Hello to all! We have made it back stateside. It has been a very long day and for some of the team it is not over yet. Our day began at 4ish this morning in Managua. We walked across the road ( a few went by car ) to the international airport and checked in for our flight at 5am. Our first flight left at 7:15 ( i think ) We arrived at Atlanta and made a fairly smooth transition through customs and immigration. We had a tight connection and the flight was boarding as we walked up to the gate. We made the flight and a lot of hungry travelers arrived in Washington DC at 4:40 this afternoon. From there we split up into smaller groups to make a journeys home. All in all in was a very good day, long but good. If you have not yet seen your loved ones they should be there shortly! It was a great trip with a wonderful team of people. We are all thankful for your prayers and God's faithfulness to take care of all of us. Please continue to pray for the ministry taking place in Nicaragua that will continue long after we are home. Pray also that each member of the team will hear all that God is speaking to them and be obedient to all that he asks.
Happy to be home again,if only for a while,
Jennifer
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Viernes...Our Last Day In Puerto Cabezas
Buenos Familia y Amigos!
I was given the duty of writing Fridays blog and with a combination of inhaling Deet, oil based paint and turpentine, I managed to forget to write it!
Friday was our last day spent at the Puerto Cabezas orphanage and we were busy doing all kinds of things.
After yet another delicious breakfast full of eggs, fresh pineapple and pancakes, we headed out to finish painting the Verbo churchs sanctuary. We had one back wall left to do and a few areas to touch up. We were a little more than half way finished and someone told us that it was already 11:45am so we rushed to finish before lunch. We arrive back at our rooms to find out that someone apparently misread the time and it was only 10:30! Oops! I think it was a blessing in disguise because the fumes were stronger that morning since there wasnt much of a breeze. So we took a bit to relax before lunch.
After lunch we headed up to the Orpha, the girls building, to have our last day of Vacation Bible School with the kids! Mimi and Jennifer did a great job of telling the kids their Bible lesson about how we need to take the good news of Christ and share it with their friends. Meanwhile Danni and Heather had a very successful craft in which the kids made prayer journals. They loved them!! The rest of us were chaos control! After they put them together they got to write names of friends to pray for and also write prayers to God. It was truly amazing to see the tenderness in the hearts of these children.
In addition to the VBS, Thomas and Bret went over to the baseball field and played baseball with the guys. Some were from the orphanage but some street kids came as well! It was a great opportunity for them to reach out to the guys.
Our last night together was spent sharing what God had revealed to us and what we had learned while being in Nicaragua. God has and will be doing amazing things with the people on this trip. It will be exciting to see what happens!
I also wanted to let you know that the minor illnesses we had earlier are all better! We thank you all for each one of your prayers this week and we will all see you soon!
Buenos dias,
LAURA HERALD
I was given the duty of writing Fridays blog and with a combination of inhaling Deet, oil based paint and turpentine, I managed to forget to write it!
Friday was our last day spent at the Puerto Cabezas orphanage and we were busy doing all kinds of things.
After yet another delicious breakfast full of eggs, fresh pineapple and pancakes, we headed out to finish painting the Verbo churchs sanctuary. We had one back wall left to do and a few areas to touch up. We were a little more than half way finished and someone told us that it was already 11:45am so we rushed to finish before lunch. We arrive back at our rooms to find out that someone apparently misread the time and it was only 10:30! Oops! I think it was a blessing in disguise because the fumes were stronger that morning since there wasnt much of a breeze. So we took a bit to relax before lunch.
After lunch we headed up to the Orpha, the girls building, to have our last day of Vacation Bible School with the kids! Mimi and Jennifer did a great job of telling the kids their Bible lesson about how we need to take the good news of Christ and share it with their friends. Meanwhile Danni and Heather had a very successful craft in which the kids made prayer journals. They loved them!! The rest of us were chaos control! After they put them together they got to write names of friends to pray for and also write prayers to God. It was truly amazing to see the tenderness in the hearts of these children.
In addition to the VBS, Thomas and Bret went over to the baseball field and played baseball with the guys. Some were from the orphanage but some street kids came as well! It was a great opportunity for them to reach out to the guys.
Our last night together was spent sharing what God had revealed to us and what we had learned while being in Nicaragua. God has and will be doing amazing things with the people on this trip. It will be exciting to see what happens!
