So sad to be saying we left Managua early this morning.. but happy to say we had a very great flight to Atlanta and we are currently waiting for our connecting flight to Indy. We want to personally thank all of those at home who have been praying for us and our trip to go successfully. Our trip couldn't have been better. We had wonderful weather, the best company, and the greatest hospitality.
We met some of the greatest people in the world, filled with God's love and who truly had servant's hearts. We will miss everybody so much, but if we didn't come back home and share what we have learned, what would the trip really be for? Personal gratification?
God wants us to learn from our trip and bring home to Indiana with us. The thing that we learned the most and want to immitate most is God's love. The people we worked with had so much love for us, yet we had just met them. They also had so much faith in the Lord, and they all were in very extreme cases of poverty. We have so much, all of us, back home. We have beautiful homes, shoes, clothes, and we never go hungry, yet we still think we need more, still worry about seemingly insignificant things. We are so richly blessed beyond words by God. He has provided us with so many talents and so many resources. They aren't ours. They are God's.
Our challenge for ourselves and for you all at home that have kept up with our blog and our trip is to think about all that God has truly blessed you with. Give thanks to Him and listen to the calling He has for your life and what He wants you to do with those riches He has blessed you with. We are all called to love like Jesus. What does that really mean and more importantly what does that really look like?
The sense of community the people of Nicaragua possess is unreal, unlike any other that we have been a part of before. Nobody cared about what clothes we were wearing, how our hair or makeup looked, if we smelled or not, what shoes we were wearing. Our personalities and hearts were what they were most concerned about. We were offered the best seats in the house, offered the best things they could give us. They wanted us to know how appreciative they were that we were there helping, building, working along side of them. A overturned bucket might have been the best chair in the house, but it was always offered to one of us. A homemade ring or bracelet might have been the best gift they could have given us, and it was offered to us. Remembe what you have to share, what you have to offer somebody, even a stranger?
Where has our sense of community gone to? Why are we so close off, so private, so uninviting to people we do not know? Aren't we all children of God?
Thanks again for all the support and prayers. We love you and are excited to share our stories, our pictures, and our changed hearts with you.
With much love and many blessings,
Your Northview West Lafayette Nicaragua Go Team :)
Stay tuned for pictures :)
Monday, July 2, 2012
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Sunday... Fun day to wrap up the week!
Sunday-- July 1, 2012
Man, has the week sure flown by :( I have been having so much fun writing and keeping everybody up with what we are doing back home with this blog! I am so sad to be writing the last blog I will be posting here in Nicaragua. What an amazing, awe inspiring experience it has been for me personally and the entire team.
Today we had another great breakfast and an awesome devotional team! We worshiped and praised God with some songs this morning. We also went around the circle and told what we would miss most about Nicaragua and what we are looking forward to most going back home. It got very emotional this morning. Everybody shed a few tears or at least got tears in their eyes as we went through what we would miss. We have really made such wonderful relationships with the people we have worked with.
We prayed as a group for the many new friends we made along with the college students we met last night. We prayed for a very special little boy named Nathaniel that goes to one of the schools that NRN works with. He is a 7th grader and is having surgery on a large mass in his cheek this Tuesday. Please keep him in your prayers!
We had our free day today and we loaded lunches onto the bus and headed to the largest outdoor market in Central America in Granada. We had so much fun buying things and spending time with our translators Aaron and Juan Carlos. We then road up to the top of the mountain to look over onto Lake Nicaragua! We even got to see the Volcano! We dealt with lots of rain today, but it didn't dampen our spirits. We had many laughing episodes on the bus rides, and we even ended up eating lunch on the bus due to the rain! We still had a wonderful time though. We headed down to Granada into the city square and toured a Cathedral there that is very well known. Granada was very beautiful. We even got to take a boat ride to look at many of the islands that have been formed by the volcano! We saw monkey island and the whole day was just a lot of fun.
We had dinner all together as team with Henry, our bus driver, and Aaron and Juan Carlos. We just had a wonderful fun filled day strengthening our relationships and laughing together. Bus rides were filled with laughter and singing!
Tomorrow will be a long day! We have to leave the La Quinta by 4:30! Thank you for all the prayers! God has been present every day here and has been moving in all of our hearts! I will post once we get to Atlanta! Please keep checking the blog for pictures of our amazing trip!!
Love you all and sending love to all our Nicaragua friends as we leave them tomorrow!!
Man, has the week sure flown by :( I have been having so much fun writing and keeping everybody up with what we are doing back home with this blog! I am so sad to be writing the last blog I will be posting here in Nicaragua. What an amazing, awe inspiring experience it has been for me personally and the entire team.
Today we had another great breakfast and an awesome devotional team! We worshiped and praised God with some songs this morning. We also went around the circle and told what we would miss most about Nicaragua and what we are looking forward to most going back home. It got very emotional this morning. Everybody shed a few tears or at least got tears in their eyes as we went through what we would miss. We have really made such wonderful relationships with the people we have worked with.
We prayed as a group for the many new friends we made along with the college students we met last night. We prayed for a very special little boy named Nathaniel that goes to one of the schools that NRN works with. He is a 7th grader and is having surgery on a large mass in his cheek this Tuesday. Please keep him in your prayers!
