Hello to all our family and friends. Here's our September 2002 newsletter.

We wanted to come to our home state and share our vision of ministry for Ometepe Island, Lake Nicaragua where, earlier this year, we bought 4 acres of land for our planned Community Outreach Center and small Vo-Tech school.

Our first share time was in Northern California at the Lord's Land Retreat Center where we spent our first years of marriage 14 years ago. The founder and good friend Sabine Ball was there and we had a wonderful time together.

A real saint, Frances (get it) and her husband Terry, had a cookout for us and invited many friends from the area that we have known many years. What a great time we had! Jerry, as well as Sabine & others gave generously toward the Community Center project, Lord bless you all!

 

Sabine and Tom	Sharing our ministry at GVCC
Nampa AOG childrens church	Tom, Esther, Peter and Linda

We left the Lord's Land and continued north to Rio Dell, where we stayed with old friends, Mike and Kathy and had dinner with them and their Pastor Jerry & Nancy. Thanks for that great dessert Kathy!

Our first Sunday at our home church in San Jose was over the Labor Day weekend when I was able to do a short presentation regarding our work in Nicaragua. As you can see in the photo I use posters with big photos to tell a story, works real well.

The longest trip was to Idaho and Montana, a 2,400-mile trip lasting almost 2 weeks. Good friends, Camie and Mike, loaned us their Ford wagon to make the trip in comfort. I told you they were good friends! We visited with Mary & Bill along the way in Sacramento, good to have spent the night in your palace, ha, ha.

Our special friends from the Mercy Ship Anastasis, Peter and Linda, invited us to come share at their A.O.G. church in Nampa, outside Boise, and we did. Friday night at Peter's Swiss-style cookout I got to meet most of their church leadership and did a short presentation before Sunday in front of their large congregation. They loved it and we made friends with Pastor Bill and his wife Sandi, and Jay just to name a few.

I really enjoyed sharing in their children's church and, as you can see in the photo, it's no ordinary classroom! I even was able to go talk about Nicaragua at length with the Good Shepard Christian School kids that meet at the church building during the week.

Because of Peter and Linda going to bat for us, their A.O.G Church called The Christian Faith Center has decided to partner with us $200 a month and we send a big thank you for believing in what we have done and want to do in Nicaragua on Ometepe island. Thanks Pastor Bill and the leadership board. We are praying a group from your church will come down next summer to help us minister.

We headed north 7 hours to Missoula, Montana where more good friends, Karl & Jennifer and Beth live. We spent almost a week with them and renewed our friendship. What a great BBQ we had, thanks Karl!! Lots of tepees in Montana as you can see in this photo.

After sharing our ministry in Karl's church a special offering was taken. May the Lord bless Pastors Dave, Jason and Kevin. Had a blast at your Children's Church classes too, thanks!

Our last Sunday at our home church in San Jose, California was the 22nd and I got to baptize our 9-year old daughter Gabriella as well as dedicate baby David to God. What a blessed time we had at a BBQ put on by Dietrich and Karen. It made it all the harder to say goodbye to so many at GVCC. Thank you Pastor Jim and all our close extended family that makes us feel so close when we are sooooooo far away.

The R/R part of our time in California was our trip to see my Aunt & Uncle in San Diego. They always indulge us and this time topped it by putting us up in a hotel with a pool! The kids almost loved that pool time as much as Shamu at Sea World. We all had a blast there. Thank you Uncle Bob and Aunt Jane for giving us so many good memories.

A big thanks goes out to Gary and Laurel Lindner from my home church who allowed us to stay in a second home they own and have it all to ourselves so that we can relax, let our hair down and scream at our kids. We were also able to have many friends come over and visit which we hardly ever get to do. You can see me up in their tree cutting it down for them. I used to do this tree trimming for a living but I'm just not as flexible or as young as I used to be now that I'm 45 years old!

In early Oct. we flew from California to Atlanta and borrowed my good friend Clark's van to travel southwest. Seven hours south of Atlanta we visited my dear friend of 24 years, Sandy Griner and her husband Kenny. They own the best seafood restaurant in the south called Chets, outside of Pensacola, FL. You can see me, my kids and Sandy in the photo with their famous seafood platter of shrimp, oysters, mullet, crab cake with hushpuppies, baked beans and cheese grits, yummmmmmmmmmy!

Next stop was to see my Uncle Leon and Bessy in Mobile, Alabama. My parents came down from New Jersey and we all had a great 2 days together. Tommy and Pop Pops really enjoyed the ferry ride together around Dauphin Island.

 

Sandy & the family at "Chets" Seafood Restaurant

Tommy & Pop Pops on the ferry

I was able to share our ministry work at Big Level Baptist Church in Mississippi two hours west of Mobile. Our long time friends Michael and Donna Morgan got us in the door and we made many new friends there. One new friend, Robert Cowen, gave me a new welder for our Vo-Tech school on Ometepe. Thanks Robert! Sherry Rawls also gave us a sewing machine. What a blessing! Michael wanted me to use my tree trimming talents and take down 5 big pines in his yard in one day so we did and the hard part of clean up I left for him. Timmmmmmmmber!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Gabriella & new friends at Big Level Baptist Church in Mississippi

Michael & Tom after downing the trees

We always visit New Orleans when we travel south because Esther's cousin Ralph Melian and his wife Terri live there. They have been faithfully partnering with us since we became missionaries many years ago. Thank you Ralph and Terri! Doesn't that garlic/spinach pizza look good?

Ten hours of driving got us back to Atlanta where we always enjoy staying with the Rich family. No they are not rich, it's their last name! You can see Daniel Rich holding David with Tommy giving the thumbs up in the photo with that funky V W Bus which is inside a 70's pizza parlor, yes we love good pizza folks.

 

Terri, Gabriella & Ralph with garlic/spinach pizza

Daniel, David and Tommy with yet another pizza

Our last stop on our seven week trip was to Columbia, S.C. where we spoke at Beulah United Methodist Church. Clark also got to share his love for the Nicaraguan people and invited anyone to come down on a trip and he would set it all up. We hope Pastor Michael and Tom Waddell (in the photo) will get a team together and visit us on Ometepe next summer. We made many new friends there and received an unexpected amount of checks for our work on the island. Thanks go to all of you at Beulah for making us feel so at home and welcomed.

 

Clark, Tom, Pastor Michael and Tom Waddell at Beulah United Methodist Church

Tom and some of the congregation at Beulah United Methodist Church

I know this is a long newsletter but we didn't want to leave anyone out. It was our best trip back to the States in years and we thank our family at our home church, GVCC, Esther's family in San Jose as well as all of you we got to visit with. Hope you enjoyed it. Be a blessing to someone today won't you?,………

God bless you all,...........

Love ya,...........Tom and Esther Fritz

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