thoughts from Katie

Hello Everyone! I asked Katie Thoma (one of our students) to share about our day yesterday. Enjoy her thoughts and thank you for all of the comments and prayers!

Katie here!

It’s been another glorious day in Nicaragua filled to the brim with laughter, joy, and love. Everyone’s really begun the process of digging into relationships, taking the steps outside of their comfort zone for a smile or a giggle. What a beautiful thing to watch!

We started the day with some yummy breakfast. Lots of fresh fruit and scrambled eggs included! After that, we journeyed into Vera Cruz- the town just outside of the Orphanage gates. It’s a far cry from the colorful building of the orphanage with actual beds, warm meals, and indoor plumbing. The winding dirt road takes you to tin shacks awash in rust and flies, starving dogs and horses roaming the murky streams in the street, and piles of trash crumbling and disintegrating into the hillside. This town holds a special place within my heart ever since my first day of my first trip to Nicaragua, because it was then that I met a girl named Grayson.

That summer, Grayson had just celebrated her 15th birthday and gotten married. I was a nervous rising junior in high school taken so far aback that the people I thought existed so far from my world, like the ones I saw on TV in those commercials to ‘feed a family for $1’, were now holding my hand, taking me into what they call home. In the hour we spent in Vera Cruz that day, Grayson not only gave me the earrings from her ears and a picture of her at her birthday party, she changed my heart. So much so that I made sure all the clothes I brought on that trip were given to her. Last summer in Nicaragua, I saw Grayson again. This time she was 16 and 3 months pregnant. She was still as lovely and generous as ever, taking a moment to introduce me to her elderly grandmother and seating me in the only chair in her dirt-floored shack.

And today in Vera Cruz, surrounding by 18 other teenagers from Virginia Beach embracing the children from this village, I saw Grayson, and met her beautiful son, Sammy. Grayson was wearing one of the shirts I gave her from that first summer. Hand in hand, we walked the town struggling to speak to each other in the few words that we know of each others’ language. Together we watched Owen and Jordan play 2 on 2 soccer in the street with two little boys they had just met. We watched Alex S. and Jessica give away baby clothes they had brought especially for all the new babies in Vera Cruz. We watched others making the same kind of friends that Grayson and I have in each other. It was a picture of God. With outstretched hands, these children run to us, strangers in their streets, wanting our love in return. And, in awe, we give it freely.

Leaving Vera Cruz is always difficult, but after we said our goodbyes to our new (and for a few, old) friends, we boarded a bus to get a quick history lesson on why Nicaragua is the way it is.

One of our translators, Raul, took us to the historic center of Nicaragua and gave us the 30 minute version of our beloved country’s history. We learned about its colonization, various revolutions, but mostly about the transition between the Samosa government to the Sandinista government and even got to see the president’s house and the old cathedral. Next, we boarded the bus again and went to the highest point in all of Managua where the Samosa government tortured those that threatened it. It was pretty graphic to hear, especially the parts about how they used to feed the prisoners still alive to lions.


Wiped and exhausted from our busy morning, all of us came back to Casa Bernabe and ate some delicious spaghetti for lunch and got ready to take all of the orphanage kids to the pool. After the bus ride, kids in tow, we arrived at the pool and……it started to POUR. And mind you, a little sprinkling isn’t a big deal, but this felt torrential! The kids got a kick out of it, and had a great time. There was lots of jumping, running, splashing, and chasing- the rain didn’t seem to affect anything at all. The 3 hours we spent there flew by. On the way home, all the kids were so wiped out. A little boy, Casoleen, feel asleep in Catherine’s lap. Many others were just as tired.

After dropping all the kids off at the Orphanage, we went back to the team center to take some much needed showers and eat dinner. At porch time, we learned about seeing the face of God not only in those we encounter here, but also back at home. It was the perfect ending to our day.

We are all so appreciative of your support and prayers! Thank you for taking the time to read about our day!