We Are Reaching Hearts

Being in Nicaragua now over a year, serving in San Juan Del Sur, has been an amazing experience. We have learned to depend on Jehovah more than ever before and have been able to experience service in ways many couldn't dream of. Most importantly though we have been apart of something amazing, the growth of this True Brotherhood worldwide. (1 Peter 2:17)

Many experiences are, in their own right, worthy of being printed in a Watchtower or Awake! or even a Yearbook. Themes like these are found regularly among our congregation and others throughout Nicaragua:

...70+ year old unbaptized publisher travels 2hrs each way on "chicken bus" to make the meetings regularly.

...Publishers travel over an hour by boat and an hour by motorbike to reach return visits.

...Witnesses spend days mapping areas in rural Nicaragua, the first step to preaching efficiently, and weeks censusing just to find 1 English speaker willing to learn about Jehovah.

My favorite one so far though is...A married couple move from Alaska to Central America looking for answers to a happy life, they find Jehovah's Witnesses.

You might be familiar with Gary and Shannon, I've mentioned them before. They were a major support during my motorbike accident recovery, Gary took the video of my pin being removed.

Gary and Shannon are originally form California. They have led an...interesting life, to say the least. They met at work at a sales company and got married at Burning Man. Gary wore coat tails and a top hat (that's all he had on) and Shannon wore white lingerie and a vale. A variety of costumes from birthday suits to drag queens were sprinkled about throughout the audience. They were both very good at their jobs and made lots of money. They had a couple houses, their main house a mansion with six bedrooms, and every toy they could afford. This was Gary's second marriage with 2 adult children which he did not have a good relationship with.

During the housing market fall in the U.S. Gary and Shannon had to get creative with their income and became marijuana growers. Shannon says that it was hard getting use to arriving home from work with boxes of pizza to feed all the gang-members they had hanging out in the parlour. They were there daily watering, pruning, drying and packaging the product. Gary and Shannon eventually became disillusioned with their material possessions. Gary said that 'it just all seemed pointless, I can't die with this stuff.' The thought of being in a federal prison also urged them on.

They got rid of what they did not need and decided to move to Alaska, they lived there for several years. Gary was very political and promised that if Obama became President, they would move out of the country. Sure enough, they moved to Costa Rica. All this time life's big questions not answered bothered them, especially being disillusioned with the U.S. Government, they did not know where to find security, prosperity and happiness that was once the promise of the "American Dream".

They decided to try and find answers in the bible and tried a few bible groups along the way, still no answers. Gary and Shannon ended up moving from Costa Rica because it was becoming "Americanized". They wound up in San Juan Del Sur and the first thing they did was look for an English bible study group. Well, the Witnesses were the only ones offering one in English, so they began studying around June 2014.

Steve(elder) and Elkie study with them, their studies on average last 5hrs long. They have read every book available, published by the Watchtower and Tract Society, and devour any biblical information they receive. It puts some of us to shame, really. Gary and Shannon went to their first assembly in Managua, Nica earlier this year and enjoyed it very much, even though Gary was rittled with Chikunguya and Dengue simultaneously. They recently traveled with the entire congregation on the 18hr bus ride to El Salvador for the IMITATE JESUS! Regional Convention.

Gary told me "I have been to many sales conventions where they push pamphlets and CDs on you at the end of the day. We didn't know what to expect, but I like it, nothing like I've ever experienced.". Immediately after the convention, Shannon who had already begun to preach informally to her friends, went on a personal campaign to share with her whole family what she learned at the convention.

You wouldn't think it, but we have several expats in our territory that are "inactive" witnesses or ones that grew up as a witness and never made it their own. One particular woman came up to Shannon not too long ago. The woman takes Shannon aside while at a local expat gathering and tells her 'I just want to tell you, I'm worried about you, your such a social person and I don't want you to ruin your life. But, if you become one of Jehovah's Witnesses you won't be able to have fun, once you get baptized you won't even be able to talk to us...' Shannon laughs and replies 'I'm sorry, I don't mean to laugh at you, but you mean to tell me that all this is worth more than everlasting life?'. BAZINGA!!

Both Gary and Shannon are currently going over the questions for unbaptized publishers and can't wait to go out in the ministry. They were telling everybody they were going to meet us at the service meeting even before they started the questions.

A few of weeks ago Gary showed up at the Saturday meeting with no beard and long hair. He came late and sat in the back away from Shannon. No one knew who he was until they went to introduce themselves and heard him talk. I was so excited I gave him a hug. I waved Jessica over while she was talking to Pete. She looked very confused and asked Pete "Who is that guy?", Pete didn't know either. She came up expecting to meet someone new and was flabbergasted.

