My thoughts, observations & learnings

As I fly home I thought I'd try to capture some of my personal experiences while they're still vivid and fresh.

Since this was my fourth trip to PC it wasn't a strange new place for me.  The sights, sounds, smells were very familiar and "normal" to me.  This trip wasn't about going someplace new but doing something new.

Pastor Earl was his usual warm, welcoming self, but this time I felt we had a rapport more like a long-time friend who I hadn't seen in a while.  We were able to talk several times about our partnership and  our lives.

I was looking forward to getting to know our team of elders and their disciples as well. I wasn't disappointed.  As on every trip you get to know certain individuals better than others and while I was able to spend time with everyone, one person in particular stands out for me and that was Marty.

We shared the same room with Steve C and Lynn.  Each evening after dinner and our debrief meeting we seemed to both ready to head back to our room for some R&R.  It was during these times that we were able to talk about our families, work and life experiences.  I feel that this time has helped us gain a window into each others heart and soul.

But leading my group in the conference was why I was here first and foremost.  It was the epicenter of the trip for me as I expect it was for all of us.  It was here that I was tried and tested as I placed myself into God's loving hands to use me in the lives of the six men that He entrusted to me.

In the past i've always had some level of "performance anxiety".  How will I do?  Can I do what is demanded of me?  Will I disappoint my team or somehow not measure up?  For this trip, I can honestly and surprisingly say that I didn't have one moment of this feeling.  I felt I was I leaning into my wonderful Fathers arms and I sensed Him whispering to me, "just let me work through you, my son."

I don't want to imply it was easy, it wasn't at all.  You see I uniquely led a group by myself almost the whole time.  This I see now wasn't an accident, it was His plan from all along for the men in my group and for me as well.

My group seemed slow if I compared it to other groups that seemed to be making great strides in understanding and proficiency.  But I wasn't comparing, it wasn't contest.  My group seemed to grasp things slowly, some things they never grasped, but that was ok. We were learning at the pace and level that was right for us.

And I do include myself in the "slow learning".  For those of you that know me I like several others in our team am an introvert at heart.  I always have struggled in groups.  It drains me to be in a highly relational group environment.  And, not only was this a highly relational group environment but one in which I'm to lead and teach through the highly interactive Socratic question-answer process.  Needless to say this was quite a challenge for me.  And when, on day two I ran out of gas one hour before the end of the day, my brother Marty showed up and helped with a Bible storying time that helped us end well.

But as I depended on God He helped me beyond myself to forge relationships with the men in my group beyond culture, language, education, experience and spiritual background.  He gave me countless probing questions when I had run out of things to ask.  He opened windows of understanding when it seemed that all I would get was blank stares. He was there the whole time working His perfect will in each of our hearts.

And, on the last day, when you'd think there would be nothing left to share or give He gave us the best time of all.

We ended the last session by going one-by-one through our group as the leader sharing words of encouragement and blessing and to pray for each one of them.  I asked God to speak into their lives through me, not my words or thoughts but His.  And as I spoke His words came to mind and to my lips.  Words beyond my understanding to give.

And then something so precious and amazing happened.  They asked to pray for me. So I got on my knees in the middle of this tiny band of brothers and they prayed and prayed.  I felt like I was kneeling at the feet of Jesus.

So, now I'm heading home to my dear wife Cindy.  To my own church and community of faith. To my own neighborhood and circle of influence.  Not to bask in the glow of this amazing experience but, by God's grace and loving kindness to continue the work that He wants us all to do - love people into His Kingdom.

I can't do this, I know, but He has showed me so clearly that in my weakness He can and will through me.

Trusting Christ

This is a video of Steve teaching our team how to show others how to trust Christ.  This blew me away. 

My Friends & Brothers

What a great group of men I've been privileged to serve and get to know.  Here are their names:
Front row from left to right - Thomas, Antonio, Gorge.  Back row from left to right - Juan, Santos, Raphael, & Harol.

