Witnessing In Nicaragua

“Best in the world!”, “Phenomenal!”, “Amazing!”. These are the words that you would normally hear if you ask. “How is the witnessing in Nicaragua?”. Thats because its true! It is amazing. Especial in rural territory where life is a little more relaxed and less stressful than the city. 

Going from door to door here might require a little more walking (and when i say that i mean a LOT more walking), a little more heat resistance and a bigger water bottle. But really all those things are heavily overshadowed by the quality of conversations and the humility of those in the territory.

Walking to the Territory..... getting wet doing it

For example one might head out in the territory for the morning with the plan of offering magazines. What im used to back home is that you might be able to actually do your presentation two or three times in the morning. Here you better be ready to do your whole presentation for as many doors as you go to, and bring enough with you for everyone you talk to, because almost everybody takes them. Let alone those on the road who often approach and ask for the latest magazines. 

So for me those experiences back home in Australia - where I might have placed magazines once in a morning - kept me going. But imagine spending the same time preaching but spending the majority of it having spiritual conversations. So although its tiring, as they say ‘vale la pena’ - its worth it. 

I have been having some great talks with people that genuinely love hearing about the Jehovah and the promise of the Kingdom. It gives me goosebumps every time at the end of a new study when i ask them what they think of a question, like ‘What will gods kingdom do for the earth?', they give their answer with such positivity and hope in their eyes. Especially when they live in poverty and have very little materially speaking, its heartwarming that we have the privilege to show people something better. 

This is one of my studies Arcenio. He has around a dozen kids some of them have left home but there are still a few at home. He can’t read but his son reads the magazine and bible verses for him during the study as the rest of the kids stand around and listen. 

Arcenio and his Kids

In another area twice I had a man come up to me and ask for a bible study, he carefully scribbled his name on a piece of paper so i would not forget him. In the same area, another man Vicente a local radiologist in a nearby hospital,  brings out chairs and he enthusiastically listens answers questions from the Bible Teach Book, he started preparing right from the second study.

Witnessing off the back of the Ute

We receive assistance from other congregations every now and then to help us cover our territory.

Gim Concreto! Local gym with some pretty good gear

Its pretty much like this everyday during the wet season

Talking to this man about an end to all suffering.......

Jorleni and Nery

So without sounding soppy, overall the ministry here IS the most amazing and phenomenal territory ever.

Way Back When....

This is my new blog name, as opposed to the old one escapation.blogspot.com. After I got back here to Nicaragua again I never really found the time to blog, an honestly compleatly forgot about it. But my family is always telling me to share some more photos and experiences. But there has been so many its hard to know where to start. 

Lots has happened over the last 6 months, its been an amazing experience so far. Granted, there have been those times when I have wanted to just leave and go home. But with the help of Jehovah, his congregating and some great friends I’ve so far been able to stick it out and its made it all worth while. 

So i haven’t written anything for a long time but basically in a nutshell im in a rural spanish congregation that is pretty well know to the world of the internet already “Ojo De Agua” thanks to this brother Sam with his inferior blog, stepintonica.blogspot.com. Joking he is actually a great writer and friend of mine. In our congregation we have about 30 publishers an elder and now 3 Ms!! Which is pretty exciting.

I was here about a year ago and and spent 6 months in the english congregation but i had already started to love the spanish field. Here is a video from way back when, and my overall impression of the country.

Video Nicaragua 2013 - http://youtu.be/kfp3mfFL2wU

All that being said I will try to post some more recent pics, videos and experiences in the coming days.

El Ultimo...... until next time.

Well I have not been on the blog very much these past couple of months or since Beau left but now that the time has come for me to return to the 'homeland' I find myself sitting through around 50 hours of travel time, board out of my brains. Time to write has been scarce  between English meetings and Field service Spanish meetings and field service and preparation for them there has barely been time to create intricate puzzles for the Japanese to render 'for three and under' let alone write a concise and 'interesante' blog. So I think now is a good time to do that -the blog not the Japanese puzzle.

Ojo De Agua - Congregación de Español

Territory in Ojo

I first started going to these meetings with the hope of exploring the culture here more and improving in my Spanish.  Not only did I discover this but much much more, it turned out like one of those infomercials, where if you invest in a steam mop you will get free steak knives and if you pay by credit card you will get not one but 2 steam mops! I'm not sure how the credit card bit would apply but the benefits were amazing. The brothers and sisters were like steak knives....-hear me out ok - they were a blessing I was not expecting, very encouraging welcoming and hospitable even with me speaking Spanish like a 2 year old Nicaraüense parrot. It is a beautiful congregation with heaps of potential. 

