The once beautiful volcano was a little less majestic. 

We set up the table and the food and got ready for the people to come.

Osirus tuned his guitar, and we began to wonder where everyone was.

Then we saw them, sorting through the trash that the truck brought in, collecting bottles, or any other recyclables they could find.  The dump, perpetually burning to control the size, was filled with smoke, blown towards us by the wind.  

When there where no more trucks for the workers to compete over, they slowly began to come up to us. We joined hands and prayed, then sang a few worship songs.  They then formed a line to wash there hands (5 gallons of water and a thing of soap for about 40 people), and then get some food and tang.  Some of us served the food, some of us sat and talked with them, there where young kids, older women, middle aged men, families, and even dogs.  You could feel their hopelessness.  After about 10 minutes, we began collecting plates, cups and forks from the people who where finished.

Then one by one, they began to return to the dump, searching through the trash among the buzzards and smoke for whatever they could find to get food that night for them and their family.  I dont know how you could advance from this lifestyle, and thats where the hopelessness comes in.  There are no jobs here for the people (over 50% unemployment), so people will do whatever they can to get food.  Most of the time kids need to come as well to help support their families, so they cant go to school.  With no education, the kids have nothing else to do but work in the dump for the next 40 years, breathing in smoke with all kinds of toxins all day, until they die.  With no real choice in the matter, its back to work for the mothers, fathers and children, as we load up for the ride home.  It was a lot quieter of a ride.

Please keep these people in your prayers, as well as all others in true poverty.

One of the best part of being on the missions field that I've experienced so far are the moments when you realize just how big God is, and His plans are, and then you realize you are just seeing the tip of the iceberg.  One of these moments hit me a couple weeks after being here, at the community dinner we have every Friday night, which is creatively called "Friday Night Community Dinner".  The concept is we invite all who want to come out to some free food with the sole intention of interacting with the community.  We live across the street from the poorest neighborhood in Granada, so we normally get a good turn out.  In recent weeks we have had close to 100 people show up, and we feed them all, and ourselves for under $20.  Dinner is pretty simple, Gallo Pinto (rice, beans, onions?),  eggs with tomatoes, Nica cheese, and bread, all prepared by one of the Nica guys who works at El Puente, Carlos (the handsome one pictured below).  One night I looked around and I realized something quite incredible, At this table I was sitting at, there where about 5 different conversations going on in Spanish, English, and German, with people from all across the world and right across the street, all brought together by the love of Christ.  What else could bring such a diverse group of people together other then God's planning?  

Please be praying for all of the relationships we are building, and thank God for his great plans.  

Hey Guys!

Well, I finally made it to Nica, we have been here for about two weeks so I thought it would be nice to fill you all in on what all has been going on.

A couple of days before we departed from Mexico, we got the news that Tyler would have to go home and recover from whatever it is he has (they still haven't figured it out yet) and meet up with us in the field when he is better.  This was a pretty hard blow for our team, especially right before we had to leave ourselves for Nica.  So I must first ask all of you to be praying for a fast recovery from what ever it is Tyler has so he can meet up with us soon.  We definitely have been feeling a man down without him here.

We got here the first night at about midnight and crashed until the next morning.  The first couple days we spent firstly meeting all the people down here we would be working along side, and then touring the city.  We spent the end of the week going around to the different ministry places to see where all we could help out.  They include a nursing home, an orphanage, a couple feeding programs, running a vbs, a prayer house, going to a drug heavy area and talking with the guys, a fishing ministry, starting a coffee shop, making Jicaro items to sell to support Vida Joven, Vida Joven itself, as well as a few others I can't remember.  Seth (our leader) had mentioned when he visited us in Mexico that he had become very reliant on hearing the Lord's voice here when it came to choosing where he was supposed to put his efforts because there was so much help needed in this area.  I found this to hold true when I was trying to chose where I wanted to spend time doing ministry work.  Over the weekend we finalized our temporary schedule.  These past two weeks have also been the biggest party weeks for the Nica's.  They are celebrating the Virgin Mary and have parties in the streets, lots of fire crackers, bands playing in the middle of the night, and a lot of places being closed without us knowing L.  (Like the orphanage we where supposed to go to).  Over all, its really exciting to see all the places God is working, and the ways he can use us to do that work.  One of the things he showed me he wants me to do is to disciple one of the Nica boys here, while I help him to learn English and he helps me to learn Spanish.  Be praying for this situation, that God gives me the wisdom to move it from a dream to a reality.  

