Hola
friends and family! We have officially begun our mission work down here in
Leon, Nicaragua and everything has been awesome. Yesterday morning, we began
our day driving to the Orphan Network (ONET) office and dropping off the
hundreds of pounds of donations we brought for the children.
From there, we drove in our mini bus to Verbo
Leon, one of the churches that ONET partners with that acts as a feeding center
for the orphans. ONET feeds 30,000 children daily!! It was such a humbling
experience pulling into the church because all of the kids began chanting and
as each one of us stepped off that bus, there was a constant group of children
eagerly waiting to welcome you with hugs and smiles. Although the language
barrier can be tough, smiles and laughs are universal. We played with the kids
for about an hour, and boy was that hour tiring! Dewey and Jerome had lines
children waiting to be picked up and thrown around- the football players were
picking up 3-4 kids at a time! Kristina, Heather, and Gena had fun offering
piggy back rides and carrying kids around while Tommy and Mackenzie lost tons
of energy playing “el anda” (tag) with the children. It wasn’t hard to spot
Evan as the tallest man there who enjoyed spinning the kids around and throwing
them up in the air! Amidst a very dirty dust storm, everyone was still able to
have fun.
We then met with Pastor Jose, who
spoke to us about the history of Verbo Leon. Afterwards, we took many of the
caretakers to the beach! We wanted to take the children, but the waves were too
powerful. Somehow we managed to fit 25 people in our short bus! The water was
nice and refreshing after such a hot and dirty day! We played in the ocean,
jumped in the waves, and then played soccer on the beach. To end our day, we
dropped off the caretakers and headed to our hotel in Leon- La Posada del
Doctor.
