Spelling Bee Fun

Roxana Quiñones, Principal of New Life School; Frank Pagluigh, 5th grade spelling coach; five 5th-grade students; seven 6th-grade students and I all arrived at Escuela Cristiana Oasis yesterday morning for the ACSI Spelling Bee.  Mr. Pagluigh and I had worked with each of our grades for the last month.  

More than 15 Christian, bi-lingual schools across El Salvador sent participants--there were 178 students this year.  Due to the size, each grade level was divided into two sections.  The four top spellers from each section met in grade-level finals where the grade-level winners were decided.

It was so exciting to have three of our 6th-graders in their grade-level final and to watch Amy Flores receive the 3rd place medallion for 6th grade.

Sixth-grade champions

 Andres, Carlos and Amy--our 6th grade finalists

Amy and me

Amy with Mrs. Roxana and Mrs. Patty, plus a close up of her and her medal

Today, Roxana, Amy and I returned for the final competition.  Sixteen students (4 grade-level winners from each grade (5th, 6th, 7th and 8th) participated in today's final round.  Before today's bee started, ACSI Spelling Bee Coordinator, Ana Lucia, reminded all of the students that they were already champions.

We were so proud of Amy--she did an amazing job with words like "affability" and "avid."  She completed five rounds and finished in 6th place!  

With Ms. Roxana and Amy after the final round this morning

After today's event we returned to New Life to distribute the diplomas to the participants.  

5th Grade Spellers--Valeria, Daniela, Ericka, Laura and Kenneth

6th Grade Spellers--Alejandra, Amy, Sofia, Gaby, Andres, Juan Carlos and Carlos

We are proud of the entire team--we know how hard they studied.  Now it's time to start preparing for next year!

Resting and then Staying Busy

It was nice to have a couple of days to rest when we got back from Nicaragua.  We were so tired from the trip that instead of going to the 9:00 a.m. service on Sunday, we slept in and went to the 11:30 service.  It makes for a late lunch, though, because we didn't get home until after 2:00 p.m.

Tuesday we were back in IDEM, after missing a week.  I spent Wednesday afternoon helping the 6th graders with their spelling words again.  Thursday was another day for spelling bee practice and then we had church in the evening.  

Yesterday morning was the ladies Bible study--it was the first day for the Abundant, Faithful and True study by Kay Arthur, Priscilla Shirer and Beth Moore.  I rushed away from the study early to go pick up pizza for the 6th graders before our last day of spelling bee practice.  We went to the service in Lourdes last night because Stephen played the piano.  

This morning there were twelve ladies at Hilo, Aguja y Biblia.  We are making potholders and basket liners to share with the mom's of preschoolers at a small school close to the church.  

Sunday through Wednesday will continue to be a busy time.  Sunday we have church, Stephen is playing the piano for the Single Mother's ministry and then we are going out to dinner with friends.  Monday we are having a dress rehearsal for the spelling bee; Tuesday is Day 1 of the spelling bee, Tuesday night at IDEM we're celebrating birthday's so we're making homemade ice cream and then Wednesday is the spelling bee finals.  

750 Beans in the Jar

Joseph came to Managua from North Carolina, leaving a wife and three darling little girls at home.  It was his third (at least) trip and we've had the pleasure to work with him all three times.  In order to help his girls understand why their dad is spending 8 days away from them, he and his wife came up with this idea.  A jar painted black is filled with beans.  Another jar (clear) is empty.  At the end of each day Joseph called home to tell the girls how many professions of faith were made . . . . and they moved the beans from the black jar (dead in their sin) to the clear jar (washed clean by the blood of Jesus.)  

We didn't get an update for the week before the team left, so I sent Joseph (and several others) the total.  This morning I got a FB message from Joseph which read, "750 beans in the jar!  Enjoyed serving along side Vida Nueva."

Praise the Lord for Joseph and the 40 others who invested a week sharing the gospel in Managua.  

Leaving Managua

We will be on the road at about 2:00 a.m. in the morning and should be at home by late afternoon.  

It was a great a week--more about that later!

Half way through the week

We've had a great week so far, averaging almost 100 professions of faith per day.  As usual, when we start seeing great fruit, we start having problems to solve.  On Monday evening, Pastor Felix's truck was broken into (in front of the restaurant where the Salvadorans were eating) and a couple of the girls had their documents taken.  One went to the Salvadoran consulate today to get a document which will allow her to go back to El Salvador without her official government ID.  Yesterday, after the morning door-to-door campaign, one of the buses broke down--some type of problem with the air brake system.  This morning several people start feeling bad and at least 5 of them stayed at the hotel.  Tonight we are starting the campaign early because the Catholic church in neighborhood where we are going is having a Holy Week procession and we don't want to be in conflict with them.  On a positive note, there haven't been any additional tremors since Monday.

