*States*Home*Nicaragua

We're back in Nicaragua. We just spent the past 3 weeks in the States, visiting with family & friends. It was wonderful, we seen people we hadn't seen in a while, and I seen a teacher from my school that I hadn't seen in probably 8-9 years. 

When we got off the plane in Chicago, I was ready to jump back on that plane and take it back to NICARAGUA where it's WARM. It was soooo COLD, and than we walked outside with just hoodies because we didn't bring coats to Nicaragua, cause duh, it's always HOT. Haha, my awesome mother brought our coats and we tried to stay warm. It was difficult at first, but our bodies got used to it, kinda......
We stopped at Texas Road House for supper *family favorite* and ENJOYED all the food we ate ((possibly tooo much)) but it was GOOD. Caleb said he didn't realize how much he missed eating a GOOD steak until he ate that one, it took him three times as long to eat his food than normal. It's amazing how much you ENJOY things when you go without them for so long. We enjoyed our mom's cooking again, nothing beats that. We got back on the 7th, and on the 8th, my family (yoder side) had their Christmas Party, so we ENJOYED some more yummy food. Grandpa started a tradition of having prime rib & shrimp and than whatever else grandma and the girls decided to whip up, it was delicious. Spent the next couple days with my grandpa & grandma Yoder before they headed off to Florida for the winter. We stayed in their house while they were gone, so GRATEFUL for that. 

Monday night I was able to reconnect with some of my awesome girlfriends :D That was such a BLAST. I'm so Blessed with amazing women in my life. We had another small get together with some friends that next weekend, talked to them about what God's been doing in our lives since we've been in Nicaragua, and just spent some wonderful time with them <3 

We were able to spend 4 Sunday's at our home sending church, Firm Foundation Ministries. We can't express enough how BLESSED & GRATEFUL we are to have amazing Leaders and family there. WOW!!!!! We've been blown out of the water with love, prayers, support, friendships, it's amazing. Our church is growing, and it was so fun to see familiar faces, and see new faces. The youth group led by Tim & Lynette Carpenter is growing like wild fire, we loved meeting the new kids and we're so EXCITED that some of them are coming to Nicaragua in March\April....We're excited for them to experience a little bit of what we do everyday, build forever relationships with the Nicaraguan people, and see what it's like to live in a 4th world country. We hope and pray that another time the rest of the youth group can make it...
We were Blessed to be able to share a little bit with some of them about Life in Nicaragua with the Fletchers :) Share how it's changed our lives and what God has been doing, and of course answer all their questions. They are an awesome group of kids. 

We didn't have any cross\culture shock when we got to the States. It was a good experience all around. I would catch myself doing silly things that I've adjusted to here in Nica that I'd be doing there, like throwing my tp in the trash and not the toilet, when your used to doing something, hey, you get used to it..Haha!!!!! I was totally shocked when I realized how much I didn't really miss life in America, I missed life in Nicaragua, I missed hearing Spanish, even if I didn't understand it, I missed eating Nica food, I missed my everyday good mornings and hugs from my second mom Ruth and sister Edith, I missed the freshness (Michigan ain't fresh in December) of home. I didn't really miss American food, I was surprised, I was hurting the first week or so from eating American food again, my stomach was used to Nica food. So it was interesting at times, but still good. The only thing I really miss about life in America is being able to hang out with my family & friends whenever we want, that's the hard part, so I cherished every minute while I could <3 It was wonderful spending time with my parents and little sisters, we spent Christmas Day with Caleb's side, spent two days with them, it was fun <3 
Caleb misses life in America. You'll have to ask him to tell you about his experience :)

Right now we're listening to LOTS of fireworks and LOUD music from our neighbors, getting ready to celebrate and bring in a new year. I don't think we'll be getting to bed *early* tonight, that's for sure ;) 

We're excited to see what all God has for us this coming New Year, 2014...wow, so crazy. I feel like this year just flew. We're so Blessed. We may not know what all God has planned for us at this moment, but we know we're in the CENTER of His Will and that's all that matters. Please keep us in your prayers...pray that God opens the doors that need to be opened and closes the ones that need to be closed. Pray for Peace, Strength & Understanding, Guidance is the RIGHT DIRECTION. 

A few photos from our time in Michigan & Indiana...

Got some Jagger time :)

My Best Friend from Kokomo. So Blessed to have her in my life <3

My grandma Ann. Was so happy to see her for a couple days <3

Another friendship I'm grateful for, we've become friends this past year and I'm so grateful she's in my life, she's Blessed me so much already <3

Love these people so much, Friendships that last a lifetime <3

 

THANKS for ALL your Prayers, Support, Friendships <3 We love and appreciate you all so much. Blessings to you all in 2014.....

                                                        Fletchers in Nicaragua

A really cool God Story..