While I don't pretend to know them real well in just the three days we spent together, the intensity and focus of our time together along with our bond in Christ has knit us together in a very special way.  

A Union to Remember. 

I am not much of a writer, being fundamentally a nerd, but my dear wife, Cammy has strongly encouraged me to blog something, so here goes.  I thought I would start by describing, some of the events, a bit of what our days are like, then go into how things are going with our mission

We began our trip from Managua in a ten passenger, single engine aircraft.  The flight is a good hour over very unpopulated terrain.   Having been a pilot I wondered if we lost power if we could find a landing area to safely glide to, as it seems there are no smooth fields or roads insight?  I had visions of our landing gear getting stuck in brush as we descended and cartwhelling; but of course someone far greater than the pilot or I is in control of this trip.

We arrived at the church compound and Pastor Earl moved to show off his orphanage.  There is little question this is a large blessing to the community and a physical manifestation of this Godly mans love for his people.  Next Pastor Earl wanted to show us the lunch program his church partially supports so we drove out at roughly noon to this open-air facility with wood benches and a rush of kids ranging from maybe four to twelve.   What was remarkable about the encounter was the way so many of them boldly came up to shake our hands or just touch us.  Without question they want for human connection.  Some of the stronger guys picked up the kids and whirled them around; it all was a beautiful noise. Arriving it was a joyful and warm embrace, but as we left something pulled in us as we wondered what kind of life would these dear children ultimately have in a city with 80% unemployment

The pastors were held up for the first day due to some mechanical difficulties with their bus so we elected to make the drive to Batena.  The drive was more like an off road Disney ride due to the fact we were traveling in a Land Cruiser on torn up dirt roads with a young man who had developed driving prowess that combined high speed and skilled touch pushing all limits but still maintaining good safety.  Batena is the farm where Austin Fricker has miraculously transformed ten acres of land from a barren plot where you would have needed a micrometer to measure the depth of top soil into a robust garden; truly amazing. 

Our first day with the river pastors arrives.  We begin each day with braving cold showers.  It definitely gets our hearts started while also reminding us how much we take for granted with our amenities at home. I am bunking with my dear friend John Harrell, which has been a blessing to me.  Once we pull ourselves together, dawn our bug spray we step out of our nice cabin, into what you might expect - humidity that instantly makes you think you will need a shower within the hour.  Nevertheless we make our way up from the base of the compound to a large building, with supersized screen doors, and paneless windows; which I think doubles as a classroom.  This is where the Elders and those who have accompanied them gather to share a meal; food has been great by the way.  It is hard to describe the sense of fellowship and joy in the air, as we sit down to eat and start our day. During a few meals we have gone around the table individually answering very penetrating questions - authored by Jeff Wirth now famed for asking groups deep thoughtful questions. The sharing and transparency has been awesome; resulting in us all feeling closer and more trusted. 

Following breakfast we trudge our way to the Verbo church. As we traverse the dirt walkway, negotiating large branches to keep from tripping we pass girls and boys on their way to school in crisp clean uniforms.  What a beautiful people. Their skin has a rich milky brown color that almost radiates.   It is clear as we make eye contact they are struck curious; yet to their credit invariably muster a smile or a nod of welcome.  I have always felt that the Latin people exuded a natural, unassuming grace - the Nicaraguans have been just one more example.

Getting to the church, we rush in to be robed by air conditioning and find a large worship center studded with a good quality sound system, a couple of projector screens and a sea of white plastic chairs.  We of course start with a quick prayer and spring into worship.  The music has been amazing.  Notably, almost all the songs they sing are precisely the same ones we do. i.e. Blessed be His Name,  This is the air I breath,  Lord I lift Your Name on High, etc.  What a true pleasure it has been to worship with these people.  Even though most of the words were in Spanish or Miskito many of us sang along awkwardly trying to pronounce the words–even though we were clueless to the meaning.  Pretty sure the Lord would be Ok with that.  As our fearless leader, Steve, pointed out this experience is just a foreshadowing of what it will be like in heaven, when peoples from every walk and origin will sing our Saviors praises in total unity and harmony.  I know kind of mind boggling to think about

As I am sure most everyone knows our mission here is to train pastors on the process of making disciples; an adventure indeed.  John and I have seven men in our group, five pastors and two disciples.   Most of these men have travelled two days by boat and then another day by bus to attend this event.  Each of the pastors our leading churches between eight and twenty people.