We had our free day today and we loaded lunches onto the bus and headed to the largest outdoor market in Central America in Granada. We had so much fun buying things and spending time with our translators Aaron and Juan Carlos. We then road up to the top of the mountain to look over onto Lake Nicaragua! We even got to see the Volcano! We dealt with lots of rain today, but it didn't dampen our spirits. We had many laughing episodes on the bus rides, and we even ended up eating lunch on the bus due to the rain! We still had a wonderful time though. We headed down to Granada into the city square and toured a Cathedral there that is very well known. Granada was very beautiful. We even got to take a boat ride to look at many of the islands that have been formed by the volcano! We saw monkey island and the whole day was just a lot of fun.
We had dinner all together as team with Henry, our bus driver, and Aaron and Juan Carlos. We just had a wonderful fun filled day strengthening our relationships and laughing together. Bus rides were filled with laughter and singing!
Tomorrow will be a long day! We have to leave the La Quinta by 4:30! Thank you for all the prayers! God has been present every day here and has been moving in all of our hearts! I will post once we get to Atlanta! Please keep checking the blog for pictures of our amazing trip!!
Love you all and sending love to all our Nicaragua friends as we leave them tomorrow!!
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Work done well :)
Saturday-- June 30, 2012 Time: 9:00pm
Hola Amigas!! :) Como estas?
Today our team got to finish the task at hand.. and finish it well!! :) Today was our last day to be working with Felix, Yadar, and Manuel on Aarron's house, specifically his sister, Carmen's room.
We had another great breakfast, yes I know we are enjoying the food ALL TOO WELL. No surprise there for anybody who knows the Raub family well.
We didn't have to pack lunches either today, because we actually went out to lunch as a team which was really cool. Instead we packed up buckets filled with snacks to share with all the little children and family that we were with all week. Last night all of us team members also went through our suitcases and rounded up as many articles of clothing as we could to give to the new friends we have been with all week at Aaron's house. We wanted to make it even so some team members spent some time today on the bus sorting through our stuff and making piles for our new friends to give.
Back home, I had the job of picking out 10 female and 10 male gifts to buy for the people who made our trip go so smoothly. We decided we wanted to give some of those gifts to the floorman and his crew, Yadar, Felix, and Manuel. We also wanted to give some gifts to the women; Carmen, Haycel, and 2 other women of Aaron's family.
Before gift giving and goodbyes though, we got to actually all work as a team to make Nicaraguan cement and lay the floor of the room. We had a few minor set backs, the first being finding out massive red ants had built tunnels underneath the ground. We had to flush them out, killing them by drowning them with the hose going through their tunnels. Next the floor needed to be made level. It was interesting to see how the floorman Yadar, and his crew were able to make sure it was all level by using the water level in a house and pieces of chalk and string to mark on the walls.
The whole floor laying was a process. The first step is making the cement. Most normal sized batches were 5 buckets of sand, 2 1/2 buckets of rock, and one bag of cement. We all learned how to turn the cement dry. This needed to be done twice. It needed to go from looking like an oreo to being a complete blended mixture of one color. Next, you make a big ring with the mixiture so the water has a hole to go in in the middle. Next a few buckets of water are poured in the middle and then team members used shovels to turn the mixture and sprinkle it over the top until you form a volcano. The volcano then eventually errupts, essentially having the water leak out and the rest is history with shovels flying everywhere making sure everything got mixed quickly. We have obviously been making this all week, but today we had to make lots of it and lots of it quick. We worked in teams some of loaded up buckets and making the dry mixture, some mixing with water and making it into cement, and then some loading wheelbarrels and pouring and leveling onto the floor.
The Roswarski family also got to meet Leno's family and talk about sending him to private school and being his sponsor. We heard a very moving and powerful story about the daily struggles of the family and how Leno lives day to day. Leno is a special friend that has been coming help our crew just out of the pure joy and kindness of his heart. We learned alot about what being a servant really means by watching him and interacting with him all week. His smile was truly contagious. I even made a personal handshake up with him as the week progressed. Leno just has a special way about him, putting everybody else's needs in front of his own.
The team also delivered the last of our food bags, going to Lenos house, meeting with two sisters and giving them 2 bags and praying over them, and also giving a few bags to Aaron's family members. We got to go out to lunch today eating at a place called Pupusas. We had a very interesting dish of corn tortillas stuffed with chicken and cheese with a special sauce and slaw to go over top of them. It was delicious. We had a wonderful time laughing and visiting as a team.
After lunch, we headed back to the worksite and finished laying the floor. During this time, we took people one at a time onto the bus to give them our gifts we got them and tell them how much we enjoyed spending the week with them. It truly is a wonderful blessing to be able to give the resources God has provided for us to give. The afternoon was filled with all smiles, laughter, and pure joy.
Leaving was very difficult. Goodbyes are never easy. The week has been so much fun, learning and working through language barriers. Personalities have come out over the course of the week and I felt like everybody was truly coming out and coming together just in the last two days. The last thing we wanted to do was say goodbye. Tears were shed and many hugs were given. I am actually even teary eyed writing this thinking about my new friends. We learned so many wonderful things from these amazing people we worked so closely with all week. Despite the language barrier, we learned how to really listen to each other. We used other avenues to learn and understand one another.
