Open Hearts Nicaragua - Farrington Family

It is hard to communicate what the dump community called La Chureca looks and feels like.  Even with pictures it is hard to really get a grasp, but I wanted to post some pictures I took the other day that show the desperate situation that La Chureca is.

Pamela turned 10 last week and we had a fun fiesta on Sunday at Casa Havilah.  Vanessa & Katherine organized games for all of us to play….ok, it was for the kids to play, but I scammed my way in….but I still lost!  We played musical chairs but with a twist…if you popped the balloon on the chair you are automatically out, then we tied balloons to one foot and had to stomp everyone else’s balloon….that was insane….insanely fun!

    Pamela and her little sister Ashley are easily  two of the cutest lil’ girls ever!  We are blessed to have them as a part of our extended family….and we continuously pray for their little lives; that God would place back in order everything that has come undone and heal them where they hurt!

Mileyding and Isabella were playing with Mason’s hat for like 15 minutes, it was so cute.  Bella kept putting it on so she could see through the hole and then she would freeze and just leave it there looking out at people…..she discovered a new world apparently! 🙂

    The rains are on the way so it was time to get up on top of Casa Robles roof and get all the junk off; mangos, leaves, dirt and all the random things neighbors throw on the roof…..I even found a fork 🙂  These two sections of roof leak very bad in the rains and we hope to replace them by putting down new tin and insulation.  The entire roof needs work, but these sections are most important because they are above the bedrooms!  Nothing like getting rained on in your sleep…. hahaha!  It will cost about $1,30o to do this work…if you would like to help please do, you can follow the link on the right to donate to Open Hearts.  Please be praying for God to get this project done!!!  Thank you!

Krista took these really cool pictures of an owl off of our porch the other day.  Not sure what kind of owl it is….I will just call it, “mommy why does he have two heads” owl.

….but I think my kiddos are lookin for daddy’s roots in the MIA…hahahah.  I guess they will have to settle for Regeatone down here, which is easily the best example that music has sunk to an all time low.

Just stepped outside and fired off a couple of shots.  Just heard across the news here that Osama Bin Laden is a gonner!  Wow!  What a great day!

…this song by Caedmon’s call called “The Danse” is a beautiful depiction of who we are as Christians and how we are moving on this Earth.  I love the depiction of all of us being in a beautiful movement in rhythm with God’s purposes….we are in the rhythm of a danse that is the most fulfilling place we can be.  To stay in that danse is a challenge.  To stay in God’s purposes is like trying to stay in the rhythm of a beautiful danse.

One of the most beautiful artistic displays is a theatrical danse where hundreds of people are moving in the same motion, to the same rythm, communicating a story.  At the same time hearts and minds are being stirred by their movements.  Our life is a danse and it has the potential to communicate the greatest story of the all.  I pray that I can keep my steps in line so that hearts and minds are moved to a place where they come to know our God.

The Danse

 All creation moves in a cosmic Danse
Before the Lord her King
And the rhythms, the reason, the rhyme
Of the danse pulses within everything
And the universe wheels and whirls like
A dervish in perfect seven-step time.
The Lord made the Danse,
He taught her the steps, and He
Causes the songs to shine.

We must danse, danse, danse
Danse in God’s honor.
We must yield all of our steps unto the King
We must danse, danse, danse
Danse in God’s honor.
Let His praises ring throughout the earth.

Adam and Eve dansed in Eden’s environs
Early’in earth’s morning air
They named all the animals musical names
Glorious potentiality shared.
But Lusifer sang out a serpentine song
And he offered death’s danse as a token.
In pausing to listen, Adam missed his step
Earth’s harmony in the danse broken.

Jesus dansed into the world.
Singing his heavenly song.
He taught the danse to those who would
Listen and learn as He moved along.
But the stpes of His danse led to a cross
Where He died as the haters mocked on.
But he dansed through death’s arms
And over hell’s gate and in three days
Dansed forth from his tomb.  

it looks like you can dowload the song here…i didn’t try http://www.music-lyrics-gospel.com/gospel_music_lyrics/danse_11472.asp

     We have tons of iguanas around here, sometime their eggs hatch and a bunch of little ones show up.  But we’ve never found a full grown one on the ground just sitting there not moving….but ALIVE!

