Shalom brothers and sisters in Messiah! We are back from a blessed trip to Nicaragua.
A lot of things happened while we were there, and with YHVH’s help as well as your offering,
we were able to bless others.
Psalms 57:9-11
I praise You among the peoples, O YHVH; I sing to You among the nations.
10 For Your kindness is great up to the heavens, And Your truth unto the clouds.\
11Be exalted above the heavens, O Elohim; Let Your esteem be above all the earth.
This trip was truly a blessing in many ways, from the people we blessed to the views we saw.
When some people think of Nicaragua they think of an
unstable country with a lot of drugs and violence.
That may be true in some parts, but where we were,
it was a very different story, as you will see in this post.
But before we go into that, we want to say thank you for praying for us and
allowing us the ability through your offerings to go where YHVH wants us to go.
May YHVH bless your gift and multiply all that you have!
Now, on to the pictures! We start out our trip by going from the farm to San Jose.
It isn’t a bad trip, but it does take 5 hours to get there on 1 bus.
But when you take 2 buses, one from close to the farm to Limon(1hr. 30 minutes),
and one from Limon to San Jose(3hrs. 30 min.), you have a waiting period in between.
It’s not bad normally unless there are a lot of people, usually about 30 minutes.
We left the farm at 11 a.m and got dropped off about 30 minutes away.
We stopped by Dona Mayra’s house and picked her up as well.
The bus got there late(like 12:40) and then we left.
Anyway, by the time we got there it was close to 6:30.
We got a taxi to get to the hotel, (more like a boarding house as you will see in a minute)
and then got something to eat.
We didn’t take many pictures from the bus ride or San Jose but here are a couple we did take:
Me and Christopher, my younger brother.
He doesn’t like to have his picture taken which is why he isn’t in many pictures.
He is a big help around the farm and he loves animals!
And this is Dona Mayra. She is a very sweet lady with a heart for the Word.
She is married to Don Renaldo, one of the workers on the farm.
She was our guide for the trip as she is from Nicaragua.
And now, the hotel. It is more like a boarding house where you pay by the person.
It is taken care of by an older lady. There are some people who rent some of the rooms
out for a long time but normally it’s just one or 2 nights. Here is a couple pictures of me on the beds. They aren’t the best beds in the world but it is much better then sleeping on the floor.
Everyone shares one bathroom and one shower. Fancy it’s not but it is cheap and clean!
Dona Mayra calling Don Renaldo to tell him that we made it to San Jose.
Just about everyone in Central America uses prepaid cards
or phones since they can’t afford monthly plans.
The next day we went from San Jose to Nicaragua.
This is a very long trip, plus we have to cross the border.
We woke up at 4 a.m and left San Jose at 4:30. It is about 6 hours from San Jose to the border.
We had to get our passports stamped and such at the border so we could cross.
Thankfully it wasn’t a very long wait and were able to get on the bus at around 12:30.
It took about 31/2 hours to get to where we were going, a town called Niquihnomo.
Here we were met by Dona Carmen, better known as Tia Carmen.
James 1:27
Clean and undefiled religion before the Elohim and Father is this:
to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
Dona Carmen is an elderly widow of 8 years.
She has had a very blessed life and is a strong warrior for the Word.
Her house was built and given for her by a pastor and
when missionaries come she invites them to stay at her house.
Last year she thought she was moving to Costa Rica with Dona Mayra
so she sold everything in her house, but as she said,” It was my plan, not God’s plan.”
And so it was. About 3 months ago she came back to Nicaragua,
with a feeling that God wanted her to stay in Nicaragua.
Now saying that, because she sold everything, their wasn’t anything in the house.
She didn’t have almost anything other than a bed,
a SMALL table, and some kitchen stuff which she put on the table.
She was still happy with what she had, but when my dad asked her
what she needed the most, she told us what she truly needed…
She said that more than anything, she wanted a big table and chairs so that whoever
came and stayed could have a place to eat at instead of on floor or in their laps.
She says she used to have a big table where she would have the people sit at.
The church let her borrow some chairs but whenever they need them, she only has 1 chair to sit at. So, thanks to YHVH and thanks to your offering, we were able to buy her a table and 4 chairs so that whenever people come over she would be able to serve them food there instead of in their laps.
We also got her a matchete(she has a lot of energy still!!) and a basket made from bamboo.
On our last days there a lady called her and asked her if she wanted a bed.
The lady asked Dona Carmen where we were sleeping.
She told her we were basically sleeping on the floor
(which is pretty much true, the “bed” wasn’t much thicker than a comforter).
The lady felt really bad. She said that she had a big matrimonial bed
and that she would give it to her in a little while.
There also have been other people that are going to give her some other things.
May YHVH bless her and allow her long life to continue blessing others.
In the next blogpost, we will be talking about some more families we saw and were able to bless.
But for now, until next time…
Shalom!
The Montanez family
Servants and Emissaries of Yahshua, Children of YHVH
HalleluYAH!!
Note: I had to redo these posts so I could make the pictures look better. Shalom!