CO visit

Territory

There territory is vast and the people are ready and willing to hear the good news, even young children are excited to look at the pictures and take time to appreciate Jehovah. Despite the poverty they are hospitable and kind. I was given the  privilege of doing the bible highlights one week there and even though my Spanish is terrible and I could barely understand some of the comments, afterwards they were all very encouraging.

Omotepe, Matigalpa, Jinogega

Well for a while, along with Beau we had my good friend Jayde here with us, a brother also from Qld Australia. Although he was sick a fair bit I think he still enjoyed it here. In any case we planned a trip the weekend before he left to Omotepe. This is an island in the middle of the biggest lake in Nicaragua, made up of 2 large volcanoes. So Ed, Beau and I headed of there, sadly without Jayde the master of sickness.

It was an interesting trip with some interesting characters along the way, ill let the photos and videos do the talking for this one though.

The little blue dodgy thing was our ride there..

Ed soaking up the overcast day

Rented bikes on the Island

Trucks on the ferry

A boat (in case you were wondering)

Por que sos tan triste!

Being in English

Normal day in FS

The English congregation has been amazing so good and willing brothers and they have all been really good to me. Not just in witnessing and meeting, but in recreational activities as well. Some great people and great friends forever.

Mi carta favorito, from my party:P

Where to next Jefe?

  

 The English District Convention in El Salvador.

Exercising patience..... 

Wow! This one we were waiting for, for months. As the time crept closer everyone's keenness increased, as did mine. We had a 10 hr bus ride from Chinandega all the way up through Honduras and into San Salvador, El Salvador. The entire English congregation hired a bus along with an English cong from San Juan Del Sur.

The planned departure time 5am - the reality 11am. The bus company had it booked 1 day later than the brothers organized, but after much hard work from the brothers we were still able to leave that morning. On getting to the border of Honduras we all got out and I notice a brother, Josh, having some difficulties with the border officials. 'Poor fella ay hope everything is ok'. Turned out his visa had expired and they gave him 5 days to leave the countries in the CA4 (these bordering countries have an arrangement where locals can go between only with their ID, however for foreigners it means that you cannot renew hour visa at these borders, it like you leave a country without leaving the country) anyway I digress. So i'm thinking i'm fine, nek minut... life fail i'm in the same boat. My visa expires on the Saturday of the convention and after both Josh and I go to the immigration office on the Thursday after a full day of option exploring and thinking like crazy scientists we discover that the only thing we both can do is fly out of El Salvador straight to the States, which turned out to be Miami.

Sight seeing in El Salvador

This put a little dampener on thing as we both missed the Sunday of the convention. But after the first day of quality talks and moving interviews I was glad to be there for the two days, it was defiantly worth it. 

Ed and my Part at the DC

Los Chavalos

Miami

So Josh and initially expected to leave Sunday and fly back to Nicaragua on Tuesday. So we stayed with a brother and sister that are in a sign language congregation. They were amazingly hospitable and kind. That day we went out with another brother to have some pizza and play some pool, after-which he gave us a car to use!! So driving in Miami was epic and we went to the beach saw some sites ate some food, acted like proper job tourists. Tuesday we headed to the airport where it started to get interesting again.... We arrived the lady says 'there aint no flight to Nicaragua today' we were like

'hold the phone! Wat did u just say' - acting all like we knew what we was doin 'no no no no, look here at the itinerary....'

Josh feeling like a Boss

She says 'look holdon it says there thats for the 17' two weeks away.....

EPIC FAIL. But they were really helpful and cut allot of what we should have paid, so we flew the following Thursday. So two more days in Miami, so we got to go out witnessing and get to an epic sized mall. After that we got back to Nica fine. Then was the rush to pack for my flight home 4 days later.

Miami South Beach

Amazing couple that looked after us in Miami

Nos Vemos Nica

My Shoe Shining Man

So this is where i'm at at about to land shortly in LA, i'm starving! American Airlines wont let you pay cash and I had no time in Miami to eat. Another story behind that, after being reasonably late for the flight due to various things I get to the airport check-in at Managua. Look around, nobody in sight that has anything to do with AA. So i'm like hmmm, oh random dude 'disculpe señor, hay aguin aqui para American Airline' and then he is like 'what flight' and im like 'to miami at 7:30' and he is like 'its gone'.

Neighbors I used to Play Soccer with in the street

After that there was a blury 5 min spanglish conversation I had with an actual AA employee telling me there was no way i could get on the flight. However 40min later was the soloution, they changed my flights and I got a flight 4 hours later. So i get on my first flight of the day, nek minut lightening strikes and we hear deafening thunder. It seem as if the left wing got struck before we even left the runway ( I suppose thats better than being stuck in the air) in any-case we got delayed another hour. So now we are landing and i'm thinking what else can go wrong. We shall see,we shall see..... but nothing did it all went smoothly and i'm now back in Auz readjusting and getting back into it again. Overall an excellent life changing experience, that despite the many mishaps I will never regret.