I also wanted to let you know that the minor illnesses we had earlier are all better! We thank you all for each one of your prayers this week and we will all see you soon!
Buenos dias,
LAURA HERALD
Sabado a.k.a. Saturday
Today we left the orphanage.
The local men had a bible study this morning at 5:30am. When we got up to go to the meeting we found that several kids were already sitting outside our doorstep waiting to say goodbye. It was very touching. Assuring them we would say goodbye in a few hours we went ahead to our meeting.
There were many men at the bible study and not knowing very much Spanish, I was totally lost as to what was going on, but Eric and Bret led part of the group and I was very impressed at how involved the men were in the discussion and how many spoke up during the meeting. The men here have definitely accepted Gods calling to be leaders in their community.
We said goodbye to the orphans after many, many hugs and adioses. A lot of the kids signed our shirts and gave us notes to take home, making it even more difficult to leave.
But we did leave on time and have made it safely to the other side of the country, in Managua, safely. We are staying the night at a hotel and will be on the first flight to Atlanta, Ga at 7 am.
We are all sad to be leaving but are excited to see all of our friends and family and share how God has grown us and what wonderful things He is doing in Nicaragua.
Buenos Noches.
Thomas
The local men had a bible study this morning at 5:30am. When we got up to go to the meeting we found that several kids were already sitting outside our doorstep waiting to say goodbye. It was very touching. Assuring them we would say goodbye in a few hours we went ahead to our meeting.
There were many men at the bible study and not knowing very much Spanish, I was totally lost as to what was going on, but Eric and Bret led part of the group and I was very impressed at how involved the men were in the discussion and how many spoke up during the meeting. The men here have definitely accepted Gods calling to be leaders in their community.
We said goodbye to the orphans after many, many hugs and adioses. A lot of the kids signed our shirts and gave us notes to take home, making it even more difficult to leave.
But we did leave on time and have made it safely to the other side of the country, in Managua, safely. We are staying the night at a hotel and will be on the first flight to Atlanta, Ga at 7 am.
We are all sad to be leaving but are excited to see all of our friends and family and share how God has grown us and what wonderful things He is doing in Nicaragua.
Buenos Noches.
Thomas
Thursday, August 5, 2010
august 5th
today some of us repainted the sanctuary of the church,and also painted the church office yesterday, others are working on building the transition house for the girls.A few of the team members are not feeling well so we ask you to keep them in your prayers. Yesterday we drove around the town in the back of Earls truck, seeing what the town looks like and how some of the people here live. It was heartbreaking to see just how little these people have.Please keep us in your prayers.
Hannah Richardson
Hannah Richardson
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
The sun makes an apperance
Hello to all at home. Today is e Wednesday August the 3rd. The sun deceided to make an apperance this morning. I think the highlight of each day so far has been playing with the orphans. There is this little girl named Gatia, she is so cute. I have been spending a lot of time with her at the orpha. The first day we played tag and took lots of pictures. Yesterday I taught the craft lesson and taught most of the children at the orpha how to make gimp. They seemed to have a really good time playing with the gimp. There is this one little girl who loved having her picture taken. She would pose for each picture. smiling in one, then swiping her hair to the side for the next, then putting her hand on her hip for the next. She Really loved having her picture taken! The hardest part so far has been the rain. I slipped in a big puddle while walking to my room and landed with a big splash. I had to change my clothes which was not a problem. My bag was the only big bag that came on the small plane with us. They had put books for the pastors conference in my bag so it had to come on the plane so it would be here for Monday. That just shows that God was looking out for me. The rest of the luggage arrived late last night so now everyone has there bags. Thank you for praying. My Dad and my brother Owen are leaving for Jamica today. Please keep them and their team in your prayers as well.( I am praying for them too!) The food so far has been yummy! Last night we had fresh shrimp and rice. It was the best so far! Everyone is staying healthy and sends their love to those at home.
Hannah Patterson
Hannah Patterson
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
day 2, tuesday!
So we woke up again this morning to rain, I'm really getting tired of it. It wasnt until right before lunch today that it finally stopped, and now were getting a taste of true Central American weather. We all are just about to go crazy without our baggage, we've been without it since Sunday.Living out of your carry on bag gets really old. Really old. Because the rain has been so bad, the roads are a muddy mess. They've had to take our luggage out of the orginail van, put them in canoes to cross the river, and now the bags are in another van, hopefully coming today. I think you can only wear an outfit so many times. Otherwise the trip so far has been exicting, today will be the first Bible lesson we do with the kiddies, hopefully they'll have enough attention. After we play with them for a while we can look forward to rice and beans at dinner. You can never have enough rice and beans. Hopefully by that time it will be getting dark and we'll cool off during porch time and hear about everyone's day. I guess that's all for now. Adios!
