I speekee Eeengleesh

Prospective English Territory ~ 12 mile radius

San Marcos is home to an American university called Ave Maria.  At this university, all the students, teachers, and most of the staff speak English.  When I was here in 2011, sometimes I would go preach around the entrances of the university, talking to whoever came in / out asking if they spoke English and would be interested in reading our literature.  Never had a bad response.  Many students would eagerly look through my stack of magazines and choose several to read.

So the idea was...why not have an English group here in San Marcos? Well Carazo for that matter!  There are a ton of foreigners here and locals who speak English.  Other foreigners serving here also noticed the potential and agreed with the idea.  At the end of December 2012, we were able to talk with the English Circuit Overseer (Click Here to read more about what a CO means) about starting official preaching to English to our area.  He told us to talk with our elders about getting a table going and to be alert to English speaking ones in the territory.

We, my cousin Stacey and I, were not sure what would come of the suggestion.  We did what we could preaching at the entrances of the university and in the territory.  We were able to find several English speaking persons and started cultivating interest.  Mid February 2013 rolls around...and we get an email from a brother from Chinandega English Congregation (about 4 hours north) stating that he and his wife, and some other couples were assigned by the CO to do census / search work in our area!  SCREAM!!!  I jumped and ran up and down the hallway, terrifying my roommates.  But they soon joined in my excitement once they heard the news.  This was on a Monday.  The next day Tuesday, he writes back saying, "Oh, on Saturday after the search work we're also going to hold a public meeting and watchtower study (description here)." More screaming and running up and down ensued.  Tears welled in my eyes (and still do) at the thought of hearing a meeting, singing, and being able to comment in my own language at my Kingdom Hall here in San Marcos.

So the work commenced.:
- Maps and invitations needed to be created.  We were able to get maps from the Sign Language Congregation (Their territory of deaf people is all over Carazo as well)  No real way to get enough of the official English meeting invitations in time, we made them!  Copied right from the original, complete with map on the back :)
- Accommodations for our visitors needed to be made. Four couples from up north were coming down for a few days.
- English hotspots needed to be identified.  We contacted lots of our international friends in the various towns and asked for leads.
- And I needed to remember how to preach in English!!!  I didn't even bring and English Bible Teach book with me!  Thankfully we were able to make a trip to Managua English and I scalped a stash of literature :)

 

Finally, March 1 arrives.  Historical official first day ever doing English census in Carazo.  Here is a picture of our group that morning on the bus to Jinotepe.  We worked 5 or 6 blocks...and were astounded by the results.  We averaged 2 English speakers per block!!!

 

 Things only got better from there.  More joined us in the afternoon.  Here is our 2:30pm group.  Quite the international convention.  People from the USA (New York, Wisconsin, Hawaii, California), Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Nicaragua!  During the week before the census and that day, we handed out over 200 invitations.  By the end of the first day, we had close to 60 names from about 15 blocks...We knew the potential was there...but had not anticipated the scope of the work at hand.  Completely thrilled and awestruck, we turned in for the night and rested for the 2nd day of activity.

March 2, 2013 - The BIG day!  We worked in morning, preaching a few more blocks and in public areas trying to invite as many as we could to the meeting that afternoon.  We printed out copies of the Watchtower articles and songs in anticipation of our visitors.  We were hoping for at least one person from the territory to come.  That would be significant reason to start a group and care for that persons spiritual needs.  The brother said, if we get more than that, if we get five, that would be amazing.

Meeting starts right on time at 4:00 pm.  By that time...we already had four in attendance.  (One man had not even received the invitation personally!  Some sisters spoke to his family in Spanish that morning and asked them to pass the invitation on to him.  He came, was one of the first ones there, gave a comment in his own words, and eagerly asked when the next meeting was.  The other attendees were a Bible student and an inactive brother and his friend.)  I was on the verge of tears.  During the public talk, one more came in.  (He had received the invitation the night before.  He also participated during the Watchtower study and read a scripture.)  During the song, I had to stop myself from grinning because my face was hurting.  We had our five.  We had reached amazing.  But wait...before the song ends...3 more come in...A couple return visits and a friend from the Atlantic coast.  Commence chicken skin.  I could barely sing the concluding song...

