Shane and Vanessa's Nicaraguan Adventure - Shane Perry
As of early August 2008 Shane and Vanessa decided to head out and see what the rest of the world was like. The following is a breakdown of the highlights of our trip to Nicaragua. Posts should...

Matagalpa Assembly
Matagalpa, Nicaragua
The CA in Matagalpa was a real treat. There are something like 30 special pioneers in the circuit, I'm not sure whether or not the missionaries are considered special pioneers or not but there were 6 of them at the assembly as well. It was great to see them in action. Each of them had parts on the assembly with the exception of on of the missionary sisters and all of them were working hard with various assignments.
The location of the assembly is a small basket ball arena. The bathroom situation for almost 900 people was quite interesting. There are 2 bathrooms. (In the picture above it's the small shed on the right against the far wall, yep that's all of them) The mens restroom is only a small drain, probably 1-2 inches in diameter, so there are signs posted everywhere that you should only urinate there. However, Andrew, a brother in our congregation assigned to cleaning, was forced to handle the actions of a brother that evidently could not read the signs posted all over the little room. I hope that describes the situation without actually spelling it out for you. But I guess, in defense of the brother, if you've gotta go you've gotta go. This story really highlights some of the unique situations that come up here that likely wouldn't happen at home.
Another quite interesting thing involved the location of the assembly. It's basically a steel framed structure with no complete walls. This is fine in many places but Nica is special. I don't know if it's because of a lack of media exposure or what but people drive around here blasting advertisements about everything. Think sound cars in the JV book. They talk about people dying that day, and then subsequently name the 10+ names of the people that paid for the sound car to declare it. Quite interesting. Or sometimes it's just an advertisement to go somewhere or some religious proclamation, etc. The problem at the assembly is that because there are no complete walls, and the street is just on the other side of the small half high walls, the sound at the assembly is oftentimes in competition with the speaker. Something I found quite unexpected. I've never been to an assembly where the speaker was drowned out by ambient noise. Makes you appreciate what we have in the states.
I've included some pictures and perhaps Vanessa will blog a bit later.
written by  Shane Perry on August 11, 2008 from Matagalpa, Nicaragua
from the travel blog: Shane and Vanessa's Nicaraguan Adventure

Jinotega
Jinotega, Nicaragua
Our House and Our Street
So we've arrived in Jinotega and have been crazy busy for the last several days. With the visit of both the C.O. and the D.O. there have been meetings every night. I feel real compassion for our one elder in the congregation, he has to be stressing about the workload. I'll include more about our traveling overseers in the next post.
Field service has been our bread and butter up till today. 9 out of 10 doors that I've talked at I've had good calls. Most of the people are quite friendly about our terrible Spanish and help us along. We do lots of business witnessing. You just go into the store, ask for the owner, and then hit your presentation. This is not something that we do in Scottsville very often and so I was a bit hesitant at first but the territory is quite used to it. This morning I went with another brother into a clinic and we asked to speak to the doctor. We wound through the little compound into the doctors office, (by the way, the place was called something like “The New Day Christian Clinic”, I have no idea what religion they were, so I was thinking, “Yikes! What's going to happen here?”) when we arrived in her office the personnel of the entire office entered as well. This was in total 7 persons. The brother I was with spoke for about 5 minutes, using several scriptures, about the time when all doctors will be out of jobs. I'm not sure if that's taking personal interest or knocking the job of the poor doctor, but it went well enough and the brother didn't have enough literature for everyone in the office. He featured the brochure about God permitting suffering and it seemed to go over quite well. Wonderful huh? I can't wait until we're able to communicate effectively to the people in the field and start adapting our presentations.
I could go on with experiences but I thought you also might like to see our house. Our house is, I would say, average for the city of Jinotega. We have a garage in our kitchen. I know it sounds weird but it's the way it is, and it works great for us! Since we have no car, this means we have a large space in the front of our house. Andrew, the brother who lived in the place shortly before us, utilized this space for ping pong.
Thus, the large table in the front doubles as our kitchen table/study area and, when things get slow for us, a ping pong table. We could probably sit 12-15 people at the table at one time! I'm sure we'll make good use of it. The house has two rooms, and two bathrooms, only one has a hot shower so if you come to visit you we'll have to arm wrestle to see who gets that one! :)
Our street is quite nice and quiet by Nica standards. Most walls don't meet the ceiling in your house so you hear everything outside. Almost directly across the street we have a small Evangelical church. This is the equivalent to the Pentecostals in the U.S. So lots of singing takes place with regularity here. However, most of this takes place while we're away so it's not too bad. You have to put up with crazy barking dogs everywhere, someone behind our house has a goat and some roosters, and you hear all the conversations outside. Why, then, can we say it's quiet? Most noise comes from the traffic going down the street. You fail to realize how noisy vehicle are in the states since most times you're either in one, and even old cheap cars have some noise barrier, or you're inside a building and you see them passing by. Nearly everything is a diesel, and most vehicles have no exhaust, add these two together and you get, LOUD NOISE! We live on a side street and it seems most of our neighbors don't have vehicles either. So it's nice and quiet. For the ambient noise, (I.e. the aforementioned dogs, goats, roosters, neighbors with marital problems, etc.) we sleep with ear plugs and hope for the best. That's all for now, stay tuned I'll post some more on our C.O. And D.O. next week! These brothers are incredible!
written by  Shane Perry on August 14, 2008 from Jinotega, Nicaragua
from the travel blog: Shane and Vanessa's Nicaraguan Adventure

Our CO and DO
Jinotega, Nicaragua
Today has been the first day that we've had off since we landed here and man have we needed it! We've completed some much needed house work and slept away the rest of it. Is this what having a day off a week is really like? On a sad note that also means that yesterday was the final day of our visit with the traveling overseer. Where to begin? First off, because of the governmental situation a few years ago, Nica doesn't quite have the years in the truth that other countries like the U.S. Or Mexico have. For this reason there are not many local overseers here. For instance, our district (there are two in the country currently) has something like 20 circuits. Of the 20 only 4 or 5 have C.O.'s from Nicaragua. The vast majority are from Mexico. I found it interesting that there is only one brother from Gilead that is a C.O. In our circuit. This is of interest because we have nearly 100 Gilead trained missionaries in the country. I asked the D.O. And his wife why this was because I always thought that the Gilead training would enable more of those brothers to be used in this work. The D.O.'s wife indicated that the health of the missionaries limits them from doing the work here. Why health you ask? Well... This is a good link into the challenges faced in the traveling work here.
In the picture above the brother sitting beside me is our single C.O. From Mexico. The couple directly across the table from him is the D.O. And his wife. To give you an idea, the last visit that our congregation had by the C.O. He had malaria. This involves a week of intense fever and other things that I'm sure you can look up on your own. (www.wikipedia.org/malaria) The story goes that this brother still went on with his entire visit while really suffering but didn't miss a meeting for field service or any other of the things involved with his visit. This guy is tough stuff. He's been in the traveling work in Nica for 9 years. Before this he was in Mexico as a traveling overseer for another 9. He has no car, the branch does not supply the brothers with one, and therefore has to travel by bus. Note the picture here. You might find yourself thinking, no problem, this gives him time to sleep and study, etc. Au contraire mon ami! After serving our congregation he was bound for an isolated group that was a 6 hour bus ride north of here. 6 hours!
He says that the buses are made for school children and so therefore get quite uncomfortable quickly. In addition to that, the buses are often times so full that once your seated you can't move. He mentioned that once he was riding along and saw that there was an open container of some fluid above the people in front of him. But he couldn't get to it, and neither could anyone else, and so it fell on top of the passengers. There was no way to move, or to determine who owned the item and so the persons that got wet had no choice but to sit there in the juices until the bus stopped again. He said this was not an unusual situation. There are only 5 congregations in our circuit, the rest are isolated groups waaayyy out in the boonies. So basically, I just described this brothers life.
Our D.O. And his wife are truly wonderful as well. I don't think I've met a D.O. Couple that was as warm as they were in my life. Amazing couple. They have a small apartment in Managua and own a small Nissan 4x4 station wagon. (Eat your heart out Judy!) He has been in the traveling work for something near 20 years and is from Nicaragua. Probably a contributing factor to him being used in that capacity as he was loaded with jokes and stories that, evidently, only Nicaraguans could understand! He has had Malaria 5 times in his service as a traveling brother. He was a real teacher. Full of illustrations and both of these brothers were incredibly effective in the field. One of the brothers, while encountering a self righteous individual who indicated that she could learn nothing from the witnesses anymore, she had surpassed them, was handled in a most interesting way. In stead of just walking away, the brother listened for several minutes as the individual rattled on about how much she knew, blah blah blah, until finally she was done. Then the brother in a very mild mannered way turned to Revelation and indicated how much he too appreciated the deep things as well, and wanted to know her opinion on the first and second death! She was finally speechless and asked for a return visit. I pity the poor brother that has to make that R.V. Can you imagine discussing that in the field ministry on a 2nd call? :)
This is a perspective of our organization that I had never considered in the past. I'm sure the brothers don't get many green handshakes here in a country were few congregations have the money to even own or make payments on Kingdom Halls. But you can tell Jah's blessing on the whole thing. We have around 67 publishers and our attendance on Sunday was 180!!! Can you imagine that? For memorial this small group gets around 300! All this with one elder! There is certainly work to be done here! That's all for now, hope things are going well for you!
written by  Shane Perry on August 18, 2008 from Jinotega, Nicaragua
from the travel blog: Shane and Vanessa's Nicaraguan Adventure

Nessy's First Entry
Jinotega, Nicaragua
It's finally Nessy's turn to write. I want to tell you that I love Nicaragua because every 2 or 3 days a tree ripe fresh mango drops off the neighbors tree that's over our house. It sounds like a bomb when it crashes on the roof, you know the kind of roof that looks like a wavy ruffle chip, and lands in our little patio right outside our back door. The mangoes are small, sweet and perfect.
I also wanted to tell you about a Return Visit that I have and what happened to his family. A few years ago they moved to Jinotega and found a house they wanted to buy that the owners were in a hurry to sell. Which I say house but it's more like an outbuilding that you would see in Buckingham with a dirt floor.
The owners quickly did the paperwork and the family moved in. What they didn't know about the house was that there was a concrete hatch in the floor. The hatch was poorly sealed and what it covered was an old septic tank. The uncle, who was a large man, unknowingly stood on the concrete lid and it collapsed under him. The fumes were so overpowering that before the firefighters could get him out he died. Three of the firefighters that were exposed to the fumes died as well. The Young man telling us the story about his uncle was about 25 years old and after telling us this story he used a local expression that went something like, “what can you do if it's God's will?” Jenny Bloxsom asked if he felt that it was something that God would want. He thought about it and drew the correct conclusion. We showed him James 1:13, 14 and reasoned that it is highly unlikely that God would drown a man in a septic tank to accomplish his will. He did appreciate the thought and is interested in knowing what is God's purpose for the Earth but I'll have to admit that's the first time I've had to reason on something like that!
written by  Shane Perry on August 25, 2008 from Jinotega, Nicaragua

Los Rurales (aka the Boonies!)
San Rafael del Norte, Nicaragua
A significant portion of the territory that we have is outside of the small town where we live. For a variety of reasons this type of field work is only done on Thursday's. The majority of the time is spent in the city and its' immediate environs.
We drove on a paved road about 30 minutes North of Jinotega and then headed dead east towards Esteli to get here. The road that we turned on resembled the type of road that you would see in a National Forest or Park designated for only OHV's(not sure what OHV stands for) or 4x4 if you've ever been on one of those. However, instead of being a road that only a handful of people traverse throughout the year, these roads lead to tens of thousands of people. The people in these areas almost exclusively derive their income from agriculture. As you can see here, no tractors, just animal and people power. It's kind of funny, we used to pay to get into Williamsburg to see people living like this, now we get to see it each week in field service for free. Let that be a lesson Jehovah really does provide everything we could want in his service! (Yes, I know it's weird that I pay to see cows working. That's a subject for another day!)
There is little here that is uninhabited which came as quite a surprise to me. For instance in this picture to the left of the service group. Do you see that path? Down there were several houses. There the road was impassible by any vehicle, only animals and feet. I gather that this is the type of territory that this is the territory that is the realm of Special Pioneers. Here in Nicaragua they have a Temporary Special Pioneer program wherein brothers and sisters go out in the sticks and preach to people in surroundings like these. It's an amazing thing and I'm not quite sure if we've got what it takes to make that happen. Many of the friends that do this have no running water or electricity for the duration of the assignment. All I can say is wow that's zeal and long suffering and endurance and faith and.... the list keeps going.
The majority of the people we spoke with in the field can't read and don't own a bible, but they have much respect for it. We spoke with one lady that was on the verge of tears when we read Revelation 21:3-5. But how can you place literature with someone who can't read? In addition, how can we just leave an interested person that we won't get back to in another 2 years if they have no spiritual food to build themselves up? I'm waiting to see how Jehovah handles that situation. I know people DO come into the truth. After all where do the aforementioned isolated groups that the C.O visits come from? Somewhat frustrating for me and when you ask the friends what to do, many just shrug. Of course that could also be that they don't understand a word I'm saying... :) That is a real possibility.
The friends in our congregation really turn out for this. 3 of 5 of the congregations vehicles were in use for this day of field service. The vehicle closest to us is a diesel mini van with a brush guard! Try and find that in the states! (For those who are completely disinterested in vehicles, forgive me :) ) I don't think you could buy that if you wanted to! The brother with the mustache sitting a little left of the white brother in the center everyone calls Panchito. He's probably like 4'8” tall and is constantly making fun of me because of my height and laughing. I have yet to understand one of the jokes but he keeps himself quite amused! That's all for now!
written by  Shane Perry on August 26, 2008 from San Rafael del Norte, Nicaragua

