I want to thank you all for all of your prayers and comments as we have been down here. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel home tomorrow! See you in Virginia Beach!
Sunday, August 1, 2010
a Joy Filled Ending
Well, it has come. Our last day in Nica. I don't have much time to write, as it is our last few hours here and my heart is tugging me out to play with the kids. But I wanted to share with you some pictures from our day at Hertylandia yesterday. After a long, thought provoking week, it was a much welcomed day of laughter, water slides, nicaraguan go-karts, and a little bit of sun burn!
I want to thank you all for all of your prayers and comments as we have been down here. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel home tomorrow! See you in Virginia Beach!
I want to thank you all for all of your prayers and comments as we have been down here. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel home tomorrow! See you in Virginia Beach!
la Churreca
I wrote this post yesterday morning only to find out that the internet is off on the weekends. Lucky for you they made an exception for us today!
It’s 7:30AM and I am the only one up. As I said in my first post, sitting outside on the patio of the team center is one of my favorite places. I just heard the rooster crow. I can hear the ladies in the kitchen chatting, laughing, as they so willingly make our breakfast for us. It’s hard to believe our time in Nicaragua is quickly ending. The kids are starting to ask when we are leaving, and the team is beginning to realize that we will be back in the states before we know it. One of the hardest parts about coming to Nicaragua each is saying goodbye at the end. There is something about this place and these people, they have the ability to find a deep place in our hearts in such a small amount of time.
Well, yesterday was another deep thinking day for the team. In the morning we had the opportunity to visit “La Churreca” the City dump. As many of you know there is a community of people who live in and live off of the trash in the dump. There are about 800 people, three generations, and close to 300 kids that are a part of this community. Our time began by stopping at a day care center right outside of the dump. This Day Care center was starting by a husband and wife team that saw a need for all of the kids ages 6 and under to be cared for during the day. Now three years after the start of the day care center they serve 38 kids a day, they provide food for close to 300 kids a day, and the woman has 7 kids live at her house Monday-Friday so they can go to school. As Jessica Carlisle said during porch time, this woman was “fearless”. She knows and loves the community of Churreca so well. At this Day Care center they also host church every Sunday, they are up to 180 attendees, and if you saw the space they meet in you wouldn’t believe it could work.
After that stop we then we into Churreca for just a quick visit. The school was closed for the day, so we really just took the time to walk around and see the community. Only a few of us brought cameras in because they are really trying hard to not make these people’s homes a “tourist attraction”. I was hanging back from the group a bit (even though I wasn’t supposed to) and a lady asked me up to her home to take a picture of her son. I think this was the hardest picture I have ever had to take. This little boy was probably close to one years old. His hair was as light as ever (light hair means severe malnutrition), his eyes were glazed over, and if I had to guess without the grace of God he might not make it to his next birthday. As I was taking this picture, I realized this could be the only picture out there documenting this child’s life. That was a humbling thought to have. In the US we have 1,000’s of pictures of our healthy children. But not this little boy. My heart was very heavy as I walked to catch up with the group.
As hard as it was to see the dump, the team left with a lot of hope. As some of you also may know, a powerful group of people from Spain has taken an initiative to really help clean the dump up. And even in just the past six months there has been a lot of progress. They have covered 75 percent of the dump with plastic in hopes to trap the methane and use it to employ the community at an energy plant. So with all of the trash around and the malnourished babies the hope is found in the feeding center, the school, the progress, and the woman from the day care center. It is only through our great God that change like this can happen in such a dark place.
We returned to the team center in time for lunch and then spent the afternoon putting the second coat of paint on the older girls house and unloading all of the donations we brought with us. It was a great afternoon. We were able to add the second coat in just under 2 hours which then gave us time to help the kids with English class again. As for the donations group, they were straight for 3 hours sizing and counting every article of clothing we brought. They used a system with phrases as “Large Big Boy Shirt”, “Small Big Girl Skirt”, “Medium Little Girl Pants”, “Large Little boy shorts”. After some laughter at the system, in total the team unloaded sorted and counted 1,356 articles of clothing and 166 pairs of shoes. Hopefully this will help clothe the kids at casa for the year!
To end our day we got to be a part of Casa’s Friday night devotions. Last summer some of the students started to learn instruments and know they have a worship band. We got to listen to them sing praises in Spanish and then they began to sing Might to Save in English. A huge smile came across most of the team at this point and we all belted out along with our friends. It was a beautiful picture. The kids did a fantastic job leading us and then we heard the story of Peter and Paul from the Casa Director, Jorge. After all of our goodbyes and goodnights to the kids we ended the day just sharing during porch time.