Yes, it would have been easier if we all had spoken the same language, but you know what, I believe we became just as close, or even closer to one another when the week was all said and done. I also truly believe we all would do anything for each other and we were complete strangers just a few days ago. So many acts of kindess were shown by both parties, our team and the Nicaraguans we learned from and grew to honestly love.
I can say God's love poured out from each and every person at the worksite today. We worked together, cried together, we even stunk together. All of us were dripping sweat everyday, but that didn't matter at all. We all hugged on each other everyday, despite our wet t-shirts.
We said tearful goodbyes, took group photos, and loaded the bus to head back to the Quinta. The other Northview team actually had college students come and eat dinner at the Quinta with us. We ate dinner and then all met on the porch to listen to their stories about going to college and being sponsored by either NRN or personal sponsors. We heard about their struggles, their fears, and their testimonies. It was truly wonderful to hear the hearts of these students. One student even made a comment about how sponsors are like Santa Clause to them. Everybody loves Santa, but not everbody sees him! My eyes were teary as they told me what their sponsors meant to them and how blessed they were that God provided for them through their sponsors.
We prayed together for the beautiful, driven group of young University students. :) One student even makes jewelry and brought along some of her work to sell to the ladies staying at the La Quinta and to take back and sell to Northview Carmel members. Some of us bought some things to bring home.
We are so excited to see the work God is doing in Nicaragua and specifically in the people's lives we have personally seen. We also are so blessed to see the work He is doing in our team members lives.
Tomorrow is our last full day in Managua. Excited to post about our fun adventures to the market, Lake Managua, and the volcano!! :)
God bless.. Till tomorrow or Monday depending on when I get to wifi :)
Hola Amigas!! :) Como estas?
Today our team got to finish the task at hand.. and finish it well!! :) Today was our last day to be working with Felix, Yadar, and Manuel on Aarron's house, specifically his sister, Carmen's room.
We had another great breakfast, yes I know we are enjoying the food ALL TOO WELL. No surprise there for anybody who knows the Raub family well.
We didn't have to pack lunches either today, because we actually went out to lunch as a team which was really cool. Instead we packed up buckets filled with snacks to share with all the little children and family that we were with all week. Last night all of us team members also went through our suitcases and rounded up as many articles of clothing as we could to give to the new friends we have been with all week at Aaron's house. We wanted to make it even so some team members spent some time today on the bus sorting through our stuff and making piles for our new friends to give.
Back home, I had the job of picking out 10 female and 10 male gifts to buy for the people who made our trip go so smoothly. We decided we wanted to give some of those gifts to the floorman and his crew, Yadar, Felix, and Manuel. We also wanted to give some gifts to the women; Carmen, Haycel, and 2 other women of Aaron's family.
Before gift giving and goodbyes though, we got to actually all work as a team to make Nicaraguan cement and lay the floor of the room. We had a few minor set backs, the first being finding out massive red ants had built tunnels underneath the ground. We had to flush them out, killing them by drowning them with the hose going through their tunnels. Next the floor needed to be made level. It was interesting to see how the floorman Yadar, and his crew were able to make sure it was all level by using the water level in a house and pieces of chalk and string to mark on the walls.
The whole floor laying was a process. The first step is making the cement. Most normal sized batches were 5 buckets of sand, 2 1/2 buckets of rock, and one bag of cement. We all learned how to turn the cement dry. This needed to be done twice. It needed to go from looking like an oreo to being a complete blended mixture of one color. Next, you make a big ring with the mixiture so the water has a hole to go in in the middle. Next a few buckets of water are poured in the middle and then team members used shovels to turn the mixture and sprinkle it over the top until you form a volcano. The volcano then eventually errupts, essentially having the water leak out and the rest is history with shovels flying everywhere making sure everything got mixed quickly. We have obviously been making this all week, but today we had to make lots of it and lots of it quick. We worked in teams some of loaded up buckets and making the dry mixture, some mixing with water and making it into cement, and then some loading wheelbarrels and pouring and leveling onto the floor.
The Roswarski family also got to meet Leno's family and talk about sending him to private school and being his sponsor. We heard a very moving and powerful story about the daily struggles of the family and how Leno lives day to day. Leno is a special friend that has been coming help our crew just out of the pure joy and kindness of his heart. We learned alot about what being a servant really means by watching him and interacting with him all week. His smile was truly contagious. I even made a personal handshake up with him as the week progressed. Leno just has a special way about him, putting everybody else's needs in front of his own.
The team also delivered the last of our food bags, going to Lenos house, meeting with two sisters and giving them 2 bags and praying over them, and also giving a few bags to Aaron's family members. We got to go out to lunch today eating at a place called Pupusas. We had a very interesting dish of corn tortillas stuffed with chicken and cheese with a special sauce and slaw to go over top of them. It was delicious. We had a wonderful time laughing and visiting as a team.
After lunch, we headed back to the worksite and finished laying the floor. During this time, we took people one at a time onto the bus to give them our gifts we got them and tell them how much we enjoyed spending the week with them. It truly is a wonderful blessing to be able to give the resources God has provided for us to give. The afternoon was filled with all smiles, laughter, and pure joy.
Leaving was very difficult. Goodbyes are never easy. The week has been so much fun, learning and working through language barriers. Personalities have come out over the course of the week and I felt like everybody was truly coming out and coming together just in the last two days. The last thing we wanted to do was say goodbye. Tears were shed and many hugs were given. I am actually even teary eyed writing this thinking about my new friends. We learned so many wonderful things from these amazing people we worked so closely with all week. Despite the language barrier, we learned how to really listen to each other. We used other avenues to learn and understand one another.
