Quick Update!

Hello! Its been a few days so figured I better get on here and give a little update. The rest of the week flew by and went really well. Thursday had class, moving right along. I had lots of homework in translation this past week, almost 4 hours a night! I taught English to Cyntia and two of her workmates Thurs night and that went really well also. It added dynamic to the classes to have more than 1 person. I am hoping to be able to start sharing my "gospel-themed" or evangelism-focused English with them starting next Thursday.

Friday I took the liberty to relax a bit after class and picked out a good John Grisham novel I had yet to read from the school's English library. The book is "The Firm," which came highly recomended but I had never read before. So I devoured the first 200 pages on Friday afternoon alone, it is good for all you John Grisham fans. Friday night Howard had a little training conference so Helmer and I got together and made dinner. It was a lot of fun. We made Chicken parmesan, pasta (tri-color linguine...my favorite!), brocolli and cauliflower, and butterscotch pudding (brought here all the way from Western PA mmmmm!!!!). We all had a good time, I hadn't gotten the chance to spend time with either of them in a while due to be very busy with new activites and ministries, so that was good.

Saturday, today was a good day of getting lots of stuff done on the computer. I also got to talk to a life-long friend, Ken Kistler, from back home. He was my co-worker down at Slippery Rock Baptist Camp for 8 years, then my boss as principal of First Baptist Christian Academy where I taught for a year before coming here. It was a really great chance to catch up with such a good friend, I sure do miss all of my "camp" friends, Ken, Heather, Julia, all of the great friends I made during those summers spent at camp. Ken's preaching tomorrow so keep him in your prayers. Also preaching tomorrow is my good friend Kurt Gomez, a mexican young man who will graduate from seminary in December in Mexico. He is a member of the church I worked with the very first summer I spent in Mexico City, and since he was the only English-speaking person my age, we really got to be good friends. Four laters, we are still great friends and its been a blessing to encourage each other mutually in our upcoming ministries. There's a good chance he'll be working alongside some of us ABWE missionaries with the new church plant in Cuatitlan if he decides that is the direction God is taking him. Pray for him as he preaches tomorrow at Iglesia Bautista Misionera de Valle Dorado (Missionary Baptist Church of Valle Dorado). And Ken is preaching somewhere in western PA.

Afternoon today was spent teaching English. What a rewarding time it is to teach, I wouldn't give it up for anything. My students Marina, Sira, Yan, and Leonel did a great job today. We hit page 100 in the book and chapter 13! When we started in January, we were on page 1 and chapter 1...so they are really progressing. When we started, they spoke NO English and could barely understand if at all when I spoke English to them. NOw our class is about 3/4 pure English and they are really doing well. Way to go guys!

This afternoon I received a great phone call from a student Marvin, who was also part of our
discipleship group. He wants to continue learning the discipleship material so he is going to bring a group of interested friends of his and meet up with me tomorrow in the central park. We'll hopefully start back towards Unit 1 about Salvation and just review the material for those new attenders. I am really encouraged that he wants to continue with the study. Pray that God continues to work in his heart and give him this desire to learn the Bible.

Another exciting thing that happened today is Helmer was able to go to Los Guido, a very poor all Nicaraguan slum neighborhood to help a couple from church with a ministry of taking polls to see where people stand with their beliefs about God, as well as give out free clothes. He really enjoyed the time and was so excited that he even commented that we need to start collecting more clothes because there were still a lot of houses that hadn't gotten to receive any! Pray God uses this to teach him the importance of ministry and continue to draw him closer to a point of surrendering fully every part of his life.

That's about it. Tomorow's Sunday, church in the morning, and then the afternoon spent with Juan and Marjorie most likely.

Have a good day tomorrow worshiping at church!

Bethany