Happy 8 Months!!!!! 

The time has come for us to head back to the States for our Christmas vacation time. WOW!!!! Really?!! =) We can't even begin to say how EXCITED we are so see our family & friends. Just to be able to sit and visit and be in their presence is going to be AWESOME. I've been looking forward to it for a while now. We get to see our church family the next day, so that's going to be awesome too!! =) My side of the family (all 28 of us) are getting together Sunday & Monday for Christmas, grandpa & grandma Yoder are heading to Florida for the winter, so we're glad they are waiting until we get back so we can spend time with them =) I'm really really looking forward to seeing my little  man Jagger, I talked with him on the phone yesterday, and I said 'Hey bud, guess what', he said 'what?' I said 'guess who you get to see next weekend', he was quiet for a little bit and goes 'YOOOOUUUUU'!!!!!! :D :D


My title is called 'A really cool God story'.....
A couple weeks ago, my cousin Glendon and his son Tyler were here in Nicaragua working with Compassion International with Galen Yoder and his lovely wife Mary. Glendon & Tyler wanted to see what Students International was all about, so after their time was up with Compassion, Caleb went and picked them up at their hotel in Managua, where Galen & Mary were also, the guys were finishing up their breakfast, so Caleb & Galen got to talking and if you know Caleb, he's super excited about what SI Nicaragua is doing and our one ministry site, *Appropriate Technology* aka water filters, helping people live better lives and them being able to drink *good water*. So of course that gets a fire burning in Galen, and he's interested and whats more info and wants to come see the site. 

We had a wonderful couple days with Glendon & Tyler, we were able to show them the Ministry Sites, and the Volcano, Coyotepe, take them to the Market. It was fun, just visiting with them, listening to Glendon's God stories, it was awesome!!! 

Our friend Alison came November 9th for one week, it was AWESOME having her here and just spending time together, talking about everything, she really encouraged me in a lot of different things, even if I didn't want to hear it, she spoke truth and I'm so BLESSED to have her as a friend in my life :) 

November 12th - Galen & Mary came to the base, chatted with Lastman, the leader of Appropriate Technology, and just asked questions and Nate & Caleb were there also, and we started talking about different things and come to find out, everyone knows A LOT of the same people, it was really neat. Alison & I were talking with Mary, she's a verrrry sweet lady. Well they were getting ready to head up to Jocote to see the Ministry Site and check out the filters to see how they are made. Well we all sad our good-byes and they headed out the door........Let me back up a couple weeks so I can tell you this really cool GOD STORY....

A couple weeks before, I was going through my bathroom, thinking of what Alison could bring down for me, I needed some more Bath & Body soap and I have a couple still at home, well I just decided I would wait, so I didn't have her bring any. I also seen I only had two small hand sanitizers left, so I wrote down that I needed to bring more from the States, I had given one of my favorite pens to little Natalia because she thought it was *cool* and I'm like it's a PEN, so I let her take it :) I was like, I can always get another one......November 12th in the morning I was doing my devotions and after I always try and write in my Journal, well I counted the pages and decided I should probably get another Journal because this is almost full.....So at breakfast, I told Alison that I wanted to get another one when we went back to the States.........OK.....

So when Galen & Mary were driving out the drive, she stopped and got out of the car and came walking back in with a gift bag, she said 'we were suppose to  meet someone for lunch today, but it's not going to work out, so take them for yourself'. I was like oh sweet, how nice of her to do that. WELL, they left and I started to take the tissue paper out, and was blown away.......I took everything out and almost started crying, there was BATH & BODY soap, lotion, hand sanitizer, 2 pens AAAANNNNNNDDDD a JOURNAL!!!!!!! =D 
How amazing is that :) I was just blown away at how much God LOVES us and takes care of the most tiniest details in our lives..........I am still in AWE of how God works in those ways =) 

Some photos from our time with Glendon & Tyler and Alison.....

 Such an awesome time when we have family & friends here. We have been so BLESSED by the people that have made the trip down here already!!!! We can't say THANK YOU enough!!!! We are looking forward to next year, our youth group is planning a trip down here for one week, so we're super excited for that...

Caleb's best friend Galen Miller and my sister Kelsey are coming for two weeks in February. So we have so much to look forward to next year =) GOD IS GOOD!!!!!!!!! 

 We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Got to spend it with our SI family. Maggie, Jill & I had a lot of fun preparing the food and spending time together. We had turkey, mashpotatos, corn, stuffing, salad, rolls and dessert. It was great, we got to share with our Nicaraguan staff members some history about Thanksgiving, just spending time together, and laughing, it was great!!!! So crazy to think that we had Thanksgiving in 80 degree weather!!!!!! =) 

We are looking forward to seeing a lot of you guys, pray for us this week, that we'll be able to get everything done that we need to get done before we head to the States Saturday. And for safe travels, and also for my parents & siblings that are coming and picking us up, pray for their safety as well <3 BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL!!!!