Yes, it would have been easier if we all had spoken the same language, but you know what, I believe we became just as close, or even closer to one another when the week was all said and done. I also truly believe we all would do anything for each other and we were complete strangers just a few days ago. So many acts of kindess were shown by both parties, our team and the Nicaraguans we learned from and grew to honestly love.
I can say God's love poured out from each and every person at the worksite today. We worked together, cried together, we even stunk together. All of us were dripping sweat everyday, but that didn't matter at all. We all hugged on each other everyday, despite our wet t-shirts.
We said tearful goodbyes, took group photos, and loaded the bus to head back to the Quinta. The other Northview team actually had college students come and eat dinner at the Quinta with us. We ate dinner and then all met on the porch to listen to their stories about going to college and being sponsored by either NRN or personal sponsors. We heard about their struggles, their fears, and their testimonies. It was truly wonderful to hear the hearts of these students. One student even made a comment about how sponsors are like Santa Clause to them. Everybody loves Santa, but not everbody sees him! My eyes were teary as they told me what their sponsors meant to them and how blessed they were that God provided for them through their sponsors.
We prayed together for the beautiful, driven group of young University students. :) One student even makes jewelry and brought along some of her work to sell to the ladies staying at the La Quinta and to take back and sell to Northview Carmel members. Some of us bought some things to bring home.
We are so excited to see the work God is doing in Nicaragua and specifically in the people's lives we have personally seen. We also are so blessed to see the work He is doing in our team members lives.
Tomorrow is our last full day in Managua. Excited to post about our fun adventures to the market, Lake Managua, and the volcano!! :)
God bless.. Till tomorrow or Monday depending on when I get to wifi :)
Friday, June 29, 2012
HOW IS IT FRIDAY!!!!!!! :(
Friday, WHAT! June 29, 2012
Well as you can probably guess by now, breakfast was amazing again! Today we were surprised with this amazing oatmeal spiced cake that you poured milk over and crumbled and melted in your melt. Also, FYI, no spell check and I am writing these quickly and on a whim amongst many team members and new friends. No judging please :)
Today was a very special day for us. This was the first day we did not go to Aaron's house and work at the job site. We actually got to go out with the Carmel Northview team and go over an hour away, to a remote village in the beautiful mountains and country side to a village of people that have a profound belief and strong faith in God. We got to meet Pastor Renna, who started a church out there and works closely with NRN. We loaded the bus this morning with huge bags of shoes, clothes, and our food bags we put together as a team last night! We packed up buckets of lunches for us to eat out at the village too. It was really great to have the other Northview team working together with us.
Pastor Renna and her daughter came out to greet us a little ways from where the village and church were. They both were all smiles and happy to welcome us to their home and to their church. As the bus pulled up the church, many children greeted us with eager waves and wonderful smiles across their faces!
What was so wonderful was how we all met outside the church- maybe 100 people from the village and 20 people working with NRN and northview. We all held hands together, Dave led us in a prayer and we all introduced ourselves to the village as Aaron translated for us.
It just was such a God moment, seeing the different cultures blend into one, with the center being our Heavenly Father. It didn't matter we looked and talked different from one another. We were all children of God in that circle today and it was just so moving and touching. It was truly a beautiful moment for me and the rest of the team.
We then got organized inside the church, setting up a system. Previously we had organized all the shoes into boy, girl, men, and women sizes. We lined them up in different areas of the church, as well as, sorting all the clothes into different sizes and genders.
Ginny and Hannah worked together to bring one family in at a time to a different prayer and fitter group. We had 3 groups working at a time. A group consisted of people who fit the shoes on the feet of the people and a translator. We had runners looking for specific shoe sizes and bringing them to the fitter.
I had the honor of being a fitter, being able to kneel down and take the shoes of their fit and putting on a new pair. The children were so bright eyed. They just loved their new shoes. We also were able to give them clothing if we had their sizes, along with a food bag we prepared in advance for each family.
We also were able to pray over them and with them. Translators were able to ask what they would like us to pray for and it was just so wonderful to be able to embrace one another and pray as a unit.
Sometimes we prayed in english, sometimes translators just prayed in Spanish, other times translators would actually translate our prayers, and other times we would pray "Nica Style" where everybody in the circle prays outloud and says whatever the Lord calls them to say.
Words can't begin to describe today. God was just so powerful. Here was a village that had hardly anything, in the middle of the mountains, filled with the most loving and faithful Chrisitan community. What a wonderful experience and gift God gave us today. Over and over again I heard the people of the village say their prayers had been answered by us being there.
We then ate lunch and backed up the bus again. Our team got to see Lake Managua, along with the City Plaza that had an Old Cathedral that had withstood the Revolutionary War. Aaron and Juan Carlos showed us around. We had alittle bit of fun time taking silly pictures.. stay tuned for Dave and Aaron's fabulous photo shoot :) haha
We then headed back to the Quinta, had another wonderful meal, and had over an hour debriefing with the other team, sharing our favorite parts of our days, talking about how God was working within us and around us, and what we could do to change our lifestyle and actions when we come back home.
