I KNOW, I KNOW....

I had really good intentions to keep up with this thing more often but just realized it has been over a month. Where has all the time gone??? I will try to keep it quick, yet catch up.
To finish off our trip to the states we went to Roger's family in New Orleans for a bit over a week. It was so great to catch up and spend time with my awesome nephew and friends too!!! We then took off for a five day vacation as a family. I think it was our first official vacation as a family. We spent time at Emerald Isle in North Carolina. We had such a blast. Relax, family time and recoop. We also had a chance to reconnect with friends and make some new ones.
After NC we returned back to Louisiana to spend time with Jason and Lillian in Eros, and some great crawfish!!! Then we were off to Huntington, TX to be with a new relationship that God has brought our way with Shawnee Church. What a sweet time we had, and once again met family!!! Can't wait to see what God has in store.
Left there and headed north to visit Mitch and Ranae for too quick of a lunch...wish we would've had more time. Then spent the evening with Stacie and Robert in Dallas area. Once we hit this point we knew there was only a couple weeks left of our tour of the USA.
We had one last stop in TX. We headed to Borger, close to Amarillo. We were able to reconnect and spend time with the Garcia family. I don't think my kiddos could have had more fun with so many kids. We really enjoyed our time with the congregation and seeing God move in amazing ways. Now it was on to our last stop....Frederick, OK!! We stayed at Doug and Rita's and had some serious card games going on!! We also had a great fish fry and meeting to follow. I never get tired of seeing how God moves in such specific ways for each place we have been. It was such a great night to see God do his thing. I even had a chance to help out my friend JuJu at the food bank and the cool thing was, is that every person that came was hispanic and there was a couple that could speak english at all. I got some much needed spanish after being in the States for too long :)
We finally rounded out our trip back at my parents house to spend the last few days and seeing some family. It was a long 7000+ miles but worth every bit of it. We truly had a great trip and had an amazing time, but was ready to come home to Nicaragua.
Had a few hiccups on our flights, due to bad weather but made it home just an hour later than expected. Once we arrived we had to stand in line and go through and get our temps to make sure no one had the flu...aka the swine flu. Took quite a bit longer than expected to get out of the airport but when we did it was great to know that we made it. I knew we were home when we were driving down one of the main roads in Managua and there were 3 or 4 people pulling a cart with a fridge on it. Home sweet home!!!
Well there will be more later but I wanted to at least catch up to the current month :)

Finally Made it to Warmer Weather

We have been so busy traveling here and there. Since the last post we have been back in the Neosho, MO area. Had a couple more meetings close to there. This past weekend we were at the Branson conference. Which for us is like our home church away from home. We truly have been enjoying the fellowship with all the body of Christ. We also went to a great group in Oak Ridge, LA and are now with our friends in Arcadia, LA.

We feel so truly blessed to be surrounded, upheld and loved by so many wonderful parts of the body!!!! God has been and continues to be blessing our family with such insight and confirmation to that which He wants to continue in Nicaragua, using us.

I will like to also say that the weather is finally getting a bit warmer. The last few weeks of colder weather and 2 days of snow (which the kids loved!), this warmer weather was welcomed with flip flops, t-shirt and jeans. Now that's more like it!

We are so looking forward to our continued travels and our visits that lay ahead. Much love and expectation of what lies ahead!!!!!

Havin' Fun in the USA

I am just now realizing it has been too long since I have updated our blog. What a shame!! The crazy thing is we have been back in the States but have had dial up most of the time....I had forgotten how slow it can be. I will take some time to play catch up.

We made it to the States with no problems on March 10 (Rachel's b-day, they let her sit in the cockpit of the plane for a b-day treat). We had our first layover in Miami and had some lunch with some great friends of ours that we haven't seen since we moved from Costa Rica. We really had such a great time with them and picked right up where we left off....love those relationships!! Finally at 8:30 pm we arrived at Tulsa where our parents picked us up and we were quickly reintroduced to the cold weather...brrrrrr!!

When we got to my parents house we had some time to catch up on business stuff, had a late b-day party for Rachel and a really late christmas :) We then went to Skiatook and spent time with Jerald and Dixie. We had great fellowship and being with the body of Christ is always a good time! We then went to a congregation in Fair Play, MO and had the priviledge to share with the youth group. Wow, what a great group of young people that God has destined to touch the hearts of many in this earth. It was a wonderful group with a passion for the Lord. And the worship...was amazing!!! Finally this past weekend we shared with a congregation in Monett, MO. We enjoyed sharing what the Lord is doing in Nicaragua, and once again the had an infamous "church lunch" for us. You know those where everyone brings their signature dishes and you eat a bit of each to try it all....so good (especially with all the grandmas in the congregation).

We are now with some friends in northern Illinois. It is still a bit cold for us from the deep, deep 'south' but we are managing :) We have so enjoyed all the fellowship, dinners, lunches and visits we have had with so many that we haven't gotten to see in so long. The Lord is so good to bring amazing relationships in our lives that we cherish so deeply.

Well our time to the States is just beginning and we have many more 'places to go and people to see'. I will try to stay up better on the blog while in here. Love to all and am looking forward to seeing the rest of you!!!!

Travel Calendar

States Schedule - Here We Come!!

I thought we could post the schedule of the cities we will be in during our 8 week trek through the USA. I know that it would be near to impossible to see everyone that we would love to see while we are there. If there is any place that we will be close to where you are we would love to see you all. Please check the schedule and come visit!!!