Jorge - A study and his Family

The Usual Please

"Uh boss, i might be a little bit late'

So since San Juan life continues on as usual. The normal weekly schedule but it never feels repetitive. So our routine is the same each week but never feels repetitive.... wait am I repeating myself.

Field service is always interesting and very fruitful. Meeting some really nice people but as always the challenge is finding them home. It can also be quite entertaining at times, looking for people who speak English and often it’s the drunk guy in the street that can speak the most perfect English, go figure. But we always see unique things in transit too, this pic was on the way back from Corinto on day.

Park in Leon

I have been a bit sick of late, but at least I can squeeze some sympathy out of people that way. The only problem however was this past weekend I had the privilege of delivering the Public talk. Now that sounds like a good thing right.... but I have the unique capacity to make any normal situation into the best it can be, as far as embarrassment goes. So it was especially hot that day - frankly the centre of the sun would have been more comfortable. And evidently anyone in this situation has lost their mind as Ii had done. Saying the final words of my talk I start to walk away feeling a little dizzy then I realise I forgot my water so I reach over and grab it and then threw it all over the floor... as you do.  Being the kind person that I am I decided to cool the area down before the next speaker took the platform. This lead to an awkward sequence of events wherein several people made efforts to fix the problem, as I wallowed in self pity and embarrassment at the back of the hall.  THE END

This is not the Coffee Shop

Anyway I now seek refuge in the coffee shop, I actually think i spend more time here than at home. But its comfortable and there is WIFI and decent coffee. On a first name basis with all the staff so i can pretty much get away with anything there, I have a deep sense of loyalty..... to coffee.

Bobo had another accident... well a few actually. Most to do w

ith his bicycle really. Heading back home  one fine evening I was on GX200 while Bobo was cycling. I came up with the great idea for him to grab onto the back of my bike and I would pull him along some of the way.... BIG MISTAKE. Beau peddles flat out to grab onto the rear of my bike, but somehow manages to get his leg caught over the top of his handle bars the front wheel goes sideways pushing him headlong straight into the gutter where he flies off the bike and makes an abrupt stop on one of the softest surfaces.... concrete. He walked away from it though, and I empathetically cracked and laughed for the next several hours. So this in retrospect was maybe not my best idea. But the problem is solved now because Bobo’s bike - the cause of this terrible incident - was stolen, its still a soft point, so make sure you give him curry over it.

Witnessing in Chichigalpa

Still really enjoying the ministry and the congregation, getting smaller now but it brings everyone closer. Meeting many in the field who study the bible with their family already, one man studies every night for over an hour with his family - amazing. He was an RV soon to be a study with some Spanish brothers.  Many are spiritually minded and are extremely hospitable and understanding truly ‘Blessings until there is no more want’ – seeing it in action.

San Juan and Grenada

We went and saw Jesus at San Juan

Spent a week in San Juan. A family from Australialand have 'need greated' over there. So we went to help them settle into their new place. Ok well thats the excuse we used, but we just went on a holiday. Nice place but, super touristy, hardly any Nicaraguans which made it feel more like we were somewhere in California . Nice congregation including a monkey, an actually real one. I don’t think he is a publisher yet though. But his study is going well.

Boss man

Enjoyed some amazing surf, and beautiful beaches. I surfed for like 1.73 seconds. It’s cool how deceiving you can be by walking down to the water with a board, looking all pro and stuff. But the coolness kinda dies off rather quickly when a wave of decent size comes that the other surfers float over just wipes you out..... not that that happened to me of course *cough cough*.  I wouldn't call what I did actually surfing, but the water was nice and the floatation device was a good accessory in the water.

Happiness

Then we went to Grenada for the weekend, went Zip Lining on the way.... SO MUCH FUN! So i was superman, batman and sore groin man for a couple of hours that day.

Got a sports massage by a blind dude at a hotel, so that was weirdly cool. There was also an option to get covered in chocolate and massaged with cocao butter, but that sounded a little to invasive for my liking.... and I would’ve got distracted and started to eat myself anyway.

Me surfing.... yes thats right im black now......

San Juan De Sur

But we are back now in Hot Chinandega, trying to get back into routine although couldn’t help but go and see the beach one more time on thursday. At the moment I have Beau doing the maps for me while I write the blog and listen to rain coming down flat out.

Good times greatest hits.

Zach