God calls us all to love, and we have been so blessed with so many resources the rest of the world barely sees. We must be aware of what we have been given, and share with the rest of our community. We talked about how our West Lafayette campus has nothing to worry about when it comes to a new building. We have been apart of two churches here, who have far less than what we can even begin to describe, yet God is working and providing amongst their church members and within their church.
God will provide, as long as we believe and trust in Him fully. It has been so wonderful to see such strong faiths in the people of Nicaragua.
We must never lose sight, no matter how grim a situation may look, because with Jesus, we ALWAYS have hope.
We are missing you all and thinking and praying for you daily.
Blessings. :)
Well as you can probably guess by now, breakfast was amazing again! Today we were surprised with this amazing oatmeal spiced cake that you poured milk over and crumbled and melted in your melt. Also, FYI, no spell check and I am writing these quickly and on a whim amongst many team members and new friends. No judging please :)
Today was a very special day for us. This was the first day we did not go to Aaron's house and work at the job site. We actually got to go out with the Carmel Northview team and go over an hour away, to a remote village in the beautiful mountains and country side to a village of people that have a profound belief and strong faith in God. We got to meet Pastor Renna, who started a church out there and works closely with NRN. We loaded the bus this morning with huge bags of shoes, clothes, and our food bags we put together as a team last night! We packed up buckets of lunches for us to eat out at the village too. It was really great to have the other Northview team working together with us.
Pastor Renna and her daughter came out to greet us a little ways from where the village and church were. They both were all smiles and happy to welcome us to their home and to their church. As the bus pulled up the church, many children greeted us with eager waves and wonderful smiles across their faces!
What was so wonderful was how we all met outside the church- maybe 100 people from the village and 20 people working with NRN and northview. We all held hands together, Dave led us in a prayer and we all introduced ourselves to the village as Aaron translated for us.
It just was such a God moment, seeing the different cultures blend into one, with the center being our Heavenly Father. It didn't matter we looked and talked different from one another. We were all children of God in that circle today and it was just so moving and touching. It was truly a beautiful moment for me and the rest of the team.
We then got organized inside the church, setting up a system. Previously we had organized all the shoes into boy, girl, men, and women sizes. We lined them up in different areas of the church, as well as, sorting all the clothes into different sizes and genders.
Ginny and Hannah worked together to bring one family in at a time to a different prayer and fitter group. We had 3 groups working at a time. A group consisted of people who fit the shoes on the feet of the people and a translator. We had runners looking for specific shoe sizes and bringing them to the fitter.
I had the honor of being a fitter, being able to kneel down and take the shoes of their fit and putting on a new pair. The children were so bright eyed. They just loved their new shoes. We also were able to give them clothing if we had their sizes, along with a food bag we prepared in advance for each family.
We also were able to pray over them and with them. Translators were able to ask what they would like us to pray for and it was just so wonderful to be able to embrace one another and pray as a unit.
Sometimes we prayed in english, sometimes translators just prayed in Spanish, other times translators would actually translate our prayers, and other times we would pray "Nica Style" where everybody in the circle prays outloud and says whatever the Lord calls them to say.
Words can't begin to describe today. God was just so powerful. Here was a village that had hardly anything, in the middle of the mountains, filled with the most loving and faithful Chrisitan community. What a wonderful experience and gift God gave us today. Over and over again I heard the people of the village say their prayers had been answered by us being there.
We then ate lunch and backed up the bus again. Our team got to see Lake Managua, along with the City Plaza that had an Old Cathedral that had withstood the Revolutionary War. Aaron and Juan Carlos showed us around. We had alittle bit of fun time taking silly pictures.. stay tuned for Dave and Aaron's fabulous photo shoot :) haha
We then headed back to the Quinta, had another wonderful meal, and had over an hour debriefing with the other team, sharing our favorite parts of our days, talking about how God was working within us and around us, and what we could do to change our lifestyle and actions when we come back home.
God calls us all to love, and we have been so blessed with so many resources the rest of the world barely sees. We must be aware of what we have been given, and share with the rest of our community. We talked about how our West Lafayette campus has nothing to worry about when it comes to a new building. We have been apart of two churches here, who have far less than what we can even begin to describe, yet God is working and providing amongst their church members and within their church.
God will provide, as long as we believe and trust in Him fully. It has been so wonderful to see such strong faiths in the people of Nicaragua.
We must never lose sight, no matter how grim a situation may look, because with Jesus, we ALWAYS have hope.
We are missing you all and thinking and praying for you daily.
Blessings. :)
Thursday-- the days keep getting better and better!
Thursday-- June 28, 2012
Today was yet another amazing day! God is working through so many wonderful people and churchs down here! He keeps showing us and over and over how no matter what culture or what language you speak, we all serve the same God, a great God, and we are so SO profoundly blessed by his mercy and grace.
God has brought so much laughter in and amongst our team and the people we are encoutering and spending our days with.
The cooks made a wonderful breakfast again for us-- cheesey eggs, salsas, pineapple, watermelon and yummy orange juice! It is so neat in the mornings because we not only get to eat with our team, but we get to eat with the other teams as well and really share and get to know one another to start out our day. Steve and Garrett led us in worship again and Garrett also led our devotional, coming from the book of Joshua.
