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Here are our prayer letters that we write every three months. If you are not on our email list and would like to receive these letters, please sign up today. Enjoy reading!
March 1, 2006
In looking back on these last three months, it amazes me to think about all of the different things we have done. We enjoyed a wonderful month in CA spending Christmas with my family. We were able to go hiking in the Redwood forests, drive along the California coast seeing the elephant seals that had recently arrived and snowboard on the Tahoe mountains. We were also able to see many wonderful friends and spend time sharing about our ministries with people at my home church, Menlo Park Presbyterian. We also had the privilege of sharing about our experiences of living in Nicaragua at my aunt and uncle’s conference. Best of all, though, was just spending time with my family – eating good food, playing games, joking around, and sharing dreams and ideas about the future.
As soon as we returned to Managua, activities were in full swing. The scholarship program has grown financially again this year, to the point that I decided we could afford to give out 400 backpacks filled with school supplies. Taking two trips to the Oriental Market, a 80 square-block market where you can get almost anything you are looking for, we bought enough backpacks, notebooks, pencils, crayons, glue, rulers, erasers and pencil sharpeners to accomplish the goal. Buying all of the supplies and then filling each backpack may sound like quite a bit of work, but honestly the hardest part is then getting them all out to their respective rural towns and having to say “no” to some children or families who were not on the the original list of students. And yet it is worth all of the effort just to hear children squealing with delight as they open up their new backpack and begin looking at all of the school supplies. Our biggest hope this year is that the children and parents will take their studies seriously since we told them that next year in order to receive school supplies again they had to pass the grade, something that is not always common in many of the rural schools.
As for the sports center, the latest news is… we have POWER! We are now able to continue the development of the library/media center, buy the necessary items to complete the kitchen that is attached to the Ranchon, and install lights in various areas throughout the complex. Having power, though, also means power bills. Our desire is to develop a sports center that will be somewhat self-sufficient. For now we are using our clothing sales in different neighborhoods and soda/powerade sales to teams to help us cover our monthly costs. We have been greatly blessed by two teams in these past two months. They worked hard on perfecting the infield of the baseball diamond, dug up tree trunks, picked weeds, painted and installed playground equipment at a school close by.
Life has been very busy ever since we returned from the States and there have also been some challenges along the way. With each challenge I am literally living out the lesson that God is always providing and taking care of us even when it’s not exactly what I would expect. In January I had my purse stolen again. I had just received a new CA license in December (the last one had been stolen in July 2005) and was hoping that I could finally get a Nicaraguan driver’s license. I had only been back two weeks – I couldn’t believe it! But when I went to the transit police office, the lady in charge remembered me from last year and allowed me to get a Nicaraguan driver’s license with only a copy of my CA license that had just been stolen. That wasn’t exactly the way I had expected to get my Nicaraguan license, but God does work in mysterious ways!! Many thanks to some wonderful friends who helped me out financially after the robbery – you know who you are!
Let God surprise you this year by allowing Him to work His mysterious ways in your life!
Seeking Him for life,
Amanda y Thomas Gutierrez
"dale una luz a los que aman tanto vivir en Nicaragua."
~ Guardabarranco (Nicaraguan duo)