The Adventure Continues....

Well it's never boring with the Hafners adventure in Nicaragua! We left the US with one night's accommodations in place in Costa Rica and a plan to go to San Juan del Sur for Spanish school (but the exact date not set). We ended up finding a house to rent in San Juan del Sur, which wasn't part of our original plan, we were going to live in Granada after Spanish classes were over. But we are being flexible and letting the Lord lead us on this adventure so we don't know the plan. We thought we would stay in SJDS and find a bigger house but based on the housing possibilities there, it was not to be. So Friday morning we left SJDS for the mountains of Jinotega to visit with a family we met while they were in SJDS. We packed 3 days worth of clothes to take to Jinotega and we packed everything else up and left it with our friend Jane in SJDS.

So here we are in Jinotega on day 4. We still don't know what the plan is. The family we are staying with has a house in Matagalpa (about 45 minutes away by bus) that is currently vacant. Vacant houses aren't a good thing in Nicaragua because they are targets for theft. The house is furnished and it has some of their belongings stored there. The house is available till January, when another family is coming to stay there. We are planning to go up there and check it out this week. We are still open to what God has for us.

So the area of Jinotega (and Matagalpa) is cool and foggy and green. As we drove up the mountains to the house we saw pine trees growing. We also saw lots of cattle and horses as well as coffee growing. We also got to see our first vultures (sopilotes) in real life. It seems like a great climate for running and perhaps this is where I will run my "Seattle Half Marathon" on November 28th. I did not bring my running gear though so I can't run till we get all our stuff moved up here.

I never would have imagined dropping in on another family with our 3 kids before we undertook this adventure but then I wouldn't have had the opportunity to get to know another family so quickly.

The family we are staying with are missionaries here and they have lived in Nicaragua for 17 years. They are starting up a small house church in Jinotega and they have an English service on Sunday mornings and a Spanish service on Sunday nights. Yesterday we had the chance to have fellowship and worship in English for the second time in 2+ months. Then we got to listen in to the Spanish service and follow along, thanks to some quick translation.

We are drinking coffee every morning that is grown in the mountains right around where we are staying and it's delicious.

So just a quick update to say that nothing has been decided and we are OK with that. Enjoy a few pictures of Jinotega and the drive here.

So