We loaded up the bus and headed to Aaron's house to work more on the worksite. A few new kids were there today, helping us along the way working. It was so wonderful to see their personalities come out today. The sister, Carmen, who we are building the room for, is a bit more on the shy side, as well as most of her children too. It was wonderful to those kids who have been so shy, come alive and really come out of their shell today.
The Raub's got to go meet their sponsor children. Mary, Scot, and Maribeth sponsored 2 children: Osmara, a second grade girl at Belzar's school, one of NRN's schools they work closely with, and Jeremias, a preschooler also at Belzar's school. Meghann also sponsored her own child, Moises, a third grader at the same school. A few other members on the Carmel team with the help of Hannah and Ginny Campbell rounded up around 10 sponsored children to go out to lunch at McDonalds.
What really touched my heart was seeing how truly excited these children were just to go to McDonalds, when most of us have gone a thousand times it seems.
My little guy, Moises, really touched my heart to the core. The day before yesterday, he was working through an exercise with one of the other teams, writing down a list of characterics and likes and dislikes along with what he would want to tell his sponsor if he had one. His response was, "I hope you are doing well. I am praying for and I hope you are having a wonderful time with the ones you love."
I found out that the kids had been making fun of him at school, because he didn't wear socks. Moises didn't own any socks until today when I brought him some. His response to the kids was, " I don't need socks, its too hot."
Moises, along with Osmara, were smiling ear to ear, along with the other kids. Every night when we come back from our day, we debrief as a team and go around the circle and say our favorite part of the day. Mine was the following:
We got to McDonalds and Moises eyes were opened so wide. Juan Carlos, one of our main translators, was working with me to figure out what exactly Moises wanted to order. Not ever being there, he looks up at the menu and there is a giant triple cheeseburger value meal picture right in front of his big brown eyes. He turned and looked at Juan Carlos and said, "I want that! That BIG burger!!" Juan Carlos looked at me laughing saying, " He wants the triple!" We both started dying laughing and later persuaded him to go with the happy meal and if he was still hungry after finishing we could go back later to get more food.
As I sat with my family eating with our children, I was just so in awe of these children. They were giving me more than I was giving them. We are all so wonderfully blessed, so profoundly rich in so many resources. All the children got to play in the indoor playground! I even got in on the action! I was touched by the children's pure joy and love.
What gets me the most was meeting this child, this child that I had never met before, and falling in love with him instantly. I am not a mother, I do not have children of my own, but I am proud to say I have a little boy who needs me and loves me so much. I have given him hope through God's blessing and resources he has given me. I am the vessel and I am beyond excited to see what God has in store not only for Moises, but for my parents children and for the other sponsored children that go to the Christian schools.
With our help, these children's futures can be forever changed.
Saying goodbye was one of the hardest things I have had to do. I didn't want him to leave. My family had such a wonderful special moment, crying and hugging together, praying to God for our children as their bus left the parking lot to go home.
The team got so much progess down on Carmen's room today. We almosy finished the walls, and started actually digging to make the floor even! We headed back to the La Quinta, where we had another fantastic dinner, Dave's favorite actually which was steak with an amazing sauce, mashed potatoes, and salad. Let me tell you we are not suffering for good food by any means.
After dinner, we got to go to Pastor Oscar's church. What an amazing testimony and passion for Christ her has. We were welcomed by the church, singing and worshiping together! Some of the songs we even knew singing them in english right along side the rest of the congregation.
When I say the Holy Spirit was present, I mean He was profoundly present at the church. We truly witnessed miracles happen right before our eyes as people came forward and gave their lives to Christ for the very first time. It didn't matter that we didn't know all the words. We could see with our eyes wide open that God was working in BIG ways in and among the people at the church tonight. After the service was over, many of the people came up to us hugging and thanking us for being there. What a warm and welcoming feeling it was to have so many people come up to us and accept us for who we are: brothers and sisters in Christ.
We got back to the Quinta and put our food bags together, loading up different staple foods into bags to delived to homes tomoAftrrow. Rice, beans, sugar, salt, laundry soap, toilet paper, cookies, and oill were in the bags. We made 33 different bags to give to families for tomorrow.
Along with the food distribution we are fitting shoes to men, women, and children of all ages in a village about an hour away in the country side from the La Quinta. It will be such a blessing to do this for a church village that has very little. Our team is super excited for tomorrow!
Thank you for all the wonderful prayers! Keep them coming please!
We are ALL SMILES!!! :)
We love you all so much!
Today was yet another amazing day! God is working through so many wonderful people and churchs down here! He keeps showing us and over and over how no matter what culture or what language you speak, we all serve the same God, a great God, and we are so SO profoundly blessed by his mercy and grace.
God has brought so much laughter in and amongst our team and the people we are encoutering and spending our days with.
The cooks made a wonderful breakfast again for us-- cheesey eggs, salsas, pineapple, watermelon and yummy orange juice! It is so neat in the mornings because we not only get to eat with our team, but we get to eat with the other teams as well and really share and get to know one another to start out our day. Steve and Garrett led us in worship again and Garrett also led our devotional, coming from the book of Joshua.
We loaded up the bus and headed to Aaron's house to work more on the worksite. A few new kids were there today, helping us along the way working. It was so wonderful to see their personalities come out today. The sister, Carmen, who we are building the room for, is a bit more on the shy side, as well as most of her children too. It was wonderful to those kids who have been so shy, come alive and really come out of their shell today.
