 We are continuing to make progress on several fronts. Tim has been spending quite a bit of time working on the house/ministry building. Right now we are at the stage where the first floor electrical work needs to be done. The guys are forming up the second floor and the beams that support the second floor.
They have been making really good use of all the tools that we brought. Tim took the rotary laser level and releveled everything. The guys were really impressed with that.  Since we brought the concrete mixer and vibrator, they have been able to use much less water in their mix and compact the concrete much better and the columns are much stronger as a result.
Jason is doing good in the Army, still trying to get that 2 mile run under 16 minutes, just missed it by a few seconds last time. He calls us on Sundays and keeps us informed. He will graduate from boot camp on April 17th. We are going up there to see him, but we will probably not make it to Dallas on this trip. Jonathan is still working away at his job and is doing a good job of keeping up with stuff for us on the home front.
 We appreciate your prayers on several fronts. Please pray that we will continue to progress on the house and that there will be no theft on the building site. So far, things have gone well. Pray for us and for the churches as they review ministry candidates for us to assist them in training. Pray for the discipleship groups that the leaders and the participants will be faithful in their groups.
We have made progress on the discipleship groups. Tim has been writing the materials from t he book of Acts. We are giving the leaders study notes, a student discussion guide, and student devotional material for each day of the week between their discipleship group meetings.
You can click on this image if you want to take a closer look.
The political and economic situation in Nicaragua is becoming more difficult. Inflation has been a real problem. The price of rice and flour has gone up about 50% since we came here. That is not a problem for us, but for the typical Nicaraguan, it is a real issue. The cost of building materials has gone up about 50% as well, although interestingly enough, the price of Coca-Cola has remained the same. The World Bank was in Managua a few weeks ago trying to work out a solution to the problem.
The people blame the Sandinistas, although there are many factors including the falling US dollar and the fact that the US is turning much of its grain and farmland towards ethanol production to keep up with its need for gasoline. The problem is that this reduces the world food supply significantly and drives up prices for people in third world countries who are barely able to eat as it is. (Please purchase fuel efficient vehicles). This makes it more important that countries like Nicaragua become self-sufficient in term of food production.
There is unrest in the Puerta Cabezas region. Much of the aid that was donated to the country after the hurricane is still sitting in warehouses going bad because the local aduana (customs officials) are very slow to release it, hoping to exact higher fees for themselves in the process. The government has called on the churches to help solve this unrest because the churches have great influence over the people, but the real issue is the red tape and greedy aduana. (The money we collected for hurricane relief last year was distributed by the pastors committee as soon as we got the money to them.)
Thank you again for all your prayers and your contributions. We are eager to get the building finished so we can devote ourselves full-time to the work of training leaders.
God bless you,
Tim and Kim Mott
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