We began characteristically by getting to know each other, sharing typical facts and prayer requests.  The training format is we begin by story telling, move to dissect that scripture in our groups and then discuss the discipleship process.  The story telling has been a rougher time than I would have thought but the “D” process has them mesmerized.  These men who come from very primitive environments, surrounded by violence, hammering out an existence, as plot farmers are immensely excited to learn how to become disciple makers.   In so many ways they have been an encouragement to me.  It has been a true honor and privilege to pastor these humble brothers in how they could better build our Lord’s kingdom in their villages.  

Marvin, our interpreter has been a huge blessing to the entire group, he is very bright and has recently turned his life completely to our Savior.   The language barrier is obviously the biggest hill to climb but these men also fight battles I am confident we can’t fully relate to: for example, witchcraft, and the “eye for and eye” code many Miskito tribes still sport.  One of the pastors asked for prayer because his brother was being sentenced that day for murdering a man who killed his son.  He got twenty years.  So vengeance reigned but in the end compound suffering is visited on both families.

I wish I could share some of the life stories of these men with you, but maintaining confidence prevents me.  Suffice it to say many of them have been through intense trials that would easily daunt many us.  Yet they have come.  Come to study under us.  Come to learn how to be better leaders, pastors, husbands and fathers.  As one-river pastors commented we are like the Apostle Paul to them, bringing truth and knowledge of how to be a better Christian.  That is an obvious overstatement but the comment I think does express how deeply grateful these men are for our investment in their lives.

Today, Friday, is our last day and it has been a great commencement.  We spent the morning story telling and then reviewed the key parts of the Discipleship process.  John and I are both delighted in how much these pastors have learned and will take away to their respective villages.  Finally we closed our time together in prayer, encouragement with a topping of some more good worship music.  Surprisingly, we were touched as we watch several pairs of these men of the river pray with each other - in lieu of pushing their chairs next to each other and bowing their heads to pray, like we would have done, they turned their chairs at each other and grabbed each others heads butting them together and prayed and prayed and prayed.  When they were finished both men were crying.  Simple men who easily, and deeply connected to God and each other with the emotion of a child; this time they taught us. 

As I prepare to leave these remarkable people and this land of grecos, poverty, and simplicity I can’t help be awestruck at the work God is doing in this desperate patch of His planet, or at the plan He had for this band of very fortunate, professional American’s to travel so far, to share life, truth and love with a people of such need.  It truly has been a union to remember. 

Grupo Número Siete (Group Number Seven)

This was our group for the conference:

From left to right: Jesus (pronounced "Haysoose"), Efrain, Edwardo, John (our Mikito translator), Polo (our Spanish translator), Castillo, Miguel, Aureliano.

Courtesy of Marty, here is our group in session on the first day:

Your prayers and donations made a big difference in the lives of these men and their communities; thanks!

-- John & Steve

After the hard work was done ...

Photos: commissioning the pastors

This is just a simple update with some photos from today. Today was a big WOW day and we will write more about all that God did today, but here are some photos of our Rolling Hills team praying and commissioning these pastors for the call that God has placed on their hearts.  This was a powerful moment.

An Unexpected Turn of Events

"Noooo.  Not now, not now, LORD!" There was one more day of the conference. The morning session was to teach the pastors how to use Bible stories to communicate spiritual truths. The afternoon was going to be a commissioning time, where each pastor would be prayed over and sent back to their village with a new charter for relationships, intentional leadership, and a toolbox of ideas to teach their churches like Jesus taught his disciples. And, also to teach others to do the same, in a reproducible process.  