THANKS for ALL your prayers & SUPPORT, we appreciate it sooooo much!!!!! <3

God Bless, Fletchers in Nicaragua.

*Faith*Family*Love*

Time for another update.......

This past month was pretty awesome I must say.....I had been thinking about how this month was going to be the first Birthday *away* from my family. Every year for the past I don't know how many years, my twin and I and our parents have always taken us out for our birthday. Well this year was obviously going to be *different* because I'm in Nicaragua. So Friday October 11th (day before my birthday) Caleb said that our head cook Ruth was going to cook me lunch, I thought, ok COOL :) That morning I had worked with Micro Finance working with the cucumber plants, so I came back to the base around 11:50am and needed a shower. I seen that Maggie and Austin & Jill were in the office which is nothing abnormal, so I just carried on, I thought "oh cool, maybe their having lunch with us''. So I showered and 10 minutes later Nate came and knocked on our door, I'm thinking GREAT, it's lunch time.....Soooo myself and Caleb (I'm leading) walk into the dining hall and I glance over to see MY MOTHER & FATHER standing in the SAME dining room I was in. I couldn't believe my eyes, and of course me being emotional, bawled. My parents came to Nicaragua to surprise ME for my BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!! Never ever in a million years did I ever suspect anything like this would ever happen.......I knew before we left the states in April that my dad probably wouldn't ever make a trip to Nicaragua just because he's always said he's not interested, which I was ok with. But I still thought about it in the back of my head, *how cool it would be if my dad came sometime* well.....IT HAPPENED :D :D :D So I got to spend my 25th Birthday with my parents :) It was a wonderful weekend and they were here from Friday until Monday morning.....We had a lot of fun with them, took them to some of our Ministry Sites, went to the Market...It was awesome for sure :) So grateful they did that....GOD IS GOOD :) 

Caleb & I finished with Spanish Classes and are now working full time in Ministry Sites, I've been jumping between Social Work, Micro Finance and a little bit with Water Filters which is where Caleb's been...It's been a lot of fun, we get to use our Spanish (of what we know, which isn't a whole lot, but hey, we're trying).....Building relationships with the people we see everyday. I love it. I love Nicaragua and all the people here. The little girls in Social Work in a community we go, give the BEST hugs & kisses......They greet you like they haven't seen you in years, every time, never fails :) It's awesome. 

NEXT month we head to the States for three weeks, soooo looking forward to it. Seeing our close friends and all our family <3 It will be awesome :) My really good friend Alison is actually coming here next Saturday for one week, it will be a blast. I've been looking forward to her coming for a long time now :) So Blessed she's making the trip out here :) 

THANKS to everyone who's been praying for us, supporting us financially. We appreciate it sooo much, it means so much to us. We love and miss you guys tons. Looking forward to seeing our FFM family too!!!!! It will be so good Worshiping with our home church :) 


My dads story about what\who *changed* his mind about coming to Nicaragua :)

**Here is the rest of the story of how our trip to Nicaragua came about. Many of you know that over the years I have always said I have no desire to go visit the mission field, even though I supported those who would go by taking them to the airport, I have lost count of the many trips that I have made to Indianapolis, Chicago, Detroit, and Toledo airport's taking those who were willing to go, I guess I thought that was all that was required of me. And even when my own daughter and her husband moved to the mission field I still said I will probably never go even though I supported them 110%. Over the years some of you have strongly encouraged me to go visit but of course I would not! Never say never right? lol. Sept 22 Lowell and Cheryl Troyer visited our church, standing in the foyer before the service started Cheryl looked at me and said you really need to go visit Caleb and Krista and surprise them!! I have heard that statement before but this time something was different, I immediately began to feel the walls come tumbling down, I sat in that service and tried to figure out what just happened..... By that Tuesday I told Norma we are going to Nicaragua in 18 days!! What a shock that was!! We told only a few people of our plans, what made the trip even more special was we were able to surprise Krista on her 25th birthday!! So I guess the moral of the story is no matter how high we build the walls God can and will them down!**


Just a few pictures from this past month

Once again, we are so BLESSED & GRATEFUL that they came :)
Blessings to you all!!!!!!!!

                                           Fletchers in Nicaragua
 

*Really?!! Half a YEAR!!!!!!!*

*Month 6*

What's been happening the past month?! A lot. We've been busy with Spanish School and practicing with our yard help and cleaning ladies. It's been a lot of fun, learning new verbs and putting them to use. I feel like I'm to the point of being 'stuck', hoping to get past this point....Caleb is doing really good, he needs to give himself more credit. He wishes he'd know more, but he knows a ton :) He has a hard time with using the correct form, but he gets his point across and he's doing awesome :) So proud of him...

