Another great idea from the mind of Sarah Kaye: The art of bracelet making as a trade.

 

We are beginning training sessions at El Puente and will equip people to make the bracelets in their own homes as a way of earning some income.  Profits made from selling the bracelets will be donated to Vida Joven. 

 

Here are a few pictures of this project and if your eye is piqued for more, there are a couple of links to my photo albums at the bottom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://heatherelibeth.jalbum.net/Bracelet-Making-at-El-Puente/ 

 

http://heatherelibeth.jalbum.net/Little-Kitty/ 

So Sarah Kaye asked me this week if I had written any new songs lately. I said no. They seem to come in waves, I'm not really sure why. I was reading some verses in Luke though, specifically about the prodigal son, and I had some instant inspiration for a new tune. In my mind it was kind of a blend between being welcomed home by the Father and receiving the ring, the robe, and the shoes while at the same time being romanced by the one who knows me better than I know my self.   Hmm...the Christian story seems a little incestuous at times doesn't it? Yet the image of the Father's love and the image of a Husband's love are just mere glimpses into the depth of what his affections are for us, his relentless pursuit of us and his constant faithfulness to us.

 

Anyway, below is a video of a few of us at El Puente singing the new song, "Follow You Some More."   The improptu version was so much better, and funnier, but we still decided to reenact our musical antics for your viewing pleasure.

 

Clothe me with a robe of splendor / Place your ring on my finger / So all can see that I belong to you / My heart is at your door / Bring me to your house / Sweep me up and gently set me down / Before a meal like I have never known / Your love is now my home / Walk with me a while / Lead me down the paths I never found / When I was on my own / Now I'm yours / I'll follow you some more / And when I find I'm wandering away / I will look down remember how you placed upon my feet / Shoes that I may walk right back to you / And I'll follow you some more....

Well I've been back in Granada since January 4th, and it's just been a roller coaster ride since then – in a good way, but definitely constant movement.  The Novas Project Team is in full swing, and I've had a lot of fun getting to know the seven of them. They are all involved in different ministries here; so on that level my life mainly intersects those of the team who are involved with Young life. In general, this is how my time is spent right now: being available for the girls on the Novas team, spending one-on-one time with them, etc. etc., leading Young Life, and a plethora of other activities essentially related to that.  Basically all things relational...

 

Speaking of Young Life, the area director and his wife (Yener and Oneyda) just had a baby.  When I came back after Christmas he asked me if I would take charge of everything for a couple of weeks while he and Oneyda got used to being parents.  I said yes, knowing it was an opportunity for me to step up for a short while and serve not only the kids I know in Young Life, but especially Yener and Oneyda.  By the way, you can pray for Oneyda.  The wound from her cesarean got infected, and she's been in the hospital for a week.  She's doing better but is still on the road to recovery. 

 

Last week was our first week of Young Life stuff after a month-long break for the holidays.  While teaching John 17 in the Bible Study on Wednesday was fine (oh how I admire the one who can keep a teenager's attention), club on Thursday was awesome.  Not necessarily at first glance because the mp3 player froze, we were scrambling at the last minute to finish overlooked details, and a good deal of the games just flopped.  Nevertheless, kids laughed and enjoyed themselves.  And when I stood up to give the talk I was excited, not terrified, the kids were dead silent at just the moments when you would hope they'd be, and when they looked me in the eye it felt like I was actually talking to them, not at them.  For me it felt like the best part of club in the sense that it went exactly the way you'd want it to go.  I never thought I'd see the day when standing in front of all those guys would be a joy and not a dread.  That's gotta be some sort of a miracle. 

 

In other news, the Lord is deepening friendships in my life here, both with gringos and Nicas alike, and it's been a blessing to have people around like my friend Bekah (on AIM staff here with her husband Frank).  It's the Lord's mercy to have another gal who I can bare my heart and soul to.  There is another missionary family (the Todds) who I am getting to know as well.  They have two young girls, and I'm actually on call in the next week or so to take care of them when Rachael gives birth to her third!  I'm at their house this moment, and I prayed with their three year-old before she went to sleep. She said, "thank you for Jesus, and my Heather and my mommy and daddy."  That is just so sweet. 

 

 

               

                                                                 Real Life Team Debrief: Kimonos Included

 

The month of December seems to be filled with moving parts. The three-month long Real Life trip I was leading ended on December 8th, and after a three-day leader debrief in Stone Mountain, I am back in Granada for another short spurt.  Actually, I leave tomorrow for Young Life camp for five days. I'll have a role there as 'jefa de consejeria' (that literally translates to 'boss of counselors'), so I'll essentially be stepping into new territory as I focus primarily on the female leaders as opposed to the Young Life kids.  I hope it will be refreshing to step back into the Young Life sector since I took such a giant step away from it during the Real Life trip.