Please pray for the earth to remain stable (no tremors), for the health of the team members and for the evangelistic work to continue.

A Perfect Cinnabon

Francisco is a young (23) friend from our church in Lourdes, and he is faithful to help at all of the campaigns, especially when it comes to helping Stephen roll up the inflatable.  He has also been great to ride with us and guide us to the right location when we're on a campaign in El Salvador.  

Each night during the March campaign he (and several others) would help roll up the inflatable at the end of the night and Stephen would encourage them to make "a cinnabon perfecta" (a perfect cinnabon), in other words to roll the inflatable up straight and tight.  After 2-3 nights of this, Francisco came to me and asked, "why does Stephen say to make a perfect cinnabon when we roll up the inflatable?"  Kind of cracked me up that Stephen was trying to provide him a word picture of the process, when, in reality, Francisco had no idea what he was talking about.  Have you ever tried to explain a cinnamon roll to someone who has never seen one?  Since there is a Cinnabon store in the MultiPlaza mall  in San Salvador, I think Stephen thought that the kids would understand; but Francisco had never been there.  

Yesterday, they took all of us gringos to one of the bigger malls here in Managua and we found a Cinnabon kiosk.  Here are the pictures we took to show Francisco:

We bought a Cinnabon classic and gave it to him before the campaign last night. He thought it was quite tasty and now completely understands what Stephen means when he says to roll up the inflatable "como un cinnabon perfecta."

Wake Up Call

There were several strong earthquake/tremors in Nicaragua on Thursday and Friday before we arrived.  But, there hadn't been any additional ones until tonight's 11:10 p.m. "wake up" call.  It was a 5.5 tremor located about 30 kilometers or so from our location.  

It was a first for most of the team members from the states who are staying at the hotel with us; every one was calm, waiting patiently outside for 30 minutes before returning to their rooms.  

The team from El Salvador is at a different hotel.  I was able to Facebook chat with at least three of them and they are fine, but some of them are scared.  It woke many of them up!

Please pray:

1. for the safety of our entire team and the people of Nicaragua
2. for the tremors to cease so that we can continue to focus on our purpose for being here--evangelism--and not be worried or distracted.  

Long and winding road

We left the house at 4:00 a.m. yesterday and made it to church in less than 15 minutes--amazing how easy it is to drive at that time of the morning.  Actually, I was surprised we weren't the first at the church.  Nevertheless, our departure time of 5:00 a.m. slipped by almost 45 minutes.  This time we were in the van (air-conditioned) with 6 others; there were another 25 on the big yellow bus. 

The trip was long, but uneventful--the El Salvador border and the two Honduran borders were almost empty.  The Nicaragua border, while not at all full, still took about an hour.  We really didn't notice any damage from the recent earthquake/tremors.  We pulled in to the hotel about 8:30 p.m.

The first four of more than 40 people from five different churches arrived last night.  Most of the rest arrive on various flights today, with the last two coming in on Sunday.  Please pray for the second bus full of Salvadorans who are driving over today and that God's spirit will move mightily among the Nicaraguan people during this week of evangelistic outreach.

It's Going to be Hot

Just checked the 10-day forecast for Managua and it's going to be hot.  This, of course, is not a surprise, it's always hot there. 

We will be outside most of the morning and in the late afternoons so please pray all of us, especially the teams from the states and the group of translators coming from our church in Guatemala.  It will be quite a temperature change for them.  

On the road to recovery

We are hoping that the Monday night setback will be the last obstacle for Aviah to overcome.  Her x-ray at that time showed a possible bowel obstruction so they placed a NG tube and took her off all food.  

I talked to Daniel yesterday and he said they had decided to hold off on the upper GI as they were hoping her bowel just needed 24 hours of rest to restart itself.  Last night's x-ray revealed a more normal looking bowel so they started giving her Pedialyte (which she loved.)  Daniel said she seems to be a little "ticked off" at everyone that she can't have anything more to eat.  We all took that as a good sign!

Nevertheless she will be in the hospital through Friday in order to get the required 7-8 days of IV antibiotics; she will also have 7 days of oral antibiotics after discharge.  This infection (MSSA) is nothing to mess around with and doctor's want to be sure it is completely eradicated.  

She will still need the surgical (laparoscopic) procedure to remove the cyst, but it will likely be scheduled at the end of April, and, hopefully, can be done on an outpatient basis.  

