Thursday’s Update

Oh man, this adventure just keeps getting better and better! Seriously… So this morning we woke to a delectable breakfast of ham & cheese omelet’s, rice & beans, along with pineapple and watermelon. Once we washed our dishes, we were lead through a tour of the preschool. The preschool has various rooms including a computer room, a room for math and science tutoring, a library, a kitchen, and several others. There are 4 students who live on campus due to the dysfunctional families.

After the tour we were blessed with a cool devotion from Brett. It was his first time leading a devotion, and it was truly a blessing for the rest of us. He has a gift in this area and I’m excited to see where it leads. He was cool, calm and collected.

Then we divided our group into several groups: construction, vbs and eye exams. The construction group finished up the latrine, including building the walls and encasing it with sheet metal. They painted the new bricks, finished installing the tin roof, laid second layer of concrete on kitchen floor, and wrapped chain link fencing around upper wall area of the kitchen.

The eye team gave away more classes today than the previous days. They were lead by Steve, and assisted by David, Leslie, and Todd. Each of them came back beaming with excitement.

The VBS team traveled over the river and through the hills and drove past the volcano which erupted several weeks ago. The volcano is still emitting steam. Ok, back to the story. VBS. We arrived at the location to find many children and mothers eagerly waiting for our arrival. Troy, Tanya, Sheri, Stephanie, Rachel, and our 2 interpreters (Mario & Joe) jumped right in. We allowed the kids to teach us a game called “Headquarters”. We had a great time getting caught by the little children. Then we all sang some songs, enjoyed some coloring and face painting. The pastor, Enrique, arrived near the end of the service. It was good getting to meet him and sharing more supplies with his congregation.

We all met back at campus for lunch. The meal included chicken tenders and rice with home-made dip, curry noodle salad, with pineapple and watermelon. The food is spectacular here at campus.

After lunch we loaded up into the all terrain vehicle and drove to the barrios (neighborHOOD). We delivered 30 bags of food and supplies to families. They were so gracious and kind to us. Their homes are constructed of tree limbs and plastic sheathing. Some were made from horse feed bags, others were created out of cloth. The community today was more established than the community we delivered food to yesterday. We prayed with each of the families who received the bags of groceries. They all had specific requests for family members with sickness and for a better economic condition. It’s heart-breaking to see their deplorable living conditions. One must question what God has in store for us, to lead us to such a heart-breaking, God-seeking community. Our faith has been challenged greatly, simply by experiencing these Nicaraguan people who desperately desire to be loved.

We got back to the campus to shower before the evenings activities. It’s very humid here and we’re sweating all the time. We’re trying to drink water as much as we can, but the water/sweat ratio is about 1:1. One gallon of water to 1 soaked set of clothes. We even sweat during the night with the fans blowing on us.

Off spiffed up and clean smelling we loaded onto the school bus and headed for the Pacific Ocean. The bus ride is always an adventure: more like a video game where cars are coming directly at you, but they (or you) swerve just before the collision. We keep waiting for the “Game Over” screen to appear, but we’ve avoided it so far. Thank the Lord!!!

The ocean was about a ½ hour drive. The sand at the ocean near here is black, like volcanic ash. It’s coarse sand, different than the sand at Panama City. We were able to climb on some large rocks protruding into the waves. It was spectacular! We enjoyed a great meal at a restaurant seated on the ocean. We had some good fish, and many different dishes. After dinner several of us took a walk on the beach. It was amazing to see hear nothing but waves crashing. The stars were numerous. Reminded of the promises of God to our forefathers regarding the descendants would be as numerous as the stars.

The drive back to from the ocean was a rave! The adults were all dancing on the bus. It was so funny. Sheri was the dancing queen.

Quotes for today (and yesterday):

Anna: “I need to find a rock for my butt.”

Mark: “Don’t worry about the mountain lions, because they will eat me first.”

Anonymous: “I have to go and light up stall #4.”

Sheri: “I had the Nitty Gritty Band in my pants.”

Tanya: "If you're squeezing your cheeks, you better look for a hole."