The team caught up on much needed rest and woke up to an excellent breakfast at Hotel Europa this morning. After applying sunscreen and bugspray and filling up our water bottles, we headed out for Verbo Leon, the site we'll be spending most of our time this week. Once there, Pastor Jose Louis walked us around the community. We learned that their community is called "The Poets" because each neighborhood is named after one. Following our walking tour, we played soccer in the neighboring field, tossed frisbees and gave piggy back rides until lunch.
It was amazing to see how many kids this feeding center serves. Throughout the walking tour, it didn't appear that very many kids lived in the area, but well over 100 kids were fed lunch. It was great to see our Chapel students assisting them in washing their hands and serving meals from the kitchen.
We ate lunch after the kids and were impressed and blessed by the hospitality of our hosts.
After lunch we had the opportunity to teach a bible lesson. Luke shared the story of Noah's ark, with the lesson that God does care about our actions, and that they do have consequences. Following the lesson we crafted an origami ark that would help us remember the story and God's faithfulness to us. We distributed a snack and made our way back to the field for some relay races in two-by-two fashion, just like how the animals arrived at Noah's ark. Not long after that we came back to the hotel for showers and a little rest, and then had dinner back at Verbo Leon before our first Porch Time.
Porch Time is our nightly gathering to reflect on the day which we kicked off by sharing funny moments under the header "Remember That Time...," and identifying Christ in moments under the header "I Saw Jesus..." Many of the funny moments featured some embarrassing defeats on the soccer field, but there were also many moments where kids saw Jesus at work in each other. Then we sang a few songs of worship to our Lord and then Luke shared from Luke 10, where Jesus sends out the 72. Jesus instructed them to "leave it all behind," to take nothing with them as they go from town to town. We were challenged to process what we've left behind, and encouraged to engage what's directly before us while we're here.
Breaking in to small groups afterwards, we asked what has surprised students most about Nicaragua, and what stood out as the greatest need. Many answered with a surprise to the amount of trash, road conditions, and wild animals. Still, others were surprised to see how grateful the kids we played with were. They mentioned how little complaining they heard and how resilient they were despite having so little. It's exciting to see how these kids in Nicaragua may be giving us a glimpse of what joy looks like, and helping us identify where it comes from. Please be in continued prayer that this time is intentional and that Jesus opens our eyes to what He wants show us.
