I would certainly appreciate your prayers this week as I will be making a trip to Southern Mexico to hold a meeting with our Central American pastors. I'll be leaving Monday and returning on Friday. Pray for protection and wisdom.

Last Thursday I headed back down to Nicaragua to help get ready for the Mission Helps team that was coming in to put on a roof and pour a floor for Julio's new church. We went and got the wood, cement and supplies so everything would be ready for the team on Saturday morning.

On Friday morning I found myself on the 4 am bus to Managua. As you can tell I was just so enthused. haha. I was in and out of it for the three and half hour ride.

One of the first stops was the Mexican embassy. Julio needed to get a visa to go with us to the pastor's meeting but they didn't give him the visa so maybe next time.

We strolled around town while we waited for the team to fly in.

The team made it in ok. We got the rental van and headed back the windy, twisty, curvy, mountainous road to Ocotal. I was so car sick when we finally got there, that was one of the longest rides of my life.

Saturday morning bright and early the team was ready to hit it. 

John Holderbaum working his biceps hauling buckets of cement.

Dave Weaver kept us all in line and kept us laughing as well.

John Dykes and Johnathan Lucas cutting wood for the rafters.

They got all the rafters built and ready for Monday.

Aaaaah nothing like some good Nicaraguan rice and chicken.

I had to come home Saturday afternoon and get things ready for Sunday. I would have loved to have spent the week with these guys but it didn't work out. At least I got to spend a few days with them. I did hear that they got the roof on and the floor poured despite some rainy weather. They sure have been a blessing to the work. Thanks Mission Helps!!

I'm back in Nicaragua until Saturday helping out with a Mission Helps work team coming in from the states. They will be spending a week putting on a roof and laying the floor to Julio's church. Pray for them as they travel this Friday.

Getting the wood and materials ready for the team.

Everything is ready to roll!! I can't wait to see this church finished. Pray for strength and protection as the team works this week.

We had a good time celebrating Mother's Day with all the mother's of our churches. On Thursday when I went to Las Delicias we took a cake and a gift for the ladies. They really appreciated it.

On Friday night we held a Mother's banquet here in our living room. Again, Hannah did an awesome job!! She made the flower decorations in the middle of the table, we gave them out as door prizes.

Everything looked so beautiful!

It was a little crammed but hey, it worked.

There were 21 mother's who came to the banquet. We would have loved to have invited the Mother's from Las Delicias but they live too far away. But at least we had mother's from Las Uvas and Tiloarque. They had a really good time. We sang, shared advice and gave out door prizes. There were some visitors who came to the banquet who also came to church on Sunday!! It was a very nice weekend of celebrations!

Last week Joseph's school held the "mini Olympics". They actually went to the Olympic training center and used the track and field. They ran marathons, dashes, relays and long jumps. He won third place for the zigzag race. Here he is running the 200 meters.

Running the relay race.

Everyone had to bring a pack lunch. He had a lot of fun.

At the end all the kids got balloons and they handed out the medals to all the winners.

The big champion!!! You would have thought that medal was real bronze!! He was so proud of himself.

We got some more work done on the Las Delicias church last Saturday. We have to finish laying adobes up to the roof to close off the sides. We got this side done but we still have the other wall and the back of the church to do yet.

Whenever Joseph goes with me to Las Delicias he usually spends the whole day playing with his friend Daniel. He calls him "primo", cousin. They are really good friends.