Quick Update

Sorry for the lack of pictures or posts over the last couple of days... we've been busy (and the card reader broke on my laptop).

Yesterday, we spent the entire day traveling around Managua, Granada, and Masaya viewing local areas of interest like a volcano and a flea market.

Today, small groups of people are taking turns delivering care packages (1 lb of beans, sugar, and rice each) to the homes of the students at the Dream of Louisa school.

The rest of us are packing up the clothing we are going to leave here and then the things we are planning to take home.

Don't stop reading once we get home tomorrow... we'll have more information, pictures, and ways for you to help next year coming soon!

Please pray for a productive final day and safe travels home tomorrow!

Oh, and praise God that all illness has been minimal - just 3 people seemed to have had any type of sickness.

Little Gifts and Big Blessings

Written by Bruce

During the week before our team left America for Nicaragua, Jennifer and Charlotte took a trip to North Carolina with Angela and Stephanie. Having a week home to myself, I took the opportunity to paint our small, pine, dining room table.

Jennifer knew I wanted to paint it, but I surprised her by giving it a little something extra. I painted the table a bright white, and with black lettering around the top of the table, I wrote out the words:

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control"

I later told her that I had considered trying to paint a fruit tree, or some similarly-themed art, in the center of the table, but I had decided I simply don't have that level of artistic abilities.

Well, today our team attended the morning service at Alfa y Omega church. At the end of the service, Pastor Juan Baptista called each adult member of the team up and presented us each with a unique gift.

The gift given to Jennifer was a napkin holder in the image of fruit (and veggies). I told the pastor how providential that gift seemed since we'll now have fruit to place in the center of our Fruit of the Spirit table.

In addition, I have been concerned about whether I and others on this trip will continue, once we return to the normalcy of our lives, to have the same heart for people we are feeling here.

Anyone who works with youth knows how they so often return from camp on an emotional high that doesn't last. And many people feel moved when they see or hear of the desperate needs around the world. But few of us continue to care once those images are out of our minds.

This was actually a discussion in one of our team's recent morning devotions. We all know that we need God to actually change our hearts. And we also need to pray that God changes our hearts.

Now Jennifer, Charlotte, our soon-to-be-born little girl, and myself will have a daily reminder of God's people in Nicaragua.

Every day we will be able to think of the Baptist church in Nagarote that doesn't have air conditioning, a family life center, an education wing, an organ, stained-glass (or even glass) windows, or cushioned pews, and yet worships the same God as us now and forever.

It is my hope that my family will pray for this church in Nagarote, similar churches around the world, and the lost people those churches are sharing the gospel with on a daily basis.

And because all of us on this mission have sat around and talked about how this experience has given us a new perspective on what really matters in the world, it is my hope that this daily reminder will help me resist the temptation to waste my life on meaningless things, and instead invest my life in the one thing that matters: Gloria Dios!

P.S. The gift to me was a key holder with a map of Nicaragua, and it says, "Nicaragua tierra de lagos y volcanes" (Nicaragua land of lakes and volcanoes). I told Pastor Juan that gift was also perfect since I'm a science teacher who teaches about lakes and volcanoes.

The Jesus Film

Of the ~150 people who attended the showing of the Jesus Film tonight, 14 people made decisions. Including the girlfriend of one of our favorite bicycle taxi drivers!

Last Night of Revival

Rafael just returned and reported that there were 10 more decisions tonight at the final revival meeting.

Praise God for new brothers and sisters!