We are leaving a little late but should get in on time. All on the plane ready to go!
Back in the US!
One flight down one to go!
Passport check!
We are up and ready to head for the airport! By the end of the day the team is going to be sick of hearing me say "passport check!" haha!Please pray for safety on our journey home today.
A Community Changed!
Before Fox River came....
Because people said yes to God and gave their time; and people like you said yes to give money to impact a community for God, lives will be changed!
A Day to Remember
We hit the ground running today! We finished off the roofing, hung 6 swings and made 9 picnic tables. It may not sound like a lot, but we really did rock it out this morning so that we could pack up the tool room and head to the waterfall for some baptisms. The morning went so fast and before we knew it we were putting the swings up on the playground as the final piece. The kids went crazy over them and there were lines for the swings. It was so fun to see the children enjoying their new jungle gym!
As we drove off, it was amazing to look out the back window and see how much we were able to do in just days! God has blessed us to be able to help reach this community with the gospel. Where once there was a muddy field there is now the major reference point for the area. Brian was telling me how addresses are based off of large monuments or attraction points. He said the clinic has now become the biggest attraction in the area.
Three of the local coffee farmers are going to pay for the materials to put a cement floor in the pavilion and people from the church are going to put it down. We had one of the guys working with Dan today on a sidewalk and he was really good. It has been eye opening to see how big of an impact this project has already started to make in the community. They are even talking about holding the 6th grade graduation there. That is a really big deal here, like a high school graduation. It was such a privilege to be able to be apart of impacting a community in such a big way.
After the hard good byes were said we headed off to the waterfall for a few baptisms. We had quite the adventure getting to the water fall. We took the easy path or what was the easy path. I will post a pic of the road we drove over everyday and the landslide that happened right next to it going down the mountain. It turns out that where that happened was right on the path that we had to go over.
Keep in mind we are in the cloud forest (aka it rains a lot) so we got a bit muddy on our way to the baptisms, but what's a little more mud at this point, right?! As we walked through this mud slide we would sink in the mud up to our knees. Needless to say we had to help each other get through it!
We finally all made it down and enjoyed an amazing time where we got to witness 4 of our teammates proclaiming their faith through baptism. It literally brought me to tears to be able to see how God has used them from saying yes to coming and serving Him in Nicaragua to stepping out in faith, overcoming great fears to say yes to His call for them to be baptized here. Sometimes we wonder why God has us on the path He has us on in life but if we just trust Him, He will put the right things into motion and open His doors. He has done that in my life for sure and I know He has been doing a great work in other team member's lives as well.
Would you join me in praying for God to continue the work He has been doing in our lives here when we get home? It's hard coming back and readjusting after the life change that has happened. Pray that we will move forward, seeking after His next step on this journey. And continue to pray for all those we have come to love that we leave behind to reach the community of La Esmeralda for God.
Back on top!
Back on the ground...for now....
Aidyn and I were able to make a craft with the kids today.
Enjoying the last day working with our friends.
4 tables later....
5 tables later....
Ready to help hang the swings!
The monkey is back at it!
The never ending "finishing the roof" is now over!
we have 30 min lets do one more project....lets make them a cloths line!
Some of the guys blessed the guys that had given there time to come and help out by giving them there tool belt.
The first thing to be done in the pavilion.
On the way to the waterfall.....crossing the landslide
The road we drove over everyday!
One last dip in the mud!
Our crew!
Adventures in the rain!
Today was an adventure! We were working on finishing the roof of the pavillion when a big rain storm came in. That add lots of fun to roofing! It was nice to have most of the pavilion done so we had some place to hid out and working on the picnic tables. The jungle gym team was not quite as fortunate since they only had half of their roof up! There was a lot of teaching going on today by our team. They were teaching the Nicaraguans how to us the power tools. We also had a team that did painting at the church. It was a bit of a challenge mixing the old paint but they added some water and just keep pouring it back and forth in five gallon buckets. Let's just say the project at the church has been a project that fits the saying, "When in Nicaragua do like the Nicaraguans!" We have had some fun times with them. When you see the pictures, remember that they don't have paint remover for oil base paints.
As we started this journey on Sunday we talked about what we were going to do if we didn't finish the projects. God set us on an adventure in so many ways that are related to this trip. He has blessed us with great weather and good help! I am so pleased to report that Lord willing tomorrow we will finish painting the church, putting the picnic tables together and wrap up a few lose ends regarding the pavillion and jungle gym. We will have completed all that God had for us to do.