We are so privileged to be a part of this! If there wasn't an English Group here in San Juan, how would have Gary and Shannon found and the truth? Although our territory can be rough, because we are still preaching to the same uninterested, "have my own religion", "I'm satisfied with my life" kind of attitude we have in the states, there are always right hearted ones to be found and Jehovah will draw them to him.

Currently we are trialing the Public Talk and Watchtower Study on Sundays in Rivas. It is a 4 week trial to encourage our 34 studies to attend the meetings. At our Kingdom Hall in SJDS we have 5 studies that regularly attend, but the majority of our studies are 30 minute to an hour away. Our first meeting this past Sunday we had 4 bible studies attend. Although they are Nicaraguans whose second language is English, these are ones that have turned down studies from the local brothers and have accepted it in English. If this becomes a group, it could make it easier to reach the native English speakers in the north beaches. At this time it is very difficult to reach them, because it is all badly built beach roads. Most areas need to be reached with four wheel drive or dirt bikes and transportation is hard to come by here. About every 6mths or so we do 2 to 3 day campaigns, at times spending the night in hostels or tents, just to preach in those areas.

IMITATE JESUS! Regional Convention - El Salvador

We recently had our Regional Convention in San Salvador, El Salvador. It's a much cooler climate than what we are used to in Nicaragua, on top of that there was air con. everywhere. San Salvador is "civilization" as far as we were concerned, they had a Dollar Store for heaven's sake! A real life Dollar Store where the prices are under $3, not $50! Sorry, I had to vent there a bit, you see we have a dollar store where we live, but it's called a dollar store because the prices are in U.S. dollars($) instead of cordobas(C$), not because the prices are low.

Anyways, back to the topic.

We left San Juan Del Sur 9/9 Wednesday morning at 2am on shuttles to Rivas (about 45min), then transferred to a larger bus for a 1.5hr drive to Masaya to get to our full size "greyhound" sized bus.

We passed through several borders and I think 6 checkpoints, it took forever.

Honduras border

We picked up brothers from San Marcos, Leon and Chinandega. Everyone was exhausted and annoyed but brotherly love was still apparent. Thanks to Moises, Steve and Scott all the checkpoints went as smoothly as possible. Everyone chipped in for the "tips" the border patrol expected.

El Salvador border

SIDE NOTE: 
The Creole Congregation in Bluefields is mostly composed of locals, they are very poor and most have never even left the lagoon. It was very unlikely that they could afford to travel all the way to El Salvador, much less pay for a hotel and food for 5 nights. The Elders told the congregation to put their names on the list for the bus even though they couldn't afford it. They wanted to make sure everyone had a chance. Just before they had to pay for the bus, a very large anonymous donation arrived that made it possible for everyone to go. 
Some traveled in a 2hr panga ($10) or a cheaper 11hr ferry just to get to the bus in Rama. They slept at the local Kingdom hall in Rama and were fed Gallo Pinto "beans & rice" by the local Spanish Congregation. They were supposed to board the bus at 3am but it never showed. After making calls for hours the bus company showed up about 4pm in the afternoon. The brothers and sisters in San Salvador, lovingly opened their homes to these brothers and sisters and helped them with meals.------

We arrived to our hotel at about 8pm, yes that's correct 18hrs! Everyone was ready to get to there rooms, take showers, eat dinner and go to bed. What we found when we arrived, no one expected...

Our local San Salvador brothers we waiting to greet us outside the hotel. They gave us hugs, bottles of water and ham sandwiches. It uplifted everyone's spirits, just telling you guys about it brings tears of joy to my eyes.

The next day, Thursday, was a free day so a group of us went to the local markets and the Zoo. The Zoo cost $1, which made us weary, I'm sure you have heard stories of 3rd world zoos before. We were pleasantly surprised. There were a variety of animals and all well fed.

Now for the convention...the very first day, as a matter of fact before the morning session even started Jessica had a blowout. These were the only shoes she brought with her, so she was compelled to wear flip flops the rest of the weekend. Between you and me though, knowing Jessica, she didn't have to be coerced.

Some in our congregation had parts, our lone elder had 3 parts total. (From left to right) Shayla Wheater, Elkie Harrison, Sian Smith and Steve Harrison.

We met many friends we hadn't seen in a few months and others we just met there. The max attendance we had was 901, our district covers El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua. We had brothers and sisters from nearly 15 different countries serving as need greaters. At one time our Congregation alone had brothers from 9 different countries.

