POST by FRAN: A Head count for Head Lice

Francesca at Niagara Falls with Canada in the background

Do you want to know what it's like to be standing outside a familiar house, with familiar people inside the house and not be invited in, but instead be put in their cold garage all because you have head lice? 

It all started on a cold Thursday morning... around 10:30 a.m. The Capital on the Edge group, which contains ten Nicaraguan boys, my Dad, my Brother, my Sister and me. We reached the Seaburg's after a long bus ride, and Jen Seaburg, the woman of the house, detests lice! 

She came into the garage and talked over all of us in her best Spanish: "Okay guys, DO NOT come into our WARM house, you have to stay in the COLD garage, while I go through each of your hair one by one!" 

The response I heard after Jen's little speech sounded a little like this: "NOO!! We don't have lice!" Dad then yelled "At least we aren't sleeping on the street again tonight!" Jen laughed a little and slowly said in a bitter-sweet voice "Alrighty, who is first then?" What happened next was excruciating!

Francesca with her baby cousin

POST by STIVEY: Eliezer's Highly Haunted House

Stivey and Eliezer leading worship

Hello, my name is Stiven and I am going to tell you a story about unexpected things that happen in Nicaragua.

Three years ago, my friend Eliezer lived with his grandfather on a farm and he worked in the field with his grandfather. Eliezer told me about things that his grandfather would tell him, such as mysterious things that would suddenly appear.

On the farm, there was an abandoned house. A long time ago, some people went there to work on the farm and they slept at Eliezer’s grandfather’s house. One of these folks became friends with Eliezer. His name was Juan and he was the same age as Eliezer. Juan took care of animals that were on the farm.

Now both Eliezer and Juan liked adventures. One day they decided to go to a haunted house on their farm for the night, because Eliazer’s grandfather said that it was a scary house, where others went to scare people. They were awake until 12 midnight and they did not see anything, so they fell asleep not knowing what would happen.

At three in the morning, Juan woke up and went to the bathroom. Whilst visiting the lavatory, someone or something called to him and he was really scared and went running into the house but the door to the room where he had been sleeping would not open.

Juan looked for some place where he could get in but it wasn’t to be and the mysterious voice kept on calling. Whilst terrified for his life, he turned around to see what was there and he saw a black animal with red eyes, and the animal kept on getting bigger and bigger with each step that he took towards him.

Juan started running and climbed through a window of the house, into the same bedroom he’d been sleeping in, and woke up Eliezer. Juan told his companion to get out of the house but Eliezer did not listen to him and he told Juan to go back to sleep.

At four thirty in the morning something unexpected happened. The bed that they were sleeping in moved, and they heard something walking above the ceiling. Both Juan and Eliezer were very scared. They were about 2 km away from the nearest house!

Eliezer asked Juan to look for a torch so that they could leave. In that moment my friend Eliezer, thought that he was going to die. Juan planned to use the horses in order to escape. They jumped onto the horses and left without looking behind them. As they rode away, they could hear the creature behind them, following along!.

When they arrived home they were really scared. They could not believe it. They’d just experienced one of the most terrifying nights of their lives and it was all because they did not believe what his grandfather had said about that haunted house.

This story goes to shows us, that people’s crazy stories are not always lies. The stories are surprising to the person who is listening and hard to believe, but not necessarily a lie.

Thank you for reading my story and God bless you.

Eliezer with Grandad and Granny (UK) and little Brien-brother-Billy

Hola mi nombre es stiven les vengo a contar un poco de las historia de que su se den en Nicaragua apariciones y cosas inexplicables