This past week our Pastor Don & his wife Lisa came for a couple days, it was amazing. We have felt so encouraged and Blessed by their trip. God's timing was so perfect. I've been struggling with different things, one thing is the whole church situation, when we had teams there was someone to translate, but the sound system in that church is so difficult to hear in the first place. I haven't been able to understand really anything, the songs we sing are all in Spanish and a lot of times I could figure out what they were and just sing them in English to myself. But not being able to understand the sermon was hard. I felt like I hadn't been to church since we've moved here. I've been doing my personal devotions, but I wanted more...I wanted to go to a church service that I understood and was able to worship in English and have people understand me and being able to understand them as well. It made me miss our home church back in Michigan. I would tell Caleb how I felt and not feeling like he knew how I felt, even if he said he did, I didn't feel like he did. But he was dealing with the same thing.....The devil was putting thoughts and things that didn't belong there in my mind, telling me I wasn't good enough, that I don't need to go to this Spanish church if I don't understand anything anyhow. Caleb & I had a lot of 'heated discussions' about it. I wanted to go to this English church because I wanted more than what I was getting from my devotions, Caleb told me that I needed to read more than what I was reading for my devotions, so I started to do that and dig into His word and having a desire to learn more.....
Than Don & Lisa came and we shared our thoughts and feelings towards our struggles and they encouraged us with different things and it's helped so much. I feel so much better and refreshed. God brings us to these points in our lives to draw us closer to Him, to want to desire to know more about Him and dig into The Word. Since I've had that desire, I've felt so much better, filled. I've struggled with reading, not only the Bible but other books, just reading period. And since January (our Missionary Training in Colorado) my outlook on personal devotions and spending time in God's word and spending time with God totally changed. I'm so thankful for that. <3 I've been reading and not being able to put God's Word down because it's sooo awesome and I want to know more. 
Caleb & I have been doing a little mini Bible Study together, that's been a lot of fun. We're growing in so many areas that we hadn't been able to when we were in the states. We've become so much closer. I am so thankful for such a wonderful husband who cares so much about me and wants nothing but the best for his wife <3 He's a wonderful man of God!!! <3

We are looking forward to our 2 teams this fall. One week outreaches, it will be a lot of fun having groups stay here, it's so quiet when people aren't staying here, so I'm looking forward to it. My reallllly good friend Alison comes for one week in November, I'm so looking forward to that, she's been here in Nicaragua before, but not with Students International. So I'm excited for her to see what God is doing here. And than two weeks after she leaves, we had to the STATES for 3 weeks :D I am STOKED for that :D Than we come back the end of December and get ready for a three week outreach. Caleb's best friend Galen and my little sister Kelsey come for two weeks in February and we are beyond excited. It will be amazing. 

We had such a wonderful time with Don & Lisa!!!!

We want to THANK our sending church, Firm Foundation Ministries for EVERYTHING. They sent an amazing care package with Don & Lisa and we appreciate it so much. Such a Blessing, we love and miss you all so much and are looking forward to spending time with you all when we get back for a visit. 

THANK YOU everyone who's partnered with us, supported us, prayed for us. You all mean so much to us. Blessings to you all <3

                                                                              Fletcher's in Nicaragua

Month #5.

I feel like every time I write an update on here, it's always starts with the same thing.....

"IS IT REALLY TIME FOR ANOTHER UPDATE, WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE''.

Lol. It really is crazy how we've been here for 5 months. Almost half a year. 

Caleb & I started Spanish studies August 19th. We're super excited to be back in school, although somedays, it doesn't feel like we learned anything and other days we feel overloaded....But we are excited to learn and be able to speak and understand Spanish. We plan to continue school until sometime in November. We have classes together this time, and we have my old teach Janeth :) She's soooo much fun and keeps classes interesting and fun, she's got so much energy and she cares so much. 

 Above pictures are just us, you know, studying hard :)



 Monday we got two semester students, Austin & Molly. They will be here until December and will be studying Spanish as well. So it will be fun, we'll get to do activities with them at school and different things. When we have teams here in the fall, they will work in the Ministry site. They are living in host homes in Masaya like Caleb and I did when we first got here, so they are experiencing the 'good stuff'. 

We are sooooo EXCITED that our Pastor and his wife (Don & Lisa Smith) will be coming to visit the end of September for a couple days, we'll be able to show them around and show them what we do =) We are sooo BLESSED <3 We have another friend that's coming in November for one week also, Alison, soooooooo excited :) It's such a Blessing to have family & friends come visit, so we can see familiar faces and also show them the Ministry thats here in Nicaragua!!! Sooo important. 