"LORD, I can't miss that!"

But the signs were unmistakable. Chills (in the Tropics!). Stabbing head pain. The Big "D". A spectacular "T".  (I'll spare you the details.)  I would be no more capable of leading our group than pole-vaulting to the Moon.

Fortunately, Steve had been doing so well leading big portions of the prior sessions that I knew the pastors would be served well even with my chair being empty  In fact, it was a vivid example of something we taught them yesterday, asking who would lead their church if they got sick and could no longer function in that role. (Our other team members teased me about the notion of contriving an illness to make the point!)

As it turned out, the pastors in our group *were* served well today. When Steve came to check on me at lunchtime, he brought a joyful report that, "They got it!" Each of them had been able to practice telling a story to explain a spiritual concept. There was even an example where Steve was inspired to use Jesus' story of the Lost Sheep to answer a pastor's question about how to deal with a man who had left the church because of hurtful words someone had said to him.

Mid-afternoon, the door to our impromptu infirmary opened.  (This was our cabin, where Nathan and I were both recovering from Nicaraguan maladies. Let me take a moment to express thankfulness for the "infirmary staff" -- team members who stopped by as often as possible to check on us and make sure we had every necessity. Chuck deserves special mention in this regard, modeling servanthood in his inimitable fashion.) Steve's report of the final commissioning time was very encouraging. The pastors gratefully received the Bibles we brought for them inside some extra luggage. In our group, only two of the pastors had a full Bible when he came to the conference, and neither of them were very good. At the conference end, they were all able to take very good study Bibles home to their respective communities.

Yesterday I joked that Steve was doing so well leading his assigned sessions, I could just go home and let him bring it in for a landing by himself. I didn't think God would take me literally! Although I missed directly participating in the last day of the conference, I was able to vicariously attend through Steve's vivid descriptions.

I get to come home tomorrow knowing that ministering will never be the same for over a hundred pastors and other ministry workers in Nicaragua. And, if they follow the "reproducible process" part of discipleship, who knows how many others will benefit into the future?

With God's help and the faithful prayers of our supporters back home, we were able to make a positive difference in Nicaragua despite the challenges. I am very grateful for the privilege of having played a part!

-- John Harms  :-)

Making a Difference

I'll have to admit that I was a bit skeptical when the notion of a pastor/elder mission trip to Nicaragua came up.  What in the world did we have to offer these Nicaraguan pastors?  Some high-minded advice from rich American gringos who didn't even speak the local language?  For only three days? It seemed like a big waste of time and resources.  Right?

I was wrong.  We *are* making a positive difference -- a big one, as best I can tell.

Our presence has created a compelling event -- enough to inspire many pastors from the whole region to come to the conference. (In some cases, it included surmounting great travel hardships even before the bus breakdown.)

The most important things they are learning are some important and essential truths about Christianity.  But along the way, they are also learning some "cool" new tools (not sure how "cool" might translate into Miskito).  For example, today we showed them the Bridge diagram as a way to explain the Gospel to someone.  They had never seen it before, and were excited to get it.  Of course, we had to adapt it to a culture where paper may be completely unavailable in a small village.  (What, no Starbucks napkin to draw on?)  I described how they could draw the bridge in the dirt with a stick if needed, and they can verbally share the relevant Bible verses as appropriate.

They got it -- their mental light bulbs could almost illuminate the room!  In fact, they understood just about everything we we were trying to teach, including the wheel diagram showing the stages of Christian maturity, and how useful it can be to understand where someone is on that scale -- to best know how to help them along on their spiritual journey.

We are making a positive difference, despite the language challenges, the relatively brief time period, and the cross-cultural adjustments.  Our group has told us several times already how much they appreciate us coming all the way from Oregon to teach them these things.