Hace 3anos mi amigo Eliezer vivía donde su abuelo en una finca y el trabaja en el campo con su abuelo  él me contaba cosa que su abuelo le decía de la que pasaba en la fina como apariciones

en la finca estaba una casa abandonada pero un día llegaron a trabajar hay y habitaron la casa mi amigo Eliezer se hiso amigo de uno de ellos que era un chico llamado juan de su edad y el cuidaba animales que había en la finca y a ellos les gustaban las aventuras,

así que se disidieron ir a esa casa a pasar una noche solo porque decían su abuelo que hay asustaban estuvieron despierto hasta las 12;00 de la noche y no pudieron ver nada y se quedaron dormido sin saber lo que iba a pasar,

a las 3;00 de la mañana juan se levantó de su cama para ir hacer sus necesidades cuando repente al quien o algo lo llamo juan con miedo corrió hacia dentro de la casa pero la puerta del cuarto no habría el busco la forma de entra pero no podía y la vos misteriosa lo llamaba el voltio haber que era y miro un animal negro con ojos rojo cada vez se hacía más grande cuando caminaba el animal el salió corriendo y se metió a  una ventana de la casa despertó a Eliezer y le dijo que se fuera de la casa pero no le hiso caso a juan lo que le había dicho y le dijo Eliezer a el que se durmiera,

A las 4;30 de la mañana su se dio algo inexplicable la cama en donde estaban durmiendo se movió y arriba del techo se escuchó algo que caminaba y ellos  estaban muy aterrado y estaban muy lejos de alguna casa eran 2km para poder llegar Eliezer le pidió a su amigo juan que buscara la lámpara y poder irse de ahí,

En ese momento mi amigo Eliezer pensaba que iba a morir a su amigo juan se le ocurrió que pudiéramos usar los caballos y a si escapar se montaron a los caballos y huyeron sin ver atrás pero oyeron que los venían persiguiendo al llegar a su casa asustado y con miedo su se dio pero no le creía esa noche fue lo peor noche que habían pasado tenido por no haber creído en las historias que decía su abuelo sobre esa casa,

Esto nos ensena que existe cosas que a veces no son contadas porque dicen que son mentiras y son muy sorprendente para quien la escucho y es muy difícil de creer,

Gracias por leer mi historia DIOS LES BENDIGA,

If you would like to support this fellow on a monthly basis, please CLICK HERE

To learn more about our street theatre production, "CREATED", please visit our page, NICAVANGELISTS: "CREATED", North American Tour (2013)

If you would like to see a video of some of our Nica-Youths practicing, please CLICK HERE, or for a video with a bit more info, please CLICK HERE

We are not up to budget, and travelling with 14 people is very expensive. We need an investment from Christian people for our next evangelism tour to the Midwest. To support us or make a once off donation, please visit our page, Contemplating SUPPORTING something significant? 

To learn more about our home Church in Australia, please CLICK HERE

This story was written by a Nicaraguan youth, and was voluntarily given to Capital on the Edge for publishing. The subject choice was his entirely. He has elected to write about his experiences for the glory of God and so that others may learn from his experiences. The translation of this work is performed voluntarily and not professionally, hence there may be some errors. Any decisive deviation from the text is in consultation with the author, and is done so to make clear the life events written about and to provide further information so that the story is more understandable.  

This story was translated by Lorenzy/Francesca and edited by Jed.

POST by JONNY: Aprender a sobrevivir por mi propia

Jonny at the Assemblies of God Family Camp in Minnesota

At the age of eight, I watched my family struggle with financial problems and learnt a lot about the harsh realities of life in Managua, Nicaragua. I saw that my parents worked hard, providing food to eat and paying for us to attend public school.

After observing the financial pressures of life in our house with my parents, I felt really bad inside. My older siblings contributed to the household expenses by working jobs, yet I was the only one who was not helping, because I am the youngest member of our family.

After witnessing my family’s many economic problems, I made the difficult decision of seeking out a job. However, I was only eight years old and I could not find employment. I had friends who worked as garbage men (kids). So one day I decided to go and ask my friends if they could help me get work with them.

The very next day I started working with my friends, but I did not know how or what to do, and so one of my friends said “Hey, you have to go over to that house and ask if they have trash that they want to throw away.” I responded to him by saying, “You are crazy. That is embarrassing!” However, he replied back to me, “Then go home and don’t be here earning easy money.” I thought about it and then decided “Fine! I’ll do it.” So that is how I started working, earning money to help my family.

Some time later, after having worked in the garbage business for a while, I began to realise that I felt really tired. Some of my work friends asked “Hey! Why do you give your money to your parents? They work and should support you. Why are you making it your responsibility to give to them?”

