Compassion Day

6 am comes early even in Nicaragua. The whole gang was up this morning to join the Casa kids for breakfast at the orphanage. We were the first ones at the cafeteria as the kids started to trickle in with their freshly clean uniforms ready for their hot breakfast and then day full of learning. We sat side by side with our friends and enjoyed a meal of rice and beans, bread and a banana. This morning we were served a special treat of hot “café leche”, which was very similar to a latte. After wishing the kids a great day at school we headed back to the team center to load on the bus to head to the market. We split into 5 teams as the next step to our day of compassion. Each team was assigned a hypothetical family situation that ranged from a family living in the city dump to a successful “rich” family. Each team was given money according their family’s income and then asked to purchase the items that were on the needs list. This ranged from sandals to soap to diapers to school book bags. The teams were encouraged to work the best deal they possibly could in the market in order to purchase the most of their families needs. This was a really enlightening exercise in understanding the challenges that families in Nicaragua go through on a daily basis. Having to make choices between necessity items which we in the States often take for granted.

Once we brought our donations back to the bus, we headed back into the market to stimulate the Nicaraguan economy a bit (translation…18 high school students shopping…and a couple of leaders too! Winks) Everyone enjoyed finding special treasures for loved ones and finding a few neat things for ourselves as well.

With donations in hand and bellies starting to rumble a bit, we headed to Nueva Vida to visit a feeding center that Orphan Network supports. Nueva Vida is a community that originated as a refugee camp from 1998’s hurricane Mitch. After twelve years this camp has transformed into a community where poverty and unemployment run high. 1,100 children live in this community and Pastor Burman’s (Verbo Ministry leader) dream to feed all of these children has come true. Orphan Network partnered with Stop Hunger Now to provide a shipment of fortified rice meals to Pastor Burman and 4 other pastors in the community…in one year they went from one feeding center to 5! They are now on their second shipment of meals (285,000 total) which arrived just last week.



Our students poured off the bus at Nueva Vida into the eager hands of enthusiastic children ready to jump, pounce, grab, hug, play their way through the day. Half of our students served meals at Pastor Burman’s feeding center, while the other half hopped in a truck to venture over to one of the newly opened feeding centers headed by Pastor Alfredo. It was truly amazing to be with the children as they received their only meal of the day. We served along side the leaders of this program, each other and even those being served. It was a common site to see a 5 or 6 year old feed their younger companions, spooning a bite into the little ones mouth and then one into their own.


After lunch our students got a chance to hear from Pastor Burman’s youth group. Everyone was so moved by their stories and their commitment to serving Jesus and the people of Nueva Vida. After a quick scan of our group, you could see tears in several eyes as Jesus had truly inspired us through the words of the Nicaraguan youth at Verbo Church there in Nueva Vida. Several of our students also shared their stories, but naturally focused more on a message of gratitude for what these young people are doing in their ministry and in serving the Lord we so humbly share in loving.

During our nightly porch time we were able to share not only the memories from the day, but where we saw God…who did he speak to us through today? Nueva Vida was all that was spoken of. All of our students could identify a time or a place or a person that they saw God at their time at Nueva Vida. Real connections were made, real fun was had, and real lessons were learned. The most ironic thing? There was not one mention of the market…the time where we spent money on “treasures”. It was clear that the true treasure of the day was the gift we were provided when the amazing people of Nueva Vida invited us into their neighborhood to delight in God’s love for all of us through fellowship, stewardship, and the simple yet powerful strength of compassion.

Yours in service,
Chessney