Katie McGrew: Seeing Jesus

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90 degrees in Managua and snowing in Edmonds...Happy Thanksgiving! We are slowing convincing ourselves that is really is the holiday season ~ the malls are helping to convince us of this, we have put Christmas lights in the windows and fall scented candles burn through out the house. The best comment came from Josh the other night as he declared that "now this is starting to feel right", as I cooked almond cakes, mashed potatoes and green beans for our Thanksgiving celebration with our new church. The month and a half between Thanksgiving and Christmas is our families absolute favorite time of the year. It's a time when there is no better place to be than with family or enjoying longs days at home together ~ there is something magical about this time of year! How will this happen in Nicaragua? Dwight and I will work hard to make our home, "our home"! I know that God will give us the same peace and joy that He has faithfully given and we will give Him all

This is the family of two of our new girls at the Villa ~ Geyzel (Hazel) in the black and Kenia in the black and grey stripes. I don't ever want to stop recognizing God at work every day! You know He is always at work? I am so thankful for the "Experiencing God" study, for the last 3 weeks I have been working on the study with the women that work at the Villa. I love to watch these women take bits of these truths and have a new encounter with God. I am reminded over and over again that it is God who changes hearts and my job is to be obedient to what He asks me to do. I have been thinking so much about the ministry that Jesus had in his time on earth. I don't think there was anything very fancy about it ~ the amazing thing was His obedience to His Father. I desire and am learning to walk daily with Him trusting that He will show me all that I need to see and understand. The longer we live here the more I realize I don't understand. I was reading a book th

These last weeks have been an important time for Dwight and I. We have had a lot of time to talk about a lot of things. We are learning so much, so so much. We will celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary in December and when I think back to learning how to be married and live with someone else seemed so difficult, deciding who was right about where to put the silverware. Silverware seems so easy now. Living in a new culture has made us aware of all of our insecurities and shortcomings. We are learning to love each other with grace and humility ~ recognizing that God will still give us a peace that surpasses all understanding. God is good all the time! Maybe 4 weeks ago we all started to feel a little antsy, we were really missing a church family. We had been going to El Faro, the ministry to La Chureca. It seemed very important to be at church with the girls that we are here to support, but something was missing. We didn't understand anything. We would go because it felt

Maggie and little Luna washing the dishes. She loves to chase brooms and mops and barks at pringle cans. Xochilt, Erminia and Tamara at Tip Top. Brittany and Maria Celeste. This is the view from our balcony on a Saturday morning! Lot's of kids! Maggie sharing with the girls from Leon. They have become so dear to us. A service for the kids in Leon. Thank you Jesus for this time. Dolores and I ~ I love this woman and I am so thankful for her. The whole crew that spent the day in Leon. Thank you for praying for us all the time! I have so much to share with all of you right now but no time. I will just write soon and tell you everything! God is working and my job is to join Him, I wish He could write a clear job description sometimes. Love you all!

We were celebrating Flor's birthday in front of the computer ~ Bart, Kerri and family were talking on skype with us. Technology at this moment was such a blessing! Dwight and Dolores ~ beautiful Dolores! Dwight and I at Katarina ~ Laguna de Apoyo is close behind and Lake Managua or Nicaragua (I am not sure) in the distance! Not everyone is so excited about Lola the monkey! We had a great day with the staff from the Villa boating through the the islands in Granada. We laughed so hard. I love to see people laugh, maybe that is my hearts desire to spend time with people I love the most and laugh and laugh and laugh!!!! The beginning of the journey into Lake Nicaragua with the Villa staff. The whole staff at Katarina ~ they are so cute! and they worked so hard this summer. I will only write a little. Dwight left on Tuesday to go home to spend time with his dad, the next day my dear sweet friend Tamara came. This is a huge gift from God that he would give us so much time to catch

Everywhere we go kids are drawn to Maggie and she is always open to loving everyone one of them. This little girl started out sitting in front of her at church and half way through the service this is how I found them. Dwight and Mario have been working hard on the aquaponic gardening system. They have a ton of basil growing, one plant is 10" tall and probably 5" wide ~ time for bruchetta. They are having a great figuring things out together, lot's of cleaning. LILI... Every time we drive we pass a puppy vendor, well we couldn't take it anymore! Yesterday we brought home our new puppy Lili. She is a maltese (so they say) and so precious. We are super pleased because she is so well behaved, which tells us that she has been well cared for. The kids were so happy and quite a hit with all the other kids in the neighborhood. We love you all and look forward to sharing more with you soon.