Hopitality
San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua
We've been quite busy lately. We managed to take a vacation and go to the ocean in San Juan Del Sur. It's a little beach town that's nice but it had been raining for days and because of that we couldn't really leave the town. Our objective was to go see some large sea turtles laying their eggs but the rivers were too big to cross in our truck so we were stuck in the town. Here's a picture of us in the nicest resort in town. It's called Pelican Eyes, a really nice place. We payed about $6 and got a multi course breakfast here. Really cheap and really nice. The view from our table was amazing.
Before we took off, though, we managed to have some of the local friends in for dinner. We took some of the other friends advice and stuck with traditional Nica food, beans and rice and the not so traditional desert of Chocolate chip cookies. The friends loved the visit, even though we couldn't talk about too much.
It's a family with 3 kids. Leo's (the dad) a farmer and manages to support his family with the money from his dad's farm. The two other girls in the picture are cousins of the mother Blanca here. Vanessa's cookies were going rather slowly, everyone only ate one. About two hours into the visit the power went out, no problem we had candles, interestingly though, when the power came back on there were no cookies to be found. 15-20 cookies disappeared in an instant. Maybe someone needed comfort food.
The family was so thrilled that we had them over they decided to have us over for lunch a couple of days later. We went out to the farm where Leo works and Andrew and I managed to till the soil with their oxen. We're sure they were laughing inside at us, but outside they didn't show it. They treated us like honored guests. Nessy made fresh corn tortillas with the ladies in the kitchen.
And afterward they made us rice and beans to go with it. They served us first. They also offered us cuajada. A soft white cheese made from cow's milk. We've had it, but only cooked in lasagna. Raw it can be hard to digest. So Shane & I passed on the cuajada. But Ryan accepted it graciously. He was starting to get full with a half a plate left. But when you think about how the family feeding you has probably just given you the best of the best of the best of what they have. You gotta cram it in and clean your plate, no matter how much you feel that your belly will burst. And so he did. No, not burst, he cleaned the plate. Everyone was happy. And now we've been invited back for chicken soup. The first time I've ever actually met the chicken before its soup. The guys add, these chickens were pretty rough looking, skinny, bald spots, big stray feathers poking out at awkward angles. In their opinion, they'll be better off as soup.
written by  Shane Perry on September 8, 2008 from San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

Having our cake and eating it too!
So it's been a little over one month here in Nicaragua and just now are we starting to be able to have useful conversations in the ministry. Vanessa and I just completed a second study with a woman named Sobeida. She's in her mid twenties attending a small university here in Jinotega and she has a strong spiritual interest. The problem is not necessarily finding the words to talk to her or to teach, although our teaching is not really complicated which might be for the better, but rather understanding what she says in response to our questions. We end up walking out of the study asking each other what the other thought the student said. It's quite a challenge! I can imagine a conversation going something like this:
Shane: What do you think, how does Jehovah feel about the man that has no legs down the street, does he feel compassion for him?
Student (in Spanish) : The man was probably a sinner and God has been punishing him by taking away his legs... I'm sure this is the case.
Vanessa(smiling sincerely): Very good. That's right! Let's read this scripture....
and on the study goes.... :) I'm really hoping that this is not the case but we're not really sure at this point. Again, if Jehovah can use the rocks we've gotta be worth something.
Things are working out though, we had another family from the congregation over for spaghetti. I think it went over well but they ended up getting something that they hadn't bargained for. Here in Nica, spaghetti consists of noodles butter and onions and that's it. We spent atleast 2 hours on the sauce, cutting tomatoes, cooking, searching for fresh basil in peoples yards. It was a family with 3 kids 16, 13, and 7. They all ate it, but only one serving, nobody went for the parmesan that we brought from the states, they said it was too smelly, and all had small servings. Oh well. We certainly enjoyed it. I guess next time we'll have to go for beans and rice. It's not really different than in the states I guess, most of us only eat the same 5-6 meals over and over again with occasional variation. Afterwards we taught the kids how to play a game called “Greed” with dice. Maybe this wasn't the best game to teach but it is quite fun. The father asked me if they play that type of game in casino's and pool halls in the U.S. :) I think he was a little worried about how involved his kids were getting in the game. I hope we didn't just send some kid down the wrong path in life.
As far as adventure in the ministry we went out again in the rurals to teach and met a really nice woman. Great conversation. We managed to get stuck behind a bean truck that was being loaded, that killed an hour of our field service, and while we were waiting there was a storm rolling in. In comparison to what the folks in VA and TX have been facing it was nothing. I would be a bit frightened to experience that here. However in order to get home we had to cross a river that was about 2/3rds the size of the James by truck. We got to the river and it looked passable so we put the truck in 4 wheel drive and slowly went across. Not a big deal. However, there was another car that was working with us from Jinotega that decided to preach just a little bit longer. They came to the river about 15 minutes later and the river had risen to the point that it was impossible to cross. Those friends had to drive for 4.5 hours to get back home! An hour trip home over a river took more than 4 times that for the others. I'm sorry, but we have waaaaay too much fun in the ministry and it's productive too! We forgot our camera. Sorry guys... Maybe I'll take a picture of it later if we ever get back there again.
written by  Shane Perry on September 15, 2008 from Jinotega, Nicaragua

Our Kingdom Hall
Some have been asking about pictures of our KH and so we thought we would oblige. (I included the icecream man in this one, evidently people buy ice cream at 8:30 on a Sunday morning? :)This is a picture of our Sunday meeting. This day we had around 140 in attendance, again this is with 65ish publishers. The Kingdom Halls down here are all owned by the branch. Which is news to me because in the states aren't the majority of the halls there owned by each congregation? Interesting isn't it? There are 2 likely reasons for this. The first and probably the one that your thinking of right now is that many congregations do no have the means to pay for a hall. Which is probably true. The upper end of housing (I.e. the ones that most need greaters are in) are somewhere between $100 and $150 a month. The majority of the friends do not live in a place like that. A building like the kingdom hall would probably go for around $35000 - $50000. Needless to say that it out of the realm for many congregations to afford here.
A second reason is likely due to the legal system here in Nicaragua. Perhaps there is some advantage to this. Did I mention that about five minutes in to the meeting we lost power? We had no power for the rest of the meeting. The brother who gave the talk was from Spain. The poor guy was sweating the whole time and did a large section on the kingdom of the son of his love. Tough huh? (Are you happy Ryan? There is a picture of you here front and center!)
There are currently two congregations that meet in our hall. Ours has, as I've mentioned before, one elder and about 6 servants counting me. The other has around 80 publishers one elder and one servant. We managed to go to a dinner gathering with some friends with the elder from the other hall visiting. Luis, the elder there, was really trying to draft us over there. There is such a need down here! We'll see how that goes.
It seems the standard here to have an apartment with each hall. If we end up staying here for several months, likely we would end up moving to the apartment. The apartment is about 500 sq feet with a bathroom and a ¾ wall that divides the room. All the chairs here are plastic and cost something like $7 a piece. Does anyone remember how much a chair costs in the states? I do have to admit that the chairs in the states are a bit more comfortable.
We've also had the privilege of hosting a large group of friends from Spain. It's really nice to be a destination that people want to visit. We're having a whole bunch of them over for dinner. It's been nice to have them here because, unlike the local friends, they actually listen to what were saying at the door and help out. I
t can get hard when the householder asks a question and we have no idea what they said. The likely situation here develops while your talking the second witness wanders off, sometimes sitting on the curb, sometimes going off for a drink, most times just staring off into space. We keep thinking that it's just that they don't understand us but when we talk to others it's just the culture here. Take care everyone! If anyone wants to come down here we would be happy to have you. Just send us an email! By the way, Ryan says that there are fire breathing llamas in the mountains here. And it's not safe to go outside after 5 because the llamas try and sell you used trapper keepers. .... I'm not sure what that means.
written by  Shane Perry on September 22, 2008 from Jinotega, Nicaragua

Ryan and the Branch
Managua, Nicaragua
Sorry that we missed our last blog post. We've had a bit going on lately. Ryan left and so we escorted him down to the airport to send him off. We certainly enjoyed his company. His send off was really nice. We had to meet with the branch which is about 30 minutes from the airport so we decided to come down with him. Fortunately, we had met with a traveling overseer couple that invited all three of us to stay with them in their apartment the night before he left. I need to express here again that being here is an awesome experience. You're surrounded by tons of theocratic work and incredible people that are doing it way better than you ever could. It reminds you of bethel with very little of the structure. :) For those of you that are structure averse I highly recommend it! So much to learn here!
Here's a picture of their apartment. It's a nice little place, there are two apartments in the building to the left there. Each one of them is a one bedroom, modest size, a great deal smaller than the apartment there in Scottsville, but very nice. The C.O. Joked that they had found the only quite place in all of Nicaragua. They forced us to sleep on their bed and they and Ryan shared the floor in the front room on air mattresses. We stayed up until about midnight telling jokes and then the C.O. Got up at around 5 to prepare for his next day of pioneer school! What hospitality! There names are Dave and Esther Moore from the U.K. We were not able to get a picture of them because we decided to take the pictures in the morning and Esther wouldn't let us. They're a blast to be around and evidently they're good friends with the Tully and Jenny Wrights parents in Lebanon, VA. So there is a chance that you've met them before. Who knows?
The following day after visiting with the Moore's and saying good by to Ryan we headed off to the branch. I was a little bit nervous about getting around Managua because 1.) I hadn't yet occurred to me to get a map. I figured taxis, buses, little red three wheelers, etc. know how to get everywhere so I don't need a map. (In retrospect, I've seen the need to adjust this viewpoint.) 2.) Everybody says that there are many areas in Managua that are quite dangerous, especially for 6'7” white guys wearing a tie. I briefly considered removing my tie and smearing dirt on my face as an attempt at camouflage, but then realized I could do little about my height without inflicting great pain on myself and so continued on as I was. So I was a bit worried, in addition to that, many people warned us of the dangers of getting ripped off by taxi drivers. We don't yet have the handle on Spanish to haggle effectively (I.e. using insults about the cab drivers mother, etc) to deal with that situation. So off we went.
We found a little 3 wheeler thing that we took to the branch the next morning. It cost us about $1. Vanessa went crazy taking pictures of the thing, we've got like 20, but for sake of not killing those looking at this with dial up, I'll post just one.
We arrived at the branch without incident and we didn't get ripped off. We walked through the gate at the branch and arrived here. The branch here is breathtakingly beautiful in comparison with the rest of the country. Here many people work for around a dollar or two a day, so I'm sure that for many of the Bethelites from Nica, bethel is better than most possibilities for a career. Even with a modest stipend, I didn't ask how much it is here, I can imagine it would be amazing to be here. Oddly enough, they don't have a line of local brothers beating down the door to get in, I can't quite figure that one out. We unexpectedly met up with the Spanish friends from a week ago again while at the branch. Tomas and Eunice, one of the couples from Spain, after waiting for a year and a half had just found out this week that their house had just sold, even in this abysmal market. Much of the time they were here they were lamenting the fact that they couldn't move here to serve because they had made the decision of buying a house. That problem out of the way, we hope to see them down here! Our interview went well but because of some logistical issues with our letters we were unable to really receive much direction from the branch. Oh well. We'll hope to get that one worked out soon. :o)
Unfortunately there is more to tell and I'm cautious about keeping these things too long. Maybe I'll post again this weekend. Hope everyone is doing well! As a side note, (and as an attempt to appease our offended congregation mates :o) ) Andrew and Jenny are going away to Esteli (poke around on the map you'll find it to the NNW of Managua) for pioneer school. We will miss them terribly. Though we'll be miserable without them, we hope they enjoy it!
written by  Shane Perry on October 2, 2008 from Managua, Nicaragua