The Raub's got to go meet their sponsor children. Mary, Scot, and Maribeth sponsored 2 children: Osmara, a second grade girl at Belzar's school, one of NRN's schools they work closely with, and Jeremias, a preschooler also at Belzar's school. Meghann also sponsored her own child, Moises, a third grader at the same school. A few other members on the Carmel team with the help of Hannah and Ginny Campbell rounded up around 10 sponsored children to go out to lunch at McDonalds.
What really touched my heart was seeing how truly excited these children were just to go to McDonalds, when most of us have gone a thousand times it seems.
My little guy, Moises, really touched my heart to the core. The day before yesterday, he was working through an exercise with one of the other teams, writing down a list of characterics and likes and dislikes along with what he would want to tell his sponsor if he had one. His response was, "I hope you are doing well. I am praying for and I hope you are having a wonderful time with the ones you love."
I found out that the kids had been making fun of him at school, because he didn't wear socks. Moises didn't own any socks until today when I brought him some. His response to the kids was, " I don't need socks, its too hot."
Moises, along with Osmara, were smiling ear to ear, along with the other kids. Every night when we come back from our day, we debrief as a team and go around the circle and say our favorite part of the day. Mine was the following:
We got to McDonalds and Moises eyes were opened so wide. Juan Carlos, one of our main translators, was working with me to figure out what exactly Moises wanted to order. Not ever being there, he looks up at the menu and there is a giant triple cheeseburger value meal picture right in front of his big brown eyes. He turned and looked at Juan Carlos and said, "I want that! That BIG burger!!" Juan Carlos looked at me laughing saying, " He wants the triple!" We both started dying laughing and later persuaded him to go with the happy meal and if he was still hungry after finishing we could go back later to get more food.
As I sat with my family eating with our children, I was just so in awe of these children. They were giving me more than I was giving them. We are all so wonderfully blessed, so profoundly rich in so many resources. All the children got to play in the indoor playground! I even got in on the action! I was touched by the children's pure joy and love.
What gets me the most was meeting this child, this child that I had never met before, and falling in love with him instantly. I am not a mother, I do not have children of my own, but I am proud to say I have a little boy who needs me and loves me so much. I have given him hope through God's blessing and resources he has given me. I am the vessel and I am beyond excited to see what God has in store not only for Moises, but for my parents children and for the other sponsored children that go to the Christian schools.
With our help, these children's futures can be forever changed.
Saying goodbye was one of the hardest things I have had to do. I didn't want him to leave. My family had such a wonderful special moment, crying and hugging together, praying to God for our children as their bus left the parking lot to go home.
The team got so much progess down on Carmen's room today. We almosy finished the walls, and started actually digging to make the floor even! We headed back to the La Quinta, where we had another fantastic dinner, Dave's favorite actually which was steak with an amazing sauce, mashed potatoes, and salad. Let me tell you we are not suffering for good food by any means.
After dinner, we got to go to Pastor Oscar's church. What an amazing testimony and passion for Christ her has. We were welcomed by the church, singing and worshiping together! Some of the songs we even knew singing them in english right along side the rest of the congregation.
When I say the Holy Spirit was present, I mean He was profoundly present at the church. We truly witnessed miracles happen right before our eyes as people came forward and gave their lives to Christ for the very first time. It didn't matter that we didn't know all the words. We could see with our eyes wide open that God was working in BIG ways in and among the people at the church tonight. After the service was over, many of the people came up to us hugging and thanking us for being there. What a warm and welcoming feeling it was to have so many people come up to us and accept us for who we are: brothers and sisters in Christ.
We got back to the Quinta and put our food bags together, loading up different staple foods into bags to delived to homes tomoAftrrow. Rice, beans, sugar, salt, laundry soap, toilet paper, cookies, and oill were in the bags. We made 33 different bags to give to families for tomorrow.
Along with the food distribution we are fitting shoes to men, women, and children of all ages in a village about an hour away in the country side from the La Quinta. It will be such a blessing to do this for a church village that has very little. Our team is super excited for tomorrow!
Thank you for all the wonderful prayers! Keep them coming please!
We are ALL SMILES!!! :)
We love you all so much!
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Finally!! WIFI in the Icecream shop up the street, of all places!!!
Tuesday June 26, 2012—6:30am at the La Quinta
The following posts were written on Monday and Tuesday, but I couldn't post because we don't have any WIFI at the La Quinta that we are staying at!!
Hello Friends—
We made it to Nicaragua safe and sound! What a long day full of travel! Most of our day's yesterday started between 6:00-6:30am. We all met up at Indianapolis International Airport outside the Delta Wing. We piled our big duffle bags full of supplies on the sidewalk and all stood in a group and waited for everybody to arrive.
The airport was relatively quiet. Checking in was pretty easy.
We then proceeded to the gates, stopping to eat breakfast on the way to security. Most of us fueled up on a Starbucks coffee. We took a group picture right before we boarded our flight to Atlanta. The flight was short and smooth, only lasting about an hour.
We then had a 5 hour layover in Atlanta. We made it out to our wing, which was empty, with it being the International wing. We set our stuff out at the gate, while Scot volunteered to watch the bags while everybody else scoped out the shops and got some lunch. Most of us ate Qdoba or Panda Express, filling up on the last American Fast Food meal that we will have in over a week. We played euchre, took naps on the floor, read books, worked on computers, and told stories. We all talked about the best places to eat in West Lafayette/Lafayette, giving Dawn as many helpful tips as we could.