I answered, “My parents do not know that I am working.” My friend looked at me with a curious expression on his face and then said “Let’s put our money together and buy some drugs.” I was not impressed with this stupidity and said “Hey, you are crazy! It’ll be better for you if you leave me now and don’t ever talk to me again!”

After a long period of time my parents found out I was working as a garbage man. They sat me down and asked, “Jonny, why do you go around the town, throwing away other people’s rubbish?” I explained to my parents “I want to help you guys with supplying enough food for the family, because you two work and I feel bad about how difficult things are for you.

When I had finished sharing with my parents about my reasons for wanting to work, they started to cry and said “you will not continue to work on the streets.”

Many years later, I realised that I needed to learn to support myself. Even if my parents did not provide a good life or a good education for me, the one thing they did give me was the ability to live for other people in humility and with respectfulness.

I thank God he has led me in his path, giving me direction and showing me his purpose for my life.

Thank you for reading my story!                           

Jonny, a boy with GREAT potential...

                

Hola mi nombre es JONNY

Tema . Aprender a sobrevivir por mi propia cuenta .

A la edad de 8 año . Yo mirava que en mi casa habia muchos prolemas economicos .Y tambien mirava a mis padres que se esforsavan para poder mantenerlos comiendo y para que pudieramos ir al colegio . despues de mirar todo lo que pasaba en casa de mis padres yo mensentia muy mal . Porque todos mis hermanos trabajavan y yo era el unico que no estava trabajando porque era el mas pequeno de todo mis hermanos .

Despues de mirar todo lo que pasaba , tome una desicion la cual fue buscar un trabajo . Pero como solo tenia 8 año de edad no podia encontrar . Pero yo tenia unos amigos los cuales trabajavan botando basura . Y yo un dia me decidi a buscarlos a mis amigos para desirles que si me podian dar un poco de trabajo . Y miaamigos me dijieron que si que no habia ningun prolema .

Al siguiente dia comense a trabajar con mis amigos . Pero yo no sabia como hera el trabajo y derepente uno de mis amigos me dijo hey tienes que ir a esa casa a preguntar si tiene basura para para ir a botarla . Y yo le dije que estas loco eso meda mucha pena . Y el me respondio en tonces bete a tu casa y no estes aqui por dinero facil ..       Y yo le dije esta bien lo are . Y  asi enpese a trabajar por un poco de dinero el cual era para poder alludar a mi familia .

Luego de mucho trabajar me sentia muy cansado . y unos de mis amigos con los que trabajava me dijo hey porque tienes que darle el dinero a tus padres si ellos tranajavan y ellos tiene que mantenerte, porque tu eres su responsabilidad . Y yo  les respondi hey mis padres no saven que yo estoy trabajando . Y el me dijo en tonces mejor unamos nuestro dinero y vamos a conprar drogas . Y yo le dije hey tu estas loco saves mejor bete y no me buelvas hablar .

Despues de mucho tiempo de trabajar mis padres se dieron cuenta y me dijiero que porque hacia estas cosas de andar botando basura y yo les dije quiero alludarlos en la comidad porque ustedes rabajan mucho y yo me siento mal por eso . y mis padres cuando les dije todo eso , ellos se pusieron a llorar y me dijieron bente que tu no seguiras trabajando .

Despues de mucho tiempo llegue a comprender de que mi vida era aprender a vivir por mi propia cuenta . Y aunque mis padres no me dieron una buena vida no me dieron un buen estudio  . Pero me enseñaron algo que me enseño a vivir entre medio de todas las personas en respeto y umildad . doy gracias a dios que me a yluminado en su camino para poder salir a delante en todos sus propositos  .

GRACIAS POR LEER MI HISTORIA.

If you would like to support this fellow on a monthly basis, please CLICK HERE

To learn more about our street theatre production, "CREATED", please visit our page,NICAVANGELISTS: "CREATED", North American Tour (2013)

If you would like to see a video of some of our Nica-Youths practicing, please CLICK HERE

We are not up to budget, and travelling with 14 people is very expensive. We need an investment from Christian people for our next evangelism tour to the Midwest. To support us or make a once off donation, please visit our page, Contemplating SUPPORTING something significant? 