We are so thankful that we have the opportunity to bring our petitions to the Great Physician and that he is faithful to hear our prayers.  Please continue to pray for complete recovery.

Healthy Eating + Exercise = Results

I've decided that weight gain is one of the most insidious results of poor eating habits combined with an inactive lifestyle.  The only thing that is worse is believing that your eating habits aren't really that poor and/or that your lifestyle isn't really that inactive.  Rewind 10 years:  I remember my weight because in the fall of 2004 I was buying a dress for Daniel/Shannon's wedding.  Fast forward 10 years:  insidious weight gain--a measly 3 pounds per year, but "oh, what a total!"  Maybe I could let myself off the hook if the weight I gained was evenly spread out over the 10 years.  In reality, I probably added 10-12 in the first couple of years and then held steady for awhile.  That was followed by another 10-12 in the first year or so after we moved to El Salvador (I blamed that on eating out weeks at a time while on mission trips out of the country.) The final few pounds came about as a result of visiting the states and having the opportunity to enjoy all the restaurants/food we miss living in Central America.  I admit that I've used that as an excuse to justify my overeating.

I started on the Daniel Plan journey to healthy eating and a more active lifestyle after being in the states for 3 weeks at Christmas.  Of course, when in the states we "eat" more and do "less."  That sentence would be more truthful if the pronoun was "I" instead of "we."  Stephen never fails to run wherever he is.  If you'd asked me whether I led a sedentary lifestyle, I would have answered, "no."  However, I received a FitBit in February and have been faithfully wearing it.  The suggested goal is to walk 10,000 steps per day.  Oh my goodness, I didn't realize just how much time I spent sitting.  I assumed that if I went for a 25-30 minute walk, I wouldn't be too far off that 10,000 step goal.  I couldn't have been more wrong.  In fact, my 30-minute walk is only good for about 4000 steps, meaning, unless I want to go on an hour and a half walk, I have to intentionally be more active during the day.  It has proved to be difficult to add more steps into my day when I spend the day at home.  We have a very little condo--10-12 steps from the kitchen to the living room; 30 steps from the living room to the bedroom.  If I find myself on the couch for more than a half hour, I take a walking break and do a quick lap around our little neighborhood.  I look at trips to the grocery store as a way of getting in my steps!  I don't reach my goal everyday, but I'm up and moving so much more now than I was.

Anyway, this post was supposed to be about positive results!  I am happy to say that today I am 20 pounds lighter than I was in January.  Of course, I'm not finished yet, but it does feel good to reach this milestone.  At this point, I don't feel comfortable with the before/after picture thing.  Seems like at they show are baggy clothes!  Guess I'd rather surprise you the next time I see you.  

How did I celebrate?  Two eggs for breakfast, half an apple with 12 almonds for a mid-morning snack, chicken salad with grapes and two cantaloupe wedges for lunch.  Dinner (vegetable beef stew) is in the crockpot so I'm good to go!

We leave for Managua this Friday which means a week of eating out.  I'm determined to make better food choices while we're gone . . . . more about that later.  

Aviah's Improving

Just received an update from our son, Daniel, that Aviah is doing better today.  She hasn't had any fever and has even almost "smiled" a couple of times.  She's starting to nurse again, but having some trouble keeping it all down . . . probably due to the medicine and anesthesia she received during her procedure.  Doctors say that she will need seven days of IV antibiotics, so she won't be coming home from the hospital until Thursday.  

Please keep her in your prayers, because when all of this settles down, she will still need outpatient surgery to remove the cyst.  

Here's a picture from yesterday:

Here's a picture from this afternoon.  We're so happy that she is starting to feel better.  Thank you for praying for her.

Praying for Aviah

Our 4-month old granddaughter, Aviah, has been in the hospital since early Thursday morning when Daniel and Shannon took her to the emergency room.  It's been two and a half days of ups and downs as the doctor's have been working to diagnose her correctly.  

She is now at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital (part of the Stanford University Medical Center) undergoing treatment for an infected umbilical cyst.  Yesterday they performed a surgical procedure to drain the cyst which had been growing over the past 24 hours.  The infection has been identified as MSSA, which, although one step below the antibiotic resistant infection called MRSA, still requires very strong antibiotics.

She is on IV antibiotics and will likely remain on them for several days until they are sure she is infection free.  In addition, they are watching to see if there are any additional problems with her digestive system since her stomach has remained distended even after the reduction of the cyst.

Please pray for her and for her parents, Daniel and Shannon.  Shannon's parents are staying with Maleia and Josiah so that Daniel and Shannon are free to stay with Aviah.  Pray for wisdom for the doctor's, that the antibiotics will help rid her body of the infection and that there will be no other complications.