 

After I return from Young Life camp I will only be in Granada for one day before going home for Christmas on the 21st.  I'm excited about spending a couple of weeks with my family and friends in Georgia, and especially for my sister Erin's wedding which will be during that time as well.

 

When I return to Granada in January, I'll have the privilege of spending the next four months or so with a new team through AIM called the Novas Project.  This group of seven (with one more team member on the way) is already settled at El Puente and jumping into ministry. Seth Barnes Jr. has been guiding this team as they get to know the lay of the land, and I'll jump on the bandwagon along with them after Christmas.

 

I cannot yet believe it, but it seems I'm entering the home stretch of my time here in Granada.  January to May...it's like spring semester of senior year, except I hope my willingness to dig into things here is a hundred fold what it was as a senior. El Puente has undergone grand changes in the past few months with some staff leaving and new members entering the scene, and it's all been for good. I feel as if we're sitting on the cusp of momentous progress in ministry and relationships, and I want to be as much a part of it as I can before I leave.

 

For me transition can be at times awkward, emotional, confusing, frustrating and yet refreshing. In the blur of the past few weeks I've felt all of the above and will probably continue to oscillate between those things as I keep processing the Real Life trip while moving forward at the same time. I have so much to learn and so much to grow in. Realizing that is easy. Being willing to grow up out of it is another story entirely.

 

 

Last week when I got sick and my friend "Beloved" prayed for me, she told me she sensed there was an oppressive spirit involved.  My stomach was bothering me a lot, and as she prayed for me she sensed the pain I felt as well.

 

She continued praying for me that night, and the following day she told me of a vision that had come to her mind.  In the vision, she saw me walking down the road towards El Puente, and there was a dark spirit on either side of me. They were anchored to my stomach by a stone, and she sensed that I had a choice whether or not the stone was there.  As long as the stone was there, the spirits were allowed to be there.  (Maybe some of you are thinking "what is all this crazy talk?" That's fine. It is pretty darn crazy).

 

Naturally I wanted to know what the stone could be.  I thought about it for a couple of hours, and my friend and I identified different possibilities. What I came up with seemed like a lot of stones though, especially things rooted and tied to my childhood.  We named and prayed through a number of different things that actually seemed related at some core root.  Much of it seemed generational in nature, and as we prayed we broke the binds of these behaviors and attitudes passed down through the generations. 

 

That night I got sick again.  I remembered what my friend said about the oppressive spirit, but I also remembered the verse in Zephaniah that said the Lord would deal with all who oppressed me.  I asked him to deal with my oppressors.

 

At 3:30 am, a verse came to my mind - Jeremiah 3:16.  I didn't want to open my Bible. I figured I just made up the reference in my head and didn't want to bother seeing what it said.  When I gave in and read it, the Lord began revealing things right and left.  I read through the passage, and the scripture talked about "shameful gods" consuming the Israelites and the Lord pleading with his chosen people to return to him.  I realized that I needed to take responsibility for the idols in my family, the things that we have held more dear to us than the Lord.  He was asking me to repent of the wrongdoing in my family line because it has become my own personal wrongdoing against him.

 

Next, Joshua 3:16 came to mind.  I wasn't going to read it.  I figured I only thought of if because I read Jeremiah 3:16.  Maybe I did, but I think the Lord still used it.  (Keep in mind I've been running back and forth to the toilet at this point).  When I came back to bed and decided to read the verse, I found it actually starts in the middle of a sentence.  It says, "the water from upstream stopped flowing." I took that literally.  Oh really Lord? Are you being clever? Well he must have been, because it did.  I haven't been sick since that day.

 

That was just the beginning though. The passage talked about Israel crossing over the Jordon into the promised land after being in the desert forty years. Once they had crossed the river, they circumcised themselves, reinstating the covenant they had with the Lord their God.  They also celebrated the Passover for the first time in forty years, remembering how the Lord had rescued them from Egypt. It was what the Lord said to them there that was the kicker for me.  The Israelites named that spot Gilgal.  Why?  Because it sounds like the Hebrew word for "roll," and it was here that the Lord said he had "rolled away the reproach of Egypt" from them (Josh. 5:10). 