Evelyn and Roses
Evelyn:
We have a great new study. The best kind, the kind that comes to you. Parents send their kids to sell things from door to door. Kind of a shame because they should be in school. One girl, Evelyn, sells us tortillas (Sad confession: we don't actually eat the tortillas. The sisters here said its not safe to eat food when you don't know what the kitchen is like.) Whether we bought her tortillas or not, she liked to hang around at the door watching whatever we were doing. When her brothers and sisters would come to get her, they'd point at us giggling and laughing and then all run away. One day while she was hanging out, we grabbed the bible and asked if she knew God's name. Of course, she did. “It's Jesus.” Then we asked if she could read, kind of doubting it since she looked like she was 6. Yup, she could read and she's 10. So, syllable by syllable she read Luke 1:31, 32. that Jesus is the name of the Son of the Most High. And then Ps 83:18 for the name of the Most High. When we asked her God's name again, she got it! Ryan suggested we get the Great Teacher book. So, now whenever she comes we read from that together. (She comes everyday.) Yesterday, she brought 4 other kids. But she wanted to be the first to blurt out “Jehova,” Even before we asked them what God's name is. We were pleased to see she had already taught them all too. In the picture Evelyn is the 2nd from the left.
Roses:
October 3rd was our 5th anniversary. Shane thought to buy me roses. And the story is funny. When he gave them to me he said there were supposed to be five, one for each year. Which is so incredibly sweet. But there were only four. He bought them from a woman selling on the bus. The “Bus General” ( The Bus General, as we call him, is not the driver. The driver only, well, drives. This man is in charge. He collects all the fares, keeps order and scales the outside of the bus while its moving to get down peoples chickens and bicycles before their stop.) had already told her it was time to get off. So Shane quickly asked how much they were. Five cordobas each. Shane opened his wallet and the General and the lady 'whoa'd. He only had 100's. The General quickly made change and the lady asked how many. Hurried, Shane tried to say five. But the General shouted “four,” paid the lady and kicked her off the bus. Leaving Shane bewildered with 4 red roses in one hand and a pile of change in the other. That definitely makes these the most special roses he's ever got me.
Andrew and Jenny:
Due to recent demand by our readers, it has come to our attention that there is a great lack of information on this blog about the Lathams. We are happy to oblige. Andrew and Jenny are an amazing couple. We see them on the sidewalk holding hands headed to service morning and evening. In the meetings he's giving like 5 parts while she's translating it all into sign language. In their off time, they're teaching us Spanish, making lasagnas with homemade pasta, and volunteering in deaf schools. Thanks to Jenny's preparedness we've been able to borrow just about every kitchen item imaginable. And Andrew is great too 'cause you just cant make this guy a bad meal. All this, and they still have time to watch Horatio Hornblower episodes with their friends!
written by  Shane Perry on October 8, 2008 from Jinotega, Nicaragua

Adventures in the field ministry
Sebaco, Nicaragua
Nicaragua is an incredibly rich field for service. Between the both of us we have around 8 regular studies and some of them are coming to the kingdom hall. To me that's incredible, but that's just one side of the ministry here. Last Thursday we went to a little village called Chijuitas. We left at around 8:00 in the morning and set off. This was going to be an interesting trip because there were only 4 of us going, generally the group is larger, and because of that we could take the road there because we could all fit into one 4x4. Typically, in order to reach this town the friends walk for 3.5 hours one way to talk to this little village. But not us! No, we were going the modern way! By the way, I should mention that no one in our car had gone there by truck, only walking, and so only had drawn conclusions about whether or not we could get there. No empirical tests to prove that it indeed was possible.
We start off and are in awe of the beauty. We climbed right out of the valley where our town is and this is the view we had. It was gorgeous. Oh, and I also need to mention that we are in the rainy season down here. This is an important footnote because I think that the brothers who had walked it before had done so in the dry season.
As we go, we are passing only people with horses and on foot. They all stop and watch us and wave with friendly smiles, oh the preaching would be good here! In retrospect I think they were watching us because of other reasons. (I.e. we were complete fools to be driving this “road”) Ah, but the day was beautiful, the birds were singing, and we were ready for adventure. The road continued on over the mountain wherein it turned in to a babbling brook. Oh, how beautiful! Unfortunately, the road started to get really steep and unstable.
The truck, in places, would continue moving when the tires would not move. Other places the truck would be on a 35 degree angle and, as in this picture, would not be moving at all because we were pinned by a rock. It was pretty scary! We made it there all right though. But decided that we likely could not drive out the way we came because of the condition of the road. We encountered a man at our destination that said that it hadn't rained there in 5 days and so we were pretty happy about that. That meant that we would be able to get out by going down hill and crossing the river. Ah, but who worries about that! We have holy spirit and the sunshine in a place (In the tropics! I.e. rainforest) where it doesn't rain! No worries.
We set off to preach. Here is a picture of the group descending the foot path to the village. If you look really hard you can see smoke about halfway down the hillside here to reach the little village. Preaching was great and we had to cross a few goodly sized streams by skipping across rocks, but it was great. You go down to places like this, and always end up finding some kind of church that looks way better than the other houses in the area. I have no idea how they get the materials here. I guess by foot. We worked until lunch and then it started to rain.... This in a place that doesn't get rain in the rainy season... So we scramble to get out of there. We all walked up about a 600 – 700 foot elevation gain in about a mile to get back to the truck. There we make the fateful decision to get home.
We start driving down the hill and the road turns in to this. I know the pictures not that great but we didn't really have that much opportunity to get out. It's a two door truck and we were in the back. The road turns into a cow path that snakes down the side of the mountain. Julio, our fearless local brother, said that this road was made by hand and paid for with food. Wow, what an economic system, eh? Anyway, the real question after being on this road in the rain for another 2 hours was whether or not we could cross the river at the bottom. Would we be able to get out? We couldn't return the way we came, the truck wouldn't do it, and if the river was too deep with the rain we would be stuck here, in the rainy season, until the river receded. What would happen? (Imagine dramatic background music here....)
Here is a picture of the river. Julio jumped out and scouted the river. It was just moderately deep, he thought we could make it, but who really knew, you can't see under the water. Our driver said, (and we have this on video) “Say a prayer guys, here we go.” And he gunned it. :) I'm not sure if that 's the best way to go, but oh well. We fly through the river hitting the huge rocks and the back two tires came off the ground at least once, but we made it! I would keep writing but there is another 3 hours worth of trip to describe and I'm sure you're getting tired of reading. To put it in short, we drove through huge mud bogs, past sections where the road no longer existed, and got lost for a short time out there in the bush, to manage to get home just shortly before dark. The truck only lost it's tailpipe. Which I'd say was pretty good. :) More later.
written by  Shane Perry on October 13, 2008 from Sebaco, Nicaragua

Yes, it´s way over due! Sorry
Tract Campaign
To keep everyone abreast on what's going on with us I feel the need to fill you in on what's been going on with us the last several weeks. Once we had decided that we would like to stay for more than a year following protocol we decided to contact the branch to try receive an assignment. After waiting for a couple of days on the branch we received two options. One in Jinotega South, which is the other congregation here that has a territory that goes nearly to Honduras as far as I can tell and the other assignment in a little town called Las Maderas. It was brutal decision. The little congregation in Las Maderas only has one ministerial servant and 36 publishers. The friends were super hospitable and really wanted us there. The congregation here in Jinotega had effectively one elder and on servant for 85 publishers, and a huge territory as I've already mentioned. We prayed and waited for almost a week before making the decision to stay in Jinotega.
The need here is definitely great. I've gotten already 1 part a week on the meetings and the brothers asked me if I could take the school. I told them that my Spanish was too bad, how can you talk about speaking qualities if you can't speak? I'm not sure... Anyway, they were still very happy to have us and so here we are working away.
Our first day of field service with them was in a rural territory in the tract campaign. By the way, We ran out of tracts before we got the territory done. I think we received about 7500 and we're still missing significant parts of our territory. There isn't much that we can do about that though. This first day of service was a bruiser. We walked 15-17 kilometers, no one really knew exactly while preaching. This meant that we were on a bus by 7 am, walking in the territory by 7:30, and out by around 5:30 P.M. This we did with 29 from our congregation. There is definitely a real pioneer spirit here and even folks in their early 60's were with us the whole day.
What Else Have We Been Up To?
We moved! We get to live in the apartment at the Kingdom Hall. We love it. It needed cleaning and painting badly. But after a week or so of that we're in.
Here are before and after pictures and a picture of Panchito, a brother who came with his cart and mule to haul away the trash from the back of the apartment. The back is kind of a creepy dark enclosed patio. It is covered but rain still pours in. That's where we will do our laundry. And that's where Shane found a nice big rat. We bought poison and scattered it around, but two days later something had eaten it, ALL, every single piece. So, either we have a lot of dead rats or just one big tough guy. And yes we support the bed on paint cans. It's weird but it gives us a place to store our luggage.
We have two new pioneer sisters here from Spain. They are great, 18 and 22 years old. They decided to come to the South congregation as well. They are super zealous and outgoing and can cook Indian food like a dream.
One other great thing, I get to keep studying with Evelyn the 10 yr old girl who sells tortillas. And it is official because her house is in our new congregations territory. I'm looking forward to meeting her family. I'd like to see if they would come to the meetings. Evelyn could only come if her family comes because all our meetings are at night and she lives in a barrio (neighborhood) too rough to walk through alone at night. Although the night of the other congregation's meeting she was still out selling tortillas after dark with her little buddy. And they came to the front of the KH and were using the padlock to clang on the metal gate and shouting my name as loud as they could. I made it to the gate at the same time as Hacial one of the attendants. I think I asked the girls if they could “please be to silence,” or something like that. They nodded. So I guess they could come out at night, but I'd be so worried about them going home in the dark.
Shane's mom came. We had a really great time. She was such a great sport. Got out and danced some Merenge at a party with all the sisters (There is a really cute picture of this, but I will not put it one until I get permission from my Mother-in-law :) and even used a latrine out in our rural territory. We were glad to see nothing made Betty flinch, not even the uproar over the elections here. And she was very popular. At the meetings everyone is asking about her. The friends get really attached to people fast. It was so great to have visitors (hint hint you guys) and she brought us a suitcase of stuff like peanut butter and chocolate (hint hint again, no just kidding!) Andrew and Jenny also have guests. Her sister Heather is here this week. Its really pretty to hear her great Portuguese/Spanish blend.
We're sorry this has been so delayed. We'll try to do better. Please dont give up on us! BYE
written by  Shane Perry on November 25, 2008 from Jinotega, Nicaragua

Tract campaign results
Results From The Tract Campaign.
During the tract campaign we met a 50 yr old woman named Katalina. She chose the question, “What happens to us when we die?” She had her own thoughts already, but the sister with me shared Ecc 9:5, 10. And Katalina was considering it, but not yet convinced. Nevertheless, we told her we'd return to talk more about the condition of the dead.
When we went back she swung the door open wide and asked Shane and me in. We started immediately in Chapter 6 in the Bible Teach bk. She must have read the tract because now she agreed with everything. And as she got more comfortable, she asked more questions.
Do we need to observe the sabbath? Because some say you do. Can we drink alcohol? Because some say you cant. (Why didn't they put that one in the tract? It's useful here!) A few scriptures was all she needed to see the answers. Then she asked where our meetings are. We told her and said we'd love to see her there. At our next meeting though, she didn't come. So, when we went back for the study last week she said she had come all the way through town in a taxi, but couldn't find the hall. We were so shocked. After we left that study, we made a point to visit a sister nearby and ask her to go to Katalina's house before our meeting and go with her this time. Sure enough, Saturday evening (we have our Public Talk and Wt study on Saturday evening) thanks to the sister's help, she came. We were so happy.
She even brought her one year old grandson, who climbs everything like a jungle gym. But he did as good as a one year old can. Some sisters in the row across the aisle captured him for her when he got loose one time. And Katalina looked as comfortable as could be. She even stayed half an hour afterwards to visit. Here is a picture of them.
The Motorbike
We bought a motorbike.
It will let us be more flexible on where and when we can have studies out in the rural territories. Now we can go from study to study without the downtime of waiting for the not-always-so-frequent buses.
Buying the bike was easy. Registering it was not. The police decided that non-residents can't own property and wouldn't issue the license. They called Managua, the capital, to back them up. They recommended putting it in the name of a resident. But to do that we needed a lawyer, since it was already purchased and insured in Shane's name. The lawyer, a return visit of the special pioneer/elder in our hall, read the law to Shane and said it absolutely permits non-residents to own property. So, if we wanted to we could take the police department to court. Can you imagine? What a horrible idea! As if we don't stand out enough as it is. We'd be the favorite target of every officer in town on our little red motorbike. No, Shane just paid to have the ownership legally changed. It was cheap by the way. An hour and a half of a lawyer's time for $15.00 and then he discounted it by half! Plus, they preached to him the whole time. He was totally floored that Shane would leave all the glamor and prosperousness of life in the U.S. (yeah, not these days, right?) to come down and live off his own money and preach. He asked Shane and Luis, “So, you're telling me, if I learn what the Bible says, I'm going to want to give up my lifestyle and just start preaching.” Luis and Shane told him it is the best kind of life any person could ask for.
So now, we are enjoying “borrowing” our new bike from our brother Luis and riding is style. For your questions about safety, you'll be pleased to now Shane drives incredibly cautious and slow. With two of us on it, the bike's top speed is about 35mph. We don't intend to use it much in town. As for traffic, out in the rurals, we'll probably pass about five cars an hour.
We're going to repaint the Kingdom Hall!
Next week after our district convention, we're going to repaint the Kingdom Hall. We're looking forward to it. Here is a picture of the pre-work. They had to redo the concrete stucco on the pillars and the security wall. We'll have more pictures of the finished project next time.
Now for a bit of shameless advertising:
Is anyone looking for a cell phone and plan? We need to find someone to take over our Sprint contract or we pay a cancellation fee. It has one more year left. The plan has 450 minutes for $49 + tax each month, free nights and weekends after 7pm, free long distance, and mobile to mobile. The plan can be adjusted for what you want. We will send you the LG Fusic phone with MP3 player and camera (is that still cool? We dont know!) If you hear anyone looking, please let us know.
written by  Shane Perry on December 9, 2008 from Jinotega, Nicaragua

