over women
• Your ability to make enough money so that you can buy your woman everything she wants and keep her indebted to you and controlled by you

While this may not be the culture in the Church, it certainly has created a culture rife w

ith sexual sin in this country. So, our time together was incredibly important. In the morning I shared truth about lust, what it is, what it looks like and how it manifests itself in our lives and how to overcome it. I could see the Lord breaking open these men´s hearts and preparing to sow precious seed.

Chris shared a great word about being a father and ministering truth to his sons in this area. He is a first generation Christian and came from a family that had porn around all the time. he knows what it takes to break that generational cycle of sin and is committed to raising his sons to be young men who honor God and women. Incidentally, his boys (10 and 13) are on the trip.

After lunch I sensed i should share my testimony, which I did not do in the morning, and this is really where the Lord surprised me. I´ve done this probably 125 plus times in my life, but rarely has the Lord moved as He did yesterday. Some of the men were literally groaning in pain at times as I shared how devastating the consequences of my sin was - they´re just a tad more demonstrative here! It was like I was reliving meeting Jesus all over again. Suddenlñy I could feel what it was like when I finally laid my entire life down at His feet in the light of His love for me and the reality of the Cross. Things I´ve never shared began to pour out of me as if my words were the contents of a glass of water that the Lord had just spilled over.

In the end I passionately began to plead with the men to rise up as David and wage war on this Goliath in their land. The Lord has been showing me that there is an army present here that is arrayed for battle just as

the Israelites were when they encountered Goliath. But no one has been willing to step onto the battle field. I truly believe that God has his David´s hidden away in this land that He is preparing to raise up. He has his Elijahs and His Gideos who will tear down the altars of sexual idolatry. I was calling them forth. i think it was something prophetic, and the men responded tremendously. We had a time of ministry and prayer. There was repentance, surrender, confession, tears, cryiong out to Jesus...

We ended with Chuck sharing some words for specific men and with a few exhortations from pastor Carlos and others.

As part of the day, each man received a copy of Steve Gallagher´s book "At the Altar of Sexual Idolatry" in Spanish. This was made possible by a generous donor who believes in the power and necessity of resourcing the Church in this nation. I told the pastors that, if they needed more

books for other pastors who could not be here that they could come to me and ask. The response surpsied me. Books were leaving in fours, threes, even sixes. I eventually had to stop for fear of running out before our second pastor´s conference tonight. We ended up making a list of pastors who need more books and will be attempting to send more in July. if anyone is willling to help underwrite this cost, let me know. Each book costs us about $4 to get here. One pastor told me about 70 pastors he is in touch with in the mountains who could not come. The need seems endless!

Praise the Lord! God is moving my friends. He is answering our prayers. let us hold faith that our labor is not in vain but that He is winning the battle! I love all of you!

Justin

The perspective of a ¨first¨.

Dios de Vendiga! (God bless you) I´ve been working on that for days... haha Praise the Lord for what we have. We are so blessed! Walking into the dump yesterday opened my eyes to how blessed we really are.

I met the Lord´s precious ones right in the middle of a trash dump. The vultures surround the dump half a mile high, and the stench of burning trash stays with you all day. Yet in the middle of it all many have called it home. Dirt floors and one bed for who knows how many, but they all seem happy and somewhat content. Some, unfortunately were not as content and gave in to sniffing glue to get out of there world.. Broke my heart.

Each adult or child were thankful to see us. We prayed for a few, gave out some blowpops, Sprees, Bibles and gave big hugs to the filthy, yet adorable children. Many had health issues. There was a new clinic that had a long line of people waiting for treatment. We had to leave somewhat abruptly due to potential danger with likely gangs.

Seeing it all gives me a new perspective on who the ¨first¨ really are and who are the ¨last¨. The Lord says That many of the first will be last, and the last will be first. I realize that a lot of these people, although malnourished and at the very bottom seem to be the ones to have the most faith. They are much more likely to have faith in Jesus Christ and proclaim Him as Lord and Savior than some of the most provided for. I believe, without a doubt, that we Americans are who the Lord referred to when He said the first will be last. Is it not true that in America, where religion is everywhere and the gospel message has gone all around, that it seems very hard to spread seed on good soil. Yet in an impoverished and broken society, many sprint through the narrow door to find salvation.

Although I still take for granted so much of what I have, I give the Lord praise for all the rich blessings i have. These precious ones, the beloved of the Lord are so thankful for anything they receive, and I believe that the Lord stretches out His hand to provide for them. The poorest of the poor in America are rich compared to the poor in Nicaragua.

Let us take hold of the fact that we are the ¨first¨ in this life and break out of the mold. We must never forget what we have. Let´s kick it up a notch in our generosity to the ¨lasts¨.
Lord, give us clean hands and contrite hearts. Awaken our nation to the fact that we are not the norm around the world, and give us grace to never let our faith be distorted by our riches.