It was another glorious day in Nicaragua. Well, time to go. The team is starting to walk out of their rooms with sleepy eyes, its time for breakfast! Today we are taking the Casa kids to “Hertylandia” the Nicaraguan Water Country USA. The kids are excited and have been talking about it all week. It’s going to be another great day!
It’s 7:30AM and I am the only one up. As I said in my first post, sitting outside on the patio of the team center is one of my favorite places. I just heard the rooster crow. I can hear the ladies in the kitchen chatting, laughing, as they so willingly make our breakfast for us. It’s hard to believe our time in Nicaragua is quickly ending. The kids are starting to ask when we are leaving, and the team is beginning to realize that we will be back in the states before we know it. One of the hardest parts about coming to Nicaragua each is saying goodbye at the end. There is something about this place and these people, they have the ability to find a deep place in our hearts in such a small amount of time.
Well, yesterday was another deep thinking day for the team. In the morning we had the opportunity to visit “La Churreca” the City dump. As many of you know there is a community of people who live in and live off of the trash in the dump. There are about 800 people, three generations, and close to 300 kids that are a part of this community. Our time began by stopping at a day care center right outside of the dump. This Day Care center was starting by a husband and wife team that saw a need for all of the kids ages 6 and under to be cared for during the day. Now three years after the start of the day care center they serve 38 kids a day, they provide food for close to 300 kids a day, and the woman has 7 kids live at her house Monday-Friday so they can go to school. As Jessica Carlisle said during porch time, this woman was “fearless”. She knows and loves the community of Churreca so well. At this Day Care center they also host church every Sunday, they are up to 180 attendees, and if you saw the space they meet in you wouldn’t believe it could work.
After that stop we then we into Churreca for just a quick visit. The school was closed for the day, so we really just took the time to walk around and see the community. Only a few of us brought cameras in because they are really trying hard to not make these people’s homes a “tourist attraction”. I was hanging back from the group a bit (even though I wasn’t supposed to) and a lady asked me up to her home to take a picture of her son. I think this was the hardest picture I have ever had to take. This little boy was probably close to one years old. His hair was as light as ever (light hair means severe malnutrition), his eyes were glazed over, and if I had to guess without the grace of God he might not make it to his next birthday. As I was taking this picture, I realized this could be the only picture out there documenting this child’s life. That was a humbling thought to have. In the US we have 1,000’s of pictures of our healthy children. But not this little boy. My heart was very heavy as I walked to catch up with the group.
As hard as it was to see the dump, the team left with a lot of hope. As some of you also may know, a powerful group of people from Spain has taken an initiative to really help clean the dump up. And even in just the past six months there has been a lot of progress. They have covered 75 percent of the dump with plastic in hopes to trap the methane and use it to employ the community at an energy plant. So with all of the trash around and the malnourished babies the hope is found in the feeding center, the school, the progress, and the woman from the day care center. It is only through our great God that change like this can happen in such a dark place.
We returned to the team center in time for lunch and then spent the afternoon putting the second coat of paint on the older girls house and unloading all of the donations we brought with us. It was a great afternoon. We were able to add the second coat in just under 2 hours which then gave us time to help the kids with English class again. As for the donations group, they were straight for 3 hours sizing and counting every article of clothing we brought. They used a system with phrases as “Large Big Boy Shirt”, “Small Big Girl Skirt”, “Medium Little Girl Pants”, “Large Little boy shorts”. After some laughter at the system, in total the team unloaded sorted and counted 1,356 articles of clothing and 166 pairs of shoes. Hopefully this will help clothe the kids at casa for the year!
To end our day we got to be a part of Casa’s Friday night devotions. Last summer some of the students started to learn instruments and know they have a worship band. We got to listen to them sing praises in Spanish and then they began to sing Might to Save in English. A huge smile came across most of the team at this point and we all belted out along with our friends. It was a beautiful picture. The kids did a fantastic job leading us and then we heard the story of Peter and Paul from the Casa Director, Jorge. After all of our goodbyes and goodnights to the kids we ended the day just sharing during porch time.
It was another glorious day in Nicaragua. Well, time to go. The team is starting to walk out of their rooms with sleepy eyes, its time for breakfast! Today we are taking the Casa kids to “Hertylandia” the Nicaraguan Water Country USA. The kids are excited and have been talking about it all week. It’s going to be another great day!
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