Salvation and Suffering
(I chose the title because it sounds epic. Not because it has any direct relation to what's been going on with us.)
Greetings to everyone. We hope that everyone is enduring the North American winter. Firstly we would like to introduce a road sign which, we believe, should be in every road in the world (where appropriate, of course.)
This sign was strategically placed on a heavily trafficked road near a cluster of bars. The sad thing is that just after taking this picture there was a stumbling drunk not 5 feet from the road. Everyone who drives here says that the drunks are the scariest things on the road. Not behind the wheel mind you, but the ones walking. There is no predicting what they will do.
Public inebriation is something that you encounter often. During Christmas day there are loads of them about, it should be interesting to see what new years is like. It is of interest to note that 95% of all drunks here can speak some English, “Give me moneys!”, “I luf you!”, etc being some of the more notable lines that are used. They also enjoy touching you, grabbing you on the arm and not letting go. Fortunately, they never do this to Vanessa but, I on the other hand, am a magnet! I think I have discovered my second super power (closely following my ability to attract mosquitoes, not sure what that's about either). Fun stuff! I now know why I've avoided bars to this point in my life!
We've been quite busy. We've recently completed our District Convention (They have them in the winter here. Someone told me in order to avoid the heat.) The drama was excellent. They put a lot into it just like at home. After the program though Duane Lindela, a missionary brother, showed us the prototype for the idol in the drama. He said it was rejected because it looked too much like a pinata.
It even had little plastic eyes that moved and if you look close enough you might see that someone scribbled a heart on it with an ink pen. Maybe they figured they could use it for target practice after the convention or something. Actually, hunting isn't very common here. No one owns guns. We love to tell them that almost everybody in Virginia does! What's the ratio in the states, something like 5 guns to every person.
Painting the Kingdom Hall
The Kingdom Hall is finished. It is so nice. It really stands out on the street now. And since so many people go on foot, they'll really take notice of it now. I wanted a picture with Shane turning to smile at the camera like the rest of the brothers, but he refused and insisted to keep working. He said he just wont tolerate anymore jokes from Shawn about him with his hands in his pockets! So, there you can see him on the scaffolding reaching up where no one else could. He subsequently got shingles and stopped working for the next several days. Likely excuse.
We're headed to Texas for a couple of days at the beginning of February to try for some of the things that we'll need to get our residency. Not that we're going to stay here forever but it will open up some doors for working down here on the branch and on an assembly hall project. It will be the first real assembly hall to my knowledge. There currently is one at the branch, but it's part of the branch so we won't count that. It will also reduce our expenses for obtaining visas. The way it stands now we have to leave the country every six months to renew our visa. Under the residency plan we can stay here for 10 years for something like $120. Obviously that excludes living expenses.
Our next entry should be interesting because we're taking a couple of days and going to the Isle of Ometepe. Two volcanoes that formed an island in the middle of a huge lake. Think Hawaii only smaller. :) We're going to sleep in a kingdom hall, (hey, saves on hotels!)(oh, and I mean sleeping in the auditorium not an apartment or anything) and spend some days swimming in lagoons and protecting our possessions from monkeys that, when looking for food, take your backpack off of you and destroy everything in it or so we've heard! Should be fun! We could sure use that US gun ratio during a monkey attack couldn't we!
Update on Katalina: The 50 year old woman from the last entry has decided to move, temporarily, to Managua to work. We find this out and, undeterred offered a study to the person that offered us the news. This lady, the daughter of Katalina and mother of the small child in the picture, also agreed to a study and chose the same chapter on what happens when we die. She spoke very favorably about the study with Katalina, evidently they were talking, and we're going to return for the first study this week.
written by  Shane Perry on December 29, 2008 from Jinotega, Nicaragua

The island of Ometepe
Rivas, Nicaragua
The Island of Ometepe
Ever seen those movies where the people get stranded on a lonely island? Well that's were we went for a vacation this month. Complete with coconut palm trees, monkies
and two enormous volcanoes.
It is just like you'd see in the movies. I rode with four other brothers and sisters in the back of a truck loaded with stuff for five hours. Shane was the driver so he had a little more room, but there we're still five more people in the cab. We had the best food there. Fresh fish almost everyday. The coconuts were great too. A brother came over and climbed 50 ft up the palm tree to get us coconuts. He climbed barefoot and had we been paying customers he would have made 25 cents a climb. Not really good pay for a high risk profession.
Does the brother show up enough? If you look close he is the bump on the left side of the tree thats closest to the middle of the picture.
The special pioneer couple in our hall, Luis and Maribel Tercero were our hosts because that was their last assignment. They are still in love with it and we could see why. Every meal we ate included something grown right there on the island. You'd never starve. The fish, mangos, cocoa beans and plantains. They have so many plantains (you know what they are right? They're like big huge not so sweet bananas.) that you dont need to buy them. Someone always has some to give away. Luis said when they first got to the island and were going door to door preaching, they saw a horse munching away on the cargo that it'd just been carrying. He went quickly to the door and said “Hey, your horse is eating your load of plantains!” The lady at the house just laughed and said, “No, dont worry about him, that's his food.” That horse had good taste. We love plantains now. When they are green you can make tostones. You peel the plantain and cut it in big slices and fry it a little on both sides, then comes the fun part, you take a glass and smash it! Then you fry it a tiny bit more each side and salt them. They're not sweet so Shane compares them to potato chips.
We also swam at the a beautiful spring that comes from the base of the volcano. It is called 'the eye of the water'. It was very beautiful and clean. The water wasn't warm like you might of thought though.
We all stayed at the Kingdom Hall since we were there in between meeting nights. And there's no real hotels nearby. Shane and I, pitched our two person tent inside the Hall to avoid the mosquitoes. I'm sure that did nothing but add to our 'we're-foreign, thus-we-are-weird' image. It didn't bother the brothers and sisters at all though. They're all so wonderful. They had a little welcome party for us when we came. They made enchiladas and fresh juice and put on music for us to dance. One of the pioneer sisters did all our cooking for us all four days. We gave her a little 'donation' when we left, but we couldn't really repay all the kindness and hospitality she showed us.
Bentura
Shane met a man who wants to study. He is 50 yrs old named Bentura. He told us he couldn't read, which isn't that uncommon so we didn't think anything otherwise. He had so many questions about what happens after death. One was, “If we go back to the dust when we die, why does the bible say we can live again on the earth?” Shane showed him the Enjoy Life brochure. You know, the one that is almost all pictures except for the captions. He started reading very very slowly. The truth came out, he actually could read he had just always been embarrassed because he reads so slowly. Shane showed him how to find scriptures in his own bible and soon he was telling Shane not to help him with it. He wanted to do it himself. He was so proud of what he was learning. His wife, Pastora, sat beside him the whole time. She was very interested in the conversation too. We're going back Wednesday evening after he finishes work. He owns several horses, they look pretty well kept too, not starving and struggling to stand like some of them here. He walks his horses up the mountains to the little pueblos on the other side and makes money hauling loads back and forth. It is so exciting for Shane to find some men who are interested in studying. Like the scripture says the women are already a large army here. But the congregation still needs the help of more brothers. Especially because the news according to the branch through the special pioneer in the other hall is, they want another congregation here in the next year. Our meeting attendance is at 120 and the other congregation is at 125, that with three elders and six ministerial servants between the two congregations.
Here is the finished photo of the Kingdom Hall. You can compare it to some that we took early on in the trip and see the big change.
written by  Shane Perry on January 20, 2009 from Rivas, Nicaragua

We were preaching in a meteor crater
We've been preaching in a meteor crater and we didn't even know it!
It's true. You can see it on Google Earth. There is a large population that lives in the "Valley of Pantasma." And to us it always just looked like a normal valley. But some photos on from space show it is actually a huge old meteor crater. There are lots of people who live in it. One guess was 50,000. But there is no congregation there. The main community, Praderas has several thousand people, a wide dirt main street and bars on both sides. It's like an old west town especially on the weekends. They get to be a wild bunch. And Shane is on everyone's 'Best Frien' list. I guess he looks like the kind that just might be able to buy them a drink if they could just lure him up to the bar. Anyway, that's all happening on main street.
Meanwhile, in other parts of town many studies have been started. The other congregation in Jinotega has been helping our congregation to work up there. Two very zealous publishers, Coni and Darline spent almost two weeks there this month. They really did a lot of good and next weekend we get to follow up on their new studies. Here's their picture where they stayed the two weeks.
There were also two days when a car load of publishers traveled up there and worked. They have given us some names of people interested in studying too.
There used to be a small congregation in Pantasma. While a special pioneer couple lived there in the main town it did well. But after they left the publishers there struggled to keep going spiritually. So now they are under the care of our congregation. And Jinotega is 2-3hrs by bus from Pantasma so they dont get to the meetings very often.
We were very impressed by a young teacher, Berania, and her kids who studied for several months before the other pioneer couple left. She had continued reading all the literature they left with her and is determined that she wants to serve Jehovah. When she works out of town on the weekends a few hours away in Wiwili, she goes to the meetings there. Prayer time in class is still done here, so she has taught her students that they should pray to Jehovah.
Pantasma is the largest population in Nicaragua without a congregation, we were told. There was talk of having a memorial up there. Not sure whether they're going to do it though. But either way, we're enjoying getting to work up there.
Shane's first public talk.
Well he did it. He gave his first public talk. No, he doesn't know I'm writing all about this, and if he did he wouldn't let me. But I'm the wife, it's my job.
It was great. Thanks to loads of practice and some proofreading from Andrew, he delivered it really well.
And most importantly everyone said they could understand him.
One sister even told me that if she'd known Shane was going to give the talk, she wouldn't have come so late! Haahaa.
One very big surprise is, Alejandro, the non-witness husband of a sister showed up right as it started. His wife, Marta, wasn't even there. She's in Costa Rica right now. We've never seen him at a meeting and he's refused a study once that we know of. But he said something about having promised it to Pablo (Shane) that he'd come. All his kids attend meetings so while there mom was away last week we took dinner over to visit. Shane dropped the hint about his talk then but didn't say more than that. Cant wait to hear what Marta says when she finds out.
This is a picture of Alejandro and his son, Auner, to the left of Shane.
An update on Bentura and Pastora
Bentura is the 50-something yr old man who Shane is studying with. We wrote about him in our last blog. So, for an update, Shane thought he was going to lose the study. Bentura said evenings after 5pm are best for him. One day about 2pm we were in the neighborhood and his sons trotted by on their horses and said their dad was at home today and we should stop. Shane had been planning to go at 5pm, but thought 'why not stop in and say Hi'. We pulled the bike up to his pasture and Shane saw a man duck into a roofless block shed in the middle of the pasture. Shane called out and no one came. He opened the gate and walked through the pasture and called out again. No one came. It was strange that someone standing inside a barn with no roof couldn't hear Shane's calls. Shane left the field and came back to me worried that Bentura was hiding from him. “No, dont think that. He wouldn't do that,” I said optimistically. Shane walked to where he could see the back side of the barn. And there was Bentura, hiding, with a guilty and irritated expression on his face. “Why not come back after 5pm!” he shouted. Shane agreed, apologized and we quickly left. When we came at 5pm we were both kind of worried. We didn't want the poor man to feel hassled and we hated to think he was just studying to be kind and didn't know how to tell us to move on. So we went in and there was Bentura with a big handshake, smiling and in clean clothes. We apologized, but he said he didn't mind our visits. But that when we had come earlier he was sweaty from working and covered in horse manure. He felt ashamed to discuss the bible like that. He is a very humble man. It is such a good lesson for us. The study has gone just fine since then.
Ray and MaryAlice Bloxsom were here. We had a great time seeing them. They seemed to have a great time. It was great getting to catch up on how everyone is back in Virginia. Their week here went by too fast. Wish we could have spent even more time together. As it is, we shamefully admit that we even invited ourselves over to a dinner party where we knew they were going just to spend more time with them!
Here's a picture. Sorry some of us have closed our eyes.
This last picture has nothing to do with anything. We just thought it was funny to see it so crazy loaded down with green plantains, (aka, giant bananas). You could tell it wanted to roll over really badly. Thought the kids might like it.
written by  Shane Perry on March 1, 2009 from Jinotega, Nicaragua

