Final Reminders for the Nashville Mission Trip

Our mission trip is less than one week away, and we are so excited to serve in Nashville with the team. Here are a few final reminders in preparation for our departure.

• Meet in the Student Ministries Worship Room on Sunday, July 5th at 7:45am. We will load the vans, pray, and depart by 8:30am.
• Please pay your final balance by Wednesday, July 1st. 
• The PACKING LIST is included on the second page of the checklist (link below).
• Final Checklist & Packing List

If you have any final questions, please contact Alexis at akincaid@wcchapel.org. After July 3rd, please contact Alexis on her cell phone at 919-260-0719.

Nicaragua Team Update - June 23

Our final full day in this beautiful country began with a typical Nicaraguan breakfast at the resort restaurant. As we ate, the team enjoyed a beautiful view of the lagoon and the surrounding hillsides. Once breakfast was over, each small group headed to their individual houses for our second small group time of the debrief. The team dug deep into the questions provided, really tackling some challenging issues head on, guided by our pre-trip study of Moses' encounter with God. After processing as a group, each team member was given some alone time to write a letter to themselves which will be sent to them some time over the next few months. The letter will serve as another reminder of all that God has done and taught us during out time here.

Lunch was again provided at one of the restaurants at the resort, and it was delicious! After eating, Lex shared a brief devotional thought on the parable of the Good Samaritan before the students were allowed some free time in the afternoon to relax and enjoy the beautiful surroundings. In the middle of the afternoon, three students (Riley, Jill, and Justin) publicly professed their faith by getting baptized (or reaffirming infant baptisms) in the lagoon. It was so exciting to see these students each take another step on their spiritual journeys.

Free time ended with dinner at 6pm. Immediately following dinner, the entire team headed to our final Porch Time of the trip. We enjoyed a time of extended worship before Lex gave the message, urging the team to really allow the presence of God to change us as we head back to Williamsburg. She spoke on Exodus 4 and showed us that, just as God used what Moses had in his hand to demonstrate His power and presence in Moses' life, God also wants us to use what we have to glorify and honor Him. After burning cards that contained excuses we were making for not following God, the team sang together and prayed for God to help us carry these lessons home with us. With Porch Time finished, we headed to our final small group time of the trip. Each group shared openly about their hopes and fears returning home, and a true desire to allow God to transform our lives. Everyone will soon be headed to bed so that we can get a little rest before our early flight tomorrow.

Our flight is scheduled to depart from the Managua airport at 6:45am (our time). We will send a text when we have arrived at the airport and are ready to take off. We will continue to keep you updated on our travels and our ETA at the Chapel via the text list. Simply text NICAPARENT to 41411 to get on that list. This will serve as our final blog post for the trip.

Thank you, once again, for all of your support and for all of your prayers. We are so excited to share with everyone, in person, all that God has done in us and through us.

Nicaragua Team Update - June 22

After the last breakfast at our housing site in Leon, the team packed up all of our things and headed out to Verbo Leon for one final chance to serve the kids.  After serving lunch, we had a brief “fiesta” (party) with the children, celebrating our time together by breaking a piñata! After giving many final hugs and saying goodbye to the staff and leaders at Verbo, we had lunch in Leon before setting off for Chacaras Verde, another feeding center that ORPHANetwork works with.  Pastor Ricardo met us and introduced us to the community that his church serves.  We were blessed with the opportunity to help them serve the children that come to the feeding center. After breaking another piñata with the children at Chacaras Verde, we prayed over Ricardo and his church before saying goodbye. After a long journey back to Managua (filled with singing and story-telling), we arrived at the Apoyo Resort, our debrief site, and ate dinner here upon arrival.  Once dinner was finished, the team then began the first of our three final small group times here that are meant to prepare them for life back at home in Virginia.  We are excited to continue processing this experience in such an intentional way, and we can’t wait to share all that we have experienced this week. Please pray that God would seal these lessons into our hearts and prepare us to take what we have learned back to the United States.

