Day 3

Day 3 – Sunday – August 10, 2008

PROLOGUE: I don't know when this will get posted; but I hope it will be posted by Wednesday. There are so many impressions that are coming at us. We don’t have ready internet access.

Today we were able to sleep in a bit and meet for breakfast at 8am. A fare of breakfast burritos and fruit was our send off to head to Managua to attend church at Guillermo's church. We were joined by another group from South Carolina who had arrived last night. The first part of the drive was what we were becoming accustomed to: lots of busses, foot traffic, motorcycles with multiple riders and co-riders. Arriving near the church we found the roads blocked due to a parade related to a holiday called Santa Domingo. Adrian commented that the area we were in was among the toughest and roughest barrios. In fact, we encountered a police action involving one of the two gangs located in the barrio. Again there was extreme poverty and extremely dirty conditions. After a round about route, we arrived at the church and were welcomed warmly.

The worship service was actually similar to our service with one exception: it was all in Spanish . There was full worship team with worship leader and the words for the songs was displayed on the overhead projector. Many of their songs were the praise songs that we sing and along wth the words it was fun worshipping in Spanish. There was a prayer time and those desiring prayer stood up as well as visitors. The sermon was translated by Guillermo. Two offerings then followed (one was for the church and one was for a person who had lost their business). Following the church service we headed back to the mission station where we encountered much more traffic and a significant detour.

Lunch was served (chicken & rice and salad) and Tim, Dwayne, Ethan, and Pastor Scott were taken to Masaya so Tim could use the internet cafe to post our blog. It was only fifty cents for ½ hour of time, but I gave the proprietor a dollar as it was worth it to me. Several others also took the opportunity to check/send email. Dwayne and Pastor Scott also were able to go to the bakery and purchase some more bread like what we gave away yesterday as well as visit a Catholic church. Arriving back at the mission station, we formed up our group to go out and visit a new missionary opportunity among a Contra group. The next section is not intended to be any form of political statement, but a recounting of the facts as I've learned them.

It seems as if about 16 years ago as part of the settlement between the Sandanistas and the Contra rebels , the Contras were promised land in exchange for laying down their arms. They laid down their arms and 16 years later, they don't have land and are eeking out a living (no electricity, or power equipment) in a cooperative just north of compound about 30 minutes. More on that later. In other words per Adrian, a forgotten people. We headed up there with a stop at a vegetable market to purchase some fruit (very tasty and amazing items and we'll see if if there are any ill effects of eating it. We then simply stopped the bus along side of the highway and assembled under a simple tin-roofed structure where Adrian introduced us and had one of the leaders give us a history lesson on how they came to be here. Dwayne was then able to preach a short salvation message using the just-distributed Gideon Bibles. It was very interesting to look around this small group of 35 or so men and see all sorts of different baseball caps (Braves, Yankees, etc. along with other commercial company logoed caps). Later I asked Adrian where they got them and he indicated that they probably came from thrift stores. The men were definitely a hardened lot, but they were extremely attentive to Adrian and his passionate speaking style. He definitely engaged them! We then passed out fruit first to the children, then to as many adults as possible.

While all this was happening a young boy was injured with a throat injury (he ran into a barbed wire fence). So Melissa was pressed into bandaging him up. We then took a short tour of the cooperative's grounds and saw the water well that they had hand dug some 30 feet deep with a hand powered pump. There were also a number of corrogated metal homes and the people freely shared them with us along with their baby chicks.

As follow-up, Adrian will be returning to this location and people for a bible study on Wednesdays. He believes that if 2 of the men will become believers, it will enfluence the whole community. He also challenged a few of us with the possibility of taking this small group on as both a prayer item and sharing of some basic material possessions with them. I also had the opportunity to address one of the leaders with words along the line of, “Because we were here, you are not forgotten.” To him who has been given much is much expected. We have a responsibility to care for the widows, orphans, the forgotten.

Arriving back at camp, we enjoyed the fellowship of a spaghetti meal with the other group and then practiced our VBS. Adrian has warned us that this week will be physically hard and to be prepared for it. Little did we know how prophetic that he was.

Day 2

Day 2 – Sat 8-9-09

I awakened at 5:30am and quietly left the room for a little devotional time in Galatians, John, and Psalms. I also read the first two chapters of John Eldridge's book, “Wild at Heart” which is targeted for men. Perhaps a little later I'll share some thoughts from what I'm gleaning from that book.