New happenings
The Lindalas
Last weekend we had a missionary couple stay with us. We had a great time. We warned them that our place was small. “It'll be kind of like sharing a largish hotel room,” Shane told them. Everything went fine. They have been here 6 years in Matagalpa where we go for assemblies and Jenny's 'hometown'.
They were really encouraging of all our plans. They told us some practical things about living in a missionary home.
And She brought me plants for our garden. Yes, we've finally bushwhacked it. No, we didn't need to use a machete. Although it might not have hurt. Another sister contributed some plants too. In a few more weeks they'll be something to take a picture of. Right now, they're just strugging to overcome shock.
Pantasma
Hurray! We found another way to get to Pantasma. Instead of riding almost two hours on a horrible worn out road, we went another way on Sunday and it was ½ hr shorter and the road was a lot better.
Shane wants you to know that the only disadvantage is we have to cross one river without a bridge. But he says that with a devious grin. So you might get the impression he likes it.
The other road used to beat us up, the rocks and ruts and loose gravel made it a rough trip. The road we are taking now had been under construction so it used to be a nightmare too. When under construction, they kindly put up signs to detour you into the other lane, but as you round a curve you realize the arrow was directing you to the wrong lane and ahead are holes, piles of rock, a big front loader and a group of men watching it, including of course the man who was probably in charge of the detour sign.
Here is a picture of Francisco. A man Shane is helping learn to read. He works with the road construction crews. He is probably 20 and the only one in his family of many who seems interested in reading. Our other two friends who had been in Pantasma met him the first time and started to study with him. They gave him four pages of 'homework' to do in their absence. When we finally met him, he proudly presented it completed, including a voluntary page he did just because he wanted to keep going in the book. Shane asked him why he wants to learn to read. He said he wants to be able to read the Bible for himself and understand what is really in it.
Funeral for Sister Nubia
We went to a funeral for a sister two weeks ago. Her name is Nubia Diaz. She had been sick for 15 years. Her husband is Panchito, the brother who owns the horse and cart. She was really really faithful to Jehovah. A few years ago, she was very sick in the hospital but pleaded permission from the doctors to let her leave for half an hour to attend the Lord's Evening Meal. They gave her permission, but wouldn't remove the I.V. tubing from her arm. She didn't care, changed into a nice green dress and went anyway. She helped a lot of people learn the Bible. The custom for the funeral was very different from what we'd ever seen. The night she died, many family and friends came to the sister's house and sat together, some quietly, some crying and some just talking. The family prepared the sister in her coffin and they also have to dig the grave themselves. So you can imagine how much help and support from the congregation meant. They planned the service for the next day. They don't have any luxury of time because they can't preserve the body well. They brought the casket from the family's house on the back of a truck. And the family and many many friends walked beside it all the way across town. The memorial service was held in the Kingdom Hall and afterward everyone went on foot with the family as they drove the casket to the cemetery. Then there again, it is up to the family and friends present to lower the casket into the grave. There was a large group of brothers who were able to do it. I need to add something else here. Even there in the cemetery, the insistent, vulture-like ice-cream salesmen pursued us with their carts and jingling rack of bells. They continued to ring away right through the last prayer. I'm not sure if anyone bought anything. And it is possible that no one else thought it was as inconsiderate as I did. Also, dear Panchito has been as regular in the ministry as ever, giving such a great example of how although he is missing his wife, he spends his time trying to help others.
written by  Shane Perry on March 25, 2009 from Jinotega, Nicaragua

The Memorial
We had a great memorial. We went to a pueblo about an hour away. One of our elders lives there and there are two other publishers. The elder who lives out there is in a wheelchair and travels to and from the meetings in the back of the old style american schoolbuses that they now use here for public transportation. (We never cease to be amazed by him. But anyway, that's a different subject) We did the invitation campaign out there and 69 people came to the memorial. The picture shows the schoolroom we had it in. Lucio, the elder gave the talk and Shane prayed and passed the emblems. They recruited another brother to help too. A man Shane studies with has a really nice truck with a cab that seats 5. And he was nice enough to drive us all out there.
We only had one case of lost bread. A man dressed reasonably well arrived late and stood on the back row. I noticed that he seemed to be praying or something as the bread began to be passed. Anyway, when it came by him he swiped a piece and crunched away on it until it was gone. And of course, it was so quiet in there, everyone could hear him. Then he left. He didn't even hang around for the wine. Maybe the poor guy was hungry. :)
I have to add this statistic too. Between the two congregations here theres a total of 170 publishers. But the memorial was 600+ people. They held it all together in a big auditorium. I would have loved to see that enormous group. Everyone said it was beautiful. So, in total over 700 people from the area were at the memorial. Can you imagine?
The Mangoes are in Season.
They are really coming on strong. They are getting cheaper and cheaper. Now you can by 8 for 50 cents. And in a few more weeks the neighbor's tree that is drooping down over our patio loaded with mangoes will be letting go of its fruit. Yeah!!! I'll get a picture for you when its ready.
This a picture of the fruit and veggie stand that a brother in our congregation owns. They get up at 5am to start buying their produce and sometimes they sell until 7pm. His sister in law, Amelia, works with him and is with me in the picture. I love her and my goodness can she dance. She always teaches me something good. And I am really tough to teach, let me just say.
Speaking of Dancing
We went to a going away party for Lee and Sandi Miller last weekend in Matagalpa. They are headed back to Wenatchee where he was from. The congregation threw a party and had entertainment. Here is a picture of the little brother and sisters doing a traditional dance. They were really great! And they looked like they totally loved doing it.
Yesterday in the Ministry
A sister and I went to a house and I gave the young woman, named Karelia, the tract on "Is there a hope for the dead?" She was so pleased to see it. She said she thought yes. And had us sit down as we showed her the scriptures from the tract. She loved it. She told me her mom died 4 years ago. And that a sister had given her this tract, but after she read it she lost it, and had looked everywhere for it. She even tried to tract the sister down to get another one. But couldn't. I asked her if she had ever studied the bible. She said of course, but alone. I showed her the bible teach book and let her choose a chapter. We started chapter 3 and are going to study again next Wednesday. The sister with me, Luisa, is a new publisher. Her husband was a publisher as a teenager, but now only attends meetings occasionally. She comes to every meeting and in the ministry with her mother-in-law. Yesterday, though, she came in the ministry alone. I am so proud of her. And she is very good at speaking. She jumped in a few times to the conversation when she thought she could help make a point more clear. She is excited to go back to Karelia next week too. I'm considering letting Luisa take over the study. As great as it is, our schedule is getting really full with the ones we already have. Tough job, huh, having too many good bible studies?!
written by  Shane Perry on April 23, 2009 from Jinotega, Nicaragua

My Favorite Moment in Rural Territory
My Favorite Moment in Rural Territory:
We’ve begun working our rural territory as a congregation more often. We pile on the bus, or sometimes in a brother’s truck and head out for a whole day of preaching. We are on foot most of the day. It is great. The young brothers and sisters really show up to support and 50-60yr old sisters come too. We all meet together for a picnic lunch and a bit of a rest and then we take off again to visit more people. The last rural we did we were on foot the whole time. Something that happened has become one of my favorite moments here by far. Shane didn’t make it, he was sick. I’m so sad he missed it. There were about 25 of us out. We split into two groups after lunch. One group of 10 went uphill the other group of 15 went downhill. Our group went up hill. We followed a dirt road with houses on both sides preaching the whole way. Our goal was to reach the new paved highway called the Guayacan and then preach our way back down the highway. As we kept working, the houses along the way became fewer and fewer. The dirt road became narrower and steeper until it was finally just a foot path that ended at someone’s front door. We needed to go further up the steep hill, but on both sides of the house were deep gullies carved by rain and clogged with brush. Our captain knocked on the door, and all ten of us stood below and waited to see where we would go. He asked the smiling lady of the house “Which way to the Guayacan?” After seeing our group, she smiled even wider, stepped to the side and pointed toward her living room. “It’s this way,” she said. She was inviting all ten of us to pass through her living room, dining room and kitchen (complete with Grandma slapping down some tortillas over the stove) and out the back door to continue our climb on the other side. One of the young sisters in our group recognized the woman’s daughter as a school mate and got to explain what we were doing. Josh and Miguel were the tail end of our crew and gave a polite thanks and a brochure to the family. I am still laughing about this as I write it. Nicaraguans are very obliging people.
Stalking Sloths:
We hear there are sloths in the park in town. Some have told us that they were killed off a long time ago by some nasty kids with rocks. But today a man who works at an office in the park said as of last week they were still there. He has seen them. Four of them. They come down out of the trees around 5pm. But we know from the recent Watchtower article that they only come down once a week. We really really want to see them. So, I want to start taking our dinner to the park to watch for them. If we can possibly see them and catch a picture, we’ll pass it along. Not as if once you spot them it is so hard to take a picture. The problem is seeing them in the first place. The magazine article said they look like hanging moss and move just about as slow. We’ve gotta see this!
We got to host the C.O. and the D.O.
We had our circuit overseer, Ruben Aguado, visit last week. And the district overseer, Arnoldo Garcia, was here too. Their visit was right after our circuit assembly so I thought we’d be really worn out, not to mention how tired they would be. But they were so encouraging and the visit just built energy for you. We even got to host them for dinner. We ate with them last time they were here, but we could hardly understand them, or express ourselves. One of our earlier posts had a picture of them and mentioned that Bro. Garcia was just loaded with jokes and stories that only Nicaraguan’s could understand. But that’s not true! We can understand him too now. They are all very funny. He made fun of Bro. Aguado who is from Mexico saying he’s not really Mexican because he doesn’t eat chili peppers or listen to Ranchero music. Ranchero music is a Mexican type of bar music. Or so said Bro. Aguado to justify his dislike of it, I think. And to update our last post about his health, Brother Garcia has now had malaria 6 times. But he said his last time was better because a sister told him about one medication that does what two used to. One used to clean your blood and the other cleaned your liver. Now one med does it all. He said, with the medication, the symptoms don’t reoccur, unless of course you happen to get bitten again. They also all really encouraged us saying our Spanish had really improved. It makes one shudder to think of how bad it was. But we are so glad we stuck it out, because now we can really know how wonderful our brothers and sisters really are down here.
Our first stay at a Missionary Home
I think I mentioned the circuit assembly already. But we had a huge privilege this time. Duane and Kim Lindala invited us to stay with them at the missionary home. Another couple had already been invited too, and the rest of the couples there had to approve it. Thanks to all of them, they let us stay. We had a great time. Kim and Kati (the other invited sister) and I made earrings one night and I wore them the next day at the assembly. They made us fresh passion fruit juice and pitaya juice. (I can’t even describe that fruit except that it is red and spiny outside like an artichoke and makes purplish pink juice)  Kim even helped us make our lunches and loaned me clothes. They made us feel just like family. We were so excited to be invited.
So, all the pictures are from the missionary home. And up at the top I included one of our garden in the little courtyard at the Kingdom Hall. It is thriving now that it’s the rainy season.
Plus, I have to answer a comment posted on our last blog. Shawn and Fam; Yes Shane wears his helmet constantly. Funny, as I was rereading your comment Shane walked in the internet place helmet and all. Guess that answers the question. At least he´ll be safer that way. :)
written by  Shane Perry on July 17, 2009 from Jinotega, Nicaragua

Leah's Wedding & Pioneer School
Scottsville, United States
Leah's Wedding!!!!
Here's some pictures from Leah's Wedding. I'll fill in the details later. Just knew some of you would like to see them.
And Pioneer School!!!
We had a great time in Pioneer School. It was a huge boost and a blessing.
Here are some pictures.
written by  Shane Perry on September 3, 2009 from Scottsville, United States

Back in Nicaragua after Pioneer School and Leah's Wedding
Pioneer School 2009!!!
In Aug. we went back to the U.S. for pioneer school. It was so great. Our instructors were excellent teachers, “the gold standard,” as some might say (imagine with Bro. Velucci's voice) and our classmates really set the bar high for good preparation and comments. Being in class with Shane was great. We're going on 6 years of marriage and pioneering together, so we had a lot of experiences to look back on. During the school we made some fantastic new friends and spent the two weeks with the Salley's. We couldn't have made pioneer school any more wonderful. But, looks like now we get to try it again!! Can you believe it? We got home and they have invited us to attend here starting the class in October. Shane told our C.O. that we'd just attended in Virginia, but he said if it wasn't with the Spanish book, we could go again. We are so excited. The material will really be tailored for our territory here and with the ink barely dry in our new books, we may just get something out of it when we study it all again in Spanish.
Leahs Wedding.
Leah, my sis, got married. She was a beautiful bride. I've never seen her so happy. And Sam Moorefield, her husband, is a brother-in-law to be proud of. He was in Bethel 12 years, Chinese territory for 7, and won Leah's heart. He's so considerate too. So we could spend more time with them before we left, he arranged kayaks and took us to a bio-luminescent bay. We were more than honored that they wanted to spend time with us on their honeymoon. It was sad to leave them and Puerto Rico. But we have hopes to see them over here in Nicaragua some time.
Isaac and Elizabeth.
When we came home Monday, we had some guests practically waiting at our door. Isaac and Elizabeth are special pioneers 5 hours from here. They travel all this way to come to 'town' one time a month to do their shopping. Anyway, it was nice to have them here when we got home. It lessened that, “we're so lonely, missing everybody” feeling. (We do still miss everyone by the way.) They used to stay with our special pioneer couple, Luis and Maribel, but they have been assigned to the traveling work in another area, so Isaac and Elizabeth will stay with us each month. They are a very encouraging. And Shane is pleased because Isaac is spiritual and still likes video games. By the way, at this point, they are not sending a special pioneer brother to replace the one that just left. So we are left with two elders for 80 publishers. But we're still better off than the other cong. that only has one elder. Plus, Shane appreciates the extra work in the meantime. He likes to be busy.
I had to add this pictures of us from Virginia. We went down the Hardware River. Only Shawn Cumella was able to go with us...We wonder if everyone else might have already known the water was too low. Oh well, but as you can see we had a good time, especially Shane at that moment.
And these are pictures of some really really odd fruit out now. The smaller alien-being looking one is called a Mamon Chino. It has a grape like center and inside that is a giant seed that you have to spit back out. It's soury sweet and we like them. The cost 5 cents a piece.
And the lovely pink artichoke is called a Pitaya
and its sweet and like jelly with seeds you dont have to spit out inside. One goes about learning what to eat and what to spit out by practice here...its not always obvious. Costs 75 cents. OOOhhh PRICEY!!!
Here is our lovely new little home. we rent two rooms on either side of the brown wood door and the kitchen is behind that. Three rooms, but its very comfy. Room for guests, you know! And you all know which of you I'm talking too. Yes, all you who've said you are going to come visit....!
And just when we started feeling lonely and homesick. We got two invitations to eat with friends today. (Today, Monday, was a national holiday, Central American independance day. There are parades and everything, so every one had it off. Here, I have to add a story, Shane takes an interest in a man with some sort of disablility, named Roger. Today we met him on the street. He told Shane that for today, he wanted nothing to do with the Bible, because he was going out to watch the girls who march in the parade with their little short skirts and go-go boots. Poor Roger. He has his good days and bad days, sometimes he comes to the Kingdom Hall on Sunday and stays for all the meetings; ours, the other congregation and he hangs around for the sign language too.) So, back to our meals with friends today. One was a full English brunch. And the other for a full Nicaraguan lunch. We are so spoiled. The first picture is the brunch it was great. The last picture is of the sister who made us lunch. She and her 12 yr old daughter wash all their clothes and dishes outside the back door on this concrete washboard and sink.
They always impress me.
Bye all! Thanks for reading. Did I mention come visit? :)
written by  Shane Perry on September 14, 2009 from Jinotega, Nicaragua