It's been so quiet here since teams aren't here, been a 'big' adjustment for sure. I don't like silence, so it's been interesting for sure :) Living here at the base has made me realize 'a lot' about myself =) Good ways of course, some not so much. But it's been good for me :) I've loved getting to know the different people that have come through when teams are here, building life time friendships with them <3 

God continues to amaze me in so many different ways. Shows me things about myself I didn't realize I was capable of. It's been such an awesome, crazy, adventure. I'm so excited to see what all God has in store for my life, my marriage and this awesome Ministry we are in. 

 Caleb still continues to battle 'bad' migraines. Seems like ever since I've known him he's always had one. He told me the other day he can somewhat tell a difference since he's been taking this treatment for the Lyme's Disease. Praying & Believing for complete Healing!!!!! God is our HEALER!!!!!!!!! 

Caleb's family was here first part of August, which was so much fun. They helped a lot with Seth & Leslie's house, they are our soon to be new SI Nica Directors. And are in the process of remodeling a house, they are all moved in, but there are still details that aren't finished yet. Randy was able to help Lowell install some doors, and other things and Laurel did a lot of painting :) 

We had a fun time showing them around, taking them to a few different ministry sites, and we were able to take them to Granada!! It was a blast to have them here :) Looking forward to the next visit!!!


Something that really stuck out to me this past week I'd like to share. God really taught me a lesson and I feel like I'm suppose to share it :) 
It's a story about a 'The last cookie'.

I've been baking 'a lot' since we've moved here, which I love. I've been leaving cookies out for everyone, so they help themselves. Well, for about a week, there was 'one' cookie that sat there, no one ate it. Every time I went into the kitchen I seen that cookie, wondering who was going to eat it. It threw me off guard after a couple days, because growing up with my sisters, I always wanted to be the last one to get something good, and than brag about it. It really spoke to me that I needed to change my attitude and let someone else have the 'last cookie'. How often are we selfish, sure who doesn't want to get the 'last cookie', we need to have the attitudes of letting someone else be the one to have it and not be so set on ourselves, not only with this example, but life in general. 

THANKS to ALL our supporters and prayer partners!!!!!! We are so BLESSED and THANKFUL for each and every one of you. We appreciate all you do. Please continue to keep us in your prayers, with language school, all the adjustments during this fall. We love and miss you all <3 Blessings to you all.

                                             With Love
                                           The Fletchers

Living the DREAM God gave me!!!!!!

I just LOVE looking at the title of this post :) I still can't believe it's happening. I grew up in a Christian home, going to church every Sunday, living life. I am so grateful that my parents taught us what's right and wrong. I remember giving my heart to Jesus when I was 9 years old and getting baptized a couple years later. It's been a Journey for sure. Teenage years were fun, of course we all thought we knew everything about everything and our parents didn't know much of anything, right?!?! Or was I the ONLY one who thought that?!?! :) Haha. My parents NEVER gave up on me, which I am so thankful for. My dad continued to encourage me to do what was right and he'd let me make my own choices even if they weren't the right ones and I didn't realize it until (after) everything was said and done. But I am thankful for those mistakes because it's showed me a lot. I didn't have a great relationship with my mom, we budded heads alot, but she never gave up on me either, she has taught me a lot and she's listened to me whenever I needed someone to talk to when Caleb and I first got married, so thankful for her encouraging words :) Our relationship is tons better and I am so thankful she's (MY) mother. She was right beside when I was going through my first miscarriage, she was holding my hand letting me know everything was going to be ok. She is going to be an awesome grandma one day. 

When I was younger and heard that Lowell & Cheryl and Nate & Maggie and their kids were going to the Dominica Republic to be missionaries, I was soo excited for them and thought it would be so COOL to be a missionary one day, I always begged my parents to let me support a child who needed help in the different countries, and they let me support this one little boy for a while, he set me letters and pictures, it was so awesome. I knew one day that I wanted to be a missionary. I was in high school and I remember telling my girl friends that boys were gross and I was NEVER getting married, I was going to be a missionary. I dreamed of going to Africa and working in an orphanage with little kids. That was (my plan) but little did I know, God had other plans for me :) 