 

The Lord rolled away the shame of their past.  The bondage of slavery no longer had a grip on them, and as they turned to him to be fully his, he permanently lifted the burden of their old identity from their backs.

 

                        

 

So many dots were being connected.  It seemed as if the Lord was saying "there's a stone in your life, Heather, that has covered you with shame.  But come to me, let me make you mine, and I will roll it away. I have rolled it away."  He has rolled away the shame of my past and made me fully his.

 

The Lord has been up to a lot this week. So much I don't know if I can fit it into one blog.  So much that I don't think a blog can even do it justice. I'll try.

 

I had a moment a few weeks ago when I broke down because I realized I was jealous for the Lord's love.  I had heard a moving story from a friend about everything the Lord has brought her through and revealed to her, and I wanted that. I wanted to experience him in that way, too.  The Lord had revealed to her a new name, the name "beloved," and she knew with all her heart that this was her new identity.  I know we are all the object of his deep love, but I wanted more. I wanted the intimacy that she seemed to have.  Oh how he wants that with me as well.

 

So last week I was walking down the street singing to myself, "you give me love, love, love, love, crazy love" (I don't care about looking like a crazy person.)  All of a sudden I looked down and there on the sidewalk in front of me were two freshly cut gerber daisies (well that's what they looked like to me).  I love gerber daisies. It doesn't even matter how they got there.  They were standing in my path at such the opportune moment – when I was singing about his love.

 

              

 

 

Around that time a friend gives me a verse (Zephaniah 3:17) and I read through it until the end of the chapter.  A couple of things stuck out to me, and I wrote them down in my journal.  The first was the statement, "I will deal with all who oppressed you." How powerful is that?  The second sounded so romantic to me. The Lord says, "At that time I will gather you. At that time I will bring you home.  I will give you honor and praise among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes before your very eyes."  I was enamored by that promise and wrote it down.

 

Fast forward a little more to this week.  After recently going through a bought of intestinal issues and amoebas, I got sick again.  My friend "beloved" prayed over me, and the next day she said the Lord had revealed a lot of things to her.  I can't go into all of it, but she said a few very important things.  Firstly, the Lord gave her this phrase for me, "you are beloved also." (I had expressed to the Lord my desire for him to name me, too) Oh Lord.  The things you do.

 

She also gave me Jeremiah 29:11-14.  I read it later on, and it completely lined up with the Zephaniah passage. In both passages the Lord says he will "gather you" "bring you" and "restore your fortunes (or turn back your captivity in the KJV). Both of those passages were given to me at two separate times by two separate people.  The Lord is speaking here!  I realize he is saying "this is important Heather. PAY attention!"

 

I love to sing. If you don't know that about me, I guess you don't know me very well.  I started playing the guitar in college so I could be like all those really cool girls who sit in coffee shops and entertain their friends with songs about stupid boys and pet fish.  I guess I wanted to be a Phoebe of sorts.  Ever since college, anytime I hear a girl play solo I get this longing inside that makes me wish I could be in her shoes.  Is that the inklings of passion?  I've always had a hard time figuring out what to say when people ask me what mine is.

 

 

                           

    Singing in a concernt at Tres Mundos because a relentless man convinced me to   

                           

 

                        

                              Me and Osiris, the relentless man, before the show

 

The Lord has been stretching me in this area (the area of performing in front of people) for a while, but until about a week ago I had yet to step out and sing my own songs in public.  There's a little restaurant in town called Imagine, and the girls on my team had been nudging me to ask about playing there some night. Actually, Ruth's comment to me was "You could totally do coffeeshops."  That amuses me.

 

So I happened to be at Imagine recently and took the opportunity to ask the owner about playing there. He listened to one of my songs and said "well how about tomorrow?"  I said "okay" and went home to freak out.

 

The next day I struggled with some fear but prayed it through on my own and with some friends.  I even asked the Lord to take the cup from me and when a huge storm hit and the power went out, I thought for sure that I had a way out.  The outage was short-lived though, and I made it over to

Imagine in the torrential downpour to await my "coffeeshop" debut.

 

                      Waiting to play at Imagine - passing time with a camera

 

I sat in a backroom for a while playing through some songs and trying to keep myself from getting too nervous.  I mean it's just a little restaurant for goodness sake, but even still, anxiety can creep in to any crack.  I told the Lord it was his night, to make me less and him more, and to be glorified.

 

I think he pretty much was. Why? Because I was enjoying myself doing what he created me to do.  I got to share my creativity with my friends and those other souls (bless their hearts) who sat and listened while they ate their dinner.  I got to share my heart, share Jesus, and have fun all at the same time.

