Leaving Nicaragua--Henry's Post

I didn't think that I would fall in love with this place. These little kids just craved attention and were so sweet. Everyone here is just amazing. Leaving tomorow will probably be one of the hardest things that I'll ever have to do. On Thursday I was outside playing with some of the kiddos. One of them, whose nickname is "puerco" (little piggy) started chasing me around. Obviously I had to chase him down and tickle him, which is what he did to me the ENTIRE week. His laugh was one of the most precious things ever. His accomplice then decided to join him and I was tackled to the ground. I'm pretty sure I was covered from head to toe in dirt..as well as mosquitos. I also didn't notice that "puerco" was such a hefty little
thing. It was so much fun.
Well, I should probably end this post. Thank you all so much for praying!

My First Blog

There is no way I can begin to share this experience in a paragraph or two. God is at work. He is working in hearts of kids. He is touching moms and families. He is making his love and power known to this community. He is working within this team. God is at work in me. Thank you for your prayers. They are being answered in ways that are clear and obvious and in ways that are unseen but everlasting. Please continue to pray as God continues his work. Again, I find myself unable to condense, sort, organize or express all my thoughts and emotions briefly.

God is Good.
God is Love.
God is at Work.

AMEN

Richard

Smiling is the same in every language

Hello Everyone!! Well it was another amazing day here in Nicaragua yesterday. We all were pretty tired by the end of the day. We had a great day and yesterday two young men accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior. This morning we had three young men accept as well. It has been so great to see how much these young men have changed in such a short time. The kids have also picked up frisbee. They love to run around and throw it back and forth, especially now that they have the form down. They also think its funny to throw six at you at one time and run around to grab them. Also yesterday we had our Ladies Bible Study. It was such an amazing evening words can't describe. There are 20 women who come on a regular basis and they were challenged to each bring one friend. By the end of the night over 50 women had shown up! Terra was able to share her testimony with the women and she did an amazing job. The women were so glued to her story. After that we wanted to pamper and love on the women so we had set up tables and painted each of the women's nails. These women were so excited and beaming that we were taking time to paint their nails. It was a lot of fun but hard at times because of the language barrier. We have all learned how important hands and body language is. Well that was a bit from the day yesterday and some of the things I experienced. I hope everyone is doing well back home. Please continue to pray as tonight is our big presentation of all the work the kids have been doing on learning some new spanish and english songs.

God Bless.

Kaleigh



WHAT UP, AMIGOS & FAMILIA?!
Henry here! This is the first time that i've blogged since before I left for the trip. We have one computer here so time is usually limited..but that's okay. It's been nice to update facebook and send an email to my momma :) I've fallen completely in love with the people here. In the morning we have the kids up at the windows yelling, "Emily! Emily" in their precious accents. All you have to do is walk outside and your name will be shouted with much excitement. Everywhere we go you can be certain that you'll be greeted with a smile and an "hola!" Yesterday, I got to to into downtown Masatepe and bought some cake for our women's tea last night. I got to ride in this thing called a "motor taxi" and it was AWESOME!!! People do drive like crazy though...definitely not like suburbia KC (shout out!) There are so many things and experiences here that have been indescribable. It wouldn't be right to even try to type them. The moments and emotions are something that I'll treasure in my heart forever. God is very real and very powerful, no matter where you go. Whether it may be Anaheim, California, downtown KC, or a little village up in the mountains of Nicaragua, God is the same. God is very present in this town and it's such a cool thing. Hope you all are doing well. I must say the food here is definitely not Taco Bell. It's muy delicioso!
It's time to get my frisbee & plato, plato, ganzo (duck, duck, goose) on!
Henry

Red Lights are Optional

Hello everyone!! This is Kaleigh again. Well just letting you know that if you are not here on this trip you better plan on coming next time because it’s A-MAZING!! God is doing so many awesome things here, not only with getting things together but, in me as well. I can’t believe it is already Tuesday. Today I went into Managua to go shopping for supplies that we would need for our ladies tea (coffee). The ladies here in the community meet every Wednesday afternoon for a bible study, this week we are going to join and pamper the women. We have been working with the kids and rebuilding some homes that we wanted to make sure to make to get involved with the parents as well. Tomorrow we plan on painting nails and just making the women feel special. We also gathered a small gift for them of toothpaste, toothbrush, soap and some hair ties. I am very excited to interact with the women. Today I got to see some awesome sights and realized on the way home that I did have my camera in my purse. A little bummed but the bright side is we will be going on Friday so I can get pictures of them then. I was glad to just enjoy the moment and take time to realize where I am and what I am doing here. I got so see a volcano, a large statue of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, and a replica of the Mayan/Aztec temple. I was a little bit disappointed to see a McDonalds but I guess they are everywhere. Things I learned today: 1. Red lights are optional 2. We may see deer, raccoons, etc as road kill but here, dogs are the road kill 3. Honking means a number of things such as: move, hello or go. 4. Cars don’t watch out for you, you must watch out for them (or you may be the road kill). 5. Wal-mart is everywhere!! I thought those were pretty interesting. Well that was a lot of typing but that was a bit from my day. I hope everyone is doing well! Please continue to pray for everyone. Everyone is in good health and seems to be having an amazing time!!

