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. :)