Home Sweet Home - Landed in DC!

The team just landed safely in DC! Thank you for all your prayers over the course of the trip. We are so grateful for your support. This will be our final update for this trip. Thanks again for everything.

Headed home!

We are boarding the plane to Reagan airport! Everything is on time and our ETA is 6:00PM. See you all soon!

Team is Back in America

The team just landed safely at the Miami airport! We will post another update just before we depart for our final flight to DC (around 3:30pm as long as everything continues to be on-time). We can't wait to share with you all more details about the trip and all that God has done.

Day Five!

Today was our final day in Nicaragua and it couldn't have ended better! Our groups split up again for the morning, half the group at the feeding center in Leon and half the group at the feeding center in Posoltega. We continued training the kids on hygiene and came up with Spanish songs for washing their hands and brushing their teeth and eating healthy foods. We fed the children lunch at each location and after eating ourselves, we packed up all the Posoltega children and brought them over to Leon for a Hygiene Graduation Ceremony. It was very exciting having all of the kids together in one place. We had a dance party and played games until the ceremony commenced. Each child was called up one by one to cheers from everyone as they received their Hygiene Graduation certificate and t-shirt. The kids were so proud and felt a clear sense of accomplishment. It was a great way to end our time with the children. Saying our goodbyes was difficult but it just validated the strong bonds we have built with the kids over this week.

We concluded the amazing day with another wonderful meal back at the hotel before ending with a powerful "porch time" led by Evan and Lynette. He challenged us to listen for God's still, small voice in the sound of silence. We each wrote down on a piece of paper what holds us back from following God and threw it into a fire. We were each "anointed" to go out from Nicaragua and bless others when we get back to the States. God was evident in every aspect of our trip and He was clearly working in and through us every step of the way. We are sad to leave but excited to share all that we have experienced with our friends and family when we get home!

Day Four

The Lord sure is good! We woke up this morning to a wonderful breakfast prepared by our lovely hotel staff. We split the team in half today. Half of the team went to Polsotega and the other half went to Leon. While at these separate feeding centers we helped feed the children during lunch. Our team is so passionate about these kids that they jump right in to help whenever needed. Following lunch we taught about 50 children about nutrition and cleanliness. Our teams created a great and informative lesson filled with games and skits, performed by members of our team. Our wonderful leader treated us with ice cream on the way back to the hotel. We are so grateful to have such a loving and caring leader. Having members on the team that are physically active, they decided that it would be a great idea to play basketball in the city square. Wanting to keep things interesting and patriotic, the teams were country divided. Our boys sure did play a great game. Of course they won. It was awesome seeing the square fill up with hundreds of people, coming to watch such an intense game. We re-nourished our bodies with another delicious meal. The chefs here at the hotel sure know how to cook (no offense mom). Porch time was filled with laughter and tears as our leader Evan spoke to us about The Kingdom of God. What a powerful and life changing talk. Thanks so much Evan! This team becomes closer and closer everyday and many have talked about staying here. (We might love Nicaragua more than home). We are currently having sweet fellowship, growing our bonds and friendships even more. This is Keegan Hartt filling you in live from Nicaragua.

Day Three!

This morning our team left our hotel bright and early to educate the leaders of the feeding center in Leon. We split up into two teams: one for flannel graph teaching and one for first aid/CPR teaching. The flannel graph team went first and the leaders were very engaged in the presentation. They left feeling significantly more knowledgeable and were ready to educate the kids. Afterwards, the first aid group presented and the leaders and staff of the church and feeding center were overjoyed with the materials given to them. They were not expecting such a thorough explanation and were thrilled for the education. The training was followed by lunch, in which we served the local children upon their arrival from school. Serving the children lunch was refreshing because we got to put smiles on the children's faces. After feeding the children, we left the feeding center with the church leaders in tow to go to the beach. The beach was a beautiful sight, there was team bonding and copious amount of laughter coming from the teams. Unfortunately, we did have to pack and leave the beach. When we arrived back at the hotel, the wonderful hotel staff had a delicious meal prepared for us. The night ended with a very fruitful "porch time" with a talk from our wonderful OrphaNetwork leader.

Day Two!

Today has been another great day! We started the morning participating in the Sunday worship service at the church in Leon. It was a wonderful time of singing praise songs and listening to Pastor Jose preach the Word. The Spirit of the Lord is clearly alive in this country! After the morning church service, we packed up our bus with 30 children from Leon and headed to Posoltega (another church and feeding center Pastor Jose runs) for their afternoon church service. Upon arrival at Posoltega, we ate lunch and spent some time playing games with the children before the service began. The Lord showed up once again through the testimonies of some survivors of a volcanic disaster in that community and it was powerful to see so many children and families lifting their voices in praise to God. Once the service ended, it was time for the annual soccer tournament, Nicaraguans verses Americans. The girls played first and put forth a good showing ending the game tied 0 - 0. Then the guys played and although they tried their best, they came up short against a very skilled Nicaraguan squad (lost 3-0). After the games we went back to the hotel for a delicious dinner of meatballs and rice. Tonight, Lynette challenged us with a message on the secret of the poor and the idol of materialism that we struggle with in America. It was a great night of small group discussion and our team is excited to train the leaders at the Leon church in the morning (and go to the beach in the afternoon!).

Day One!

Our trip is off to a great start! Today we packed up our bus and left Managua stopping along the way to pick up food supplies for the feeding center in Leon. Upon arrival in Leon, we were greeted by many happy children who were excited to see us and anxious to help unload the food from our bus. We were having so much fun with the kids that we almost forgot to stop and eat lunch. During lunch we had a question and answer time with the directors and Pastor Jose who run the church and feeding center. After lunch we played more with the children before heading out to get a quick tour of the city of Leon. We marveled at the cathedral and shopped in the local market, which gave us more background on the city and culture that surrounds this feeding center. We headed back to the hotel to settle in and rest from our first day under the Nicaraguan sun. After dinner and a history lesson on Nicaragua from one of our translators, we finished our first night in Nicaragua with “Porch Time.”  This was an opportunity to share funny stories, praise Jesus through worship, and discuss what we were looking forward to for the rest of the week.  Even though it was a tiring day, we are so excited to see what the Lord has planned for us tomorrow!