Return To Nicaragua November Updates

Hello Everyone… It has been awhile since a last wrote
so I will try to summarize all my excitement into a
readable enjoyable newsletter. I arrived back in
Nicaragua on the 29th of October after a long 3 weeks
in Florida where I participated in the Christian
Surfer Conference and painted a few pieces of art to
raise money for my return. I was able to be blessed
with the opportunity to paint a few commission pieces
for Joe Pennovich, Lance Rogerson, and Dave and Lisa
Milton…thank you very much. The Christian surfer
conference was amazing, a time of rekindling my
friendships and raising awareness along side of IAM
(International Art Missions) of IAM and Nicaragua’s
mission. I was able to be hook up with the Walking on
Water Crew, Jessica Mclean, Braddigan, and all my good
ol’ pals of the Outer Banks during this time as it was
the start up of the Walking on Water movie premieres
(www.walkingonwater.org). Sitting back and watching
some of my closest friends use their gifts of singing,
video production, surfing, art, and many more for the
Glory of the Lord was refilling and reignited a flame
within my own heart. However, the whole time I surely
missed Nicaragua and all the kids. I want to give a
quick thanks to these few people that made my trip to
Florida such a blessing and comfortable time: JJ and
Kim of course, Joe Pennovich and his whole family,
Ross, Sue and Danny Cruden ( I love you guys), Karen
of Christian surfers Cocoa beach, Lily Beacham (you’re
a real sweetie), Braddigan (for your joy that
surrounds you all the time), Dave and Lisa Milton (see
you in Nicaragua), Chris Peck and family (drive down
from Costa soon!), Coral Fisher ( you put it together
in an amazing way!), and the rest of you that I forgot
thank you so very much for everything! Now on to
Nicaragua News:
So as I loaded up on
Taca airline 360 I trembled a little with fear as my
growing anxiety of flying took turns looping thoughts
of fright throughout my mind. I grabbed the seats
sides and prayed.. “Your will be done Lord”. I started
to panic as the loud awful noise of the engine caused
the passengers to glance nervous gestures around each
other and I and many others asked the raising question
“Is everything Ok?” They motioned “Yes” and we were
ready for take off..as the noise boomed louder than I
have ever heard before, my anxiety kicked into full
gear as my vision faded in and out and my palms were
wet and wanting the hand of my mother. The lady beside
of me was doing the father son and holy ghost motion
with her hands and looked at me and grabbed my hand as
if she knew what I needed. …1...2.…3 we were off.
After Two hours we landed safe in Nicaragua, and I
couldn’t help but wonder where this growing anxiety of
flying was coming from…Never until this year did I
experience this fear..I am asking for you all to pray
for my courage to overcome this obstacle. I pulled all
my luggage that was filled to the brim with art
supplies, and clothes for the Nica’s out of the ramp
and headed out the door where I ran into big ol’ bear
Donald. Donald is like the Heffe(which means boss in
Spanish) of Popoyo Surf Camp, when JJ is not around.
He is a big burly guy that has it all under
control..grabbing my bags and hugging me…I felt
safe….from the mobs of Nica boys that started after me
to help. Donald and I had pretty tricky drive back to
Popoyo that night. Due to the fact that the roads were
washed out and every turn on the Ochomongo road to
home was a big mud river or down hill mudslide (thanks
to the everyday rains of October) I feel asleep for
awhile ..I mean for 10 minutes until my head hit the
side and we were gliding down a steep hill hit the
bottom and spun out trying to climb the top. I looked
at Donald, knowing we were in deep of being in No
where land and he smiled saying “todo bien”. He
climbed out the truck and lifted his pistol on the
seat beside me as he checked the tires….ha.. I was
definitely safe. We made it back without getting
stuck, I don’t know how..but I owe it all to Donald. I
ran into the rancho with excitement to find Chris and
some of the guys from Feral Green Project (
www.feralgreen.com). Feral Green is a group of guys
with a green vision to bring knowledge of clean bio
friendly ways to the Central America all the while
surfing and running their bio diesel truck on
vegetable oil. They contacted me from information
given to them from Surf Aid and they had found me at
Popoyo Surf Lodge. I hit it off right away with the
four guys, an amazingly easy to get along with group
with lots of humor and passion. I gave them the tour
of the surf breaks the next day and later that night
we went to the church for my weekly art classes. As we
pulled up a group of 20 kids poured out into the
street screaming “Dawn..Amanecer…Rojita…whooooo
hoooo!” I almost cried. The guys in the car turned to
me and said, “Wow these kids really love you” Yes, I
thought..they do, and my purpose here in Nicaragua had
created such a reward in my heart as I leaped as I
looked upon their eager faces. That night myself and
the Feral Green guys read to them about How God had
created the earth and animals, sea, and how important
it was to keep the environment clean. Then we all made
pictures out of pastels and paper of their favorite
part of God’s creation. It made me laugh to see about
10 pictures with myself and orange hair on their
papers with for: Don (they can’t spell my name here).
One of my favorites was done my Isabella the Pastor of
the churches daughter and she had drawn a fish with
the words : Minamis Oscar on the photo. I asked her
over and over what does “minamis” mean. She looked at
me confused and said “Minamis”…”Mi nombre es”…oh…I
said as I laughed she was learning English and was
trying to write “My name is Oscar” …this picture hangs
proudly in my room now.(Look at the pictures attached
for this cute photo). To wrap this letter up I will
go on briefly about some exciting news and events.

1. I have a new room, more like an apartment that JJ
and Kim put me in with my own indoor bathroom and
kitchen. It’s beautiful and comfortable to read and
focus alone in the morning and paint. Thank you JJ and
Kim..I love ya’ll so much

2. I went riding on Ezekiel (his legs are better), he
is full of energy and crazy..a running machine, we
sprinted for an hour on the beach, and as I was
running him in the surf of the beach coast, he
stumbled into a sink hole and fell over rolling on me
as I lay stunned, but ok. He got up shaking looked at
me as I got up and freaked out and ran about 3 miles
home…I looked at him running away and was thankful he
was ok. I was fine..no broken bones…I started laughing
so hard and dove into the waves to rinse off before I
headed back home. (this was the first time I have
fallen off in 8 years..it was bound to happen..ha)

3. Um…not much else..surf lessons continued this
Saturday, and probably going to start working at the
Library with the kids soon. Please continue to pray
for the means for the Co operative to be built here.
For more information on this project, please email me
back or check out
www.nicaraguaartmissions.blogspot.com

Some Cool links to check out this month:

www.feralgreen.com
www.lovelightmelody.org
www.popoyo.com
www.surfnicaragua.com
www.zoomnicaragua.com
www.iamissions.com
www.davidmolnarphotography.com


Love you guys so much

Dawn