Nicaragua Team Update - June 21

The team awoke today for our last full day of serving our friends in Leon and Posoltega.  We first went to a church service with the kids and the community from Verbo Leon.  It was an awesome experience being able to worship with the community that we have gotten to know so well over this past week.  After church in Leon, we traveled to Posoltega to worship alongside that community as well.  Spending time together worshipping the same Lord was an awesome reminder that the Church really is universal, and that Christ is the common bond that can unite people from any and all backgrounds. After the service, we ventured out onto the soccer pitch to participate in a local outreach soccer tournament hosted by the church in Posoltega.  The girls played one match against the ladies from Posoltega (and won!), while the guys ended up in 3^rd place (out of 4 teams). It was nice to provide the Nicaraguan teams the opportunity to play against each other in an organized tournament, complete with a trophy and medals for the winners. While the soccer tournament took place, those who were not playing had the opportunity to spend time with the children and staff of Posoltega and continue to build those relationships. In the end, it was difficult to say goodbye to our friends, but it was great to see the bonds that we had formed with the Nicaraguan people in just a short period of time.

After all the goodbyes, the team headed back to the housing location where we enjoyed a great dinner. We then had porch time where Tommy led us in worship and Nick spoke on the secret of the poor. We talked about the spiritual richness that we have seen in the people that God has placed in our paths down here. As we begin our transition back to the United States, our prayer is that we will truly take with us the lessons that we’ve learned down here. 

We hope you enjoyed seeing the video of the team at the Parents’ Gathering this morning between services. Tomorrow (Monday) we will head back to Leon to serve one final meal to the kids and to say goodbye to the children and staff there. Please pray for our final day of service and for our transition to the debrief site, that God would use these final few days to really seal these lessons into our hearts.

Nicaragua Team Update - Saturday, June 20

This morning, after two days of serving in two separate locations, the team departed the hotel to pick up the staff from the feeding centers from both Leon and Posoltega (the two churches we have been serving at throughout the week). We took them to spend the day at the beach on the west coast of Nicaragua. The day trip consisted of many fun moments in the water, playing games such as Pictionary and “Pin the Tail On the Donkey”, and serving lunch to the staff as a way to thank them for their tireless service to the feeding centers throughout the year. It was awesome to see the personalities of the Nicaraguans come out while playing the games. After a few hours of hanging out at the beach, the team loaded back on the bus to head back to Leon.

Once the team returned to the city, we immediately changed clothes and headed out to a sports complex in Leon where the team would play in a 5v5 soccer tournament against a group of Nicaraguan youth, some of whom attended the church while the others were kids that the pastors were trying to reach out to. Felipe, the youth pastor at the Verbo Leon church, gave a great talk before the games began about being afraid and how some people were afraid of Jesus but still trusted Him and had full faith in Him. This tournament was part of a new outreach initiative that the Verbo Leon church and Pastor Chepe are implementing to reach more kids from the community around the feeding center. The whole team had a great time getting to play soccer and interact with the older kids of Leon. What an encouragement to see how a sports outreach event can draw so many kids to a church gathering.

After a late dinner, the team had Porch Time, where Lex gave a great talk about suffering. She told us that we each have a choice: we can either curse the darkness or light our own candle. We broke into small groups to finish the night. Each group had great discussions about the past few days of serving and what we have been learning here in Nicaragua. Tomorrow, we will head out to church services in both Leon and then Posoltega. Our team will have the opportunity to participate in worship by offering a few testimonies to the church group and leading a worship song alongside the kids we have been serving all week. The afternoon will be filled with more soccer fun in Posoltega.

As we start to finish up our week here in Leon, please continue to pray for God to reveal Himself to us in powerful ways. Pray for the eyes to see Jesus at work, and that we would truly be willing for Him to break our hearts for the things that break His.