The Watchtower study for that day was so fitting, "Be Courageous - Jehovah is with You!"  It truly embodied the spirit and sentiments we would need to propel us forward. (Article Here)  From what I've been told, starting a language group is not easy.  There will be ups and downs, joys and sorrows, and LOTS and LOTS of hard work.  That much we know already.  But we have felt Jehovah's direction and blessing on all our work so far and we know it will only continue.  It has been such a thrill and privilege to be part of this experience...inception of a English group...in a Spanish speaking country...in Nicaragua!!!  Since its all for Jehovah's praise and advancing Kingdom interests, we know whatever is to come, it will all be worth it!

Malachi 3:10 ~ "Test me out please...whether I shall...actually empty out upon you a blessing 

until there is no more want."

So a grand summary:  51 meeting attendance.  About 15 local Spanish speakers came to support, the 8 from the territory, and the rest English speaking need greaters from all over the world.  Two towns worked, San Marcos and Jinotepe.  In a day and a half, we worked 24 blocks, 12 in each town.  We found 103 names of English speaking persons, 44 of which we actually spoke to.  The remaining 59 we must go back and determine if they know enough English to study the Bible.  There were too many amazing experiences...You'll just have to come and see it for yourself.

*** Someone made an interesting comment, that from the large crowd in the picture, it looks like we do not need any support! COMO NO! Everyone in this picture already has an assignment, the majority Spanish/Sign Language, and a few couples in other English congregation.  For this new endeavor, we only have FOUR confirmed onboard so far...Hence the text quoted below. ***

Matthew 9:37,38 "Yes, the harvest is great, but the workers are few.  

Therefore, beg the Master of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.”

They call me...MISTAH PIG!!!

Actually, its a girl! A Misses pig :)  Casilda be her name.  I didn't name her, the family that's caring for her did.  I figured I better not get too attached...

So some of you may have heard that I had a crazy idea. (I know, completely out of character for me right?)  Actually my dear Ate Stace helped plant the idea of us getting a pig!  Why? So we could participate in the recycling cycle! The piggy would eat all our desperdicios - pig-edible food throwaways.  So the hunt began mid-December.  I searched far and wide, up and down for a piggy.  For some reason, pigs were oddly expensive at that time, more than $50 for a small 2 month pig.  I told everyone I knew that I wanted a pig and they went asking around looking for prices.  The price was never right, so I almost started to give up...

But then!!!  We were preaching in one of our rural territories on our Rural Wednesday.  While my partner was preaching, I was being distracted by this horrible squealing.  I tried to be a good partner and follow along, but my ears and eyes were trying to find the source of this sound.  About three houses down, I saw a burly man holding a piggy by its ears!!!  No wonder it was screaming so bad :(  After we finished preaching to the young girl (it was an excellent call by the way.  The girl used to get magazines from a Witnesses classmate in high school.  She said she loved the magazines, asked for all the latest copies we had, ripped them out of the sisters hands, and clutched them :) I asked the sister if we could go see the pigs...

The man was from a town about 10 miles away.  He had a cart with about 10 pigs of all different sizes and colors.  He even had RICE SACKS tied to the card with PIGS INSIDE.  Poor things.  The family he was visiting was going to buy a couple pigs from him.  Apparently they have bought pigs from this same guy for many years so that was a good sign.  I was all ready to buy a piggy and just walk it home.  The price was right but,  no $$$ haha.  So I asked the guy when he would be back in our area.  He said next Sunday he would be in a rural spot closer to my home.  Which was perfect because it was the same neighborhood were I would be keeping the pig.  So I made arrangements with him to meet me at the sister's house.

THE FOLLOWING SUNDAY - Feb 10, 2013 - P-Day

The Choncho Cart - yes there are pigs in those bags :(

I told the sister that the pig man aka Chonchero was coming and asked her to call me when he arrived.  When he got there, he again was loaded to the nines with piggies!  Big, small, cute, boars, and pigs in bags. 













Who knew choosing a pig could be so hard!  It took me about an hour to examine the piglets.  They were so cute!  But of course I had to keep objective in mind.  This was project pig, not pet pig ;)

I narrowed it down to these two: the white and the brown.  The white was good sized and healthy looking.  The brown because it was so cute! And reminds me of my Rhodesian Ridgeback Nala.  See the resemblance?

But I decided the white pig would better serve the purpose of this project.  Her objective is one of two: 1) sell and use the profits to pay for our congregations bus to our district assembly in October, or 2) congregation luau :)  Everyone seems pretty keen on option two.  So if you're hungry for a hunk of fat and juicy meat...come for a visit in August :)

More Casilda footage:  Here