Twas the day after Christmas, and........we went to the beach. Sorry for those of yall who are cold now.. It was pretty warm, and so we decided to spend the Sunday afternoon there swimming and taking it easy. Was a lot of fun. The first few pictures are from our trip to the volcano. The sunset. We got up to the top about 10 minutes after the sun went down, so we missed the good part, but it was still beautiful. The picture of Ramon leaning is an example of how strong the wind is on the top. But it is very refreshing after you sweat you way up to the top. Then we had a hotdog roast and sang with the guitar and relaxed. The other photo is a panoramic view from the back side of the volcano. Its bigger than it looks in the photo. Just a little.. and the last is of the sunset at the beach yesterday. Very nice view. I guess the next thing will be new years and who knows what...Today i washed clothes for about 4 hour, only because i was out of clean clothes. then in the afternoon, i helped put up some fencing, and then we handed out about 100 Christmas buckets in a little community close to my house. So i wasnt bored today. Tomorow, i will be going to Managua to take Delmar to the airport to go to Daves wedding. So then i will be living by myself for a week again. Also, 4 of the guys from church(Benito, Jerson, Julio, and Christopher) went to Waslala to a bible institute. So pray that this will be a very good time for them, and an encouraging time. thats all for now.....

Well it doesnt really seem like its the Christmas season here. It is hot, and dry and dusty, which is way better than white, slimy, cold and miserable:)Ok sorry for those of you who dont like the cold. Nicaraguans celebrate Christmas on the 24th so today most people arent working. Actually, they celebrate in the evening and all night long. Then recovery day would be tomorow. Yesterday, two guys were out at our house, and they spotted a big iguana in our mango tree. so i climbed up the tree, and they were throwig rocks at it, and we finally knocked it out and the one guy caught it before it hit the ground, or else it would be gone in a flash. They suposedly dont bite. then we played with it for a while, and skun it out and fried it. WOW. It was very good, but it didnt taste like chicken. But then there are the gorrobo, and they are bigger, and they bite extremely hard, and they are harder to find. I would like to get a couple with my slingshot, but i rarely see them. Plus, someone stole my slingshot, so i am in the process of making a couple more. Tonight, we are going out to the volcano with all the Americans, and some of the people that come to church, and we are going to climb it and watch the sunset, andthen have a hotdog roast. It should be a lot of fun. On monday, we got together and made Christmas buckets. We put like, salt, sugar, rice, soap, oil, and just some necesities in them, and then last night, we went caroling and handed the buckets out. It was a lot of fun, and the people really enjoyed it. Yesterday, i also had to work on the motorcycle a little. That is always fun for me. Delmar was driving it and got a 3inch nail stabbed right through the tire. So i took the wheel off, and walked out to the tires shops along the road, and paid $1.00 to get it fixed. haha. Things here are very cheap. Then i went to put the wheel back on today, and noticed that the wheel dampers were worn out and shot, so i biked out to the Honda place and bought some new ones and put them in also, and now it rides nice and smooth. That is what i do a lot here. Just whatever needs to be done. Fixing things, breaking things, studying, and visiting with anybody that wants to. I love my life down here, and i wouldnt trade it for the world. I wish everybody could have this experience, although it can be tough at times. I hope yall have a wonderful Christmas and all. Thanks for yall support in any way that yall have given..Joel

Well i thought this was too funny. Our neighbors had a dummy sitting in their yard for a while. They finally decided to get rid of it, and the mom wanted me to take a picture first, so they could remember it. She was laughing so hard she about couldnt stand. Yall need to see this nice lady. She has a buzzcut, and is big and strong as an ox:)
In other news, things are still the same. People are going to be leaving from here in the next week. Karen is going for a visit, and Delmar is going soon after Christmas. They will all be heading out to Daves wedding. So I will be by myself again for a week or two. Then Richards are coming back from their visit in the end of January, so that will be a relief to have the pastor back around. It will be nice to have him around again to help out with the preaching. The dryness is starting to soak in or however you might would say that. They people on our little road are putting these annoying speed bumps in the road so people dont go too fast and make a lot of dust. Which, anymore, it doesnt matter how slow you go, you just roll up the dust. But it is still somewhat green here, but that to soon will change.
We can thank the Lord that the guys are still pressing on. Roger has been a huge encouragement to me. He was spiritually reenergized when we went to Guatemala. He has a vision for the church and is always encouraging people and always has a smile on his face. until next time

