Hey everyone!
I have so much to share, but I can’t right now. We have had a LONG day, so I’ll keep this short and sweet, with much much more to come. (I left this in here so you would know these were my INITIAL intentions…)
We made it, obviously, but it wasn’t without a speedbump or two. We had a pretty long layover in Fort Lauderdale, not leaving until about 1am (1.5 hrs late). We ran into a guy I knew from Nicaragua, Mike, who owns a house on the Lagoon here, and realized we were on the same flight down. Definitely not a coincidence. Pretty cool.
We landed, got through customs check-in without a hitch, and claimed our bags, made it through without even having to have our bags scanned. That was a huge blessing, because usually, they want to go through them by hand and see what they may want to take out 
Brittany, who Kelly and I got to see in the states right after thanksgiving, was there with Yader (a Nicaraguan who works for the mission we’re serving with) to pick us up. They came in a car they had to borrow from one of our translators, which threw me off a little. Tommy had taken a group out to the volcanoe and got the truck stuck on a trail, so they couldn’t use it to come get us. The drive to the village was pretty much a blur because I was so exhausted. We arrived around 5am and went pretty much straight to bed.
The following day I woke up to Kelly, Brittany, and who knows how many kids beating on my door to get up. It was like 11:30am. I stumbled out and immediately ran into lots of people excited to see me. I met a married couple, Josh and Ashley, who’ve been here a week and will be living with us for the duration of our stay. We ate a quick lunch of rice, macaroni and cheese, and chicken, and headed to Chinandega on a flatbed truck to run errands. We had just about the most productive day I’ve ever had in Nicaragua. Jacob and Ashley bought some furniture for their room and 2 bicycles and we bought some building supplies for the house - including 83 2×2s for adding ceilings inside the house. By the time we got back and unloaded everything we were pretty beat. We cooked ourselves some dinner and had a little “family meeting” to try and get some things cleared up before Diego leaves for Kenya next week. Hit the bed pretty hard, and slept well.
Today we met the big group from Living Water from Boone, NC. It’s about 20 kids our age, all really awesome, godly people, filled with the Holy Spirit, and were a joy to be around. Jacob and Ashley are from that church. There was a Sunday School celebration today, where all the kids that come to Sunday School at our church in Candelaria came and got gifts that had been donated (Shoes, Hats, Crayons, Toys, etc). It was awesome to see them all so happy to have a few small things. We had a rice dish for lunch that the cooks always make when we have a big group that is made up of rice, chicken, sausage, carrots, peppers, onions, raisins, and who knows what else. Around 1:30 we started our staff meeting, which consists of all 6 of us living on the property (Deigo, Brittany, Jacob, Ashley, Kelly and I), Tommy and Linda, native Nicaraguans, and translators. Yes, it is a semi-bilingual meeting, and therefore, fairly chaotic to the untrained ear. The mission is a little, ummm, nervous isn’t the right word, but maybe “on edge”, right now. There are a lot of teams coming in and out in the coming weeks, but on top of that, both Tommy and Diego are going to be gone soon for a few weeks. Tommy is needed in Charlotte to help a Pastor and wife of a church he started there that are going through a hard time. We don’t know now how long he’ll be gone, but it could be weeks, and he leaves Thursday night. Diego will be heading out for almost 3 weeks for a mission trip to Kenya. That’s right - leaving one mission field in Nicaragua for another. The fact that Diego handles a LOT of stuff, including almost all the finances, means we have a lot of planning to do to make sure things go smoothly while he’s gone.
After our staff meeting, we loaded up into a few vehicles to go over to the Bloquera, where the big group from Living Water is staying, for dinner and a time of worship with 12 of our youth from Candelaria. The evening was awesome. We had such a wonderful time worshiping God together. The spirit moved in ways i’d never seen before, which was eye-opening.
It’s nearing 2am now, and we’ve been home maybe 2 hours, so I guess I’ll be calling it a night. Music, dance, and sound system classes tomorrow with the group from Living Water, and possibly a New Years Eve celebration.
Pics to come soon, and many more blogs!
Until then,
Evan “Oso” Dixon
Missionary to Nicaragua
His will. His way. All for His kingdom.
evan@evandixon.com
704.765.1956 - office/international
Hello everyone!
Greetings from Fort Lauderdale, Florida! Our first flight has arrived safely, and we’ve got free WiFi! Our flight from here leaves at 11:35PM to Managua, Nicaragua, which lands at 1:15am (local time). We then jump in a truck for a ~3hr drive to the village. We’re not really halfway, I guess, when you put it in those terms.
We started our day around 8am this morning, saying goodbye to family and headed for Atlanta.
The drive went without any issue, that is, until we hit downtown Atlanta. Apparently, the interstate randomly changes names from I-85 to I-75, and then back to I-85. We panicked when it changed, not realizing we were still on the right track, and turned around. We later realized it was just a temporary name change, and got back on track.
We stopped for lunch in Atlanta at the Dwarf House, the original Chic-Fil-A. They served burgers! Blasphemy!