Corn Island
Corn Island, Nicaragua
This is a poorly written blog. I will come back and rewrite some notes to make sense of everything. but if you look at them, more or less they are in this order. Our three week stay on Corn Island,
A visit to Luis and Maribel in Juigalpa, Our return to Jinotega where we ate brain and bull testicle soup only the brain will appear on this blog I promise, and Our new home and Kingdom Hall in San Jose de los Remates.
written by  Shane Perry on November 16, 2009 from Corn Island, Nicaragua

Corn Island
Corn Island, Nicaragua
When we were in Matagalpa last month at the Pioneer School, our third day of class the branch office called and asked if we could leave the class go to Corn Island, and get there before the end of the week. Corn Island is on the Carribean coast.
(They dont have much corn growing there. Yes, I was looking for it. Still very disapointed.)
If you go by land it takes parts of three days. 9 hours by bus, and 4 hours by boat on a river and then 4-5 hours across the carribean sea to the island. We didnt have that much time, so we took a flight instead. The first picture shows the view when we were landing. The water is beautiful and the beaches are nice white sand.
I feel like I need to brag about our survival skills because the apartment we stayed in was only partly furnished. We didnt have a fridge or a washing machine. That was a first in my life. Here is a shot of me washing clothes. I learned if you wear socks like a pair of gloves you can wash them at the same time as you wash a towel or shirt. Saving time washing was a goal of mine. It could've been my inexperience washing by hand, but it took me hours to get through our loads of laundry. AND, because it was so humid, the clothes would sometimes take 4 days to dry! At that point they smell as fresh as an old wet dog and start growing some grey kind of mold.
Living without a fridge was also a lot of fun. Every meal had to be cooked from scratch, and every last bite had to be eaten or it went bad. A bible student gave us 3 pounds of fish as a gift. Sounds good right? Well, it was 90 humid degrees inside and no way to keep it fresh, so we fried it all and sat there sweating, forcing down every last oily bite.
We had to sleep under mosquito nets. Malaria and Dengue fever are a problem. The girls who lived in the apartment before us got Dengue. At dusk about 5:30pm, mosquitoes would pour in the house. They were horrible. Some nights we would close up all the windows right before they came and just sit in the breezeless heat. And other nights if we left the windows open for air, we would climb in bed about 6:00pm and just let them swirl around the mosquito net.
I know it sounds like we have a lot of bad things to say about it, but we are really glad we lived there. Just in case someday we have another assignment like that, we'll be prepared. But man, am I glad to have our washing machine and fridge back.
The congregation made every thing more than worth it. There were 55 in attendance at the meetings. Shane was the only speaker for three weeks. Except one 5 minute discourse given by a local brother. Anytime we thought about the mosquitos or the fridge thing all we had to do was go to meeting and we forgot it all. This group is something special! Only 8 publishers are here but the attendance is booming. Anyone interested in coming to this island? It has a huge English territory and if you actually have money you can buy a fridge and screens for the windows! It probably runs about 600 a month to cover all costs down there. Think about it...
This little boy is named Roman. He was just too cute. His mom is studying the bible. His dad is a descendant of the people indiginous to nicaragua. You can see some of the traits in Roman too.
This family lost part of their roof in the hurricane. They said it was early in the morning and they heard the radio warning to get to a safe place before the hurricane hit. Claudia, the mom, grabbed a sheet, a towel and her bible and they all went to the Kingdom Hall to wait out the storm. The wind ripped off a panel of their old zinc roofing. The water poured in and soaked everything they had. The bed, the tv and all their books. They were sad about all of that, but when we called a few days after the storm, I asked how they were doing and she said, "Oh, we're doing fine. Now I can see the stars when I'm lying in bed. They are beautiful!" We are hoping they'll be able to get a new panel for their roof soon.
The Kingdom Hall is one year old. This side with the fence is from the street. On the other side the hall is open with just seucrity bars. It lets a lot of air in, so that is nice, but when the rain blows sideways water comes in. (Imagine in the hurricane they had there!) There were two apartments on either end of the building. We had the apt. on the far left and the couple who was coming after us was going to live in the apt. on the far right that you can see in the picture.
There is an airstrip that divides the most populated part of the island. When the planes are coming in they shut gates and you cant cross from one side of the island to another. Unless you walk about thirty minutes and make a huge U around the end of the runway. It is closed from 7-9am and 2-4pm. But the rest of the time you can walk on it. Its feels like a road made for giants and you never see any vehicles on it. In the picture you can see the group heading up to another part of the island. And in the sky you can see the rain coming. Hurricane or no, it rained HARD there and the storms moved in FAST!
There is a Big Corn Island and a Little Corn Island. (Neither is growing much big or little corn though. Dont be disapointed like I was.) Shane's parents, Bill and Betty, paid the fare on the boat so all of the publishers of the congregation could go over to Little Corn Island and spend the day. We distributed this tract. We walked the whole day, there are no cars on Little Corn island. The people were really friendly. But I kept expecting some drug dealer to leap out of the bushes and take us all hostage. For real. The beautiful tropical island setting might decieve you but they have a drug problem there. One store put a sign out that warned, "The same 'friends' who will sell you drugs, are the same 'friends' who will come later and rob you once they think you are high." One of the sisters with us said one time she came to work on the island and all of a sudden a bunch of people started grabbing sticks and machetes and took off running for the other side of the island. Old men and young boys included. She asked what was going on and they said a boat loaded with drugs was coming in from Columbia. And if they ran in fast enough with something to protect themselves, they could grab some cocaine and sell it for $4000 a pound.
Happily we met only smiley, friendly islanders.
I need to add something about the boat ride to and from this Little Corn Island, the waves were the biggest I've ever seen. Shane says its because I've never ridden anything but Washington State Ferries. But I swear I thought they might come over the boat and dump us down into the swirling depths. At one point the waves rose on both sides of the boat at least ten feet and we dropped into the gap in between them. I looked at Shane and said, "I feel like they're digging my grave!" He grinned wider than the brim of his hat and said, "Yeah Nessy! Isn't it great?" Only Betty was a comfort to me because she was scared too.
For all those reading, I'm going to keep writing, but I recommend you take a break. Your bottom might be going numb in your chair or eye strain could be setting in, but since you are so engrossed in this reading, you may not have noticed it. We've just missed writing a bunch of blogs, so I'm catching up. But you really should pace yourself and stop and walk around or something.
Back to the mainland:
When we got back to the mainland we had to move. The brother at the branch talked to our circuit overseer and recommended a town called San Jose de los Remates. The c.o. wanted to send the couple there to a nearby comunity to start the meetings there and Shane and I would stay in San Jose de los Remates and help out there. We took a day with Betty and come to see the town. Everything is so cute. There´ll be more pics of that later.
And we took advantage of being close to Luis and Maribel dropped in to visit them. They were special pioneers in Jinotega and now they are in the traveling work in Juigalpa.
We had to say goodbye to our friends in Jinotega. They threw us a great going away party, with good food and traditional dancing. And then everyone danced. It was fun and also very very hard to leave everyone. They even dressed us in the traditional clothes after they finished their dance. (It will be meaningful for some to know that, Yes, Shane wore traditional clothes and made a spectacle of himself!!!)
They were so good to us. Josh and Michelle, Fran, Erica, Micah and Angela all came to help us load the truck. We came late and the truck was already there, and they had us half loaded up by the time we got there.
A couple we were studying with made us a goodbye meal. Brain and bull testicle soup.
Does that sound gross? Well, to me it was good. Some mothers recommend that their daughters dont eat it. It might cause abnormal hair growth or some such thing they say, but well, I liked it and so what if my voice occaisionally slips into a bass and now and then I´m picking up heay objects just to see if i can. Poor Shane on the other hand was already fighting a population of amoebas and the soup just wasnt his cup of soup. He is smiling in the picture but he was really stuggling. He looked a bit pale when he choked down the first bite. Sooo, pretty soon we noticed all the cats of the house hanging around at his feet. Yes, he was slipping the special meats down to them.
These are shots of our new place It is very charming. It has been a bit of an adjustment. We came from a town with two congs. of 80 publishers and loads of pioneers and appointed brothers. Now we are two of seven publishers and there are only three other baptized members of the group.
Last week we were feeling lonely and we both prayed about it. Sooooooo, on Sunday we had a group come to visit from Managua. Sixty people came to help us preach door to door! They came in a private bus and parked in front of the house. It was great and kind of crazy. There was a line for our one bathroom pretty much the whole time. We all came back to our place for lunch and everyone spread out all over the porch in front, living room, patio and backyard.
The local brothers and sisters went preaching with us too. It was such a boost for them. There were so many people in the house that when everybody loaded back on the bus to go home, people were waving from the bus windows who I hadn´t even met! We were so encouraged by the visit. Shane and I laughed afterwords though that maybe next time we should just pray that we are a LITTLE lonely.
written by  Shane Perry on November 23, 2009 from Corn Island, Nicaragua

Our 60 guests!!! and A horrible bug
San Jose de los Remates, Nicaragua
These first pictures are NOT our house, but...
It is owned by a Nicaraguan couple here. They have asked us to take care of it while they are in the U.S. until May. We are trying to decide if we should move over there or not. The house where we are living right now is still under contract til April in the name of the couple that was here before us. So we have to figure out what is best. Anyone interested in caretaking a beautiful home in Nicaragua!!!
These are pictures of some of some members of the congregation. The man with the horse works his farm 6 days a week, he has coffee and corn and beans. Shane has asked to ride their horses but they all have said they are too small and old to carry him...I think he is sad about that.
Here are some of the shots in our house last Sunday when the group of 60 came from Managua. These were taken at lunch time. It cracked me up when I found some of them sleeping on the porch!
And a few shots of the town.
The cyber where I am right this minute!!!
And a baptized sisters house. Its a colonial style and very pretty
Also here is the promised Picture of Shane and me in traditional dress. Its not as good as matching tigger tee shirts, some might say, but for the first time since we have been here someone might actually mistake us for real nicaraguans. Maybe…
Last week they fumigated our house. A man in sky blue scrubs and a respirator come in with what looks like a leaf blower attached to a giant gas tank and hoses down the house with diesel fumes. Some bugs start dropping dead immediately. Other hardy ones run for fresh air. We sat outside on the back porch and stomped the cockroaches as they were fleeing for their life. Sometimes it took two stomps. They are really tough critters. Anyway, after all the fun and the smoke clears out, we went back in and this was laying on the floor. It was almost the size of my palm with its legs and creepy clawlike things fully extended. It was still alive. We let it go outside. I am not sure what happened to it. I hope we put it far enough away from the house that it didnt just run right back in.
written by  Shane Perry on November 26, 2009 from San Jose de los Remates, Nicaragua

