Hello everyone,
I know it has been a little while since my last post. I apologize for not being better about getting updates out to you all. It’s hard to remember that a whole world of people out there exist when you get so caught up in ministry that’s going on around you all day every day.
The past few weeks have been great.
Me and Kelly at Mombacho
In the first few days of February Jim Bob got back from his time in Africa and the states, bringing along with him two other team members Lisa and Lindsay. We’ve been adjusting to our now 8 person team and getting to know each other a lot. Lisa, in her mid-twenties, came here on the World Race back in the Summer of 2008 and fell in love with the ministry here. She made the decision to come back and stay here long term, at least a year, but most likely longer. She is a teacher, and has an amazing gift with working with our youth here. Lindsay, 21, is from Charlotte, NC. She graduated from Campbell University in December, and is here with us for 6 months. Back in August 2009, Jim Bob spoke at a youth event in Indian Trail, NC, and she was there (so was I). Neither of us met her. She hadn’t met anyone involved in the mission prior to moving here for 6 months. She is a great girl with a huge heart for the Lord and an eagerness to know and serve him.
Kelly has connected well with all the girls, which has been great to see. I joke that her and Lindsay were separated at birth because they are so much alike both in their personality and appearance.
Having Jim Bob back here has been a breath of fresh air, not only for the mission, but especially for me personally. Since he’s moved here, he has spent more time with me than any other person (Summer 09 and now), and we’ve gotten really close. We both cut up and annoy the girls with our sarcastic humor, which they say they hate, but we know they wouldn’t know how to function without it. (Okay, maybe that’s a stretch…) I’d almost forgotten what it was like to have him around, mainly because he was away for the majority of our time here so far, but it has been great to reconnect with him. I’m sure we’ll continue to be great friends for years to come and annoy everyone around us with our sarcasm.
Steve and Kelly
Other than our long term team members, we’ve had some short term visitors as well. Steve and Kelly Thrift have spent most of February with us. They’re from a town called Willits in northern California, where Steve is a pastor at Agape Bible Church. Steve and Kelly began to feel a burden for Nicaragua, for whatever reason (God, duh), about 1.5-2 years ago. They’ve been praying for God’s direction on where to go. They looked up lots of ministries, but nothing seemed to click. Sooner or later, they came across the New Song website and instantly knew this was where God wanted to send them. They couldn’t have been more correct. They had such an impact on each and every one of our team members, and were such a blessing to all of us. It was so awesome to see God’s plan unfold in their being here with us.
Kelly and I both were sick earlier this week, which was quite an experience. On my extended stay in the summer of 2009 I had a serious ear infection for a few weeks, which was irritating and painful, but the 24hr stomach bug we seemed to have this time was a whole different rodeo. We were up getting sick for most of the night one night, and the following day we were extremely fatigued and exhausted. We recovered within 24hrs almost back to normal, and after a few days we got our appetites back. We weren’t sure of the cause, but we were surely glad to get through it.
Unfortunately we are still without power on the church property, where we live, in Candelaria. It has been a month now, and we’re currently using a small generator to power lights and fans (and computers 
) at night so we can sleep comfortably. We’ve been blessed with some promising connections over the past week that we’re praying will lead to a solution soon. Please keep this in your prayers, as this is the biggest challenge our ministry is facing right now.
Linda just returned from a short trip to the states where an organization paid her way to have her come and be educated on how a bigger organization is run. She’s returneed to us full of ideas, so I am pretty excited to see what we can do. I’m also planning to revamp the entire website for New Song over my remaining time here, adding pictures and videos to make it more interactive, which should keep me pretty busy!
I think God has a lot more in store for us. Hard to believe our trip is already halfway over.
Until Next time,
Evan “Oso” Dixon