To learn more about our home Church in Australia, please CLICK HERE
This story was written by a Nicaraguan youth, and was voluntarily given to Capital on the Edge for publishing. The subject choice was his entirely. He has elected to write about his experiences for the glory of God and so that others may learn from his experiences. The translation of this work is performed voluntarily and not professionally, hence there may be some errors. Any decisive deviation from the text is in consultation with the author, and is done so to make clear the life events written about and to provide further information so that the story is more understandable.  

This story was translated by Lorenzy and edited by Jed.

POST by RAF: Early Birds

One day at maybe at 2:35am, I got out of bed because my dad told me to get out of bed. And when I got out of bed, I saw my little brother Billy. I gave him a paper airplane J but he was tired and so he couldn’t even say thank youK.

Billy and Raffy taking early morning computer originated photographs

Soon I was finished with my bags packing, but everybody else wasn’t done with their bags packing. I was waiting for 7 minutes.

 

Then we all whet inside the car. But when we all were inside the car, the other car stopped! Rrrrrrrcccccccckkkkkkkkkk, my dad was in the other car driving! My dad said I have no gas, so my mom said to everybody go push the car… Beycker, Eric, Yordy, and Jonny went to push the car but Beycker went back to the car and I don’t know why… Eric, yordy, Jonny and my dad arrived at the gas station. It took 3 minutes to arrive at the gas station and 3 minutes to fill up the car tank.

Rafael and Capital on the Edge, waiting at Managua's International (and only) Airport

We all arrived at the airport. First we all went to Sand Diego, then Sacramento, next San Carlos and now San Francisco!!!

 

Eliezer and Rafael on an American Airlines flight BOUND for Miami

 

POST by RENZ: Fisherman's WAR

Lorenzy at Fisherman's Wharf

On Tuesday, we went out to the pier here in San Francisco. The pier is called Fisherman’s wharf. It is really pretty when you are right on the beach because of all the birds and the sunset is to die for. We went to the beach so that we could go ‘busking’ but when we got there, we just wandered around because it was amazingly beautiful and because it was cold.

Lorenzy and Rene, BBoy Dancing

We wandered around on the sand for a while and the guys did a little bit of tricking. Then, we walked slowly over to the pier and started to stroll down it. There were quite  lot of people fishing there so we stood next to them and watched them.

Lorenzy & Rene at Fisherman's Wharf (the pier)

There was an Asian lady and a man that had this strange looking net. It looked interesting and so we went over to them to see what they were doing. When they threw the net into the water, we saw a figure in the water that was dawdling towards us.

When it was close to us, he popped his head above the water and we saw that it was a seal. The guys started making jokes about it such as “Hey, his face looks just like yours!” We just stood there and looked at it. I thought it was weird because it was so close to shore. Then the man pulled the net up and the seal swam away.

We stayed there waiting to see if it would come back. It did come back, but when it came back, it came back with a friend. Another seal. We kept on watching it and they would swirl in the water. My dad was further down and then he said “Here’s another one! There are three of them!”

The Cute little Seal

Once we got bored of looking at the seals, we walked down the rest of the pier. There were people swimming in the water. We took photos and did freezes on the wall. After we had gotten back to the cars we were all really cold.

From the beach, we went to the tricking place and we practiced with Brandon McCuien, a famous tricker that the guys are in love with because he is really good at doing flips in the air. We were there until two in the morning.

The Brien Family with Brandon McCuien, a famous tricker, in San Jose

POST by SEZ: Burn, Baby, Burn!

Sezni asking to Play with Fire

One night, I went to do our play. After that I saw a fire dancer with hollow hoops, swords and a stick. My mom and dad wanted me try using a stick with fire on the ends. They let me in the fire dance with a fire stick - I was doing it! I was afraid, nervous, and I never youse a stick of fire before I yoused it for five minutes  and I gave the stick back. My dad said “that’s awesome” and it was awesome.

Burney Burney  bye!

Click here to see Sezni, BEFORE playing with fire... 

Click here to see Sezni, playing with fire... 

POST by RAF: Train a Child...