Tomorrow is going to be a hard day because it will be the last with all of our new friends and some hard goodbyes will be said. Please pray for the team as they complete their work and prepare to head home.
Back at it
Working on moving the 75 pound scaffolding they made!
Learning how to paint like a Nica.
Note to self...after painting the wall don't put your head on it!
2nd note to self - when your counter balancing someone don't get up!
Brian working hard (on getting his phone to work!)
First rain on the pavilion
...umm guys maybe we should finish the big gap at the top soon!
How many guys does it take to put together a table?
Looks like they got it! Nice job guys!!!
What a great teacher.
She has taken on the Nica way of painting! (she will have that with her for some time! Haha!)
Painting with her coffee...when in Nicaragua!
It's all coming together!
Bob didn't want to get mud on his boots. (Really, we don't know what he is doing on the bucket but we have made up a lot of fun stories about it!)
End of day 5
It's almost done!
Above and Beyond
This team has been amazing! They have jelled so fast and so well! Day one we all started out working together on the holes. Day two we started the playground and everyone just pitched in where they were needed. We couldn't have asked for things to have gone more smoothly. We have even had some competitions with Team Pavilion vs Team Jungle Gym. The playground has most of the girls working on it so we were giving Team Pavilion a hard time yesterday because their before and after pictures didn't look much different. We thought they were over in the coffee fields drinking coffee all day! Ha ha! Not really, they got everything ready to put the roof on today. Just seeing how this team is working together and working really hard everyday has been such a blessing. We are running a little a head of schedule right now. Team Jungle Gym took some time today to go clean the walls of the church so we can hopefully paint tomorrow. We have been able to get so much done because of the weather has been so good.
Tonight we went to the yearly report of the clinic and church in which we heard stories of how the clinic has impacted the community physically and spiritually. The clinic has seen almost 5,000 people in the last year. Praise God for the work He is doing here in Nicaragua!
Please continue to pray for the rain to hold off till we are done working. Today it just started to rain as we were wrapping things up. It then poured during the meeting and is still pouring as I write this post. We are so thankful that God has been holding it off until we are done each day. Also pray for strength. We have been giving 110% all week and are starting to wear down.
Team pic out side if the place we are staying at.
The view on our dive up today.
Start of day 4
Team Jungle gyms wood cutting team
Our father daughter team- they had to custom make it due to the fact that we didn't have all the right stuff. They rocked it out!
The roof is going up!
Our rock wall is going up!
Our amazing cooks!
Lunch!
Or pb&j's for all my kids! Haha they love peanut butter!
The girls washing the wall at the church.
We are don't have any fun times on this trip....
Nope no fun at all....
We really did work today :)
It's all starting to come together!
This was the end of the year report at the church.
Still going strong
Time has been going so fast and so are our projects! God has been blessing us with great weather. At this point we are getting into the routine of setting our alarms for 6am and then the monkeys wake us up by going crazy outside our rooms by 5am! This morning some of the guys got up and went for a hike on the mountain because the monkeys were really loud. It ended up that something had happened to a baby monkey that the saw along the trail. After that the rest of the day was a normal workday. We got up to the clinic and all of our kids were there waiting for us to start working. Such a great way to start our day off! The medical staff went out into the community and got to see some people. It was a great way for them to see more of the area. Because we are up in the mountains we don't really see many people out and about. Being able to be taken up the mountain in a truck and really getting to see how people live was eye opening. A few of us also got to take a 10 minute walk up to see the soccer outreach that Pastor Dennis runs. Bob had a bunch of hats that he brought to give away as well as some shirts that were donated. It was powerful to give out the hats and the shirts to kids who have never experienced anything like that before. Their faces just lit up when they put that hat on! God worked in some really powerful ways today in many of the guy's lives. Please pray for them as they process through the things have been experiencing. The week has been flying by and relationships have been started. As we are starting to look toward the end of our projects it will start to hit the team that they have to say goodbye to their new friends that have been working side by side with them all week. Thank you for your prayers and support!
The guys were off to a good start!
But it looks like the girls could be off to a better start!
A boy becomes a man!
This is lunch cooking. any one have any ideas on what it is???
Eric was our monkey- He was all over the place!
One of the houses we went to see.
Tracy is looking at a sick baby when we were out.
The kids were all over today- they started playing on the playground before it was done. I think they were a little sad that we were putting up bars so they wont fall off the sides. Haha.
