Dear Friends,

It is at this time of year that we begin reflecting over the past year, marveling at what God has done and thinking of you all with thankful hearts. The new year will be here before we know it and it looks like it’s going to be a busy one. But before we look ahead we want to acknowledge what God has been doing through you and through us as we partner together here in Nicaragua.

El Centro Deportivo El Salero
The Salt Shaker Sports Center

El Salero, the Christian sports center called The Salt Shaker, continues to be a busy, busy place. Besides attracting a daily crowd of neighborhood youth who come to play basketball and soccer we’ve got a church league using the baseball stadium on a regular basis and a local soccer league using the soccer field for practices and games. Thanks to God’s marvelous automatic sprinkler system (rain) both fields are looking really nice right now. Improvements continue to be made at the baseball stadium where the visitor’s dugout is completed and the home team dugout nearly completed. Each of these steps lead us closer and closer to finishing the whole stadium. Now we just have the seating area around the home team dugout to finish and the entry area which includes a wall and a small café/store. It has become a beautiful ballpark and a fun place for the teams to play.

The big on-going construction project at the sports center is the covered basketball court. Getting the 14 concrete columns framed and poured seemed like a huge project but it’s completed and now we’re looking at hoisting up the steel trusses to mount on top of the columns. Just last week they got the first one in place. It was definitely a team effort. Our welders called in the troops (brothers, cousins and friends) to come and assist and with ropes, ladders, pulleys and scaffolding to say nothing of the additional elbow grease, they managed to get the truss mounted and welded into place. It immediately gives perspective to the project and makes it easier to visualize just how high and big the roof will eventually be. It is going to be a wonderful place for all sorts of games and activities in both the rain and sun.

El Centro de Ministerio El Farito
The Little Lighthouse Ministry Center 

In just a couple of weeks we will be finishing up another successful preschool year. It’s amazing to think this is our fourth group of “graduates”. This year four of our ten students are completing level II of preschool and will be moving on to Kindergarten (level III) next year. We took the “graduates” and their moms to visit Covanic, the private school where we send our scholarship students, and as they looked around at the school, investigated the playground, and sat in the classroom one could see the anticipation and excitement on their faces as they pictured themselves participating as students next year. It is a big, exciting move but our little students are well prepared and it is a wonderful feeling to facilitate this move for them when they are so ready.

For our returning and new students next year the program will look a little different. Up until now we’ve offered first and second level preschool as a combined program but with a classroom limit of ten students we aren’t able to register very many new students. Next year we’re going to open the three-day-a-week program to four-year-olds (level II) only and will offer a two-day-a-week program (level I) to three-year-olds. We will be busier with a five day program but believe it will allow us to reach more children and to run a better program.

The mornings at El Farito are filled up with preschool but there’s a lot more going on in the afternoons. The folks at Manna Project International keep the doors open in the afternoons and evenings with their on-going classes for children and young adults. The elementary age students are offered classes in art, music, reading and math and also have the opportunity to receive help with homework or to check out a book for reading at home. In the early evening hours you can find a women’s exercise class and several levels of English classes going on each week. There seems to be something for just about everyone and in these past four years El Farito has become an integral part of the community of Cedro Galan.

Scholarship Program

Last month’s newsletter was dedicated to information about our scholarship program so we don’t want to take much space to talk about that again. (If you didn’t receive that letter or are interested in reading it again just drop us a line and we’ll send it off to you!) However, as you are starting (or some of you might be finishing??!!) your Christmas shopping we’d like to offer you an alternative gift idea. If you would be interested in giving a donation to the scholarship program in the name of someone on your gift list we would like to offer you that opportunity. All you have to do is write to us at amen@ibw.com.ni and request a scholarship program gift packet. We’ll send you a packet containing a Nicaraguan-made Christmas card, a child donor card (which will include information and a picture of one of our students), and a response envelope. You can personalize the Christmas card with your own message, enclose the donor card and send or give it to your friend. The response envelope will make it easy for you to send your donation to the NEO Foundation in your friend’s name. We hope this is a gift idea that some of you might consider this Christmas season!

Praises and Prayers

• Please continue to praise God with us as we give Him all the glory for what is being accomplished here in His name.
• Please pray for the purchase of the two new vans. We are trying to be patient as we jump through hoops and complete the paperwork that could save us the 15% sales tax. (That’s a chunk of change!!!)
• Please pray for safety throughout the on-going construction projects at El Salero.
• Please praise God with us for our faithful and high-quality workers and their families.
• Please pray for the preschool program in 2008 and for the children that will be attending.
• Please pray for the scholarship program as it continues to grow that God would continue to bless it and guide it to be what He wants for His glory.
• Please pray for the year ahead as God has blessed us with quite a number of teams on the 2008 calendar. Please pray for those who have stepped forward to lead these teams and for the participants that are planning to come. Please pray that the Word of God would be working in the hearts of those coming down as well as in the hearts of those receiving the blessing of their work while they’re here.

Thank you for standing alongside of us through your prayer, friendship and support. Once again we will be up in the Bellevue, Washington area to celebrate Christmas with our sons and extended family and would love to be blessed by seeing and visiting with you. We will be hosting our third annual Nica Nite – A Nibble of Nicaragua on December 15th at 4:00 in the afternoon at Woodinville Community United Methodist Church. Perhaps you will be able to find time to stop in and say hi, have a little nibble and maybe even find that perfect unique Christmas gift for that hard-to-shop-for person on your list.