Vineyard Missions

, from Andrea G Burgess, Casa de Nueva Esperanza, Los Cedros, Nicaragua.

I had fun this Easter being Easter Bunny delivering and hiding eggs for our older children to hunt here on property at Los Cedros. The children were so eggsited to find the candy filled eggs on their first Easter Egg Hunt ever! Lots of smiles, Praise God!

We took baby Gabriel to the doctors again a few days ago, and his condition continues to be stable. His doctor, (a volunteer heart specialist from USA here for 2 years) is still facing many problems working at the hospitals here. She plans to have a team of Cardiac Specialists come out for two weeks at the end of April. However, they are running into “problems” with constantly changing paperwork requirements. Please pray for this team , that nothing will stand in their way of being able to come over here to do the Lord’s will. They plan to work with families who have children with serious heart defects. We are praying it will be possible for them to actually perform much needed surgeries while they are here. They want to examine Gabriel and decide as a team what will be the best course of action for him. Of course, he is already our star miracle baby, since doctors told us back in September he only had a week left to live! He continues to gain weight, and successfully achieve his developmental goals, and his 1st birthday is coming up soon, May 9th 2008! God is so good.

Apologies (again) for the delay in writing. We have had several power cuts and multiple problems with Internet access. Also, we had to let some of our workers go, as well as giving the remaining staff their 4 days Easter Break, so things got a little crazy around here Easter week! Lianne , her mother and I decided to take ALL the children to church for Easter Sunday! We were up until midnight the night before, getting their clothes ready, and packing a mammoth diaper bag for all the babies. Then up again at 5am to be ready for an 8 am service. It was well worth it though, and once we arrived at church, there were many hands offering to hug our angels. Some of the ladies also volunteered to come out to work with us one day, which was very much appreciated. (God always provides, thank you Lord.) We have been interviewing and training some new staff, but so far, we have not filled the positions needed to complete our team. Please pray that God will send us the people He has already chosen to work with our Los Cedros family.

The weather continues to be hot, dry and windy. We made the most of it yesterday by making our own kites and flying them high in the sky!

I plan to take a trip to our other orphanage in Jinotega this Sunday, and stay for a couple of days. This home is for children ages 6-12 and we currently have 19 children living there. The drive is about 4 hours, on rough roads but the scenery is beautiful. It is much cooler there, up in the mountains of northern Nicaragua, I am looking forward to the change.

Xochilt had been doing well with her school work until yesterday, when we had a negative report from the teacher. Please lift her up in prayer. She will be having exams next Tuesday, and if she does well she can stay in 1st grade, if not, she will have to go back into preschool with 3 year olds. (There is no in between class, and Xochilt is almost 6 years old.)

Good news and bad news: I finally got a light installed in my room this afternoon! (I only had candle light until today, or a small, broken lamp.) Bad news is here in Nicaragua the light attracts bugs. Within 5 minutes I had bugs of every shape and size imaginable in here, no kidding. Some were large, but easy to catch, others were teeny ones that were hard to get! Where did they all come from? I just spent about 30 minutes chasing them all away, (OK, and swatting them.) So now I am sitting here by candle light once again, sometimes the basics are the best!!

Oh, and I also have HOT running water in my room now, what a luxury!

Well, Faith, my youngest Granddaughter is here with me and loving every minute. I will try to send photos of her, (our youngest missionary), to you! Faith, Kathy and I will be returning to the States at the end of April. I plan to return within a few days, God willing, to be with Gabriel for his next doctor’s appointment.

My heartfelt thanks to all, for your continued support. You are in my prayers and I would love to hear from you to keep up to date with your news: AndreaGBurgess @ Hotmail.com

Kathy Bolton leaves Gainesville to join me April 12th for 2 weeks. Please keep her in your prayers for safe travel and victory in all the Lord has for her to accomplish during her stay.

“May the Lord work out His plans for our lives.” Psalm 138 v.8,

And “May the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.” 2 Thes 3 v.16

Love and blessings galore, more than you could ever ask or imagine,

Andrea XXX

Celebrating Easter with our older children, L to R: Yelkin, Walter, Faith, Joseling, Xochilt, Jose and Joseph on Bunnys’ lap.

Faith, our youngest Missionary here, feeding baby Gabriel.

Children act out the Easter Story on Good Friday at a local Nican church

Xochilt outside her classroom on her first day in 1st Grade.