Today the seniors and their leaders, and part of the staff departed from Casa Bernabe and headed three hours north of Managua to a northern city called Madagulpa. We departed from Casa with one school bus filled with seniors and nearly 350 school packs to distribute when we got there. Today was a monumental day. For the first time ever, the Chapel has forged a partnership with Mira Ministries, of which the Chapel's very own - Steve Hooge - has a special relationship. His sister and brother-in-law run Mira Ministries, which is a ministry that provides school uniform vouchers and packs of school supplies to children not enrolled in school so that they can have the opportunity to attend school.
We left Casa at 9 AM and drove to another orphanage called El Canyon (because it is located at the base of a large canyon) and worshiped with the community there for Sunday service. We were asked, ad hoc, to preform songs at the church and the entire team sang a set of worship songs. After that, we hit the road for Madagulpa. It was a long trip into the mountains and very green part of Nicaragua! We arrived around 3 PM and checked-in to a beautiful hotel on top of a mountain.
We arrived a church to hundreds of Nicaraguans praising the Lord. Again, everything was very spontaneous! We led four songs to the congregation. Travis gave a sermon on the fly. And what we thought would be a 30 minute church service turned into a 2.5 hour worship experience! After the service, 75 children who are not in school were given 2 vouchers. One for them, and one for a friend who also was not in school. 150 kids and their parents received school packs and uniform vouchers. Then we threw a party in their honor. It was an amazing experience. Thank you to all the Chapel families who helped fill school packs! They have been a huge blessing to many children!
We finished the night off with some famous Nicaraguan fast food, called Tip Top! Now we are in the hotel having our nightly porch time processing everything from the day. The team is doing great, feel great, and healthy! Keep praying!
