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Newsletters
Apr 2012 |
Newsletters - Sep 2011A.M.E.N. Alongside Ministries en Nicaragua Dear Friends,
December 2010: We were blessed, once again, to have the opportunity and means to spend the Christmas and New Year holidays with family and friends up in Washington state. Three sons, two daughter-in-laws and three granddaughters along with Halle’s parents provide lots of laughs, good times and new memories that we cherish when we’re apart.
February 2011: February signals the start of the Nicaraguan school year for the students in the El Farito preschool and those in the scholarship program as well as the back-to-school backpack program. While Kathy was in the states the Nicaraguan preschool teachers started the year without a hitch and really did a great job with the program without Kathy looking over their shoulders. With the help of a few key people the students in the scholarship program also started their year with all the books and supplies they needed. The backpack program, which provides a backpack and school supplies to local public school students, directed by Amanda Gutierrez (our partner in ministry), also proceeded smoothly, providing much needed school supplies to over 700 children. Another big thanks goes to the St. Paul team who have provided funding for this program and always help to organize the backpacks and materials to make this program happen. March-May 2011: We had an unusually quiet spring around the Alongside Ministry complex. Usually we have several spring break teams join us, but this year, due to economic challenges, we had two teams cancel and we didn’t host any Manna Project teams. The good part was that this break in teams afforded Halle the opportunity to make a quick trip back to Seattle to visit Kathy for a bit. As it turned out, just before Halle’s visit Kathy had fallen in the classroom and broken her left wrist so she was off work on disability for most of the time Halle was visiting. See… all things work together for good… right? June-August 2011: While the spring months may have been a bit quiet around here we more than made up for it during the summer. Kathy returned to Nicaragua on June 4th and our first team of the summer arrived on Monday, June 6th. Always a great way to start the summer, this was the fourth consecutive visit for this team from Maranatha Prep Academy in Pasadena, CA. Eighteen high school students and their three leaders worked on various projects around our facility – digging, raking, picking up trash and painting. Every year this team leaves their mark with a beautiful wall mural. This is the team responsible for almost all the murals on the stadium wall as well as the art work that adds a touch of whimsy and welcoming in our library. Thanks Maranatha!
The very day after Mikaela’s arrival we greeted a youth team from our home church, Woodinville Community United Methodist Church. Though a smaller team of seven, they knew how to work and sweat and get dirty with the best of them. They mixed their days with project work in the morning and relational evangelism in the afternoon, offering crafts to the local children in our library annex. As is often the case with younger and smaller teams, this group was stretched and challenged personally to work around the language barrier and learn how to be the love of Jesus with skin on it. Evangelizing without using words is challenging and often doesn’t provide the immediate “fruit” that is motivating and satisfying. This team met that challenge and went home with a new and different perspective on faith and ministry.
(Lynettte makes some sticker art with the preschoolers while Leslie creates with dot-paints.) Somewhere in there our youngest son, Brookes, arrived for a two-week visit. He was here with the Woodinville team and then stayed for about a week longer so we had some time to enjoy just hanging out with him. Brookes left on the 23rd of August and Mikaela, who had since been upgraded from intern to “daughter”, left about a week later. Our home went from crazy busy-ness to quiet emptiness almost overnight. It’s hard to say which is better. Actually they are both wonderful in their own way and it seems we’re never one way or the other long enough to get bored. So, as you can see, God has been busy in our lives and in the lives of the many people He has brought our way. We truly believe that every single visitor and team member was here for a purpose, to be used by and for the glory of God. Thank you for responding in obedience to God whether He called you to come to Nicaragua or whether He calls you to support this ministry with your prayers and finances. We are blessed to be serving together, alongside one another, for the glory and honor of our Lord, Jesus Christ. (And, if you’re reading this, thank you for reading all of this long, long newsletter!) Prayers and Praises Things keep breaking down… Please pray for these unexpected costs that take a bite out of our budget. Thank you again for reading our news. We will write again soon as we are heading into the time of year when we present and promote the scholarship program. Want to get a head start on thinking and praying about the scholarship program? Please check out the scholarship program page on our website: http://www.alongsideministries.org/scholarships.htm Always a privilege to be serving together, Halle and Kathy August
Thank you for supporting our ministry in Nicaragua. Eastside Development |
It has been many months since we have corresponded with you. We sure hope you’re all still out there and we want to make sure you know we’re still here, too, working, playing and serving here in Nicaragua. We’d like to provide an up-date to get you caught up on our lives and ministry activity.
