Monday, July 25, 2011 - Nicaragua Mission Trip

Our group began the day with breakfast at 7am. We had hard boiled eggs, bacon, fruit, waffles, toast, juice and coffee. We left the hotel at 8am and went to the Nursing Home run by the Nicaragua Baptist Convention. It is located in a quiet area with a lot of shade. Howie Hooper brought Teddy Bears and our group passed them out to the residents as we met them throughout the morning. We also met with the residents in the dining area; we sang songs and Brother Roy read scripture: Psalm 23 and John 14:1-4. One of the male residents was excited to share with us from the scripture using a study he wrote himself. We were all blessed with his message. On the way out of the dining room I met another male resident, they call him Oscar the Grouch. He told me I was a fat American and that he was 95 years olds. He told me in had family in West Virginia.

For lunch we went to the mall and ate at the Food Court. We had a wide selection of places to eat. McDonalds, Burger King, Quinos, Pizza Hut, several chicken places and some more local fare. We found a great ice cream place and I had Brownies and cream. It was GOOD.

We arrived at Bethel Baptist Church around 1pm to get ready for VBS. We had major problems with their sound system but we went on without it. The opening of VBS of great. We did the pledges to the Bible and the Christian Flag; they had never done that before. The kids seemed to enjoy doing the pledges. Our girls lead them in the first VBS song and the kids loved the motions. After the opening the kids went to their classes. We had at least 200 kids on the first day if not more. The kids had been in class for about 30 minutes when the rain came. Some of the classes are open to the weather so it was a challenge to keep the children´s attention. In the class that Aaron, Paul and Corie were teaching some of the boys were hitting each other. One child went down, we are not sure if it was from the hitting. I thought he was having a seizure but in a little while he was doing better and participating in class again. I was worried for this child because I didn´t know his background. After the rain stopped we started serving meals to these children.

We served over 200 meals. It was a blessing to see these young children get this hot meal. It touch my heart to see some of these kids eat and have such a smile of their face.

We left the church around 4:30pm and went back to the hotel. That night after supper, we had a birthday party for Lori Spangler. Howie Hooper got us a birthday cake and the girls got her gifts and a card. Fun was had by all.

The group is doing very well. The heat is taking its toll on the group but we are doing a good job making sure everybody is drinking enough water. Please continue to pray for us as we continue to work at the Nursing Home and the Church. We are expecting more kids on Tuesday.