The fall of 2005 I met this REALLY SMOKING HOT guy named Caleb. He was 19 and I was 16. I turned 17 a month later :) And I just knew I was going to marry this guy :) We dated for two years and got married winter of 2007 :) He has a sister who lives in Belize and she was working down there as a missionary, I thought that was sooo COOL. She's still living there, she married a guy from El Salvador and they have two precious little boys. When we were dating we didn't really talk about mission work or anything and our first 2 years of marriage we didn't either, we had our jobs and we loved what we were doing. Three years ago God was speaking to Caleb about 'mission work' but Caleb didn't think it was a good idea, he loved farming and he thought maybe if he got involved at our church that would be good enough, well it wasn't and he continued to fight back & forth with God about it. Well at this point I had no idea what was going on, Caleb was working up in Galeburg at a Target Warehouse and plus farming, so he's working like 100 hours a week doing both jobs.....It was a horrid time during our marriage and it lasted three awful months. Finally he decided he couldn't fight God anymore and talked with our Pastor. He had a couple meetings before he told me what was going on. We were driving up to Kalamazoo one night after his meeting with Don and he told me everything. He said he was pretty sure that God wants us to be missionaries. I was shocked and didn't know what to say or think. He said Don thought it would be a good idea if we went on this mission trip to the Dominican Republic with a group from our church, that was the first step, figuring out if we wanted to go with Students International. After that trip we knew we wanted to be with SI but we both didn't feel like the DR was where we were suppose to be and at that time Lowell was talking\dreaming about starting SI Nicaragua. So we waiting and prayed. God did some amazing things in the DR, Caleb was a new person. We waited for a couple months and they told us SI Nicaragua was a go. We started the process and filled out the applications and had our interview. We were accepted, I think that's when it felt 'REAL' for me. I knew I needed to prepare myself for a ton of CHANGE, this girl does not like change.....at all......We went to new staff training in January and a couple weeks later drove to Colorado for 5 weeks for Language & Missionary training, and that experience changed my life. I am so Blessed to have went through everything there. And than we were home for two weeks before we left for the MISSION FIELD. I am living one of my biggest dreams as a little girl. God is soo GOOD :) He's taught me soooo much these past 3 years & He continues to teach me new things. 

I am soo Blessed to have a husband who encourages me and helps me understand things I don't always understand. He's on fire for God and loves telling people about it. 

I could go on and on......This shall do for now.....

THANK YOU to everyone who has partnered with us for these next two years and for all the amazing prayer and support. We are sooo thankful. 

God is good during the hard times.....

Hola from Nicaragua! I can't believe it's time for another blog. It's unreal how 'fast' this past month has went already. Soooo much has happened. We have had 2 teams already, and we're getting our third team tomorrow, super excited about it. It's been awesome having people here all the time :) I've enjoyed going around to the different ministry sites doing photography, getting to know the staff better and all that fun stuff :)



I thought I would take the time to share some things that God has been doing in our lives. Some wonderful things and some scary things. A little over a month ago we found out Caleb has Lyme's Disease, it all started making sense why he's been in so much pain over the past 17 years, from really horrid migraines to terrible muscle and joint pains....The Doctor told us this has probably come from this disease. He also told us Caleb passed it to me, so not only does Caleb have it but I do also and we are both doing this treatment for one year. About a week n half before that I found some lumps on my breasts and it totally freaked me out, I was terrified because that's always been a fear of mine is having breast cancer. I told my family and a few friends so they could pray. I didn't even want to go to school because I was so emotional about everything. One of our team members mother was down here in Nicaragua at the time and she just so happens to be a Doctor and Caleb suggested I talk to her and get some advice, it was a total God thing because after talking to her I had a peace about everything and she advised me to talk to our on staff Doctor. So I did and two weeks later I went to her clinic and she found some cysts and ordered me an ultra sound and they found 3 B9 cysts on my right side. PRAISE THE LORD IT'S NOT CANCER. She gave me some pills to take that's suppose to shrink them and I'm suppose to go back in three months which will be August sometime.........I will be honest, it was DIFFICULT finding ALL this news out so close together and here in Nicaragua. God has supplied wonderful people and medicine for us both, we're receiving all our medicine for FREE for our Lyme's treatment. And I was able to get an examine and ultra sound for under $30, to where if we did all this in the states, it would cost THOUSANDS of dollars. GOD IS GOOD. I have learned so much during this past month n half, just trusting God and relying fully on HIM to supply all our needs. 

Our new Nicaragua Director and his wife Leslie are soo much fun and they care so much about all our staff, and their little daughter and I have been having a blast together :) She has been helping me with my Spanish, she can speak English & Spanish :) Her momma just found out she's having boys in November =D I am pretty stoked about that, I babysat two little boys who were a month apart :) They also have a chocolate lab who is identical to my chocolate lab Fatty Bear, it's like having my dog here :) One of our interns, her name is Kelsey and she reminds me soooooo much of MY sister Kelsey :) It's like having my sister here :) I have been BLESSED with ALL the 'little' things God's been showing and doing for me :) I love it :) We serve one awesome powerful God. 

Little over two weeks ago my great grandma passed away, my family flew me back to the states for 5 days and I was able to spend a lot of much needed time with my family and a few close friends. It was a great experience for me, I flew by myself, yes (international) and everything went smooth, I sat beside some awesome people. God confirmed so much for me while being in the states, it was wonderful. I know that Nicaragua is 'HOME' for the next couple years and even though it was amazing being back in Michigan, I was ready to be 'home in Nicaragua' again :) That's huge for me, my family is a HUGE part of my life and we do soooo much together and that was one of my biggest fears and struggles when I found out God was calling us to be missionaries. I wasn't so excited about being away from my family for two years. But God has done some wonderful things in my life during our three years process and it's been great. We have had some trails and struggles, but who doesn't, we come out stronger and better people in the end and learn so much, learn to just trust God through everything and He heals our hearts. God is good in the good times AND in the hard times. 