The King´s Visit, 2009 District Convention and Micah and Angie
San Jose de los Remates, Nicaragua
Jameel and Tina's Visit:
We had some guests from Hampton, VA. They lived here back in 2006 for 6 months. We had never met them but we had a great time together. They knew a lot of people and it was fun watching them get to see everyone all over again. This is a picture of our group on a Friday night. Jameel is in a light green shirt in the front row.
And this is Tina and me in the backyard making up some Chicken Cacciatore for lunch. The chicken posed for the picture too. We really enjoyed having company. It encouraged us so much. So, who of you coming next...???
This is also a picture of Tina with Aida. Aida is 80 years old and was baptized last year. She is a wonderful sister. She still is finishing the "God's Love," book. And we love to go to her house and sit on her big porch outside in the fresh air and study with her. It is a good witness to everyone in town because she lives right on the main street across from the park and nobody walks by without greeting Aida and taking note the fact she is studying the bible.
We also did a day of preaching at a small community about hour on foot from here. We had a great time. The people there were so friendly. They dont get many visitors. Shane met a man, Norman, who felt like anyone can interpret the bible however they want. But Shane showed him an example from the reasoning book about how to use the bible to interpret itself by comparing context and other verses about the same subject. Norman was really surpised with the example and he wants to talk more. I guess were gonna have to make the hour trip again!
A Pet:
We have a cat. He's not actually ours. He's the neighbor's. They named him Mimi and then discovered what gender he was...(why does that sound familiar Bailey?) We arent really sure we would even want him. He has fleas and parasites to be sure. But most times he is really friendly and he eats cockroaches. I say he's friendly most of the time because he bit Shane last week. He's probably got rabies too. Ah well. Its nice having the company. :)
A Roomate:
We didnt know we were renting out a space in our house. But we are, to a trantula. This is Shane trying to herd the cattle-sized beast away from our bedroom. Shane's flipflop is a size 13. So you can tell it was a big one. We havent seen it since. It ran up into the rafters of the house. Another reason we always sleep with a mosquito net and one eye open.
The District Convention:
Last weekend we had the District Convention in Matagalpa. Thirty four people were baptized. These three girls below are from our last congregation in Jinotega. It was so great to see everyone all over again. It makes us not feel too far away.
I´m really proud of this girl Denexi. She is 13. She was wonderful to go in the ministry with. She takes it very seriously and cultivates her RVs and conducts several bible studies.
And this is Dora. She is here in San Jose with us. She was baptized on Saturday too. That means we have 6 baptized members in our group now!! She was all smiles and it made us proud to be able to give her a big hug afterwards.
Dora´s husband and three sons are studying the bible and make the meetings. And her brother in law and sister in law are studying as well. We made pizza last night and had them all over for dinner.
We stayed with Duane and Kim Lindala in the missionary home again during the convention. It was great. They take good care of us. We also got to have dessert with Ken and Sharon Bryan from the branch. They have been in the country for a very long time and told us stories of how the country was when they came and how when they started preaching they had no idea how the long term effects would be. Places they just 'blitzed' so to speak door-to-door thirty five years ago now have large thriving congregations. And some of the oldest members still have the Paradise Earth book that they originally gave them. It sparked Shane and my interest to reach some of the more remote communities in our area even just one time during the time we live here and see what becomes of it down the road. We are planning some days with Jese and Mayling Montes where we are going to go and camp out and do a several day preaching trip. Shane wants to rent a horse or mule or some thing to carry our stuff. That we will for sure get you some pictures of.
And this is the new guard dog at the missionary home. The branch says that is the first line of defense against being robbed. She had a good bark and is learning how to protect her family. Duane and Kim are getting a new assignment to Chinandega. They start it first week in January. We are hoping to get to go see them after they have settled in a bit. We will be a bit further from them than before. But distances here are really just something you get used to. Nothing is really convenient or close. So we dont mind traveling. I want to go see a volcano over there that colapsed from the rains of a hurricane a few years ago.
Back in San Jose:
When we came home from Matagalpa. Micah and Angie Monk came with us. That´s them in the picture above. They were checking out the town here to see what they thought about moving over. Sad part is a they were considering renting that beautiful fully furnished house that i mentioned in the other blog. That would have make the move really easy for them, but the landlord just told us this week that she's not gonna be leaving it very soon after all. So we will see what they end up deciding to do. It would be nice for our sake to have more help and company, but we are happy to just wait and see how Jehovah directs everything.
The other Dora in the congregation and her husband Julian brought us some fresh corn off their farm. Shane could not get any happier as you can see. Since it was still hot from when she boiled it, he popped it on a plate and slapped some butter on it and chowed down. I got him to pause for a second so we could get a picture.
This is how they dry the beans that just came in for the harvest.
A view from a hike we took Friday morning.
And heres a picture of Shane this morning with his fresh picked fifty pounds of coffee. He didnt pick them himself. He´s not the true Juan Valdez yet, but he is getting close. He bought them from Julian. Shane is sorting and drying them on the front porch for 15 days (Or 5 days if the sun comes out). They he will have them roasted and ground. It will yield 40 pounds of coffee. Never thought we'd buy a whole years worth of coffee all in one shot!
written by  Shane Perry on December 21, 2009 from San Jose de los Remates, Nicaragua

Laguna de Apoyo
San Jose de los Remates, Nicaragua
Laguna de Apoyo:
Sorry not all the pictures are on here yet, but we will keep trying little by little.
We met Andrew and Jenny Lathem at the Laguna de Apoyo. They were down in Managua at their sign language district convention so we took advantage of a chance to go visit them. It is a beautiful lake in the middle of an inactive volcano crater. The water is very clean and very peaceful.
Shane rented a little sail boat, aHobie Cat day sailer.
Jenny, Shane, the instructor and I went out for the first hour. Shane was wise and modest because although he has sailed before, he told the owner honestly that he felt more comfortable with a lesson first. A pair of older men denied taking a lesson and told the instructor that they knew what they were doing and didnt need a lesson. The were the proverbial Skipper and Gilligan. They rented the largest, fastest boat and took off. When we got in our boat, the instructor, Alberto, told Shane he was sure the men were going to dump the boat over. And after we sailed out far enough after them, we could see that they had. They flipped it completely over, with the mast submerged under the boat.
He sailed us over to them and explained how they should right the boat, but one of the men was panicked and the other wasnt strong enough. Shane swam over to try to help, using the technique that Alberto said, but even he couldnt lift the boat. One problem was that normally the boat just goes on its side and the sail floats on top of the water, but Alberto said that the man who was panicky tried to cling to the mast and that forced it down completely under the boat. The other problem was, once the sail goes under, you have to untie it from the mast and rigging otherwise as you try to tip it upward it tried to drag all the water upward with it. Alberto said they needed more men. We went back to shore and Jenny and I got out and Andrew and another brother, Sebastian, got in.
By the time they got back to the boat the wind had drifted it to the shallows and the mast and sails were smashing into the rocks underneath. They worked for five hours and finally got the boat to turn upright. It was hard because after so much time upside down, the pontoons filled with water. Then all six men had to ride back with only one boat sailing properly. The wind was too light and the boats were heavy, so it took them until dark to get near the hotel. Once they got close, the guys offered to jump out and swim to shore and walk the road back. Alberto said that was a good idea and he and the two men who caused the whole upset sailed back without them.
Heres a picture of "Skipper and Gilligan" coming in after their "three hour tour."
The good part of the story is Shane got a FULL day of sailing for the price of a "one hour lesson," the shipwrecked men and the instructor bought the guys beers and Shane is promised another free hour next time he comes back.
The bad part of the story is Shane got Dengue after being bit by so many mosquitos.
San Dionisio.
We have also been spending more time in San Dionisio where the special pioneer couple, Jese and Mayling are serving. We can see monkeys there.
Here we are with them at the house of a couple who are studying, Norlan and Janeth. He is a nurse and she is a teacher and the fact that they are studying has moved five more people in town to start studying plus their children. Many of them are at the meetings already.
The funny part of the story is that Norlan said he used to hide from witnesses on the rare occaisions that they came to his pueblo in the past. Not because he is shy, but because he thought they would trap people and then talk and talk and talk and stay a long time. One day his front door was open and his back was too it, so he didnt see a pair of brothers approaching until they said "Buenas," which is how you greet when you come to someones house. He said he knew it was too late to hide so out of Nicaraguan politeness he had to invite them in. Once he realized he could ask them his questions about the bible, he started firing off one after another. So, humorously, his first visit with them did last a very long time, two hours. Those two brothers were only temporary in the pueblo but now that Jese and Mayling are there they are studying regularly and we had a meal with them when we came. .
This is the shower at Jese and Mayling's. Its outside in the fresh air and you have to use a bucket, but we dont mind it at all. After all, look how happy Shane is to be clean.
Here I am picking corn off the cob with a knife. Yes, I thought I was going to hurt myself. But we needed the kernels whole, so it was they only way to do it. We made atol. Its corn custard. They make Sooooo many things with corn here.
I liked it but its a lot of work. First peel the corn, they pick off the kernels without cutting yourself, wash the kernels, pick out the corn silk, take it to the mill down the street. Then boil and boil and boil it over a fire. And add lots of sugar.
Now I understand why they invented jello pudding.
This is a coffee cooperative. The coffee just came in from the mountains, now they are gonna spend some time drying it.
They spread it out on big slabs of concrete and turn it from time to time so it doesnt get burnt. They paid the coffee growers something like 50 cents a pound. A middle man will get it out of Nicaragua and make a huge profit by selling it at $4.00 a pound, out of the shell but still raw ("in gold" as they call it, because there is a little shiny slip of gold between the shell and the bean.) Then a coffee roaster buys it, roasts and bags it, then sells it for $8-11.00 a pound.
We had some guests from Canada and two girls who are living here. There were six in total. It was so fun. In honor of Andrew and Jenny we did a Jump Picture. Some of us were over achievers.
One of the brothers gave the public talk, but in English and Shane translated. It was great. Everyone was really paying attention. You could tell because even though they didnt understand what Peter was saying, when they say him make the slightest move toward the bible, they snatched up their bibles and were waiting for Shane to tell them what verse to find.
Jose and Kati Betances came to visit. They are sp. pio. in a town called Muy Muy. They came in before the meeting on Saturday and he gave the talk. Then we all left after the meeting and went two hours back to their town. Sunday, we went in the ministry and Shane gave the public talk. It was really really hot that day. But they have a good sound system and it was good a loud, so you didnt really feel like falling asleep.
Here is their Kingdom Hall. My battery died right before we went in.
Here is their house from the front. And a woman who is studying the bible with them and her chubby, healthy daughter.
And I was in the kitchen learning to make flan with Kati and Silvia (in the blue shirt a local sister) and Lizbeth, a crazy girl from a congregation in Managua, she was a lot of fun. All the ingredients for flan go into the blender which makes it really easy. Except for the carmelized sugar, that you have to melt on the burner until it changes from white to brown. But surprisingly, it wasnt that hard either. Everything then goes into a pressure cooker and 13 mins later you have flan. It is excellent. Less complicated than a cheesecake and her recipe is so good. I think that, for as long as I've been without cheesecake...dare I say this...that I like it as much as cheesecake. Oooh, I know some people arent gonna like that I said that. But look at this picture!
It is really really good. Compared to this, what they sell in the mexican restaurants are just refrigerated cups of goo. And you can make coffee flan, or chocolate flan too.
After Muy Muy, it was time for the C.O. visit, Brother Ruben Aguado. We all went first to Jese and Mayling's so he could see the work they had been doing over there. The group is going well there. But he said they usually start out with a bang because so many people are curious and there isnt much prejudice. The real test is what happens in time, if people really want to serve Jehovah long term.
Jese and Mayling made us all really comfortable at their house.
For our privacy they put up this tent and made it so cute.
And they put this sign on it. We saved it and now its on our front door at home.
Brother Aguado said the San Jose group is doing good too. He said it has a positive spirit and good participation in the meetings. Which is true, they like to comment based on the additional scriptures.
A few more misc. pictures:
I wish I could have caught a picture of this when the horse was coming toward us. it was just a walking pile of grass that swished past us.
All our weather comes from over this hill. Right below the green and blue band in the rainbow you can see a white ribbon. That is a pretty tall waterfall and our towns only source of water. Its very pretty and junglelike. The only problem is that people eat picnics up there and swim in the water and then throw their trash in it. Shane talked to a man cutting coffee up there and lamented about the garbage. The man smiled knowingly and told Shane, not to worry that when the waterfall it will carry all the trash away for us. Where does it carry it? Right into the towns water tanks.
But in this picture we are proud of Nicaragua. Recycling and reducing packaging is in full force here. Primarily to save money, not the environment. But its still a positive thing. The bottle on the left you will recognize but its not Gatorade anymore, its how I buy our white vinegar. The Xedex is our laundry soap (they do sell larger bags too) and the Crema on bottom is our sour cream. The milk comes in bags too, but you cant have that flopping over in the fridge. So, we just pour it in a pitcher or better yet into a clean used peanut butter container.
written by  Shane Perry on March 5, 2010 from San Jose de los Remates, Nicaragua