There is still one more day, and it has already been worth the price of admission!  :-)

-- John Harms

P.S. My large-group story presentation went well, IMHO.  Thanks for your prayers!

Photos from Thursday - and Lynn's amazing storytelling

Here are some photos of our small groups!  God is doing amazing work in and through these pastors, and He's also using our team in great ways.  It is such an honor to serve with the men I am with, and it's been a life-changing experience to see God in these Nicaraguan pastors.  I also added two photos of Lynn King doing an absolutely extraordinary job as a storyteller tonight.  The last photo is Lynn describing Saul's encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus.  I don't ever recall seeing someone teach at a church service while lying on the floor.  It was an amazing story followed by an amazing testimony!

Lynn King - storytelling tonight at Verbo Church

Lynn King - storyteller extraordinaire; Saul on the road to Damascus

A greeting to CR from Pastor Marty and friends!

A quick clip with Pastor Bill at Austin's Farm.  GREAT DAY!

AMAZING FIRST DAY!


It didn't start out that way.  Right after breakfast a monsoon hit our location with sheets of rain pelting the tin roof of our our eating area.  We were all hesitant to make the trek to Verbo Church so we tried to wait out the rain until the last possible minute.  I carried my gear/books with me under my armpit to shield them from the rain with a lot of success!!  Unfortunately, when we reached the church a pad lock and chain were around the front gate... so PB and I went across the street to find some cover... it defintely damped my spirits but that didn't last long.  Once the gates at Verbo were opened, our team pushed through with our purpose and began our conference with the pastors from the Rio Coco.  We worshipped, met with each other, and grew in our relationships very quickly!  Steve and I met with 6 pastors in a small group and began talking out our relationship through dicipleship.  Our talk began with a small story of my testimony and how I came to know Steve.  We also spoke of our farming background which seemed to resonate with our group.  Please pray for group - Ramon, McDavis, Juram, Ricardo, Roland, Olegario, and our interpreter Amil as we meet again today. 

Our interpreter Amil is a Verbo missionary who farms rice with some of the villages on the Rio Coco.  He is a very charismatic guy who has a deep passion for sharing Christ.  Steve and I are very thankful to have him in our group.  He has the task of basically speaking all day... all the time.  Pray that God gives him strength.

My Group the first day

It's Thursday morning and I wanted to share some of my thoughts on my first day of the conference with my group after a good night's sleep and some processing time with the team.

My group comes from a small community two days journey down the Rio Coco to PC. They came by foot and by boat staying in people's homes along the way.  I started in the morning with five men:

Antonio the head pastor of a church of 30 members, his two faithful leaders Gorge and Thomas, a young man named Santos and a man who drove the boat named Juan. 

All but the younger man who is 18 had large families of 8 to 13 children with ages ranging from 2 to 29. They are farmers raising food to feed their families.

I was immediately impressed by their warmth and friendliness.  As we started with a time to get to know each other I realized that I was in a very special group that represented all stages of spiritual maturity. Juan wasn't a follower of Jesus, Santos was a new follower of 2 months and the other three men were more mature followers of a decade or more.

Also I was blessed with a wonderful translator who was very fluent in Mosquito, Spanish and English made a very difficult and problematic communication process so much easier (it was still hard, nonetheless).

In the morning until noon we laid the groundwork for discipleship and I felt we made good progress in getting to know each other although I sensed that the group was reluctant to reveal very much about themselves.

After lunch we dove into some of the most difficult part of the conference where we presented and discussed the various stages of spiritual growth (what we refer to as the "Wheel" because it is represented as circle diagram).  I could tell that my group, which after lunch was reduced by two - Santos and Juan, was beginning to experience a bit of fatigue and info overload.  Also, teaching Socraticly through questions is not an established skill for me so as the afternoon progressed I slipped more and more into a "talking head".  Not good, in fact, when Marty came by to see how I was doing I immediately got defensive and without him saying anything I blurted out "I'm doing too much teaching but I don't know how else to do this".  Oh boy...