 

                            

 

If you asked me a month ago what I would be doing right now, I probably would have said something like, "oh you know, just the same old same old.  Vida Joven, jicaro, translating."  I didn't have the slightest inclination that I would be leading a Real Life Team for three months here in Granada.  But here I am, bunking out with four awesome gals at El Puente and walking with them through the experience of living in Nicaragua for twelve weeks.

 

I got the phone call from AIM about one week before the trip was to commence that they were in need of a leader for the team, and I knew immediately that I wanted the responsibility.  For over a year I've watched teams come and go, always trying to figure out exactly how I fit into the mix. I've rarely felt on the ‘inside' of the groups, and I was ready to go through the entire process, not just as a translator, but as someone the team could look to as a leader.  So the day after my birthday I headed up to Georgia for eleven days of training and returned to Nicaragua on September 12th along with Ruth, Kayla, Annie and Jessalyn.

 

In Georgia, we trained alongside three other teams heading to India, Swaziland and Kenya, and it was obvious from the outset that ‘team Nica' was a unique group.  Not only were we the smallest team, but because of my position here in Nicaragua I was automatically acting as host, translator, and leader all at once.  The first week I felt incredibly stressed out because I realized I was going to have to balance the girls with the relationships I already have here, but I think I've been able to surrender that concern to the Lord, and I am free to do both within boundaries.

 

I've decided to pull back on my involvement with Vida Joven during the next couple of months, although I'm still planning on going to camp in December before I come home for Christmas.  For now, my main priority is being available for the girls on the RL team, and it's been a joy for me to do that.  There is an intimacy about being such a small group that allows us to get to know each other really well, and I hope that in the upcoming weeks that we learn how to function as different parts of the same body as we grow and are challenged together.

 

Thanks for your prayers over this team!  You can check out their blogs as well:

http://09ni0908rl13.myadventures.org/?category=Team%20Members%20Bio%20~%20Pics

 

Meet Sarah Kaye's baby.  No, not the sweet looking Nicaraguan girl, but rather what she's holding. It's a jícaro fruit in the process of becoming a stylish bracelet.

Jícaro is a green fruit that grows on the trunk and limbs of some of the trees inhabiting the back yard of El Puente.  Although grazing animals are known to feed on fallen, rotting jícaro, we've yet to invest in a cow, so we're harnessing this natural resource in a different way.

The vision for the jícaro creations we've been working on was born in Sarah's mind, and it's been her savvy business smarts and sheer creativity that have allowed such a brilliant idea to progress; I'm just along for the ride.  However, Sarah decided to leave the country for a month, so here I am.  The jícaro understudy finally finding her time to shine.

 

 Thursdays at El Puente are devoted to the jícaro project, and we work with teenagers in the community to complete the products. The kids personally receive a portion of the sales, as does Vida Joven, so the result is a win-win situation.  The kids are motivated to work because they get a piece of the pie, and Vida Joven, the program they themselves attend throughout the week, benefits as well.

It was only three months ago that I began learning the basics of the bracelet-making process from Sarah, and I remember how hesitant I was to use the dremel; that tiny blade intimidated me so much.  I cut half the gourd, but I wanted her to finish the rest.  She said no.  (In case you didn't know, when Sarah speaks, people move.)  So I finished the job, and thus began the closest thing to an apprenticeship I've ever experienced.  

 

Since Sarah's been gone, the Vida Joven kids and I have been working hard, and we recently sold our entire stock of bracelets to a team that just left.  We're also working on Christmas ornaments, candles and tea caddies as Sarah calls them (I call them boxes or little buckets with or without lids. Less professional, but I like the word bucket.)  Earring designs are coming along as well.

 It seems that new doors are opening as far as sales go, and we are soon going to have to find ways to up production, a very good problem to have!  I'm already finding myself spending hours in the "office" (okay, for us it's an office) working on this craft in order to make the most of the opportunity to sell to the gringos who are here.  Good thing our jícaro trees produce fruit year-round!

 
For me, the week was hardly about pouring myself out, but rather being poured into by my friends from Virginia.  Some of my supporters happened to be on the team, and I had opportunities to sit down and have plenty of heart-to-heart conversations with them.  I was constantly surrounded by people who love the Lord deeply and who were genuinely interested in how I was doing on all different levels of life.  I cannot say how much of a blessing it was to share a week with these people!
 

 

Thanks to all of you who participated in this trip!  I miss you!