There has been so much rain! We had the first big day but it continues! The weirdest thing about it is that it is only where we live!! It is not the same 5 minutes down the road. Our road is washing out and everyday the potholes change because some get filled in and some road washes out creating new holes. Walls are falling down because they were built without a foundation. For this reason God tells us to build our house on a rock with a firm foundation so that when the storms come you will still stand! We had a great day yesterday, time at the Villa; Maggie, Will and I walked with the older girls, Josh played with the littles and Dwight visited with the Tilapia and Mario. One of Dwight's jobs is to care for a hydroponic gardening system (it's new and everyone is learning), there is a tilapia tank as part of this garden. They are growing like crazy and multiplying even more. The funny thing about that is they were only supposed to sell us male fish so they could ne

Having way too much fun at the mall in our free time! Our Virginia Beach Team (maybe I am a little possessive) Martha, Maggie and Monica looking beautiful for Karina's quincenera. The girls dressed Maggie this night, it was very special!! We worked all day at Bethel School and then the kids shared cultural dances with us. Katia y Katie ~ she is at HAT, a temporary foster care program for kids in danger. She has captured my heart. A family that lives at Tipitapa, across the road from the kitchen we built that will host the feeding program. Praying to dedicate the kitchen and feeding program to God. One of the 342 islands in Granada. How did they get there? kids at Tipitapa Maggie is in the red shorts, she is so good with kids. It's all about the rotundas here in Nicaragua! What used to terrify me, I am now thankful for because it allows to me try again to find the place that I was trying to find! And when I still don't find it I just go around again. Maybe there should

THANK YOU FOR PRAYING AND REMEMBERING THEM TODAY!!! This is after the day ~ with our sweet friend Amy. Thank you for praying, they did it! And now tomorrow is a holiday so..... NO SCHOOL!

I just want to let you know that the kids start school tomorrow. We are home and in bed earlier than any other time ~ there are many nerves. The uniforms are ironed and ready to wear. The school supplies are in the back packs. Of course I will take pictures and post them in the evening. I am working with a team so life is busy. Dwight and I will both take them in the morning. I am nervous, especially for Maggie. She is going to do great but she is very nervous. Please pray for quick friendships!!!!! And a quick normal....... Love to you all!

I have forgotten to tell you that we have an infestation and it's not pretty! Cockroaches have invaded. The guy came to spray the other day and then we found some dead but really I think they just left our house and moved to the neighbors. We received a notice that they will fumigate all tenants that so desire on Saturday. I hear this can be quite startling, that the cockroaches come out of everywhere when you do this. Maybe it will be quite a sight to see! Too bad I will be with my team! I want to share everything with you guys! This is a picture of one that I killed after chasing him around the house with a broom and screaming! They are so fast!!!!!

We have officially named our home "Casa Abanico", which translates "fan house", it sounds way more beautiful in spanish! We decided that buying a washer and dryer was a necessity. Clothes can rarely be worn twice here and with the rain and humidity trying to line dry the clothes of a family of 5 is nearly impossible. I know there are many people that do this every day but........... ok, I am well aware of the luxury but when you visit us you too will appreciate our purchase. As we were making our deal, Dwight and I decided we would ask the guy to lower the price a little ~ only by like $23. It was clear that he couldn't lower the price but then he started talking about abanicos, fans. Well, as it turns out he wanted to throw in a fan for the washer and one for the dryer! Needless to say our spanish is in need of much improvement. So, Casa Abanico..... the house of fans. We have 6 fans blowing in our house! The good thing is the new ones are quite a bit

Good morning.... I am thankful that I have been able to post pictures during this busy time. Every once in awhile I have thoughts go through my mind that I want to write for you but of course now that I have a moment to sit and write............ There is so much. Everything is still so new. Dwight and I had a role reversal this last week (kind of), I was at work each day by 7:30 and he was here with the kids and taking care of paying bills and grocery shopping. He had to make several trips to the bank because you can only withdrawal $400 each day and our bills are more than that ~ he got it all figured out and learned to drive through the city. He is still learning that you slow down at the rotundas and not speed up, for some reason he steps on the gas ~ this makes even our Nicaraguan friends scream! He did all those household things and made his way the Villa each day to work on the bookkeeping with Enrique ~ Enrique said Dwight is a very good work partner! On Saturday night we h

Last night we were treated to an amazing meal of carne asada, gallo pinto, ensalada and platanos fritas by Larry and Mario ~ they make our family complete!

Martha and Alondra enjoying the day out at the soccer game! Free Saturday's are a gift for all of us! Josh and Brittany at the Lion's soccer game yesterday. You have to be careful where you sit or stand because there are these tiny black ants that will swarm your foot in seconds, they bite and it hurts!!! I am not sure how to type so my words are next to each picture so I will just have to write and you can figure out what picture I might be referring to. Not a blog master yet! We enjoyed the soccer game yesterday, Saturday after my wonderful Rock of Roseville team left. They were here for a week and it was great to see how God worked in their lives. The team leader was a man named Bob Hasty, he used to be the head Pastor at MillCreek Four Square church. What a small world, we know many of the same people. Our team spent time in several places, a favorite was spending time with the people from la chureca that live near