The Vargas Family-serving Bluefields, Nica

 (L-R) Jessica, Chloe (Auzzie), Erika (Mex.), Jessica (Kiwi), Sienna (Cali. U.S.) - serving San Juan Del Sur, Nica

Eating lunch where ever there is space.

Jessica (Cali U.S.) - serving in Granada

Gary and Shannon - bible studies from SJDS

Last day of the convention many dressed up in native garb from their home country or where they are serving.

The Whites, just moved to Granada, Nica

Whitney - Her and her parents used to serve in SJDS.

(L-R) Wheaters - serving in SJDS and Nathan - was in SJDS now in El Salvador

This brother really touched my heart. He is from Bluefields, Nica. When I gave a talk there in April we went in service together. He was struggling between work and serving Jehovah. He was happy to tell me he never forgot our conversation and is putting Jehovah first, he hopes to be a Regular Pioneer before the end of the year.

This couple serves in the mountains of Guatemala.

Tab and Julie - passed through SJDS, serving in El Salvador

Current Central Ingles SJDS Cong. as of Sept. 2015

(L-R) Jenna, Devon, Leon, Mike, Michelle -Tola, Nica. There are part of our territory, they serve in the Spanish, but join us in English service regularly.

It was such a refreshing and rejuvenating convention. Unfortunately, this will be our last convention in El Salvador. The territory has been rearranged and we will be meeting with the brothers in Costa Rica and Panama next year. So as a final farewell, maybe until the paradise, the El Salvador brothers and sister sang songs. A couple of songs were written by a brother just for us, there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

For the video click the youtube link below:

https://youtu.be/XU2S8QlgS_Q

Our return trip wasn't so bad, it took 15hrs. It was nice to be back home in our own beds, but the realization hit us while dragging our bags home...IT'S HOT HERE!

This Wouldn't Happen In The States!

Broken Clavical Pin Removal-Nicaragua   ------VIDEO LINK

Hey guys..it's been awhile. The link above is the video of my pin getting removed. What pin? you say...What's the story? Well if you got a minute, sit down, pour a cup of tea and get ready to be amazed. Special thanks to Gary and Shannon for coming with us, and Gary taking the video.

If you have kept up with our blog, you know that we make monthly trips to Ometepe to preach. It has been very fruitful territory and everybody enjoys it, especially visitors, it's like an adventure. Many people rent motor bikes to get around since there is virtually no public transportation, well none good enough to depend on for the ministry.

On June 5th it was a normal day in the ministry and I was splitting from the group to visit a return on the opposite side of the island. Jessica wasn't with me, she wasn't feeling well, which would've changed the whole situation. You see, you drive differently with a passenger on back; a little more cautious maybe and you definitely take turns softer.

Half way through the trip the turns get tighter, some more than 90 degrees. I was making a tight turn and as I opened up at the end of the turn on the other side, an old man was in the road riding his bicycle less than 1kph. I tried turning tighter but he was too into the center of the road and the night before it had rained, so my bike started to slip from the volcanic sand on the pavement. All I could do was break and yell MUEVETE! MUEVETE! Being an old man...he didn't hear me until it was too late. I ran right into him. I was not driving very fast, I'm not an idiot, so I didn't hit him very hard. He tipped over off his bike, but as physics goes...an object in motion stays in motion...I kept going over the handle bars and onto the road, all my weight landed onto my left shoulder. I had the wind knocked out of me and I instantly knew I broke something.

The locals came rushing to my aid and moved me and my bike to the side of the road. The old man was fine, of course...I mean...thanks to Jehovah, but I needed medical attention immediately. There are no ambulances and no hospitals on the island, so I had to go to the local clinic. The locals flagged a farm truck passing by and I hopped in so he could drop me off at the clinic in the next town. The locals took care of my bike by parking it in their yard until our friend, Luke, could pick it up. Writhing in pain, the ride seemed like it went on forever. We reached the clinic and the man helped me to the E.R., which is one doctor and one nurse in a room with a desk and a bed. The doctor took one look at me and said, "Oh, your shoulder is just dislocated, I can put it back in.". Wait a minute, no Xray?! was my immediate thought (fortunately my medical background ended up being useful). I said, "Doctor, I think it's broken, it hurts too much to just be dislocated and it looks like half my clavicle is gone.". The doctor responded, "Well if you want an Xray you will have to be transferred to the mainland.". Seeing that the boat was a 45 minute ride away and the boat ride alone is an hour and fifteen minutes I said, "I don't mean to question your abilities, but I'd rather be sure. Could you give me something for pain?". The doctor complied and started the paperwork.