Rafael, Rene, Jonny and the homeless man in San Francisco

One day in Sacramento, I was going to sleep then tomorrow morning somebody screamed “I’m going to San Carlos!!!” He said it three times. Next, I screamed the same as the person who screamed I am going to San Carlos.

Next we went on the train and met a nice man. When I saw that man, he looked really poor because his clothes were ripped and his t shirt was dirty. So I thought he was really poor but then Rene said “Rafael look at the poor man. He’s not poor.” I looked at the poor man I saw his 2 cell phone and ear phones. Then he said “Want one of my cell phones?” and I said “NO” and then he asked Rene. And Rene said “Sure” He gave his phone to Rene. And he said to me “Anyways I don’t have a charger for this phone so I bought this other phone.”

So then I said to Rene in Spanish, “Let me share the cell phone with you.” And Rene said “No!” And I said “but he wanted to give it to me first.” Then Rene said “Ok” Rene and I looked at the photos on the phone that the old man gave us and he only had about six to eight photos. Four photos were of trains, two photos were of San Carlos, and one photo was of him.

I said to Rene ”this is how we can remember this old man and Rene said “really”, I said “yep”. Every time the old man said something Rene will laugh.

Last the old man had to go to his house. The old man said “bye” Rene and I said “bye” after 3 stops I got off the train. And arrived at San Carlos! A paster came to pick us up at the church. At the church there was a skate board place, almost 50 rooms and a coffee place.
If you would like to support the Brien Family on a monthly basis, please CLICK here

POST by FRAN: Doing the Brien´s Dirty Work

Fran and Yader, performing domestic duties

We are used to cleaning our clothes by a washing machine and a dryer right? Well here we only have a washing machine and it doesn’t really get the clothes very clean… I am the wonderful person who has to do the washing and the first time I washed the clothes they came out dirtier than when I had put them in!

I had to come up with creative ways to get the clothes clean. I tried rewashing them in the washing machine, and it worked a little bit. I tried soaking the clothes in washing detergent and water and then washing them in the machine, but in doing this the clothes only got a really bad smell!

My friend came around to the lavandero (laundry) and saw me taking out a bunch of dirty clothes from the washing machine. She said “why are the clothes so dirty?” “I’m not really sure” was my response.  “Well why don’t you do this?” She grabbed a rather dirty t-shirt out of my hands and put it on the lavandero and applied some soap on it and started scrubbing with a hard bristle brush. Low and behold the dirt came off straight away!

I grabbed all the really dirty clothes, which were mainly jeans and white t-shirts. We both worked together. It was a lot of work but the clothes weren’t dirty anymore!

I started to do this more often and it was a lot of work but my arms are getting very strong.  My arms started getting into shape! The clothes looked really good… except for the white clothes. I needed to scrub a lot harder and ‘put my back into it!’ One day my mum saw me scrubbing really hard and said ¨why don’t you use Clorox?¨

I got a little bit of Clorox in the lid; I had bad experiences before, so I scrubbed the white clothes with the Clorox and then put them into the washing machine with a little more Clorox and walla! Clean!!

My chore, for 2012, was to wash all the clothes and at the beginning, I didn´t know how to do my chore - I had to learn on the job and I had to learn from other people. I was never alone while learning.

POST by FRAN: Sizzling in the Sun

Ladies at the Beach: Elizabeth, Francesca, Lorenzy-Ella & Anna

Remember the beach called Playa Hermosa? Well that beach has a lot of memories. There is the time when we went crab hunting, and the time when we almost drowned because the current had taken us too far out.

Too many stories! On this occasion I will tell one of the most ridiculous and recent stories that has happened at the beach yet!

Fran & Billy at the Beach

It was a bright and hot day. The sun was strong and powerful; it could burn pretty much anything, including skin! I think you know what I’m going to talk about now. The last time we went to the beach we forgot a very important item… It is something that helps you not to get burnt to the crisp!

We got to the beach all excited on Saturday afternoon and we didn’t worry about anything, we just played and had a really good time. We watched the sun set, we made a camp fire and cooked hotdogs over the fire. We couldn’t have asked for more fun.