Thank you to all who have been praying for us these past three months and supporting us. It truly means soooo much to us, we are sooo Blessed with awesome and wonderful people. Blessings to you ALL!!!!!!!!!

Remember, with GOD, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!!!!! 
Phil 4:13. 

  This is overlooking a beautiful Lagoon :) I was walking around with the Water Filter Ministry Site doing house visits and we came upon this wonderful view :)

And this lovely little Princess would be Natalia :) She's 4 years old and she's such an active little girl :) I love spending time with her. I am def looking forward to spending more time with her these next couple years :)

And all these wonderful people is our team and their spouses. We are so Blessed to be working with wonderful people :) And looking forward to the next coming years :) 


                                  GOD BLESS <3

 

*Month TWO*

WOW!!!!!!! Month TWO in Nicaragua. WHERE has time gone???? Doesn't seem like it's been this long already. Friday was our 'last' official day of Spanish School, we'd like to do at least a day or two during the summer so we can keep our minds fresh with it and continue to learn. The Nicaraguan staff have been amazing with helping us practice our Spanish, alot of them are taking English classes so we help them & they help us :) 

What's the past two months been like? It's been a crazy adjustment *good & bad*. We both feel like we've adjusted really good so far, the heat doesn't really bother me anymore, that was one of my biggest worries, IT'S HOT here. Traffic is crazy here, it's kinda like driving in Chicago, so if you want to experience it, go drive in Chicago ;) May 8th we moved into our little 'room' in the base. It felt REALLY GOOD to unpack and get settled. We started traveling to our different training sessions in January, so we've been living out of suitcases since than. So it feels wonderful to be settled :) 

We've been going to this all speaking Spanish Church, now that we know a little more Spanish we've been able to understand a little of what he's talking about, the songs are up on the wall, that's nice :) And alot of them are ones we know (In English). We've made some new friends there. I sure do miss our Home church back in Michigan, Firm Foundation Ministries, y'all need to get a team of people & head down this way :D 

The food: WOW, we LOVE the food, Ruth (head cook) is one amazzzzzing cook. She made lunch for us the first week of moving to the base, we really enjoyed that and getting to know her and Harry (one of the guards here). The Nicaraguan people are so friendly and loving, and always make sure you have the best of everything, even if they don't have much. 

Tomorrow (MAY 27th) our first teams of the summer arrive in the evening :) We are all super excited and can't wait till they get here. Last Thursday our first two interns got here, it's been a lot of fun getting to know them, we had them over for dinner last night, Marissa & Nicole. Wonderful ladies, super excited to work with them this summer & the other 3 interns that are coming later. 

Our new Nicaraguan Directors are coming in about a week, I'm super excited about that, she's due to have TWINS in December :) They have a 4year old little girl who I am super excited about :) I'm excited about alot of things if you haven't figured that out already ;) Haha!!!!! 

Please continue to pray for us this summer as teams come and go, that we'll be able to pour into the teens and adults that come, and that their lives will be changed, pray for all the Nicaraguan & American staff as well, that we'll be energized, from what they've said, it can be very tiring. So pray for LOTS of Strength & Energy :) GOD IS GOOD <3


Just some pictures from the past two months.....Enjoy!!!

 A pretty Rose plant on the back porch :)

 We went to a museum for one of our Spanish Classes for some History of Nica. These are coffins, all sizes, she told us they would break their bones and put them in these!!!!

This is an old church building in Granada.

This is where the teams meet for Devotions & Worship in the mornings...Very relaxing..

Us in Granada :) 

THANKS for reading :) We LOVE & MISS YOU ALL <3 Thanks soo much for all your prayers and support, you all mean sooo much to us <3 Blessings
          The Fletchers

*Home Sweet Home*

Well, we have been living in Nicaragua now for a month. It doesn't seem like it's been a month and yet is has some days. We've been studying Spanish for the past 3 weeks and the first couple days were really hard because all they spoke was Spanish, some English, but very little. So it's been overwhelming at times, but good. We both feel like we know more than what we did when we first got here, we've been doing our Rosetta Stone and that's helped us a ton. We recommend it for anyone wanting to learn another Language. We both got really sick a couple days after we arrived, that wasn't fun, but SI has an amazing Doctor and she has been so helpful & got us the medicine we needed :). God's been doing some awesome works here in Nicaragua and we're so excited to see what all He has planned for us these next two years :) Our first team comes May 27th, so you can be praying for the staff as we all get prepared for it. We are planning on doing a couple days worth of lessons during the summer so we stay focused on Spanish and don't lose it. 