The plain fact of the matter is that we are working across a gulf of language, culture, education and experience and we need to depend moment by moment, word by word and question by question on the Holy Spirit.  And through this we learn in a fresh new way the truth that in our weakness we are strong.

So as I begin a new day I look forward to the Lord to work through my weakness - "Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord".

Thank you for all your prayers, we need them!

First Day

Whew!  End of the first day. Overall, it was a success! In the morning, our small group of seven pastors had two cascading translators -- English to Spanish, then Spanish to Miskito (then vice-versa).  In the afternoon, we got a translator that knew Miskito and some English, which enabled some back-and-forth interactions that were impossible before.  But we still needed the English-to-Spanish translator to provide clarifications for the Miskito translator; both knew Spanish well.  I think the outcome was good -- the pastors eventually understood most of the concepts -- but it was a challenge getting there.

If nothing else, they have better theology now, e.g. what it means to be a Christian vs. not.  Or, whether or not a Christian can sin and still be a Christian. Or, the importance of relationships and how to develop them better in their church.  Etc.  Thanks for the prayers!

Did I enjoy the day?  Well, it's more like the feeling one gets after completing a long and steep hike.  I'm glad I put forth the effort, but wow am I tired!  :-)

Tomorrow I'm on the afternoon schedule to tell the story of Elijah and Elisha (2Ki 2) to the whole room, then lead the follow-up discussion with our small group.  Feel free to send up a few prayers on my behalf.  :-)

-- John Harms

My first impression of Nicaragua

So this is my first time in a third world country.

I've suffered all kinds of anxiety and sickness over the last 10 days simply not knowing what to expect once I left the US. The first place my mind goes isn't the great stories that I hear from people who have gone before me, it's the stuff I read about traveling to a foreign land on the Internet.
All the dos and dont's, all the customs of a culture, all the weird bugs and animals and as if that isn't enough how about terrorism, crime rate, drugs, abductions.... What the heck, why bother? I'll leave that up to someone else on the planet. My beautiful wife would say "you have not prepared for this trip at all". Little did she know, I had had been reading all kinds of small articles and was a bit frozen with fear.

I was excited about one thing; How this would transform my life and friendship with my great friend and mentor Bob and the other guys going on this trip. It's not that I don't care about people, it's just too easy to be pre occupied with fear and all the "what ifs" formentioned .

Once again God is just so good becuse I was totally wrong and fear needs to be removed from my vocab.... :)

The air is hot, the ground is tough as nails but the people are tender and beautiful. Most of all the gospel is having a great effect!

I've meet some of the biggest visionaries you could ever imagine who have spent YEARS following a vision God gave them to reach these people. Pastor Earl is the salt of the earth. The orphanage and the Verbo church are such a bright light in this community and being used by God in ways few would dare to ask for or pursue. I feel like I've been hanging out with an Apostle. So powerful yet so very, very humble.

Austin Fricker is my new hero... He has such passion for the people and potential succes of certain foods the natives can grow here he just works tirelessly to fine answers for some pretty big questions because he has such a passion for the people, and rightfully so. They are beautiful!

I just finished day one of our conference and it really feels like the Holy spirit is at work. We are teaching the principles of dicipleship, doing life, laughing, smiling... I'm so grateful I got to come...
I hope to bring my family back next year.

Please pray that we can continue with Gods full anointing. Some of these pastors are so gifted and could easily be the next Dale Moody or Billy Grahm. 

You don't don't know what Jesus is going to do! 

Isn't that awesome?

Oh wow ...

The conference started today, and what a mixture of emotions and feelings.  Nathan and I met with an incredible group of men, and it was such a fantastic experience to hear their stories and to see what they're struggling with, but the logistical challenges and cultural differences made for an exhausting day. 