January 2011: The new year started a little differently for us as Halle returned to Nicaragua on his own leaving Kathy back in Washington to teach for five months (a long-term substitute position in a dual-language Kindergarten classroom). This provided a much needed respite from Nicaragua for Kathy as well as an opportunity to spend more time with family and especially grandchildren. Halle returned to Nicaragua in time to host our annual team from St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in State College, PA. This year’s team was smaller than usual but they made up for that by working harder than usual. This team, who traditionally has had a hand in quite a number of the projects around the sports center, came ready to lay the stone patio that connects the library, computer lab and ranchón. Before this was just an area of patchy grass and dirt that occasionally flooded into the ranchón during heavy rain and always made for dirty, dusty footprints no matter what the season. Now, as you can see, it is beautifully paved with stone and has a built in drainage system to avoid flooding. What a beautiful gift of service this group provided. Thank you so much!
Shortly after saying goodbye to the Maranatha team we greeted our summer intern, Mikaela Trott, who arrived on June 26th. Mikaela, a recreation major (Did you know you could major in playing?) from Western Washington University, came down planning to spend almost ten weeks learning through hands-on experience a little bit about hosting teams and running programs. She hit the road running and quickly became a wonderful asset and help to both Halle and Kathy as she became a temporary member of our ministry team.
Hot on the heels of the Woodinville team we welcomed a team from Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, Amanda’s home church. This team of eight, with four returning for the second time, continued with some of the on-going projects around the sports center and also participated in some very intentional relational activities in the community. They had a great time getting to know the children at the feeding program, sitting to have lunch with them and talking (yes, really talking in Spanish) with them to get to know them a little better. The impact of this sort of evangelism, while hard to measure, is easy to see on the faces of the children who have been made to feel, even for such a short time, that they are important and worthwhile, lovable and special. This is the sort of seed planting that produces fruit in the future and is no less valuable even if we don’t always get to witness it. This team also broke into two small groups and dined in the homes of two local families, spending the evening sharing a very simple dinner and getting to know each other a little better. Again, this was a wonderful seed-planting activity. Thank you Menlo Park for letting the confidence of your faith overcome the uneasiness that these situations can often produce. We know you touched our community with the love of Jesus.
The sheets and towels were hardly dry before we welcomed our next team from Hillsville, Virginia. This team of 20 made up of high school and college students along with a few adults, was led by the energy and good planning of Laura Holderfield. Laura, along with a few others, had visited Nicaragua before and simply had to return to continue building their relationships with the children of Nueva Vida (New Life) a community in the nearby town of Ciudad Sandino. Unlike most of the teams we host this team gave the majority of its time and attention to this little community about a 30 minute drive from here. They helped with their feeding programs, did a few projects and generally loved on the children of this community with laughter, fun and lots of hugs. They touched the youth of our community as well by hosting a youth night and a game night. They brought with them their gift of musical talent and provided two evenings of worship, one for the English-speaking community and one for the Spanish-speaking community. How honoring it was to our community that they would learn and sing songs in Spanish so that all could join in praise and worship together.
On August 4th we welcomed our last team of the summer, a family team from Woodinville Community United Methodist church. This was a special team made up of two families with young children and five other adults. One of the families was Nick and Megan Vinther with their three children ages 8, 2 and 4 months. This is the same family that lived here for four months in 2010 so they were excited to renew friendships and the community here was glad to have them back. This team worked hard on some intimidating maintenance projects around the center but they were not to be outdone and their scars are testimony to their success. Using the chainsaw, the hedge trimmer, nippers and machetes, this team attacked the bougainvillea (aptly