We laughed about Steve’s scrape on his nose, due to a brawl he had with a breathe right nose strip. For having to spend over 5 hours in the airport, we made the time go relatively fast.
We then boarded our flight to Managua, the capitol of Nicaragua, at 5:45pm. We all sat close together, and enjoyed the 3 ½ hour flight out across the Gulf of Mexico and down to Central Mexico.
When we arrived at the airport, we all met outside of the gate, waiting for Dawn to give us each $10.00 to get into the country. Customs went pretty fast for all of us to get through. We proceeded to the baggage claim, pulling off any duffel bag and luggage we saw. We worked together the entire trip, making the trip so much easier to get through the airports.
Immediately stepping off the plane we felt the change in humidity. We made it through TWA with no problems, hoping and praying none of our supplies had broken open or got lost along the way.
Ginny Campbell, a main missionary here for NRN and Nicaragua, greeted us right outside in the waiting area of the airport! We have had the privilege of meeting her daughter, Hannah, who works closely with the Carmel Campus at Northview. Ginny and her husband Cecil spend 9 months out of the year working and running the La Quinta, where we will be staying all week. They live the rest of the year in Indianapolis. Ginny was very friendly and welcomed us with a warm greeting.
We proceeded outside to wait for our bus. The bus is part of the means NRN provides for teams who come to Nicaragua. We met our bus driver, Henry, and a close friend of the Campbells and Chotuka’s , Aaron. We will be working closely with Aaron on a construction site today.
4:30pm
What a day!. Our eyes and hearts were captured by a Nicaraguan family! We helped to start to build a room for Aaron’s sisters and brothers, along with their children to share. Our day started this morning about 6:30am. Breakfast was served at 7:15. There are 2 other teams staying at the La Quinta and it was fun to meet others at breakfast and visit with them. Breakfast was a wonderful spread adorned with fresh fruit, eggs, jams, and the most amazing coffee you could ever imagine. After breakfast, we met as a group on the massive front porches. Look at the pictures to see where we are staying! We all circled up and Garrett and Steve led us in worship. Dave then led us in a devotional. We prayed as a team and met with Ginny, who gave us the rundown on our day today. We met Juan Carlos, one of our translators for the week, who is an English teacher at the orphanage that he lives in. What a wonderful, fun guy he is!
The bus ride from La Quinta Primavera to Aaron's family home was around 15 minutes long. We were able to really see the poverty stricken streets with the sun light shining bright. Green trees with bright burnt orange flowers lined the streets, along with men, women, and children walking around. Some were barefoot and dirty. Homes did not look like anything we would call home. Cement walls lined the streets with some having cloth doors and all having a single sheet of ridged metal as a roof.
What a site to see. I found myself almost in awe. What would we do if we saw a child walking around barefoot on a dirty street in Lafayette? God really opened up our eyes today to see how most of the world lives. We live in a dream world in the United States! We are so richly blessed!
We made it to Aaron’s house, which is basically individual separate rooms, connected to each other. I don’t really have a way to describe what it looked like, but it was nothing like any home I have ever seen. Pictures of us working are where Aaron and his extended family live. We met his sister, who we are making the new room for. We introduced ourselves and Aaron introduced us to her and also translated for us. She told us how blessed and thankful she was to have us helping and working. She was brought to tears as she was speaking to us. We were all so touched by how joyful she was and thankful that we were there!
What an amazing moment that was. We spent the morning doing various things. The men did manly work, using sledges, hammers, and chisels to break down a weak cement wall, to later put up a new one.
The women learned how to rebar. We took long iron rods and slid iron triangle rings around two of them. We then took pieces of thin wire and were taught how to place the rings and attach them to the iron rods. In total, 3 long iron roads were made into a triangle hollowed out post, to use as the support system for the new cement wall that the men are building. Pictures of rebar and us making it are here as well!
The men got the whole entire old wall knocked down, cleaned out, and a trench dug. They then made cement, working together, mixing ingredients together and put up 3 of the rebar posts us women made.
We took a lunch break, and visited the school that NRN sponsors, called Oscar's School. It was one of the four schools that are supported by NRN. Many northview members sponsor children, and they attend the school that we ate lunch at today. We got to see the classrooms, meet students, and be in interaction with the children while they came and went from school. Every child was so excited to be there, greeted us with "Hola" and huge grins. After lunch, we went back to work till around now!
God is using us in so many wonderful ways. The work we did today might seem miniscule to some, but to the family we helped today, we are an answer to their prayers!
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Pictures of Team and Pack N Prayer Night :) 2 MORE DAYS!!!
Thank you all for the abundant love and support that was shown to our WL Go Team on Wednesday night! How awesome it was to see God's Love through fellow brothers and sisters who attend Northview! Thank you to all who could come!
Sunday we are so excited to be listening to Dave preach down at our Carmel campus! Looking forward to seeing everybody there! Monday morning all of us will be leaving around 6 am to get to the airport by 8! Our flight leaves at 10:30am Monday morning and we will have a long layover in Atlanta before we head off to Nicaragua!
Thank you all for the many prayers, support, and abundant love that has been shown to this team.
New post to come Monday!
God Bless,
Meghann and Team :)
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