In Full Swing

Hello Friends and Family,

Yesterday we jumped right into things. Richard safely made it here(big anwser to prayers and jumped into some gutter hanging. Henry woke up feeling sick and was the whole day. Kaleigh painted hundreds of pictures on faces. Katelin created it seemed a million balloon animal. Terra played hours of fresbee. I was able to do a little of everything and catch the rest on video. Today is much of the same but different activites and more and more children showing up all the time. Sometimes it hard to see how our Nicaragua amigos can be so happy with so little but they are. We are experiencing the joy of their simple lives and it is freeing in many ways. Our Hope team has had a lot of laughs and we love hanging out. The food contunues to be amazing- yeserday we had tostadas for lunch and carna asada for dinner with fresh avacados with lime. The people here are very friendly and continue to make us feel welcome. I finally had my first conversation with a girl in Spanish and only because it consisted of a few words and numbers I know. Hope to have another team member jump on today and let you know what they are thinking. By the way- Henry woke up feeling a lot better today and has been rough housing with the kids all day. Please pray for energy and patience as we continue to work with children. Love you all and thanks for being a part of our team.

Just Getting Our Feet Wet

It is hard to believe that we have already been here a day. The place we are staying is incredibly beautiful. It seems to rain on and off all day and night but I am not sure where all the water is going. We have had the chance to take the of Nicaragua and it is wonderful. We have had everything from chicken and beef to seafood. Most dishes contain rice and/r beans. It is differenct then Mexican food and the main bean they use is a small red bean. So far we have no clue what all the plans for the week are but we will be meeting with our team in a few hours to figure all that out. They just got in before lunch and have had little rest between Saturday and today. We have had a chance to visit a few homes in the neighborhood and have been welcomed with open arms. Life here is similar to most the world I guess- people have very little and make life work. Many homes here do not have good roofs and they must always be wrestling to keep things dry. We saw a new roof that the group before us put up last week and we may have a chance to finish the way this week. The plan for the week is to love on the kids in the community and hoping to do a tea for the ladies in the community. Please contiue to pray that God will show us what to do. A little worried that we will have trouble figuring out how to blend our teams together but God can work all that out. We offically hand our lead over to the Magnolia group today. We all seem to be taking things in stride and ahving fun. We went to church today and Katelin would fill us in on the sermon from time to time. Wonderful to see people worshiping God in a tongue you do not know but still clearly see that it is worship. Today is yet another reminder that our brothers and sisters around the world have so much to teach us in reguards to being grateful and joyful in all situations. Richard come in tonight- pray for his safe arrival and that he can quickly jump into things. Thanks again for the many prayers- love you all.
Chris

Hello from Nicaragua!

Hello from Nicaragua! Let me start by saying that this is Katelin typing to you from a computer that has several keys that either don't work at all or don't type consistently, so I apologize in advance for any misspellings or lack of punctuation. (Chris was able to email me Katelin's blog post so I could add in the missing H's and periods for you! ~Stefanie)

Today was spent as a somewhat relaxing day after arriving in Managua in the early afternoon. We ate a wonderful lunch with Pastor Rolando and then headed into Masatepe.

Let me tell you a little about my journey to get here. A few months ago, my dad called me up to let me know of an opportunity to join a group from our church on a mission trip to Nicaragua. Almost immediately I was on board and working on the details of getting to where I am today. My biggest concern, probably not surprisingly, was how to raise the funds as many of my contacts, while all being wonderful people, are not those who tend to have a lot of extra cash lying around. Looking back, God was revealing to me from the very beginning that I was going to have to learn to trust him. Each day since then, He's shown me more and more areas in my life that I need to surrender and trust in him, from my job search to my relationships, and definitely on this trip.

The week leading up to this for me was no more busy than normal, but considerably more taxing emotionally as I was faced with things in my personal life that I never had expected. In the background, I could almost hear God calling me to trust in Him and His plan for everything that was happening. I arrived at the airport this morning with a sense of peace about where we were going and what we would do while here. Now, I just get to trust that what we are doing here God will use in incredible ways, even if we're not around to see the results.

Please pray for the safe arrival of my dad tomorrow as he flies down to meet up with the rest of us from HFC, but also for the safe arrival of the team from California. Continue to pray for our health and safety on the trip as well.