The nurse gave me an I.V. and some pain medication, it just as well could've been water. I had to wait until closing time so I could take the government truck to the port (remember, no ambulances). I had the accident at 12:30 p.m., when we left the clinic they only gave me one injection, which was again...water. They put me in the back seat of the truck which was piled with 15 clinic staff. We made random stops along the way dropping people off. We finally get to the port at 4 p.m. but, we were too late for the ferry, so we had to wait an hour for the next one. I finally decided to call Jessica, because she'd be expecting me home soon. I hadn't called her yet, I didn't want her to worry until I had more of a story to tell her.

We finally got to the mainland and the clinic on the island didn't call ahead for the "ambulance" to pick me up. Good thing one of the nurses, a 19 y.o. girl, came with me for the transfer and she called the hospital. Did you forget? I've been writhing in pain since 12:30, it's now 6:30 and we finally arrive to the E.R. of the city of Rivas. It all worked out pretty smoothly from there, within 15 min. I got a Xray. Sure enough, my clavicle was broken in 2 places and I needed to be admitted for surgery.

I finally got to my room at 8:30. The nurse had to kick a... what looked like a homeless, shoe-less man off my bed. All I did was sit there, I was sharing a room with 6 other men, their wives and 2 shoe-less homeless men laying on the floor in the corner. One of the homeless men asked me if I needed help to take my shoes off, I thankfully declined.

Jessica finally arrived with the elder of our congregation, she helped me get ready for bed and left to prepare some things for the following day. You see, in a Nicaraguan Free Medical facility, they provide you with only a sheet. That's right, Jessica had to bring me clean sheets, a pillow, toilet paper, tooth brush, soap, shampoo and did I mention no A/C, she also had to bring me a small fan. Needless to say I didn't sleep well that night.

This ended up being the hardest two weeks of my life. Since this is social medicine, no one has to pay, but that means you have to wait and wait, and wait. I had to wait in line until the other six guys in the room had their surgery. Thanks to Jehovah, a couple of them could care less about their blood pressure or blood sugar being out of control, so they were sent home. The only medication they provided was injectable pain meds, same as water, and 400mg Ibuprofen. I had never been in so much constant pain in my life, I'm glad I have a high tolerance. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, the nurses do nothing but eat and sleep at their stations, so Jessica had to stay with me all day to help me to the restroom and such. Apparently, nurses in Nicaragua are glorified secretaries, no actual patient care takes place.

The doctors are not much better, although they have the right credentials and go to good schools, they are use to dealing with uneducated people for patients. That means they don't even acknowledge your presence, they don't talk to you about the health plan, they don't even look in your direction. They come into the room with the nurses and med students, pull out a chart, say "This guy is waiting for surgery, give him pain meds IF he needs them." then walks out the room.

We became ninjas in being able to shoo away the hundreds of thousands of flies that came from a couple of rooms down, where they put all the patients with open wounds. I do mean open wounds, because most had no bandages to speak of. There was also the clowder of feral cats that roamed the halls and flea infested dogs looking for scraps. At night the roaches came out by the millions, I have never seen so many roaches in my life, they liked to hide behind the signs taped on the walls. I didn't dare go into the bathroom at night, they came out of the walls and covered the sink.

I got my surgery on June 15th, the doctor told me that they would normally use a plate for my kind of fracture, but that those are expensive and the hospital doesn't keep them in stock. Instead they used what they called a "clavo", which translated means "nail". After getting it removed today it is simply an 18g steel wire that was cut from a reel. I am so grateful for Jessica being so strong through all this and the congregation for stepping up and feeding us. After leaving the hospital, a sister from the Spanish had done some preaching in the hospital. She said the the morgue is in the same room as the kitchen, I'm sooooo glad everyone refused to let me live off of the food there. Not that I complained, you can only eat so much Gallo Pinto.

I'm sick and tired of being stuck at home the last 3 months, but the congregation took care of us. It touched our heart when Gary and Shannon, a couple that have been studying with the elder of our cong., offered to come with us and offered to take Jessica's place in the room while they removed the "clavo". Having them there really helped ease the process, they are proof of the need in the English field in foreign countries.

Below are some pictures of the last 3 months, just progressive snap shots of my recovery.

The Day That Will Live In Infamy

My Room

Feral Cats

The Hospital

 They love their elementary style posters.

 Cafeteria

Home, on my way to daily dressing changes.

Notice the metal pin sticking out.

 Happiest Day of My Life