The next day we hit the beach without the very important item on our sensitive skin. We went to the tide pools and climbed the rock walls. Lucky, my dog, even climbed up!

Up on the ROCKS: Lorenzy, Anna, Yordy, Franny, Lucky & Sez

Then we went to the house to have something to eat because we wanted to hit the other side of the beach, where the waves are.

We ate Gallo Pinto (rice and beans) and had some fried cheese and then we all headed down to the waves, again without the very important product on our shoulders and back.

We were only thinking about having fun and taking pictures and living while we're young. We dug a hole and buried Rafi up to his neck; we gave him a mermaid shape in the sand around his buried body.

We were at the waves from eleven in the morning until three in the afternoon! We were having so much fun and weren’t thinking about our skin or the sun…

When we got to the house, Granny said “you guys look so much darker!” and that’s when Mum finally realised “I left the sun cream at home!!” 

We were careful for the rest of the day so we wouldn’t burn too much more, it was really hard! Then we made the camp fire, but this time we tried to sit a little farther away from the flames. We saw everything differently! We still had a good time but we were beginning to feel the sting on our backs.

The next day was a nightmare! Nobody could move like they used to! We were all stiff! It was the worst feeling ever! I regret not putting on sun cream! In the water I had to have my front towards the sun instead of my back! I almost died because of the stinging pain! I will always take sun cream to the beach now!

Fran being splashed by Yordy

POST by RAF: Miserable Maths

Rafael Brien

One day I was helping my dad with a game with some kids called, what’s the time Mr.wolf. 

When I was finished helping my dad I went inside my family’s house. First I heard the doorbell, ding dong. I ran to open the gate and it was my mom with 15 math books. When I ran inside the house I sow the math books and did math striate away because I love math.   

After 7 days my mom put pink lines so when I get to the pink line I can have a math test and get money, right now I am on lesson 21.

POST by FRAN: Waste-not, Want not

“ MUM! This shirt is too small!”

“Mum, these pants are stained!”

“I can’t find a shirt that is wearable!”

Have you ever had clothes that don’t fit you anymore or are stained? That was my problem. I had way too many old, small, big and tattered clothing. So one day Mum told me “If you don’t want something, just put it in a pile and I will hand it out topeople in  the community.” So one day I decided to go through ALL of my clothes and the clothes of  my sister, Lorenzy.

First I went to Lorenzy’s room and pulled everything out of her untidy, wooden closet. I found all sorts of things! Teddy bears, lipsticks, bags, and anything else you could think of (and I do mean ANYTHING!!!) As I started going through her clothes I found really old T-shirts that we had in Australia (over 4 years ago)! Cute little T-shirts with butterfly patterns on them, ones that I can see Talia (or Talila as Lorenzy calles her), my cousin, in.

I had to fold everything because Lorenzy is not an organized girl! I found a lot of clothing that had gone missing for a long time! I felt like an apparel version of Sherlock homes. It took me two whole days to finish her entire wardrobe. It’s not a big wardrobe either, it has three drawers and an empty rack to hang clothes on!

On day three I went through my wardrobe. Mine is a lot more organized (I guess it’s a first born thing... both my parents are second born and they are not organized either). I have four small drawers and a rack for hanging clothes.

My PJs are in one drawer. My under-wear, socks and hats in another, just  above the PJs drawer. In the other two drawers I place my shorts, skirts and leggings. I hang up the rest on the rack in the closet.

 First I started with the rack. I mainly found clothes that are really baggy and big, which could fit Jonny (one of our Trickers) better that anyone, so I put those clothes in a pile for him. Then I made two piles of clothes that were not wanted/stained and too small/not fitting anymore.

I finished sorting in three days, and gave all of the loved, but needing to give away clothes, to Mum. Within a week I saw little girls wearing the t-shirts that were too small for me. Every time I saw them wearing one of my outfits, it made me smile, because I know these little girls look up to Lorenzy and me, and it makes me happy to see them in our clothes. Actually, the clothes looked better on them than they did on us! It makes these girls know that they are special and that we love to give to them, even if we don't have extremely nice gifts to offer.

“Fran, this was your t-shirt, right?”

“Yep, and now it’s yours because I love you so much!”