We had the first rain of the season here the other day, it was a huge storm over Managua, we just got lots of huge clouds and a little rain over here.  But in Managua there was hail and two tremors to accompany the storm….a little Armageddonish if you ask me!  That is what all the people have been saying.  There hasn’t been hail in like 40 years or something.

Just after the rain we found this guy.  The power was out and we were trying to get it back on.  We looked by a tree and he was just sitting there.  He was alive but not moving.  Once we got the nerve to pick him up he became quite the attraction for all of us.  Mason was really manly….he held it and no one else wanted to.  Oh the crazy things that happen at Quinta Havilah!!!

Mason was cracking us all up with how much he wanted to hold the thing…not sure if he was doing a ninja move here to make it go away or pointing it in the direction to run!  We didn’t know what to do with the iguana so we gave the poor guy to our neighbors.  Maybe we will get to visit it later….hopefully sopa wasn’t on their menu last night!

     We drove up to Jinotega to meet with Pastor Victor Nieves yesterday from Walakitang.  Our meeting was delayed a month because he had chopped his hand with a machete and wasn’t able to travel on the river for the the two days it takes to come out, because when you ride on a boat they expect you to help with the guide sticks and oars.  Because we have no ability to contact them on a daily basis we had begun to worry.  So, we were happy to hear from him when he called out of the blue on Sunday.  His hand was healed for the most part, but still in pretty bad shape.  We prayed for God’s healing before we left.

We had a nice time meeting and catching up.  Everything seems to be going well in Walakitang.  He came out with another church member Felix.  We shared stories and heard about how the church is doing in Walakitang and other church plants in Lakusta and Xixiaris.  Things are going well, but slow moving.  These communities are small so there is the frustrating experience for Victor of having people come and go from the church pretty regularly, but things are good.  In these early years for Victor as pastor it is just good to be there consistently with people and visit them.  He is doing well.

Felix organizes soccer and baseball teams for the church and tournaments in the community which is a great ministry outreach, for me it was good to hear about the sports ministry…I love sports.  We also had a friend recently donate some money specifically for Walakitang so we got to decide how to use it.  We paid for two cows that the church slaughtered for Christmas Feasts in Walakitang and Xixiaris….hundreds of people were blessed by that.  We gave money to help build a house for a widow named Latina who has been on Victors heart for a while now as well to do reparations to the co pastor Jorge’s house who has been in a very bad situation for a couple years now.  We bought three Miskito Bibles and a soccer ball to send back with them as well.  Also, sadly a young woman passed away on her way to the hospital recently in Lakusta.  She was part of the church there and her family is having a difficult time, as you can imagine.  We were able to give an offering to help them with the expenses of funeral and burial costs.  It was a hard story to hear, they brought out a picture of her.  It was a joy to be able to bless different people from the church.

When we were in Miami Krista and I bought some spanish study Bibles and I had given most of them away already, but I had two left.  When we were going to meet with Victor I remembered the Bibles, a nice Thompson Study Bible and a youth study Bible.  So I brought them to give to Victor & Felix.  They were very excited about the gift!  It was very cool to see their excitement to recieve the Word of God.  They really cherish being able to have a Bible.  Victor immediately began to tell us about a dream he had just had about being in a field and a soldier approached him with a firearm, he wasn’t attacking him but giving him the firearm.  Victor said he didn’t understand until this moment.  He now had his weapon….the Word of God.  That was encouraging for us to hear.

It was a really refreshing meeting for us.  It was nice to spend time with Victor.  He said that everyone in Walakitang keeps asking when we will come back with a team.  We are trying to figure that out.  Michael Perkins has one planned for November, but we are praying about a trip before then.  We shall see, we will be meeting with Victor again in July.  Please keep praying for the church in Walakitang, for our future plans, for Pastor Victor and for all the members of the churches along the Rio Coco!

…and the dun dun dun Egg Hunt!!!  We had a great afternoon with friends and family celebrating Easter with Moses’ baptism and remembering Jesus’ Resurrection!  We also busted out some good ol’ tradtions…..Krista’s Gramma has made a bunny cake on Easter since she can remember, and now our kids will always remember Gigi’s bunny cake too!  And of course we had to do some egg huntin’!  It was a wonderful day….we hope all of you had a great Easter Weekend!

This was the egg that was the hardest one to find, it was so funny to see them all pass by it time and again….Lola finally found it…..can you see it???  It is funny how sometimes we spend lots of time looking for things and there it is staring us in the face….Happy Easter!