Pictures and Prayers from Nicaragua: January 2014

Pictures and Prayers from Nicaragua Dear Family and Friends,   Below are the latest "Pictures and Prayers from Nicaragua".   Thank you once again for being a part of our story through your prayers, encouragement, and financial support.  We are so thankful to have your company on this journey.  Peace and love to you, Dan (Lisa, Rebekah, and Will) Van Zoest January 22, 2014 Friday, January 24, will be "Spiritual Emphasis Day" at Nicaragua Christian Academy. This year we have 25 guest speakers that are planning on coming to talk with our students about a wide variety of topics including Prayer, True Friendship, Beauty, Temptations, Conflict, and many more. Each of our students will be able to attend four of these sessions throughout the day.  Please pray that God would open the hearts of our students to receive His love through each of the speakers.  This is a picture I took today of Mark Forstrom who will be the keynote speaker for Spiritual Emphasis Day; he will also be giving a Love and Logic Parenting workshop this Saturday. Our family is enjoying having Mark stay in our home while he is here for a week and a half. Please pray for Mark during his time ministering here in Nicaragua. January 21, 2014 Disciples making disciples...Rebekah and Will have developed great friendships with the younger kids in our neighborhood. They have regularly met with them at our house to teach a lesson and to enjoy different activities and crafts together. These are pictures I took this past weekend of Will and Rebekah meeting with the neighborhood kids. January 10, 2014 The teachers and staff at NCA participated in a retreat day yesterday. I enjoyed leading a game where we blindfolded everyone except for one person who was chosen to lead the group through a variety of obstacles. Together we found out how important it is to communicate with each other!  Please pray for all of the students and staff at Nicaragua Christian Academy International as we prepare to start school again on Monday. December 19, 2013 I love talking with our kids about spiritual things. I went on a date with Will recently and we started talking about Eternity. We both had that experience were you try to imagine living for eternity...you think about a 1,000 years and then you realize that that is barely the beginning. It goes on and on and on, finally you have to shake your head and say I just can't fully comprehend it.  Will eventually made the comment "seems like it's going to get boring after a while?" I smiled and said "I know what you mean...but I also know that we just can't fully understand what it's going to be like and I believe that it's not going to get boring, even after a million years!"  We are both looking forward to seeing and spending time with many people that we never got to meet or that we miss here on earth. Will mentioned that he is looking forward to meeting and spending time with his Grandpa Van Zoest...I am too Will, I am too. December 20, 2013 This is my version of Where's Waldo...see how quickly you can find Rebekah in this picture.  We love the people of Nicaragua; I enjoy seeing Rebekah in this picture surrounded by many Nicaraguans.  If you would like more of a challenge see if you can tell me how many light posts are turned on in this picture?