Lowell explores Nicaragua with SI. Will this be our next country to do ministry?

We were meet by three Nicaraguans after entering into Nicaragua. We spent our first night in a great facility called Campo Alegeria. Campo Alegeria over looks Lake Nicaragua, the 10th largest fresh water lake in the World, and the only fresh water lake to have bull sharks!


Waiting to catch the ferry to cross Lake Nicaragua to get to the island of Ometepe.


View of the volcano Concepcion on the Island of Ometepe. It is active!!


Our OSHA approved ferry!


Arriving on the Island of Ometepe and visiting an orphanage.


Better view of our modern ferry


We arrived in Catarina, Nicaragua which reminds me a little of Jarabacoa. Here we are having breakfast overlooking a large lagoon.


This was our view from the restaurant as we ate breakfast.


Visiting the market in Catarina.


Getting ready to head back to Costa Rica after several days of exploring.

Nicaragua was a great place and we were warmly received. Be praying for SI as they consider where God would be sending them next. Also pray about who it would be that God would be sending. Thanks for your prayers!

SI Dominican Republic welcomes the York Family!

Jayson and Lindsay York came in late January to visit and interview with Students International. We had an awesome time together and were so Blessed to be able to welcome them into the SI family. The York family will be arriving in mid August to serve with SI in the Dominican Republic.

Jayson and Lindsay York & Family


Lindsay's parents Al and Joyce


Trying to adjust to the culture!!!


Some highlights from our beach trip!



We are blessed to have this couple join our team. Please pray for them as they transition from life in Chicago to life in Jarabacoa.

Sorry for not posting for a long time. I am back and promise to do better!

Family Trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan!

While we were in Upper Michigan during Oct. and we had a chance to visit Tahquamenon Falls State Park. It is about 25 miles more of Newberry, Michigan which is about 35 miles north of where Lowell grew up. It was really fun to visit after being away for about 26 years.


It was also fun for us to be together again as a family and have Amber with us since she has been at Bethel College the last couple of years.


This is Lowell's parents. John and Maxine Troyer. It was really good for us to be able to spend several days with them again.


This was one of the beautiful scenes we were able to take in during our time up north.


Amber and Alicia with their grandpa and grandma Troyer


This is the upper falls at Tahquamenon Falls State Park.


Cheryl and the girls at Pictured Rocks State Park in Munising, Michigan. I am a very blessed man to have these three women in my life.


Some of the sites we visit on the shore of Lake Superior




This happened to be one of the misfortunes we experienced on the trip and yet was blessing. While driving along the beautiful Lake Superior shoreline a big buck deer jumped out in front of us. What you see here is what happened to the Dodge Durango we were driving. It was a blessing we could keep driving it since we were 400 miles north of our final destination. God is truely faithful.

Welcome to the Troyer Family Blog!

Hi everyone I have been going to get this blog up and going for over two months now and everytime I go to do it something else comes up that seems more important. It has been a busy time for us. In January we had a construction group here that was mainly from River of Life, which is our home church, to help with the New Base Project. Wow what a blessing that was to get the roofs on the three dorm rooms and on the Chapel Building.


The Chapel


The three Dorm Rooms


The first of Feb. Dan Yoder from Goshen, In. came and spent three weeks with us and worked on the New Base Project. Dan was a lot of fun to host. We could always talk about fishing or give each other a hard time about something without a problem. Dan also has interest in Congo Africa and spent some time there before coming to the Dominican Republic. We were able to do a lot of dreaming about what it might look like starting an outreach to Congo. Thanks Dan for investing in the DR.


We also have been blessed to have Verl and Shirley Stutzman staying in the guest hous since the middle of January. Verl and Shirley are not quests but our friends that we have come to love and appreciate. Our girls call them grandpa and grandma and we have been honored to have them here living along side of us these last three months. They also did a trremendous amount of work for us during these last three months. Shirley sewing table cloths and cooking. Verl doing whatever project I came up with, they were always there when you needed them. Thanks Verl and Shirley for your servants hearts.

On January 9, 2007 Cheryl and I celebrated our 25 wedding annivarsary. Yes I know that carbon dates us but you know your only as old as you feel. Anyways we found time in Feb. to take a long weekend away. We went to Baravo/Punta Cana area and just had a wonderful time. On the way we stopped in La Romana at what was supposed to be a nice museum. Well don't get too excited it was a home that had been restored and was interesting but we were the only ones there and probably the only ones during the month of Feb.

Visting what was supposed to be a museum


Cheryl in front of our hotel room.


Here is where we spent most of our time. Just simple resting on the beach and what a beautiful beach it was.


Nice pool area.

It is hard to imagine that 25 years can go so quickly. Praise God for such a wonderful blessing.

We have really been busy as I was saying earlier. From January 20th until now we have hosted 123 outreach participants. The first team being River of Life and few others that came from Penn. and Florida. The second team was Wintonbury Baptist Church from Wintonbury CT. and the Shirley family from North Canton OH. The third team was from Jupiter Christian School Jupiter FL., Bethel University from Minneapolis MN and Simpson College from Fresno CA. The last group we had was from Taylor University from Upland IN. Praise God for a great start in 2007.