We arrived at the airport just before 3, and were 3rd and 4th in line at the Spirit Airlines counter, which was set to open at 3. The two gentlemen in front of us were Hispanic, and did not understand English real well. As they made it up to the counter to weigh their bags, the attendant made them take some things out in order for them to be under the limited weight of 50 lbs. Kelly and I both knew our bags were a few pounds overweight, but we’d already taken out everything we felt we could do without (and more). We were a bit nervous, to say the least. I knew in the back of my head our bags were about 1-2 inces oversized too. In spite of all that, I told Kelly not to worry and that everything would work out.
“Let me do the talking,” I told her, as we walked up.
I buttered up the lady as much as I could, making small talk, being polite, etc. Even managed to make her smile a few times and chuckle. Anyway, I cringed as I put Kelly’s bag up first. 52.5 lbs… 2.5 lbs over. The lady slapped a tag on it and threw it on. I smiled and sighed with relief. Put my bag up next, still nervous, but a little less. 51.5 lbs. Slapped a tag on it and threw it on the conveyor. She didn’t even seem to glance at the scale. Oh 0 and did I mention she asked US if we wanted exit row seats. YES SIR! Didn’t even have to ask!
God was there. He’s always there. He’s watching over us.I have been continually reminded of that.
As we go forward, I hope to be able to be in tune with God, recognize his presence in my life, and learn what he wants from me.
Thank you for your prayers. We love you all, and truly appreciate your support.
Evan “Oso” Dixon
Missionary to Nicaragua
His will. His way. All for His kingdom.
evan@evandixon.com
704.765.1956 - office/international
I didn’t go to church this morning. It wasn’t out of laziness or because I was running late. For some reason, I wanted to finish reading this book I had just recently started, Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller.
We got to meet Donald Miller at CharlotteONE one night after he spoke as a guest speaker. He spoke about how life compared to a story. One of the central things I took away from it was the concept he explained about conflict. Every good story has a good conflict. Without that, it isn’t much of a story at all. If we look at our lives through that lens, the story lens (this is my terminology), then we realize the conflict in our lives is what makes our lives have value. The struggles. The hardships. The triumphs. The failures. All of these things involve conflict. He made it clear that he thought the best way to live our lives to the fullest is to just step in to the conflict when we have the opportunity. Not tip-toe around it or avoid it. Just walk smack into it, and face it head-on. This doesn’t mean go about it stupidly, or not to think about it and pray about it beforehand. Anyway, it is one of the things he said that i’ve continued to remind myself of whenever a conflict, however small or large, does arise. Anyway, I got to meet him like this: we were walking back from eating at Fuel Pizza after the service downtown, and we saw this huge tour bus. Surely it was his. Melanie, one of our group leaders, was a huge fan, and several of the people with us were fans too and even brought along copies of his books. Everyone was so giddy that it was his bus, but no one wanted to knock on it. Here I come in. I hadn’t even hardly heard of him before that night. I thought to myself, “What’s the worst that can happen? They tell us to back off…whoopdy doo…” So, I knocked on the bus door. Here he comes out, says hello to us, talks to us, takes pictures with us, the works. He invites us ONTO HIS TOUR BUS. It was pretty cool.
So, I met the guy weeks before I ever picked up his book. I’d gotten it from church in 2007. It was a gift they gave to all the graduates that year.
It was so cool reading the book after having met the author. Not only did I have a face to put with these stories, but it made it real. He is actually a person - i’ve shook his hand and talked to him. He isn’t some guy i’d only seen pictures of, or worse, just read on the cover of the book.
So much of his book hit home with me. One of the stories he tells is about a time in his younger years when he lived out in the wilderness with a group of hippies. He get a new outlook on life through that experienced, and later, when he re-entered the “real world”, he found a place where he looked and acted different than everyone else. It wasn’t that he was uncomfortable being that person, the oddball, he actually enjoyed it. It was empowering for him to think of himself as “cultured”. He’d been to the other side, and no one around him had (apparently), and that gave him a sense of pride. I could relate to this, because it’s almost ecactly how I felt returning from Nicaragua. I remeber wearing my Chacos, about 15 bracelets, and a bandana on my head on the airplane home thinking about how different I would look when I got home. I had this beard, i’d lost about 40 lbs, and my mentality was 180 degrees different. Okay, maybe only 170 degrees, but you get the picture. I had a sense of pride about where I was spiritually, what i’d seen and how i’d changed. Pride is sinful. How ironic. The attitude faded as a re-immersed in US culture, but it hit me pretty hard when he told his similar story.
Miller describes how he felt about these people and later came to a realization about the disregard he felt for them. Basically, we are to love. This is what Christ did. When someone spoke to them, he cared about what they were saying, and it showed. People can tell when you care or don’t care about them when they are talking to you. It’s a subliminal message, but we can control it. When you send the signal that you DO care about the words coming out of that person’s mouth, and that you care about THEM too, they are much more likely to be open when you at some point talk about your faith to them. If you don’t, they won’t be receptive.
I could write on and on about things I can relate to from this book, but this is one that really stood out. I need to learn to love everyone, and show it.
Evan “Oso” Dixon
Missionary to Nicaragua
His will. His way. All for His kingdom.
evan@evandixon.com
704.765.1956 - office/international