Prayer Letters
September 2009
Dear Friends and Family,
What a busy summer! We enjoyed having a number of teams work with us at the sports center over the past couple of months. A lot of paint, rollers, and paint brushes were used throughout those months as the teams helped us paint the floor of the new basketball court. One team offered their incredible artistic talent and painted a welcome mural on the side of the baseball stadium wall. Now as you walk or drive up to the sports center there is a beautiful painting of a salt shaker kicking a soccer ball through the wall surrounded by various scenes of different sports with the words "Bienvenidos al Centro Deportivo El Salero - dando sabor a la vida" (Welcome to the Salt Shaker Sports Center - giving flavor to life). We are so grateful to all those who come alongside us and help support this ministry. Thanks for all your hard work and for reaching out to the youth through sports and youth nights.
The new basketball court is officially done. The floor has been painted, and the hoops have been hung. The youth are enjoying a new basketball court as well as playing indoor soccer. The last project around the new basketball court is finishing off a French drain for all the rain water to be funneled into. Besides painting, the teams that worked with us this summer did a lot, and I mean a lot, of digging. In order for a French drain to work well, the hole needed to be dug until we found a layer of sand. And so Halle and friends began digging, and then the first team continued digging, and then the second team kept digging, and the third team kept it going until they reached about 19 feet. Finally we hit that layer of sand, and the digging has stopped. What an accomplishment!!
While we were busy with teams these past months we also took some time to relax and enjoyed having Grandma and Grandpa come for a visit! It was great fun to have them here and to watch Samantha get to know them better. Our spare bedroom is now officially called "Grandma room" by Samantha. While they helped me with Samantha when some of the teams were here, we also went away for a couple of nights to the beach. Their visit was too much fun, and we look forward to the next one, maybe next March or April?
As the sports center has continued to grow so do many other things around us. In June we decided that is was time to do something with the rest of our land that was growing wild with weeds. We ended up allowing a neighbor of ours to use the field to plant corn, beans and squash and to have his horse and a couple of cows use it occasionally for pasture. It has worked out great. They helped us by cutting down all of the weeds and cleaning up the land, and in return they have a free piece of land to work. We have also received a portion of the harvest. At the moment I have a bag of about 80 pounds of beans sitting in my kitchen!
As a family we are growing too! Samantha just turned two and is growing so fast. I love watching her learn especially as she grasps both English and Spanish. And come next March she will have a playmate. We are excited to let you know that we are pregnant with our second child and look forward to having our family grow!
Today we would ask for prayer for three things. First that this pregnancy continues to go well and that the baby is healthy. Second for our financial support. We really appreciate those of you who have given gifts of support this year. And thirdly for water. On September 10th the water pump for the local well broke, and we are going on 9 days without water. Thankfully we have a large water tank and are trying to conserve our water to make it last. However, many of our neighbors only have large barrels to store water in and are having to go quite a distance to haul water in. Water is essential to life, and we appreciate your prayers that the pump would be fixed soon. As I write this they have begun work on fixing the pump and hopefully we will have water within 24 hours!
Seeking Him for life,
Eastside Development PO Box 301471 Portland, OR 97294
Previous Letters
June 2010March 2010
December 2009
September 2009
June 2009
March 2009
September 2008
June 2008
March 2008
December 2007
September 2007
June 2007
March 2007
December 2006
September 2006
June 2006
March 2006
December 2005
September 2005
June 2005
March 2005
December 2004
September 2004
June 2004
March 2004
December 2003
September 2003
June 2003
March 2003
December 2002
September 2002
June 2002
"dale una luz a los que aman tanto vivir en Nicaragua."
~ Guardabarranco (Nicaraguan duo)