Well i got home safely from Guatemala. I had a great time there. I went with Roger to a teachers institute. Not that I a planning on being a teacher. We were up there for a week. It was pretty chilly to. it was a lot of fun to be at a place in central america with a lot of mennonites again. Kinda made me feel at home. we traveled by bus which was an 18 hr ride. the bus was alright, but not what we were expecting. but it was comfortable enough to sleep on which i did a lot. The pictures are all radom photos. the first is the streets in Managua. they are all decked out with Christmas lights and it looks pretty nice. On Monday, the day before we came back, we had a free day. So we went to Antigua, a historical type of a city at the base of a volcano. very beautiful place. Roger and me climbed up a hill that had a cross on it and we could see the whole city so that was a nice view. The tower above the street is world known supposedly. If you look up Guatemala, there should be a picture of that tower, and i forget the history behind it. So i got to stand under it. YAY.:) the other pictures i guess are kind of self explanitory. There is Roger and me enjoying a nice shake, the bunks in the guys dorm at the institute, which kinda reminded me of a prison camp:) , a group singing at the institute,us playing volleyball at night, and our bus. well that is all i have time for now..Joel

Well im sure i have talked about "the guys" that come to church. These are the guys. The first one is Roger. He speakes very good english and is a member of church here. Next is Benito, another member. Then there is Christopher. He is a christian and is in instruction class. Great guy. Next is Jerson, another christian in classes, and the last is Julio. he is a Christian and has done the classes but fell away. Recently, Jerson, Christopher, and Julio all came back to church and made confessions and are all now regularly attenders and it is awesome to see their zeal for the Lord.

Here is just some random photos. the moutain is volcano San Cristobal. it is the highest point in Nicaragua. I want to climb it one day. The other picture is of Benito and his son. Benito is a faithfull attender to church and he also is a member. He is a jack of all trades, and is very strong spiritually. He is a great influence and a friend to me. The video, if it works, is of me jumping off the top of Cerro Negro volcano. it is a lot of fun to climb, and when you jump like this, you can go about 40 feet or so..

Well just for a litte update. We recently bought 200 chickens again. So we are now in the business again. I just went out this morning and sold a load of eggs. They keep us a little busy with feeding, watering, gathering eggs, watching them to see if they have odd behavior for sickness and things like that. Then i go out and sell eggs with the cart on Tuesday and Friday mornings. eric was recently here, and he helped me get some things done. We repaired the roof on the chicken house and made it water proof again, so it doesnt make the chickens wet. Also today it rained i think for like the last time for a loong time. So things should start dryin up soon. i will post agian soon with some more random pictures..

Random

Pictures...Cleaning the chicken house,,a scorpion that i found, cut the stinger off, and was playing with for a while,, and our outhouse that i finally built a door for. the thing was there for 2 yrs and never had a door on it:)
well, rainy season is definilty slowing down. It only rains an average of 3 times a wee now. things are still very green though. My cousin is coming in today for a 2 week visit, so that will be a lot of fun to have him around. It also is good to have Delmar back in the house. it got kinda lonely when i was there by myself. I also managed to sneek my birthday past without Nicaraguans knowing until it was past. they have a habit of egging a person when they have a birthday, so luckily, i didnt get plastered with eggs. Churchwise, we started having a service on tuesday evenings as well for the children and youth. before, we didnt have a youth class and they didnt seem interested in coming, but now they do. Then we just have a normal service thursdays and sundays. this past sunday was nice. it was my first time having communion here with the church. hasta la vista

Well here are just a few pictures of some things that have been going on down here. The road grader came down our rugged road one day and attempted to smooth it out. it helped a little till it rained real hard again. The toilet is the end product of the outhouse Rich and I built. Dont worry, she put plastic around the poles then. Then the other pics are of the church in Palmerita. We put walls on it finaly so we dont have to haul chairs in and out every time we have church. that was an enjoyable workday because it was all in the shade. Also out of the last month, it rained on 25 days out of 30, so to say the least, we get some rain every now and then:) Well i will post later.Joel