Coming over to the meeting hall, I met Adrian and we coordinated my teaching time which will be during the VBS time. He' pretty excited about our presence here. We'll still be working in LEON, however, we'll be commuting there. Another decision that we need to make is which church to go to (English or Spanish). It turned out that the team desires to participate in the Spanish service.

After a breakfast of rice & beans, eggs, and watermelon and pineapple, we headed on out to San Jose to work with a new church and the related children. On our way there in the town of Masaya, we stopped in a guitar store. It wasn't like any guitar store I had ever been at. They were actully MAKING the guitars by hand. The owner also permitted me to take pictures of the shop area with the most basic of power tools. According to the musicians in our group, the guitars were actually quite nice having been constructed from solid woods (no plywoods here!). Cost of the guitars? From $450 and up which isn't bad for a quality guitar. It was then quick stop at a bakery for some neat little cheese turnovers to be used with the kids later on.

Moving on toward our destination of San Jose (located about 10k off the “paved” road, Adrian drove the big Toyota van down a number of very rutted potentially slippery “roads” and picked up the local pastor and continued on down until we reached an especially slippery and rutted section. We disembarked the van and walked down the hill pas(t the severe ruts and rejjoined the bus (at least some of us did). By the way, all along this road we encountered people walking, animals, very skinny dogs, motorcyclists, trucks, 3 wheeled taxis, and the like. It was if we had stepped back in time and into another world. We had! It's under these kinds of conditions that a majority of the world lives It was also a time to pass out Gideon Bibles which Dwayne had brought. In fact we gave them out for as long as they held out.

Arriving at our destination for the little 4 month old church, we were greeted by Carla, owner of the home in which the church meets. Essentially the church “building” was a commercial Coca Cola tarp draped over a simple stick framework. Carla was most gracias and brought out chairs. The group divided itself up and went out into the local area to roust the children. Angela, Carol and I stayed behind and worked with the 15 or so kids who quickly came. Angela engaged them with questions about their names, ages, etc. They were extremely responsive and eventually the Pastor's wife showed up and began leading them in Bible songs, while all the while more kids kept coming. It was simply amazing to see children coming out of the jungle. Most were in the age 5 to 11. As the team re-assembled, Adrian let the kids in more songs and he was definitely engaging. Pastor Scott shared a few words and then called on Melissa to give her testimony which was translated by Adrian's daughter. Following this, everyone adjourned to the ball field and the kids thoroughly enjoyed kicking, hitting, and throwing an over-sized soccer ball around and playing with a bat and ball. It was fun for the team to participate with them and I know that Ethan definitely got a workout.

We then lined everyone up (girls first) and served them the turnovers, some juice, and pieces of hard candy. It was then, unfortunately, time to leave. On one hand it was gratifying to know that we brought some delight in some childrens' day, but sobering on the other hand to realize that our little time was probably the high point of their week.

It was a short drive into the town square of San Jose (not your mother's San Jose!), where we stopped for lunch that we had brought with us. There was a small garage sale going on and a bicycle vendor of ice cream (we did a lot to help his business day). Also there were what we were seeing more and more of: very skinny dogs and horses. There was even a fellow who came riding by on his cart carrying a rifle. All through lunch Adrian spoke with a young fellow about 11 or so. It turned out this fellow's father died not too long earlier and his mother ran off with another man leaving this young man to fiend for himself. Talk about a heart wrenching moment. We left him with some food and Adrian definitely shared the Good News with him,

Leaving San Jose, we were shortly back on pavement and then the calls for “Los Banos, por favor!” came ringing out. A bathroom break was in order and we stopped at a little gas station / mini-mart where we were beseeched by all kinds of vendors. I looked at a 4 pack of batteries but for over $14 I passed. Heading on, we stopped at the Masaya market where we were free to shop. Adrian alerted us to the helpful attendants who would guide us around the market for a nominal fee of $1 per person and they would carry everythingthat was purchased. Angela ended up purchasing a guitar, a hammock, a dress and some other small items. Others purchased items as' well. We'll have another shopping opportunity next Friday.

Leaving the market, it was a very short drive back to the mission station where a number took cold showers and rested for dinner.