aug 2010
San Dionisio, Nicaragua
Hi Everyone. It's time for our bi-anual blog update...*weak grin*. Sorry its been so long. We have a lot to catch up on.
The first picture is when we went back to Jinotega on the bus. This is when the police stopped the bus and pulled of all the adult males. Shane said they made everyone get in line and gave everyone a complimentary pat down.
Here you can see Shane angering the officer by asking what to him was a dumb question. "Why are you patting everyone down?" The officer said that what they were doing is normal and that Shane just thinks it wierd because the police dont do stuff like that in his country. Must have been having a bad day. But they didnt haul him away for his impertenant question, thankfully, and he got back on the bus. We heard on the radio later in the bus ride that someone been murdered with a machete nearby. (not a weapon usually needing a pat down to discover by the way!)
This is an elder who traveled from 6am until 3pm in the wheelchair in the back of a school bus to come and give a talk in our pueblo. His name is Lucio Calero. We went in the ministry before he gave the talk. His visit encouraged everyone in our group, no one missed that meeting that was for sure! He stayed two nights with us and left the next day to give the talk in San Dionisio. Which was in the other part of our territory. But now its our new home!!!
Here is the front of our house. We live with the special pioneer couple. They kindly let us move in with them after our first house flooded with rain water and the second came with a free live-in landlady and three friends.
Here's a shot of the flooded place.
It was a tough first two weeks, but we have a home now with Jese and Meyling and we love it. Besides we figured that it just meant Satan wanted to make things really hard for us because he knows how many good people are in the town who deserve to know about Jehovah God.
Jese and Meyling basically gave us their kitchen so we could turn it into a studio apartment.
We had a concrete floor put in. It had a dirt floor before. It's the kitchen/ living room and bedroom all in one. Glad we got rid of the motorcycle, or then it'd be the garage too! Its small, but we say its cozy. And like most cozy places, easy to get messy but also easy to clean.
Here's the shower. Yup outside. You can shower under the stars. Or sometimes under the rain and get yourself doubly clean. The plastic walls arent very tall so its a good thing Shane is a boy and not a girl.
This is the potty. Yup an outhouse. But we keep it very hygienic. We wash it every other day and put in sawdust and lime. No, not the green juicy fruit. Lime, the white powdery kind you put on your lawn if you live in the east.
This is the cistern we keep water in. Right now its empty because its the rainy season and water still comes to the outside faucet. But in Dec./ Jan. starts the dry season and the town runs out of water. So we will have to fill this every two or three weeks when the water trucks come. We will have to use a bucket to shower from. I shudder to think of it, but that's life.
Here's our group. There are about 20 people regularly in attendance. Jese, Meyling, Shane and myself are the only ones baptized. But everyone likes to participate. Everyone sings too, even as we all muddle through the new songs. And Shane says people particularly like the student talks. One week Meyling is assigned and I am the householder. And the next week its my turn. One week Meyling is encouraging me not to get revenge on my husband and the next week I'm persuading her not to get drunk on the weekends. Probably seems confusing to some of the students...but it seems like everyone likes how realistic the talks are. They've only had meetings here since december and the school just began when we got here in June. Its a real privilege and a lot of fun.
This is a family from a community about an hour away on foot. Fifteen years ago some brothers came from Matagalpa a city an hour and a half away (by vehicle) and left them the live forever book. They visited them three times but couldnt come back. the family finished the books on their own. Ever since then they've considered themselves Jehovah's Witnesses. When Jese and Meyling found them they were very very excited to resume their study. They finally attended their first meeting and have made almost all of them since!! Rain or Shine. They also came to the assembly in May
Here's the outside of their house.
The C.O. assigned us some help from Matagalpa. A Congregation will come once a month and help in us work the territory. Twenty people came two weekends ago. They were such a big help. They met many interested ones and we get the joy of going back and beginning the bible studies!
Here's the group. The guy in plain clothes was a random drunk who ducked in at just the right time for the picture.
And here's them relaxing a bit after the ministry. Shane wants you to know this is most of the service commitee for their cong. And yes, they swam in their dress clothes.
Some of them stood up and hour and a half in the back of the truck to get here. We love their support and enthusiasm.
And this is Islia. She has been studying about two months. I love to study with her. No matter what she is doing she always sets everything aside for her study. Her mom and dad both died tragically, so she really loved the chapter and the resurrection. Her husband has joined us for one study. And all three of them read the My book of bible Stories together.
Extra pics.
OUR STREET
Neighbors house
Neighbors stinky dog. But he guards our house too. so we feed him. His name is Toby. He will win your heart.
Gotta tell a story about the neighbors. One day meyling and i went to visit and get in a sly witness. They started telling us about their daughter. a lovely 14yr old. two years ago she fainted in the school playground. they rushed her to Matagalpa. and the dr. did an ultrasound on her stomach and found a huge blockage. No one knew what it could be. The mom then remembered that ever since she was little, the girl always played with her hair...in her mouth!
the dr. shut of the machine and said he knew exactly what it was and to prep the poor thing for surgery. a few hours later they pulled out a hairball. long and black and curved, the size and shape of a banana.
Now, I have to add, much to my horror and to the blushing 14 year old daughter, the mom went into the back room or under the stairs or something and pulled out a plastic hospital bed pan. The she dumped out the contents on the floor in front of us. I was speechless. Meyling looked at me and tried to explain the story over again...assuming from the lifeless look on my face that I didnt understand. Well, I did understand. I just didnt know what to say and felt mortified for the poor young lady watching her mother present the horrible "hair banana" at the feet of their international guest.
written by  Shane Perry on August 12, 2010 from San Dionisio, Nicaragua

Spanish Pioneer School (2nd attempt!) & Seventh Anniversary
San Dionisio, Nicaragua
We went to Pioneer School in Spanish!!! (and this time we made it all the way through. A year ago, we tried to go through the class but after three days we were asked to go to Corn Island for a month because they didn't have any brothers to serve the congregation there.)
There were 26 students and it was a blast. There was a great mix of old and new pioneers. (yes we count in among the OLD pioneers) And we were with a missionary couple who recently arrived to Nicaragua. She is seated in the front row in the pink shirt and he is in the back row two to the right from Shane. Their names are Alberto and Sonia. I personally liked how they arranged us in the picture. Other than I would have preferred to have been standing with Shane. With Shane in the middle, I call it the "volcano style arrangement". Its creative, fast and kind of blends everyone's different height in. Alberto and Sonia says the Gilead picture took 4 hours!
Here's how they lined us up before the photo.
We were the tallest!
This brother, Fabio, is serving as the only brother in a congregation that is divided among three different pueblos. These sisters are pioneers in the congregation. They walk 2 hours from the pueblo they live in to get the meeting for field service where Fabio lives. They walk back home after a full day in the ministry and make the same walk again for the meetings. They say they enjoy their territory though because they leave the house at 6am to make the group by 8am and they meet very many nice farmers on their way to the fields. The people are kind and humble and dont mind stopping to talk for a bit about the Bible.
The sisters were shy to start with in the class, but our instructors kindly and firmly got them to give comments and they had great comments. They knew how to put things in the simple way. I really like that. Its useful for our territory here. And the sister in the orange and black dress used an illustration about how the ministry is like planting seeds, you always put more than one seed in the hole, just so that if one doesnt come up the other one will, just like you should try to talk to more than one member of the family that way if one isnt interested, the other one just might.
I volunteered to do a demo on showing personal interest in someone when they say they are sick. I was shaking I was so nervous...but I had all the energy I needed to study for the evening after that.
Here we were in the evenings for several hours of homework for the next day. Its work, but its worth it. And interesting that we could all study the same information, but find so many different interesting points. Sam and Shallen in the picture are a great couple. She is from Arizona and he is from Britain. They live in a town a lot farther out than we are. And they just now have been married one year.
A really great surprise on the weekend before the class started is that this couple from Corn Island came all that was to see us!!! Rose and Miguel and their daughter Angie (not having a very good day right then. She didnt want her picture taken.) Rose is a newly baptized sister and Miguel is studying and making good progress. He worked with the Spanish version of Survivor when they came to film in Nicaragua. So he treated his family to this vacation afterwards. We were soooo happy they made time to see us too.
They came over the sea, up the river (here's a shot of their's from the river) and to...El Rama. A town that gets all the cross country traffic because its on the river. It's a big trade town.
One of Rose's pictures from the market there.
And we had our 7th anniversary
I baked brownies with chocolate frosting. We ate it by candlelight. Not really to be so romantic...its just the power had gone out. And we took picture of us in the dark.
Our group is going good here. We've had two bible students show up to the meetings. The only shame is that we werent there to greet them. One time we were heading the the airport to get Shane's mom (we had a great time with her here, sorry no pictures of that) and the other day we were in Managua for a meeting at the branch. But they say they liked the meetings anyway and want to come again. What a great territory where students attend the meetings even when you are there!
written by  Shane Perry on October 8, 2010 from San Dionisio, Nicaragua

The Flores Wedding and The District Convention
Matagalpa, Nicaragua
The Flores Wedding!!!
Here comes a story. Last memorial season, a group from a congregation in Matagalpa came to distribute tracts in a rural community in this area. They travelled two hours by bus and then about ½ an hour on foot. (We didnt join them because it was before we lived here.) There were about 500 people living in that area. Anyway, the brothers were surprised when they met one family and the family said they were already Jehovah's Witnesses. The Flores family went in the house and produced two well-read but very well preserved red Live Forever books. After 20 years, its remarkable that the books were in such great condition because of the page-curling humidity here and the termites that have such a love for paper. They keep them zipped up in those little plastic bags that get when you buy a new set of bed sheets. The Flores said that 20 years ago, a group came from Matagalpa and brought them the books and returned a half dozen time to conduct a bible study with them. But after that the brothers couldn't keep coming. So they completed the book by studying all by themselves. While they finished the books on their own, they made the effort to travel all the way to Matagalpa to attend a few meetings and went to two memorials.
Needless to say the brothers eagerly invited them to this year's memorial and they agreed to come. In the group distributing the memorial invitations was a special pioneer couple, Jese and Meyling, (our roomates now!!!) who live one hour from the Flores' house on foot. They arranged to continue the bible study with them. Eight individuals have been present at the study at different times, Francisco the father, Gertrudis the mother, Yorlene (28yrs old and in the picture) and Magdalena (not in the picture) their grown daughters, Meyling, Jennifer and Mayerling their three granddaughters, and their nephew Javier (not in the picture). The family travels the hour on foot to attend the meetings regularly even though in the rainy season they are forced to cross a dangerous stream at flood stage. And in November 2010, Francisco and Gertrudis were legally married after being together 28 years. They said they consider their marriage only the first step in the spiritual progress they plan to make. The picture of the group of them is outside the courthouse the day they got married. The picture with the cake in back at our house. Fransisco is funny. We showed him his picture of when they were cutting the cake (shown above) and he said he smiled scared like that because Gertrudis had a knife in her hand.
Francisco signing.
Rosario signing as a witness.
And I have to add another thing. The judge decided to make their marriage a bit difficult. He asked them to bring in two witnesses to sign for the marriage, which is normal. But he required that they had known them all their lives, and were older then them. That is a challenge because Francisco and Gertrudis are near their 50's and not many old-timers are still around int he community where they live. They had to ask 5 different people. One said no, he couldn't see anymore. One said no, he couldn't hear anymore. Another said no, he was illiterate and couldn't sign his own name. One more said yes, so that was great. And the last guy said yes, but he was technically younger than the couple. They used him anyway and didn't tell the judge. In fact, the judge wasnt even in the courthouse that day. He broke his arm when his horse fell into a river, so his secretary conducted the ceremony. Anyway, the point is that Francisco and Gertrudis went through a lot to make their marriage legal. Something that they said no one in their little community bothers to do. It is so encouraging to see the effort some are willing to make to be able to serve Jehovah.
The District Convention:
The District Convention was excellent this year. This is the place that they rented to hold it. It is a coffee production area called a beneficio.
A concrete slab with a roof and a bit of the adjacent land was rented to us.
We arrived the day before to clean and set up.
They had to move machinery off the conrete slab.
Chop down the weeds with machete.
Yes, the let the girls use the machetes too.
Hang some sun protection.
Clean and arrange the chairs. Some were from the Kingdom Halls. Those were already clean.
Others were rented. They were dirty until we got ahold of them.
Set up the stage.
Here is Shane discovering a new useful purpose for himself.
Set up and fill the baptism pool
Set up the handwashing station outside the bathrooms.
And by Friday everything was wonderful. 1200 max attendance. The sister on the left is Damaris. She and her husband are from Spain. I guess she is the star of this blog entry. She shows up more times than anyone else. I guess its because she is kind of a star. She is the only one of us who has met Matt Damon. A story for another blog, I think.
These were the bathrooms. Just little tin boxes over a gigantic hole that held what you might be able to imagine. They gave two stalls to the girls and one to the boys and so the girl's line went flying by the guys. It was great. The outhouses had just been completed the day before. So, that was nice.
The sound was great, I think because our location was so remote and far away from the city noises.
I'm sure all the people working the coffee could hear too.
There were about 24 people baptized.
This was the oldest sister to get baptized. She was around 65ish and disabled. But she got around just fine.
This is how they did the elder's meeting. Because the drama was preparing backstage and there was no where else to hold it.
Back at the house where we stayed all the bedrooms were taken, and the couch. So they set up this little bedrooms-on-demand with some bedsheets hung from the clothes lines. It is indoors, of course.
As a side. The comments on the photos are great! We love them. But the private messages dont work well. Blogabond wont let us retrieve them sometimes. So, if you want to say something for all to see put it on the comments. And if its very secretive and personal just email it to us please. Thanks
written by  Shane Perry on December 10, 2010 from Matagalpa, Nicaragua