Well not a lot has been happening lately except rain and work. Well that is what normally happens. Rich and I are building a outhouse for a lady, so that is what the pictures of the whole are. It was very difficult. The whole is now about 9 ft deep. That should last about 30-40 yrs. Also the dirt is very hard so the digging is very hard and slow because we have to bring up all of the dirt with a little 2 gallon bucket and a rope. So that is slow. The other picture is of Davy mowing grass behind our house. That is one thing that i dont look forward to doing but it is kind of fun as well. it just takes a long time. The other is Holdman. He is a guy that comes to church from time to time. His sister comes all the time. The little house is a project of ours as well. We built this house for a lady and she seems very pleased with it. And the family picture is our neighbors. They are very friendly and nice. When we are not at home, they make sure people stay away from our house. Most of the time they catch the people but when it rains real hard is when the robbers make their moves because you cant hear them. The other night it rained very hard. I had 6 pairs of jeans on the line on our front porch, and i forgot to bring them in. When I woke up, 2 pairs were on the ground and 4 were stolen. I had a light on all night and we have a dog, but they are sneeky. That is the first time they have taken stuff off our front porch because we always have a light on. Now i guess I have 4 pairs of jeans less to wash. Maybe soon they will not have anything to steal from me and they will quit..But i imagine i will always deal with it. Yesterday, we went out to Palmerita to chop silage again with Jason. It was only about 100 degrees. But the sun was baking. We worked for about 4 or 5 hrs and then took a lunch break. Then we went back to work. I felt kind queezy and had a headache. Then i felt really weak and sick. I laid under a shade tree and brought all my dinner back up. I was so week i couldnt walk. So i had to stay out there for the night because i was too weak to drive the motorcycle home. They said it was a heat attack from not drinking enough. I slept 14 hrs and woke up and felt alost fine. Still a little weak.

I think so far out of the 14 days of this month, it has rained 12 of them. So that is what rainy season is like here. It normally rains in the afternoon, so we try to work in the morning when it is cool.Well i should run. If you have questions, just leave me comments..Joel

In these photos are: The famous Pablo Yoders house in Waslala, the way that we sold some of our chickens on our tricycle cart, our dog that we got that is very hyper and a good guard dog, our house from our front yard, and the last is at the valcano crater lake that we went to. A group of us went camping to it and is was a beautiful place. We did a lot of swiming and spent the night there. It is a lake that is in and old volcano. The water was very clear as well. A very beautiful place.

More Of Life In Leon

Well things have been going good so far that i know of. I have done a lot of things lately. First, I gave blood the other day for the first time( go figure, in a third world country) so that was pretty cool. Also us guys recently went to the volcano Telica and hiked up it. It is a huge thing and is always smoking to. At the top it is absolutely beautiful. There is no restrictions at the top or anything. You can walk up to the edge of the crater and junp in if you want. It doesnt look as big in the pictures. I threw in a rock and it took 8 seconds before it hit the bottom. So im guessing it is a long way down there. You can see the bottom to and at night you can see red lava in it too. It took 3 hours almost to hike up it as well so we were very tired. I will try to put up some more pictures later. We are also selling all of our chickens right now to. They are not laying as many eggs as they used to be and so we are going to sell them and get a new batch when Delmar gets back i think. So that also means that when we get them sold i wont have to sell eggs for a while so that will be a nice little break. Its hard to believe that i have been here for more than 2 months already. I gues time flies when you are having fun. It hasnt been raining as much lately so it is refreshing when we do get some. I guess we are getting closer to the end of rainy season. The language is coming along slow but i think i am still learning:) It is hard for me to do devotions and things like that. I have to write everything out and then trnaslate it into Spanish. It just take s lot of time right now. Also we have been having some action with the robbers at our house. They have been coming to our house a lot lately to visit and things like that. I think they are scoping out our house for a later moment. The other day my MP3 player got stolen. I think they had me distracted on the side of the house and another guy was around that i didnt see and he sliped in and took it off my bed. It is very frustrating as well but i guess we will deal with it as long as we live here. I just hope they dont get my computer sometime. I try to keep it hidden really good though. Well that is all for now i think. If you have any questions i guess you can email me.