The journey began as we biked off from El Puente (the mission base here in Granada) and headed for the lake for an afternoon of fishing. About 30 minutes later (a long way on a bike for this out-of-shape gringo) Pepe, myself and about 8 of the youth from the area arrived at our fishing destination. The weather was perfect and we loaded up our fishing tablets (a tablet is a Nicaragua style fishing rod – more on this in another post) and hooks with some fresh, tasty worms found in the “gray water canal” behind Oscar’s house.

About 3 hours later (and about 20 fish) the boys all ended up in the lake wearing only their underwear. Now that’s how you fish.

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I (Frank) am big on fresh starts. I love them. I love the opportunities that fresh starts possess – the possibilities. When we moved to Granada, we were given a fresh start. A clean slate. I joke around a lot with friends here and back home and I say “our lives could not look more different” but it’s true. Our lives are completely different. Everything has changed from the way we sleep, shower, eat, travel – even how we communicate. This has presented lots of challenges but for me, the possibilities far outweigh them.

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Savior King (with Spanish lyrics), by Hillsong

Our church recently launched a new website that is much simpler and easier to navigate than the old one. You know we love a website that looks good and functions accurately. One of our favorite features is the “This Week” button on the front page. The page is faithfully updated each week with the sermon topic, verses, resources and worship music. We’ve started logging on each week to see what will be taught and if possible purchasing the music on iTunes.

So tonight, miles upon miles away from our home church, we are listening to the same worship music reading the scripture and preparing our hearts for the message we’ll hear via podcast tomorrow.

Our first week and a half has been filled with so much that I hardly know where to begin.  I (Frank) should start carrying around a little video camera and just film everything for you – but for now I’ll do my best to fill you in.

Let’s start with language:
I know more Spanish now than I ever have in my life. At first life here was a big game of charades but over the past couple of days things have really started to come together. One thing has been made very clear to me – language will be our biggest obstacle while we are here in Granada. To combat (or combatir) this we are currently taking 2 hours of language training per day. This coupled with immersion in the culture has been very effective so far.

Now on to ministry:
God did not waste any time – I have started a small group that meets weekly with 3 recovering addicts. In addition to a weekly meeting, I meet with each one individually during the week so we can go a bit deeper with our struggles and prayers. All three of the men speak very good English making it possible to talk without the need for a translator. The small group is a direct answer to prayer and I was amazed at how quickly it formed.

Finally, general life in Granada:
We are at the end of the hottest month so needless to say…it’s hot. But we have fans, a wonderful breeze in the shade and much cooler evenings. We are looking forward to November through January because we hear they are cooler with less humidity. Our roommates are wonderful – seriously, we could not have a better living situation. They are both very kind and have offered us all the help we have needed with no complaints (at least not any that we understood). We eat lunch together 5 days a week and the food is amazing. The city is beautiful and we are very excited to see what God has in store for the next year.

Prayer requests:
Please pray for the men that are in recovery here and also pray for their families. There are lots of AIM teams flying in and out over the next several months so please pray for them as they prepare to come and go. Pray for the city – there are a lot of needs here and God is showing them to us one by one.