Caleb & I have been staying in a host home this past month while going to Language School. It's been wonderful, the mom & son only speak Spanish and the daughter is taking English classes, so when we get stuck, she's been an awesome help for us :) The food has been amazing, hasn't really been anything we don't like, so that's good :) I am definitely ready to start cooking again and cleaning, I haven't cooked since January, we've been traveling since than :) So it will be nice to start feeling the 'normal' again soon. We move into the base house tomorrow afternoon, so we're excited about that. We go to Costa Rica for 6 days for training, we leave Thursday morning and come back Tuesday morning. We're pretty excited about that, and than we'll have a little over two weeks of Spanish classes before our first team comes :D HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!!!!!!! 

 

This awesome looking creature is Estella. He LOVES to talk your ears off, even if you aren't listening. lol. This is the Parrot of our host mom :) 

And this beautiful picture is overlooking Masaya :) Home Sweet Home for the next two years!!
God Bless you ALL. We love and miss everyone <3
thanks for all the PRAYERS & SUPPORT <3
The Fletchers <3

California Trip

We're back from California :) We were out there for a couple days learning more about Students International and how everything works. There were 8 other Missionaries there, 3 couples and two singles. It was so awesome getting to hear their stories and hear what God is and has been doing in their lives :) Each one is so different, i love that :) We also got to see Chelsie again, she was in the DR this past summer when we took our youth group there for two weeks:) The other Missionaries are going to Costa Rica, Guatemala and Dominican Republic and than Caleb & I are going to Nicaragua :) Saturday we got to go see the Redwoods up in the Mountains, that was really cool :) We got to know all the staff members with SI and board members alot better :) That was alot of fun :) 

It's so crazy to think that we've taken the first steps of this whole process :) God has been so amazing through it all. Opening doors that needed to be opened, closing the ones that needed to be closed. He's blessed us with raising our funds. God is GOOD :) We are really close to being fully funded. If your interested at all in partnering with us, doing monthly support or even doing a one time donation, you can go to a www.stint.com and make a donation to Caleb Fletcher. If you would like more info on how to support us monthly, I can send you some papers to get started :) Just shoot me an email or facebook  message me :) I'd love to tell you more about it :) 

Here are some pictures from our California trip :)

We leave for Colorado Feb 8th. We'll be doing MTI. So excited :) Please continue to pray for us :) We love and appreciate you all <3  

Missionaries in Training!

Well, I haven't updated in a while....Opps. Not much has really happened around here....We went snowboarding for the first time yesterday :) So that was a BLAST :) 

Our dates have sorta kinda changed. Instead of moving May 21st (which was the original plans) we are moving to Nicaragua April 1st. We aren't going to Guatemala for 2 months to learn Spanish anymore, we're going strait to Nicaragua, so we'll be able to learn their ways of talking right away. Planning on staying with a family from the church that we'll be attending, and than probably after two months we'll move into the base house, depending how good are Spanish is ;) Haha. Today I was getting pretty excited about moving, I haven't felt that excitement yet, it's been more emotional than anything lately. I am going to miss my little Jagger boy sooo much. But I'm thankful for FaceTime and all that good stuff :) So I will still be able to see him hopefully once a week :) 



I thought it would be really cool if I could find a Journal to write in during this Adventure. So I went to this Christian bookstore in Kalamazoo and came across this gorgeous Journal that I LOVE....It's a really neat story how everything happened........A couple days prior I went to this ladies group we have at our church called 'Woman to Woman' and our Pastor's wife normally shares whatever God lays on her heart, well this time a different lady shared her Testimony, well than she gave us all different colored Butterflies and if we had pink, purple, blue, yellow we went into our group who had the same color......And than we just shared something that God laid on our hearts or whatever we were dealing with, if someone spoke something into our lives that Encouraged us, we were suppose to write it down on this piece of paper that was shaped into a Butterfly. I just shared how God had been really working in my life as far as Trusting Him, that everything was going to be OK with this whole process of being Missionaries and all this CHANGE was OK, He was right beside me every step of the way.....So God was teaching me that I needed to TRUST Him more and lean on Him.......So than I just thought it would be cool to Journal our Adventure and I wanted to find a really cool Journal, so I was looking and looking and there it was........This purple Journal with BUTTERFLIES :) I was soooo HAPPY :) I'm excited to start writing in it next week as we begin our Journey as Missionaries in Training :) 

We leave for California next Wed and we'll be back sometime Sunday (13th). And than Feb 11th we're gone for 5 weeks for MTI training in Colorado :) And than APRIL 1ST we're moving to Nicaragua :)  We are super excited. Continue to pray for us :) We love you all ♥