The last thing I want to ask of all of you is for your prayers for our brothers and sisters in Uganda.  Two teams who where with us in Mexico for two months, who we grew to love, are there now.  Please be praying for them for health.  

Love You all!

Tom

An Old Knives Tale.

So this is something that happened to me just the other day that made me realize just how much God has planned for us, and how  much he will provide if we trust him to.  

My parents where planning on sending me a care package so I asked if they could get me an early Christmas present, a Zune, as well as to send me my hunting knife when I realized I was asking Garrett for his a couple times a week to pick out splinters, open things or whatever else the situation required.  A couple weeks later tag brought us packages that family members had sent us, he had the Zune but not the knife.  When this happened, I just figured I would get one somewhere in my travels and get my hunting knife sent back to my parents.  I decided I would get one at The Academy ( a sporting goods store) or Wal-Mart next time we where there.  When I thought this, God said no.  I didn't understand why, but it was a pretty firm no, so I put the entire thing out of my mind.  So Monday came and we dropped off all of the other groups at the airport.  It was a really sad day for us all.  We went and picked up Jessica's parents afterward and then went to Wal-Mart, then The Academy.  At this point the only thing I really wanted to get before we left for Nica was some good books.  I remember having a real struggle with faith while walking through The Academy.  I began to question whether the voice I've begun to discern from my own voice is really God or just a voice in my head.  In the mists of the struggle I just asked God to help me trust him more, and let me know if the voice was his or not.  The entire thing only lasted about three minutes or so, but it left my head filled with not only thoughts of goodbye, but also very tired.  Garrett and I where just wandering around The Academy at this point when we hit the knife section and the thoughts of what God told me about buying a knife were far from my mind.  I saw a set of three nice knives for a really good price.  The thought of buying them satisfied a simple pleasure in my head, the idea of having just seemed good for no reason so I decided to buy it, reasoning that I did use Garrett's knife a lot ant I would surely use these a lot as well.  It was not until after I was in the van with the case open when I remember what God had told me just a few days earlier.  Pangs of guilt hit me, but I was just honest with God and said I forgot and was distracted, then apologized for not listening and moved on.  The next day, yesterday, we went to the bookstore in the mall.  I was going to get three books but seeing how I had bought the knives I only had enough money for one.  I didn't make the connection at this time that if I didn't buy the knives, I would had the books I wanted, I just viewed it as me running out of money.  Later that night, I intended on having some quite time so I left the room and hid myself in the solitude of the old leaders bedroom.  After a little while, I began to get restless so I just started pacing.   That's when I saw it.  Someone had left a knife behind here.  It hit me like a ton of bricks, if I had listened to God's words, I would have the knife I needed and the books I wanted as well as having something to bring glory to God's name with, with his provision.  I felt like I was a parent and God was my child, my child had volunteered to go buy me a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs I needed.  I said sure, go do it, but thinking he wouldn't pull through I did it myself.  This was the moment when I had my milk and eggs on the kitchen table and God the child walks in, proudly carrying the milk and eggs he brought me, only to see the ones I got myself sitting in front of me on the table.  I could see how hurt he was that I didn't trust him enough with these small needs that I felt I had to do it my own way and not listen to him, not trust him.  

On the brighter side of things, I asked God to show me if the voice in my head was from him or not, and he showed me that it was.  I just wish I could have learned that from the side of obedience and not disobedience.  Be praying for me as I continue to discern God's voice more and more, and try and hear him in different ways.  

I love you all and you are always in my prayers,

Tom Kratz Jr.

How I was called to the missions field:

Hey everybody, this is the story of how God called me here!

