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