Our day started our with a soaking, pouring, monsoon-like rain storm that soaked us as we walked to the church this morning.  It's always fun to start a full day looking a bit like a wet dog.  After worship (in Spanish), we divided into small groups.  That's where the language barriers got interesting! Some in our group spoke Spanish, but others didn't speak Spanish well, so we ended up needing to translate both in Spanish and also into the Miskito language.  It's hard enough to get these concepts across to someone who speaks your own language, but add in two different languages and cultural differences, and you get an interesting day!  But we did have some neat "light bulb"experiences and we got warm hugs at the end of the day, so I think they're planning on coming back for more.  : )

I wasn't able to take photos of the small groups because I was too busy leading one, but I've added some photos from the very beginning of the conference today:

 Meet and greet before we got started

 Worship time

 Worship time

 Turn and greet happens here too!

 Greeting new friends

 Greeting new friends

 Greeting new friends

Pastor Marty starts things off with Pastor Earl translating

Here are a couple of shots of Lynn leading our small group of pastors.  He did a great job of helping them understand the material.

Today was our first day of the pastor's conference and it mostly came off without a hitch.  Several of our groups had pastors that could not really understand Spanish so we had to shift some translators around so we could get some who spoke Miskito.  We are tired but it was a great day with the guys.

Where Are We, Anyway?

As you know from the previous blog postings, the schedule was shifted out a day due to the pastors' bus mechanical failure.  So, we did Friday's planned explorations today instead.

Chuck and Lynn posted pictures and video, but maybe you wonder where in the world we are.  Well, okay -- you know we are in Puerto Cavezas, Nicaragua.  But if you're interested in some details about where we went today, I saved some GPS waypoints to show you in Google Maps.  (If you choose Satellite from the Google Maps web page, you'll get a nice birds-eye view.  Of course, you can zoom in for detail, or out for context -- all the way out to the world view if you'd like.)

First off, here is the Verbo Compound where we are staying:

http://gps.motionx.com/maps/f28b19f41b96baba521adc254f44ff48

The Verbo church is nearby:

http://gps.motionx.com/maps/f28b19f41b96baba521adc254f4c8edd

Here is the Betania farm we visited today.  (The satellite image is too old to show any development yet.

http://gps.motionx.com/maps/f28b19f41b96baba521adc254f555f16

We kept going to the Wawa River, where there is a ferry terminal surrounded by hopeful street vendors.

http://gps.motionx.com/maps/f28b19f41b96baba521adc254f45e5be

Here is a GPS track of the whole drive from the ferry back to the Verbo compound.

http://gps.motionx.com/maps/fd6e1fcf3c10efbeafa1c6d8a3ea514c

All in all, it was a rewarding day.  Tomorrow, we hit the ground running with the pastors conference; they are all here now, safe and sound!  :-)

A quick clip of our trip to Betania to see Austin Fricker's FANTASTIC accomplishment growing crops - more footage to come!

Tuesday photos from Betania

Here are some pix from our trip to Betania today to see the farm Austin has established there.

 Leaving for Betania

 People on the road to Betania

 Arrival in Betania

 Homes in Betania

 A well for drinking water in Betania

 It rained hard this morning

 Walking out to the farm site

 Checking out the plantain plants

 Checking out the plantain plants

 Our fearless leader is prepared for anything

 Soy beans are doing well!

 Soy beans

 Austin working hard to figure out which crops do well.

 Austin explaining what's been happening and what's to come.

 Austin explaining what's been happening and what's to come.

 New plant starts in a protected area

 Steve and Austin checking on problems with the corn

 Plantain plants

 Boys playing soccer on a very wet field

 Boys playing soccer on a very wet field

 What's wrong with this picture?

 The ferry over the Rio Wawa

 Village of Wawa Boom

 Rio Wawa

  Rio Wawa

  Rio Wawa

  Rio Wawa

 Checking out the ferry

 Talking with some locals of Wawa Boom

 Village of Wawa Boom

 Village of Wawa Boom

 Village of Wawa Boom

 Yes, we crossed this bridge, but it is a repaired bridge.

Back in Puerto Cabezas