Day 1

Day 1 Friday – 8/8

Our ministry trip began with our assembling at SeaTac Airport. Angela and I arrived first and then the rest of the group arrived. Unfortunately we had forgotten our Spanish texts, so our daughter made a special trip back to the airport with the care package. Thanks, Rebekah!

We took the obligatory departure photo (with the Hawaiian airlines plane as the backdrop and we were soon loaded for our 12:55am departure. The plane was totally full and partially into the flight, a baby near many of us started screaming and that continued for at least an hour. It turned out that the mother was deaf and couldn't hear it to be able to respond. Needlesstosay many of us didn't get much sleep on this leg of the trip to Houston. Arriving in Houston on schedule, we learned that our departure gate was in another terminal and that led to an elevated train ride. Arriving there and then walking the entire length of the terminal we had a couple of hours before our departure. Many took the opportunity to get a little breakfast. What was really interesting was the iPod vending machine! One could put in a credit card and just like buying a soda or candy, the machine would dispense the iPod of one's choice.

The second leg of the trip from Houston to Managua left on time and a little over 3 hour later we broke out of the clouds and could see Lake Managua and an active volcano. Our approach took us over the city and soon we were de-planing and headed for immigration where we all cleared with no problem.. It's $5 per person to enter the country. Then we headed to gather our checked baggage and for a bit there was a scare when Rachael couldn't find her bag. Eventually she found it and we also spotted Dwayne and Carol Markham outside of the glass windows. We cleared customs and all assembled outside of the secure area when we were greeted by two representatives of Chosen Children Ministries who had a bus to take us to the mission compound at Masaya. I turned on the GPS and SPOT tracker and hopefully a signal will get posted to the tracking location. It was about a 30 minute ride to the compound and we saw all sorts of sights that were uncommon to us includng very poor areas, donkey carts, pedicabs, very rugged streets, etc. Beyoond that, there's a beauty to this country and it's very very green. Given my personal interest in motorcycles, I saw a number of them and they looked to be 100 to 125 cc's in size. But that didn't stop the people from riding 3 or more people on the bikes. We also noted that the principal form of bus transportation used former US schoolbuses many of which were painted very colorfully.

Arriving at the compound we were greeted with lunch (baloney & cheese sandwiches) which acttually tasted good. Of course it was about 90 degrees F and we are all sweating in the heat and humidity. The grounds are quite lovely and we'll be divided into men and women in two dormitory rooms. We also learned that there is no internet connection so I don't know when I can post, so I'll do the blog off line and update it as I can. We also learned that the location in LEON is not available to us because of problems with power and water. So we'll be changing plan after we meet with Adrian, our local contact here.

Given that many didn't get much sleep, many elected to nap this afternoon while a small group of us took a walk up a dirt road behind the compound. Again, it's very poor and during the trip we were able to give away 10 New Testaments. Bernardo was able to help immensely in engaging the locals with questions. Below are some photos from our little walk.

We enjoyed a very nice and simple dinner of rice & beans and vegetables and shredded hamburger. Around that time, Adrian and Cheryl arrived and it was a good time seeing them again. We enjoyed some brief fellowship and gave Cheryl our gifts for the children.

After dinner we practiced our songs (sounded really good) and learned that we would be spending Saturday with Adrian in a new neighborhood playing with children and doing a little teaching.

It's good to be in country and we are anticipating seeing Adrian again and working to assist him.

I retired at around 8:45pm as I finally “hit the wall” with lack of sleep. I remember awakening around 12 midnight to the sound of Dwayne coming in. It took me a good long while to go back to sleep.

Trip Theme and Satellite Tracking

Greetings All:

Above is our theme from the t-shirts that the team will be wearing.

We are down to the night before we leave. For this trip we are going to try something new. I'll be bringing along SPOT which is a satellite tracking device. It will send a position report back to the following link.

SPOT LINK

Save the link and go visit it to see where we are (or have been). With the link you can view our location in Google Maps or Google Earth.

For more information about SPOT, go to http://www.findmespot.com.

Tim

This blog will document the Southcenter Community Baptist Church ministry trip to Nicaragua to work along side of a missionary that we have been supporting for a number of year. Subscribe to the blog and follow our small group of 13 as they head out very early on Friday morning.