Nicaragua Team Update - Friday June 19th

After breakfast, the two serving groups split up again and headed out to their Local Church Initiative partners for another great day of serving.  Once again, both groups’ serving experiences were similarly laid out as they each began their time at Verbo Leon and Posoltega speaking with young adults from the surrounding communities. Today the topic was faith, and members of each group shared some of our own testimonies with the Nicaraguan students. After we had finished, some of the youth from the community shared their stories with us. It was awesome to see the connections that became evident as Americans and Nicaraguans shared how God has been working in their lives.  After the morning session, both groups served lunch to the kids that come to the feeding centers.  The Leon Feeding Center had an incredibly large turn-out of kids, serving lunch to 202 children before running out of food. Having to close the doors to a few of the hungry kids who came too late reminded us of the desperate need in these communities and the hope that the feeding centers offer these families.

After lunch, each group ran another day of VBS at their respective sites, continuing to teach on obedience through the story of Jonah and the whale. The kids who had participated in our VBS program were given certificates and t-shirts to honor their participation over the past few days. We hope that what we have been teaching them about God will stay with them long after we’ve returned home. After some free time, which included rousing games of tag, lots of piggy-back rides for the kids, and even children falling asleep in team members’ arms, we left the serving sites and headed back to our housing location for dinner and porch time. 

Porch time tonight was filled with laughter, as we shared funny memories from throughout the day. We were also able to recount moments where we saw Jesus actively working through our team and all the people with whom we have come into contact.  Our ORPHANetwork hosts shared a little with us about what exactly our impact looks like from the Nicaraguan perspective and how their lives have been affected by the initiatives we have been serving during out time here. Tommy followed them with a message on our faithfulness and the faithfulness of God in the work that we are doing, not only here in Nicaragua, but also in our day-to-day lives back in America. Tomorrow we will have the opportunity to take the women who work everyday at the feeding centers for a well-deserved day off.  We look forward to not only getting to provide some much needed rest and relaxation for the feeding center workers, but also to get a chance to interact with them and learn what it’s like to serve full time in this excellent ministry.

Finally, we hope you’ll be able to come to the Parents’ Gathering this Sunday between services. More details to come via the text listserve. If you haven’t already signed up for that, simply text NICAPARENT to 41411.

Nicaragua Team Update - Thursday, June 18

The Nica team started our morning with breakfast at the team housing site and then headed out for a full day of service! We split up into two serving groups, one going back to the Leon feeding center and the other heading to a sister feeding center in Posoltega. Both groups had similar days, starting off with an outreach activity to improve the partnership between the local schools and the churches. This outreach was geared towards the students in the communities that have aspirations to go to college. Our team answered questions that they had about the similarities and differences in the college preparation process. Each group loved getting to encourage these older students to achieve their God-given potential through advanced education.  After the sessions, both groups helped serve lunch to the kids at the feeding centers.  It was great for the team at Leon to continue to further the relationships that we began yesterday, and in Posoltega, we began to develop new relationships with the kids we served for the first time.  After lunch, each team did a VBS lesson for the younger kids from the community.  In Leon, we continued the Jonah story on obedience. The team played a few games with the kids before starting the lesson, and it was so much fun to see the excitement on their faces and their eager shouts as they asked the group to repeat a game we had taught them yesterday. In Posoltega, we played a few ice breakers to help build relationships right off the bat. We then did part one of the Jonah and the Whale teaching, finishing the lesson by having the children make whales out of paper plates to help them remember the lesson on obedience.

After a full day of building relationships and loving the kids, the team came back together for a delicious meal at the team housing site, followed by worship and porch time. Gena gave the talk at porch time tonight, encouraging the group to live in a way that reflects Jesus' love by humbling ourselves and focusing on others.  After porch time, we split up for our first set of small groups and took time to take a deeper look at what God has been teaching us throughout the first few days of the trip.  It was great to see our team really get to process the experiences they are having and how Jesus can be seen in our lives and in the lives of the children we are serving.

Tomorrow we will again split into our serving groups and head back to Posoltega and Verbo Leon for another fun filled day of serving.  Please pray that God will continue to transform our hearts and our minds, helping us take the focus off of ourselves and continuing to place it on the incredible people He is connecting us with.