for those of you who are interested in our friends down in diriamba, nicaragua you will be happy to discover that ada had her son at 8:08 a.m. as of now he does not have a name but claudia has resorted to referring to him as alejanndro because she refuses to call him “the baby.” he’s 7 pounds 4 ounces and very healthy.
$300
today i learned something that saddened me and excited me at the same time. what i learned was that the two days that we fed kids at the dump during our nicaraguan mission trip where the exception to the rule rather than the norm. our church is presently sponsoring meals at three different locations. together these spots feed more or less 1,000 kids. unfortunately, there hasn’t been enough money to start and additional feeding site within the diriamban dump that would feed the 200-300 kids who live there. in order to start a new station you have to make sure that you have guaranteed income so that the feeding program won’t stop in the future. the baltadonnas try to feed the dump kids when they can but “when they can” usually happens about once a week. that’s the sad part.
the exciting part is that it only costs $300 a month to feed the kids that live in the dump. that’s not allot of money. i discussed the issue with jim wallace and ended by telling him that i believe that all of us within the youth ministry would like to start covering the cost for adding a feeding station at the dump. we’ll talk about this over the next few weeks but i really believe it’s something we can do. start thinking about this now. i really believe we can do this and raise enough additional support so that we have a solid “cushion” to guarantee continued support off feeding the kids at the dump.
trying to get back into the groove
i haven’t really been able to focus on blogging since getting back from nicaragua. i’m not sure why. anyway i’m really just typing here to get back into the habit.
i have an update for those who have discussed some plans for helping within the the dump in diriamba (for you who don’t know this there are over 200 kids who live in the dump in diriamba with their families probably totalling around 500 people). our church set up a feeding program within the dump but some of us are dealing with other plans for helping the inidividuals who live within the dump get out of that situation). i have started the emailing process of getting information on teaching the kids to make sandals out of used tires (easily found within the dump) that could then be sold in nicaragua and the states. after a few emails i finally found the person who started this same process in haiti but i haven’t received a response from him yet. i also have been corresponding with claudia baltadonna concerning collecting bowls for the kids in the dump. we’ll probably start collecting bowls at “the view.”
btw, sergio and al velasquez are back in town from venezuela. i spoke with them on the phone earlier today.
nicaragua photo pool
we’re back from nicaragua and as usual it was great. i’ll post more about it later. for now i figured i would let y’all know that i have established a flickr photo pool for pictures from the trip. i am going to be placing my pictures up within the pool over the next several days. anyone else who has a flickr account and went on the trip can add photos to the pool too.
if you would like to see the photos you can view them here
nicaragua 3
time for another update. yesterday was an amazing day. getting to make and bring food to the children living and working withn the dump was a humbling experience. GOD has really been dealing with many of us for the past three years on how we can be apart of making a difference within that situation. i believe some plans are finally beginning to formulate in helping to bring people out of that situation. the response of the street kids to our presence has been great as always. your friends and children have been doing a great job of showing love and concern for these kids. it has been significant. today we will spend time with the street kids again and also go back out to the dump. tomorrow is our goof off day, which will consist of zip lining down a volcano. it should be fun.
nicaragua 2
everything here in nicaragua seems to be going very well. we have gone to the basketball court each day with the purpose of hanging out with and building relationships with some of the kids who live on the streets. it has been great. of course, we also played soccer and were completely schooled. today we are hanging out with some of the high school kids and then going to help feed children at the local dump. each night we have been inviting youth over to the compound for a kind of retreat. it has been good. hopefully by now you have heard from your children. i have been getting them to the internet cafe about every other day. please continue to pray with us.
we have arrived alive
just a quick post to let everyone know that we have arrived alive in nicaragua. things here are great. i will write more later when i have a chance.
the bare bones facts
as many of you now know, earlier today bill pruitt resigned as parkview’s senior pastor. this means our church is going to go through changes in the near future. we’ll have to start the process of gathering together church members to form a “pastor search team”, get an interim pastor for awhile, and then go through the whole long process of finding a new pastor. change is usually not fun but not being fun doesn’t mean that good things can’t happen through it.
i’ve been pleasantly surprised by the number of church members asking if pam and i are okay – traslation “are you freaked out and going to leave the church?” i want to say “thanks” for your concern and the answer to your translated question is – pam and i are fine and no we have no plans on leaving parkview within the near future. if you wanted me to stay at parkview then hopefully this is good news. if you wanted me to leave parkview – then i guess it stinks to be you.
parkview is going to go through some changes but we will go through them together – as a family. that’s what families do.
ski day
hey there guys & girls. sorry about having to postpone today’s “ski day”. i felt miserable, throwing up all night. we will reschedule the thing and do it again.
global dominators photo pool
i’ve created a photo pool for the houston global encounter week. if you belong to flickr and went with us to houston then you are welcome to add your pictures.
otherwise, just enjoy viewing what everyone adds to the mix.
you can view it here