Here is just a little bit of news. The pictures pretty much explain themselves. This week, i am living by myself again. Delmar went to Waslala for the week to help a friend build a house. So i decided to suprise him by putting tile in our bathroom. He has no clue i did it yet. I used some of the money that friends have sent down as gifts so thank yall. Benito does some superior work as well. That was a lot of fun to work with him for 3 days.

Today i had a change of plans. I was going to clean the house and wash clothes, but i turned the idea down. It is extremely dry, which means the dust rolls with ease. today is very windy, and it is just rolling with dust, so i cant was clothes and keep them clean for more than 5 minutes. And if i wass to clean the house, the house would just be slam full of dirt leaves and dust. I was on my way in to town on my cycle and i had to drive really slow. I couldnt see but about 10 ft in front of me. There are a lot of empty peanut fields right close to our house and the dust just rolls through. I left the house clean and arrived very dirty and grimy. O well, it will pass in a couple of months:)Hopefully.

The tank cleaning job was fun as you can see. Our water was starting to taste kinda funny, so i looked in the bottom of the tank, and there was a nice brown film on the bottom of the tank. so i cleaned it out with clorox and wow did it make a difference in the water taste. haha..actually i didnt notice a difference, just Delmar and Roger did..I thought it always tasted good. I guess maybe my tastebuds are pickled from being farmer or somthing..Roger says its becasue im a redneck...haha..

My Uncle Wendell and Aunt Naomi was here last week for revivals. It was good to see them and here him preach in spanish. He did very good and the people enjoyed him and his preaching. Plus i got to show them around town a little so that was fun to.

I rekn thats all for now.....

Here are 2 recent pictures of stuff that has been happening..My hand from the snake bite and a river where we went swiming. sorry for the long post

Well here are a few pictures of some of the animals i see a lot from day to day. The other day i had a good experience. I was able to go down into my neighbors well. They pull water up with a little barrel a horse and a rope. The other day, they had to barrels break and fall to the bottom, so i quickley offfered to go down and retrieve them. they just tied a stick onto a rope and let me down in like they do a water jug. It was a lot of fun. Well i should run..Joel

Well heres a post since i havent put one up in a loong time. Ive been kind of busy so i havent had time. well busy in the sense that I havent been to the internet in a while. It continues to get hotter here as the dry season goes on. But i dont mind the hot weather. It gets up to 90-100 every day, but also, there is no rain, and a it gets kind of windy sometimes. That means the dust just rolls. But still, it beats the cold. The motorcycle in the pic is the one that i bought for the mission. It is a Genesis 200cc. I like it a lot, so I will try to drive with reason. Everybody wants to drive it it seems. I studied most of the day today because i have to preach or have the topic tomorow night at church. Richard Burkholders still havent came back yet. They didnt get their birth certificate soon enough and so they still have to get the passport for their baby. So they are supposed to come home here next wednesday, so we are all looking forward to that. Delmar is going for his admission exam tomorow at the college. he told me that 10,000 people signed up to get in and only 2,000 get in, so it might be some competition, and then if he gets in, i forget when he starts classes.:) Right now Eugene Weaver(board member) and his wife are here on a visit, so it is nice to talk with them as well. Lloyd and Faye, the couple that is here while Richards are in the states, leave tomorrow as well so we will see them off tonight. well that is all for now...Joel

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