Working hard!
We had the guys cutting all day long!
When a girl cant do it on her own...she dosnt go get a guy to help...she gets another girl!
Bob giving out his hats.
The kids with their new look.
The first part of the roof going up!
End of day 3
The end of the day(part 2)...our kids have already taken over the playground!
Hard at work!
Today was our first full workday. Brian Weed started us off with some history of the church and clinic then went on to challenge us. He posed this question. Are you striving for success or significance? Everyone can achieve some kind of success but not everyone can achieve significance. That started some good conversations for the ride up the mountain. The ride up the mountain has been a such a great time to really bond all together as a team. Today we split up more into two teams to work on the two projects. The holes were the big part for the pavilion and with that out of the way we were able to start on the playground. So the girls took off on digging the 14 holes for the playground. We are really moving fast on the projects. Yesterday we had a few people helping from the community but today we had 25 people come out. There were some men and a few women but the rest were kids. They worked so hard and wanted to help out in anyway. I love how we are able to be such a light to the community because God has blessed us with so much. The doctor even came out this afternoon, learned how to use a screw gun and was helping us put the playground together! While we were waiting to start the next part we were able to talk with them about there lives and share our faith with them. The day started out just like yesterday, nice and sunny. The difference is that today it stayed nice all day! It was a hot one but we took it like champs! Pastor Guy wanted me to thank you for praying for the weather. Please keep praying because good weather really helps! It really was a great day. Thank you for your prayers. Please keep it up and pray for our team's health as we continue to give our all each day.
off to a good sunny start!
Here comes the playground poles!
I dont know who is working harder?
Tracy was working with the Doctor this morning.
King of the concrete hill!
It looks a bit crazy but dont worry it was just as crazy as it looks!
are you on a coffee break down there??
First one up!
Working hard.
The Doctors first time using a power tool.
These are the ladies that came to help us build- so sweet!
The girls have there guns and are ready for anything!
Bob sharing his sunflower seeds....He gave the kids a few...then came back a little bit later...to find the bag empty! we all started laughing because we were watching the kids eat them, then when he picked up the bag and was like- what? where? hahaha! The kids make things so fun!!
The guys
The start of the playground today.
The end of the playground today!
After day two!
Off to a wet start!
Today was our first trip to La Esmeralda and the layout day for ourprojects. We started up the mountain at 8am. It was nice and sunny to begin with, but the weather changed often and I think we have seen everything but snow today! It was a great day, but a true test of how the team was going to do in this crazy weather! We were able to attend church in La Esmeralda just up the hill from the clinic. Then we were off to start the job of laying out the projects. We started out thinking we would try and dig a few of the huge 6-ft footings. That was going well until we hit a pipe (note I didnt say break!) in our first row of footing holes. We ended up having to change some things around so it all work out ok. It was awesome to see how everyone jumped in to help out! We stopped for a great lunch that the staff had made for us. Then we took off from there. The girls were moving and getting the lumber ready as the boys were stuck in the holes. Haha! We were able to get all 8 of the holes dug despite all the clay they had to dig through and the crazy weather that gave us the hot sun and then rain that would just come and dump on us. After a few times through the cycle of rain and sun we stopped trying to put on our rain gear and just got wet. After all, the sun would come out and dry us off. Coming from someone who is not in construction, I was really impressed with how much it really takes to get it to the point you will see in the pictures. Bruce and Bob did a great job keeping people going and dealing with the challenges that came up along the way. The bus ride home was so quiet. We were all ready for a hot shower and some food! The team is all doing great job working together and really blending as a team. If you would join us in praying for the weather - the rain is really hard to work in and the area around the clinic is all clay so it's messy! Working through the weather will be challenging, but we are so excited to finally be here and work on behalf of Fox River to provide facilities for greater outreach through the church and clinic. We appreciate your support and prayers!
This is from our drive up the mountain
This is just one of the bridges we have to cross over on our way up.
Church - I dont know if you can tell where our team is ;)
Our awesome team!!!
We all were helping ding the holes!
Lunch time
Go girls!
The first team done!
Working on where the playground was going to go....should it go in this mud...or over there in that mud?
almost ready to put the first post in!
putting the first post in....yes this was just a few min after the last pic!
Now comes the really hard working- making sure it is all lined up right!
We had 4 standing post done!
Just to give you an ideal of what 5 pounds of clay looks like on your shoes!
This is the before pic of where we are working.
This is where we left off today.