Well, last Thanksgiving, I was in the middle of going to school after school, trying to figure out what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.  It was at that time that about 20 people from both sides of my family began asking me the same thing.  My constant thought with their questioning reinforcing it caused me to realize that I really should know the answer to this question by now.  I distracted myself with whatever I could for the next few days, not wanting to face the fact that my time was quickly running out and doors were beginning to shut.  The next thing I knew I was in the mountains of Potter County Pennsylvania with my Grand-pops rifle and nothing but the cold air, nature, and my thoughts for what seemed like an infinite amount of time.  I was forced to face the fact that I needed to start making some very important decisions.  I began to completely freak out and worry that I would miss out on what I was supposed to do.  I remember being on the verge of a panic attack when I just felt this great comfort and I realized that all I needed to do was wait and listen for God to tell me what He wanted for me to do and I would be fine.  The understanding that it was out of my hands gave me an incredible peace.  That night, the idea of being a missionary for a year came into my head, and as soon as I heard it, I again felt a great peace and excitement for it.  I had always enjoyed serving others, but this passion was deeper than that, it was me desiring to do God's will.  One year later and I'm in Mexico about to ship out to Nicaragua for 6 months, surrounded by some incredible people, learning more and more about myself, God, and how I fit into his Kingdom. 

So last week team Nica went on an outreach to a small village names Los Quijotes (I know I butchered that spelling).  It was really great.  Saturday morning we went to the border to get our visas.  We got back at about 9 in the morning and rushed off to finish packing for the week (I still forgot my sleeping bag on my bed).  We then said goodbye to Seth for 2 weeks, and everyone else for one.  We loaded about four 5 gallon water jugs, 2 large coolers, the 8 of us, Benito, and our translator Gabriel into the van and set out by about 10:30.  We got there by about 3 pm and were really hungry.  We met the families that we stayed with, the girls together with a couple named Margarite and Gilbert.  Trevor, Garrett and myself stayed with Enrique and his wife, Tyler and Gabriel stayed with Alesia and her husband, and Benito stayed with who ever would take him in on that particular night.  After getting unpacked, we went back to the girls house and were fed some amazing food, and we ate a lot.  Little did we know that we where invited to a birthday party for a 5 year old boy named Juan Hosea.  After being stuffed from dinner, we waddled down to the party to be fed more and more tamales as well as soda and chocolate cake.  Needless to say, we where very full by the first night.  

The room I stayed in had concrete walls about a food thick with a roof to match, so we didn't hear anything in the morning.  The other groups where less lucky, being woken up many times by roosters, donkeys, people, and anything else that moved.  That Sunday was a very relaxed day, we spent a bit of time in prayer before the church service that night, also sending out teams of 5 into the community to invite people to the service.  I was in the second group to go out, and we went to the family of Enrique and prayed over his mother that had been bed ridden for a couple weeks in pain.  We then talked to his brother and sister for a while, shared the gospel with them and moved on. When we walked by later, his mother was up and walking again as if she had never been sick!  After that we went to the church service.  Benito preached about how close salvation was to us all, with great passion that was of almost no need for translation.  That day we also made our tentative schedule for the rest of the week.

For the next few days, we would start construction at 7, work till 10, eat breakfast, work more until about 2, eat lunch, take a siesta/team time/outreach time till 5, then depending on the day we would either have a church service or a vbs.  We stuck to this schedule for the most part, except for when Jessica saw the need for a morning prayer session for the community every day before construction, which meant praying from 6 till 7am at the church, and then the siesta time disappeared with whatever was going on during the day, then we felt a need for quite time before the prayer so we got up at 5 every morning to do that (alarms go off at 5,  roll over until 5:20, then do quite time).  Monday night we had the vbs which was tons of fun.  We reenacted  David and Goliath (you'll never guess which role I played).  Tuesday Tyler preached at a service, Wednesday we went to San Carlos and saw some amazing scenery, tequila and churches.  Thursday we made tamales, fed the community then had a service that I preached at.

The next day we where packed up, had said goodbyes, and where on the road by 8 am.  The three hour car ride turned into a busted radiator, wet spark plugs, pushing the van, getting it fixed twice yet never actually fixed, eating tamales on the porch of a most likely mafia member, and rolling into The Gateway 10 hours later.  All and all not a bad journey, we all learned so much about being immersed in culture, being dependent on God, having patience, being united, and the power of God.  We came back with a few stories, a lot of new relationships, and a real appreciation for all that we have and take for granted.