Hello Family and Friends!
We
are excited to be able to share about our amazing and life-changing experiences
here in Nicaragua through this blog! We hope that these daily updates will not
only inform you of all the incredible opportunities we have been given to spend
time with the people of Nicaragua, but that it will also encourage you to
continue to pray for our team.
We
will be updating the blog once each night, and will be sending two texts out
each day. One text will be sent in the morning that will remind you that the
blog has been updated and the other will be a general text of what the team is
participating in on that day. Most likely, you will not be able to read the
blog post until the morning because Nicaragua time is two hours behind Virginia
time.
Senior Group 1 and
2
Senior Group 1 (Craig, Dante & Tim’s small group,
Christa’s small group)
Senior Group 2 (Alexis, Steven & Andrew’s small group,
Christine’s small group)
This beautiful day in Nicaragua was
full of new experiences and new faces. Both senior groups 1 & 2 had the
opportunity to visit a local business initiative in El Faro. This business initiative
works with a church to promote self-sustainability in order to break the cycle
of poverty that so many experience in Nicaragua. Another interesting fact about
this business initiative is that most of the workers have come out of the Dump
in Nicaragua, to work in this place, to create more hope in their future and in
their family. The Dump is the Managua trash dump that used to house a community
of Nicaraguans who scavenged through the trash to make a living. The business
initiative gives women the opportunity to sew clothes, such as shirts and
shorts, and they sell the items they sew to create a profit. This profit goes directly from the business
to the church to help feed kids at its feeding center and to help bring more
children to school. After visiting El Faro and encouraging the workers who work
so hard to be self-sustained, a few of the students made purchases to assist in
providing money for the feeding center and school. In addition to serving at El
Faro, the seniors visited a local church in Esperanza. In Esperanza, the
seniors were introduced to the children, the caretakers, and the pastor. After
introductions, the students jumped right into giving a Vacation Bible School
lesson and a lesson about personal hygiene. It is so evident to see the ways
that Jesus is already showing up through our team and through the children in
Nicaragua. It doesn’t matter if it is watching a student tutor a child,
watching students serve lunch to 80 niños (Spanish for children), or watching
students carrying niños on their shoulders, we are seeing Jesus move in
life-changing ways and it is only the first day.
Junior Group
The group of juniors led by Hawley
Smith, had a wonderful day serving in Nicaragua. They had the opportunity to
visit Nueva Vida, which is a hurricane refugee camp that formed after the
disaster of Hurricane Mitch. The particular church that the juniors visited had
a really amazing testimony. The church began as a house of prostitutes and over
time, more and more people started coming to this house and eventually it was
transformed into a church that serves many people in the community of Nueva
Vida. At Nueva Vida, the juniors served the children by providing them with a
Vacation Bible School lesson and a lesson about hygiene. The junior group was
able to experience the love of Christ through spending time playing, loving,
and teaching the niños. They were able to see the Nicaraguans show true joy,
regardless of the poverty they found themselves in. As quoted by a member of
the junior trip, “The kids don’t see us as rich Americans, they see us as
gringos who can give them piggy back rides.” We are humbly experiencing what it
means to be fully satisfied in the love of Christ, and that is a beautiful
thing.
Sophomore Group
The sophomore group, led by Luke
Kincaid, had the opportunity to visit two places today. The first stop was at a
local church in the community of Ciudad Sandino. Ciudad Sandino is a small
village and the church that we visit reaches out to the community to provide
food, love, and care for those who are in need, all rooted in the love of
Christ. The team gave a Vacation Bible School lesson about Jesus and the
strength that He gives us. The lesson was followed by a fun activity that
included making crosses out of pipe cleaners and decorating them with heart
stickers. The sophomores were able to follow up the successful VBS lesson by
playing a few games and serving them lunch. The second location that the sophomore
group had the opportunity to visit was El Canyon. El Canyon is an orphanage
that serves and provides a home for about 60 children. The sophomores were able
to help young Nicaraguan kids learn how to speak English and were also able to
play soccer, volleyball, and have fun times on the playground. The team quickly
recognized the needs in Nicaragua and was willing to put aside any initial
hesitations to be conduits of God’s love. It was inspiring to watch God work in
and through the sophomore team as they engaged in their first ever experience
in Nicaragua.
It has been a memorable first day and we look forward to
giving you more updates and details about the rest of our trip experiences. Our
next update will be tomorrow night.
Reminder: There will be a Prayer Night for the Nicaragua
team in Moog hall, next Tuesday, June 25th at 7:30 p.m.