March 10 - Arrive to the States
March 11-13 - Neosho, MO
March 14-15 - Skiatook, OK
March 16-17 - Neosho, MO
March 18 - Fair Play, MO
March 19-21 - Neosho, MO
March 22 - Monett, MO
March 23-24 - Ursa, IL
March 25-29 - Janesville, WI
March 30-31 - Neosho, MO

April 1 - Southwest City, MO
April 2-4 - Branson, MO
April 5-7 - Oak Ridge, LA
April 7-9 - Arcadia, LA
April 10-19 - New Orleans, LA
April 20 - 25 - Emerald Isle, NC
April 26 - 28 - Eros, LA
April 29 - Huntington, TX
April 30 - Gun Barrel City, TX / Richardson, TX

May 1 - Richardson, TX / Borger, TX
May 2-3 - Borger, TX
May 4- 8 - Frederick, OK
May 9 - 13 - Neosho, MO
May 14 - Return to Nicaragua

If there are any questions or just want to visit with us while we are in your area please email. We would love to hear from you!!!
pouredoutministries@yahoo.com

Trip to the Northeast

This past Friday we began our trip, as we do every month that we can, to do the clinic in Rio Blanco. This is a town that is about 3 1/2 to 4 hours from Managua. It is the last town on paved road as you are heading east towards one of the major ports. This month was a bit different because we couldn't stay the entire day on Saturday to help out. We had to leave by early afternoon because we had a long and unknown trek ahead of us. We enjoyed our time at the clinic so much, we love going to help!

Saturday afternoon we got a bit of a later start heading to Las Brenas. We were going to spend some time with a pastor and his family. Roger has gone up to this area to work a few times now, but had only traveled by plane. This was to be our first time driving all the way to this community. Before we even left Rio Blanco we hit the dirt road, or better yet the rock road. I can handle a dirt road just fine, but these were rocks bigger than your fist and not smooth at all. There was a constant banging around that I don't think a chiropractor can even fix. It was a bit different getting used to such a drive. We managed to hit one patch of pavement that lasted about 2 mi. and then thankfully we hit another patch of road that they are working on that lasted about 10+ mi. (it may have not been all pavement but at least it was a smooth dirt road.) It was dark before we were even halfway there, which made it a bit more challenging for Roger to drive on a road that he didn't know.

We finally arrived at Las Brenas around 1am, and exhausted! The family woke up to greet us, but we were ready to hit the sack. But not until a quick bathroom break about a block behind the house in the outhouse. (Thank God for flashlights!) We were able to gather our strengths after a good nights rest, Roger had to preach the next day at the pastor's congregation.

Las Brenas is a community right on the main 'highway' but there is no electric lines (they ended 4 hours up the road) and there is no running water. I wondered how the kids would do without all those ammenities that we take for granted. Don't get me wrong we have had a fair share of electricity going out and no water at times, but you never know how your own kids will react. I will have to say that I was truly amazed. By the time the trip was over they didn't want to leave. I guess they wanted to experience the farming life. Josiah woke up Monday morning ready to milk the cows. Rachel helped clean the beans that they had grown. We made all kinds of food from food that they had grown (they are a fairly self sustaining family). I learned how to make cheese from fresh cows milk. It was such a great experience for us all. But most of all, the time with this family was amazing. The pastor's name is Luis and his wife Glendy. They have 6 children; Amir, Kenia, Javier, Julissa, Melissa and Benny ranging from the ages of 17 to 6.

There is truly not enough space to tell of all the fun and new experiences that we had. It is definately a 'sit down with a cup of coffee on a comfy couch' type of stories. I have one last funny thing I will share with you before I leave you with some photos for our trip. Each day when it came time to take a shower you had to learn to be very vulnerable. Their shower room was off to the corner of the kitchen with a large bucket inside in order to use the bowls to bathe. It was closed in of course, but you could hear and see most of who was there at the table (they couldn't see you), but that wasn't the hard part. The other two walls of the shower room were outside walls with gaps between each board at least 1 in wide or more, perfect viewing space both from the inside and the outside. Thank goodness we were in the campo (rural)!!

By Tuesday we were heading back home. It was a wonderful drive back, bumpy road and all. Of course, somewhere along the way we lost our rear license plate. There's no telling where it is now. We made it back home in 13 hours, wasn't half bad!! It was really great to see that much of Nicaragua. What a great trip!!

Here are some pics from our trip, but to see more they are at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/rreuceda/TripToRioBlancoAndLasBrenas#

Here is a video of Josiah's first time milking a cow. He was so proud!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxqbYSPjNog

typical house in the northeast



bringing water back from the well or river



Roger ministering at Luis's congregation



Kenia teaching me how to make cheese

Julissa and Rachel getting the beans out of their shell

our bathroom accomodations (a nice hike from the house)

Josiah milking a cow with Amir

Benny and Josiah enjoying a coconut

Julissa, Melissa, Rachel and Kenia playing on the hammock

Javier getting the cows ready to be milked

Amir teaching Josiah how to milk a cow

our drive back home....lovely sunset!!

New Arrival

Just wanted to send a quick pic of our newest addition to the communities. The mom has been coming for several months to the clinic to get vitamins and other things. This month she showed up with her 15 day old baby. What a cutie she is! It was nice that we weren't overly busy this clinic (just over 50 patients) so I could hold her a bit. Reminds me of my own at that age. These are the really wonderful things about having the clinics....hold all the new beautiful babies.