-Lacy
-Lacy
Just Another Managua Monday
I've been told to preface this entry by saying that We are all safe, No one has died, been kidnapped or gotten malaria. . . yet. My mother knows if it were up to me you would all be under the impression that we had been kidnapped and were the primary hostages in a spontaneous civil war. She's dealt with my sadistic humor for 20 years and for that I say, thank you mother dearest, if I were you I would have shipped me to a Nicaraguan orphanage for a whole other reason than missions.
Today concludes the first full day in Nicaragua. After spending the night in the Managua Best Western we awoke at 4 AM to hurry up and wait for our flight to Puerto Cavezas. While waiting, our source of entertainment were two televisions, one selling what appeared to be holy olive oil and the other playing a compilation of music videos from a man we concluded was Screech from "Saved by the Bell" if he had grown up hispanic. . and with talent.
We had to split the group between two planes since each plane only fit 12 people plus the two pilots. Scratch that, one pilot and one student with notepad and textbook in tow, a real confidence booster when flying to the other side of the country. Despite my hesitation to take my eye off the cockpit for fear of imminent deadness, once I did I didn't look back. The country is beautiful. Rich green farmland, rolling hills, sprawling mountains and a sky bluer than a blue M & M (seriously, look at one, they're really blue)
Unfortunately that all changed once we got to Puerto Cavezas. You don't know rain until you've seen Central America in the rainy season. After testing the limits of our 18 passenger van's 4-wheeling capability we got our soaked luggage and took a school bus through the soaked streets of Puerto Cavezas. It was an eye opener, most of the houses were one room supported on stilts. There were giant holes in the street and starving dogs everywhere. Once we got to the Verbo Church however it was a totally different atmosphere than outside. The houses were well built and sprawling green grass covered everything but the paths.
After settling in, we got a tour of the church grounds and interacted with the orphans. I played Uno with three girls who apparently were the only girls not hanging on Thomas and being thrown in the air, squeals of otra vez filled the courtyard.
Once we had exhausted ourselves we had dinner and settled in for the night, falling asleep to the torrential downpour on the tin roof.
Roxy
Today concludes the first full day in Nicaragua. After spending the night in the Managua Best Western we awoke at 4 AM to hurry up and wait for our flight to Puerto Cavezas. While waiting, our source of entertainment were two televisions, one selling what appeared to be holy olive oil and the other playing a compilation of music videos from a man we concluded was Screech from "Saved by the Bell" if he had grown up hispanic. . and with talent.
We had to split the group between two planes since each plane only fit 12 people plus the two pilots. Scratch that, one pilot and one student with notepad and textbook in tow, a real confidence booster when flying to the other side of the country. Despite my hesitation to take my eye off the cockpit for fear of imminent deadness, once I did I didn't look back. The country is beautiful. Rich green farmland, rolling hills, sprawling mountains and a sky bluer than a blue M & M (seriously, look at one, they're really blue)
Unfortunately that all changed once we got to Puerto Cavezas. You don't know rain until you've seen Central America in the rainy season. After testing the limits of our 18 passenger van's 4-wheeling capability we got our soaked luggage and took a school bus through the soaked streets of Puerto Cavezas. It was an eye opener, most of the houses were one room supported on stilts. There were giant holes in the street and starving dogs everywhere. Once we got to the Verbo Church however it was a totally different atmosphere than outside. The houses were well built and sprawling green grass covered everything but the paths.
After settling in, we got a tour of the church grounds and interacted with the orphans. I played Uno with three girls who apparently were the only girls not hanging on Thomas and being thrown in the air, squeals of otra vez filled the courtyard.
Once we had exhausted ourselves we had dinner and settled in for the night, falling asleep to the torrential downpour on the tin roof.
Roxy
Monday, August 2, 2010
Arrived
Hello to all at home. We have arrived in managua with all our team members and luggage acounted for and in one piece. We are tired and ready for a short sleep. We travel again early tommorrow. Please continue to pray for us. We will try to blog again tommorrow. Flights went well with minimun layovers.
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