Dios De Vendiga!
Love,

Daniel

Day two

This is Emily writing. Today we mostly spent our time traveling from Managua-the capitol to Somoto where the orphanage is. We sweated our way to the orphanage, which took about 5 hours. It pours rain for several hours each day, which after the extreme humidity actually feels really good. BUT...we couldn´t fit all our stuff into the van, and when we strapped it on, it started pouring. So we had to drive to the store to buy a huge tarp and strap that on top of our bags. It took us longer than hoped, but we all arrived safely. It´s awesome-we caught every plane, every bag arrived, and all our stuff stayed decently dry. I was worried about the art supplies getting ruined.

I wanted to include some pictures from our trip to the dump yesterday, and let Dan tell his perspective on it.

Daughter, Bride, Wife

This is Justin writing... Yesterday was our first full day to be back in Central America and I am once again in love with this part of the world! The sounds, aromas, colors, sights... I love every bit of it and cannot help but feel at home here.

I just want to share a very brief word the Lord gave me yesterday for the women´s conference I will be a part of on Saturday. As the rest of our team was touring the Managua dump and feeding programs with Perry Brown of Samaritan International, I stayed at the hotel to spend time in prayer and preparing for the speaking I will be doing. The Lord was with me in such an unusually strong way during these four hours that I am still taken back by it. I began to feel the tiniest bit of His heart for these people and was deeply crying out for Him to bring me into the fullness of it as much as I can bear.

As I was praying for the women, the Lord dropped "Daughter, Bride, Wife" into my heart and began showing me things about these three particular identities. Daugther is the place of dependence, Bride is the place of awakened love and Wife is the place of oneness. In each, the Lord develops and reveals specific things not only about the uniqueness of a woman, but also about Himself and about His heart. I don´t really have the time to go into depth now, but I truly believe that He is developing a word specifically for these 25 women that we will be ministering to on Saturday. I am extremely encouraged!

I have a stirring in my heart to see these women built up in their knowledge of how significant they are to the Father and to Jesus and to be brought into the fullness of Their love for them as daughter, bride and wife. I believe that the Father wants them to know how much He delights in them as His precious daugthers and how much joy they bring to His heart. I believe that Jesus wants them to know the burning love of the Bridegroom and how much "the King desires their beauty" (Ps. 45). I believe that He also wants them to lift up their eyes to see their place with Him seated on His throne and ruling and reigning with Him in His kingdom.

Please contend with me that the Holy Spirit will be present with us and move in power on their hearts. I have never done a women´s conference, but the Lord has, and that gives me peace!

I am going to let Dan and Emily fill you in on their day touring the work that Perry is doing here. It is truly wonderful and moving to see the heart of Jesus for the poor reaching through him.

Love to all of you!

Justin

Getting ready...whew!

Hello! We are rapidly packing and making the last minute preparations for our Nicaragua trip! In the midst of all that we hit a deer with our car, had to go get a rental, and are trying to get our house ready to leave. We have bought everything we need and are now knee deep in laundry and trying to fit every possible item in our luggage. We all need to pack pretty much exactly 50 pounds so as to be able to bring as many supplies to them as we can. We have everything from band aids, puppets, safety pins, toys, toiletries, clothing, shoes, paint brushes, pencils to books in Spanish. I have already repacked one bag three times but I can still only fit 47 pounds in it.


On our first day there we will actually be working with a group called Samaritan International on a project which is TBA. But, we think it will be building something called a "stick house." On Friday morning we will head to Somoto and start the conferences. Justin and some of the other men will be trading times that they speak to pastors, women and youth over three days. Emily Brooks and me (the other Emily) are busy planning art lessons, games, and stressing about preparing for projects that we don't know the age of the kids or how many there are! We are really hoping that Carlos will allow us to take some of the older kids who have an interest in art to join us in painting a mural.


The weather forcast for the week is around 80-90 everyday with-get this...100% humidity. Oh goody. ha. We went and got Justin some shoes that dry really quickly today. Very necessary!


As far as raising support goes-we were getting a little concerned last week, but Praise the Lord, in the last week we have raised $1800! We now have all we need to cover our expenses, and about $400 to give away to needs as we see fit. More soon...

Nicaragua parte dos

So, after a year away from this blog, we are firing it back up for our next trip to Nicaragua. We will only be gone 9 days this time instead of 23, so it won't be as long but we did want to let you know what's going on down there. I'll encourage Dan to write on here too so you can here different perspectives.
So far, Praise the Lord we have raised $3200 for our trip! We raised $1000 of that just yesterday! We were getting a little worried, but the Lord has provided for us once again. This year lots more people will be joining us there, which I personally (Emily) am very excited about. My old college roommate Emily Brooks and her husband Jeff from Connecticut will be meeting us in Miami, a man named Chris and his two sons age 12 and 13 from Virginia, my parents, our housemate Dan, and my parents neighbor Nicole. So, it will be neat to see how the Lord uses different people's giftings. Also, I am glad to know what to expect a little better this time so I know how to pack, and have less anxiety :)
We are gathering lots of art supplies, toiletries, and have ordered 192 books in Spanish called At the Altar of Sexual Idolotry to leave for the pastors there. They have so few resources on how to help people struggling with sexual sin, yet it is so common!
More soon!