So since we have officially arrived in Nicaragua, things have been full of pleasant surprises. First of all, I was sort of expecting to eating leaves and sticks to keep full and using a doily to keep dry, and yet, here I find myself staying a beautiful hotel where we are fed probably more than I would normally eat at home (although the meals have a little more beans and rice than I might normally pick). I was expecting to have tone my bizarreness down considering I was going to be in the midst of southern missionaries, but I´ve found some kindred spirites who actually think my...

It´s beautiful here. We´re staying in a really nice hotel right now called Caseo Mateo, and all the people are so welcoming. They invite us to their churches and bible studies at their homes. Some of the people tend to be a little to friendly with all the honking and whistling lol but no worries we stay in big groups.   The kids here are the most precious thing. It broke my heart the first day we arrived when some children ran up to our bus and starting washing our windows and when we gave them three dollars they were the happiest things ever. To us three dollars seems like so little...

I feel so blessed to be here.  Change that…I AM blessed to be here.  The people in Jinotepe have so much love to offer, so many stories to share, and life to live.  Families are a big thing.  Everyone is out at the same time, mingling with each other, selling their goods, or whatever it may be.  Mangos are also everywhere.  Literally.   There’s a lot of trash on the ground, you can’t throw toilet paper down the toilets, and there are practically no traffic regulations besides staying on the right side of the road.  Also everyone...

Today we were walking the streets of Jinotepe in small groups. I was with Zach, Elizabeth, Jessica and Ashley D. Towards the end of our journey we were invited in the home of a man named Fernando. He has a daughter (at least I think she is his daughter, gotta love language barriers). Anyway, she is mentally handicapped. She is 24 and is super tiny and cannot speak. She also has pretty intense physical problems. Fernando is missing one leg and also has another daughter who was recovering from surgery and in pain. I spent most of my time praying over Gabriella. Specifically that God would...

Yesterday we were able to go and spend time with an extremely impoversished group of families that live together and are some how all related one way or another. They live very close to the Youth Center and we were asked to start outreach so the parents would feel comfortable with allowing their children to come to the Youth Center when it is up and running. As we were walking back to the Youth Center, one of the young boys of that family came with us to hangout. His name is Marlon, and he is about 11 years old. As I followed behind him and a few of my teammates, I was...

I made it to Nicaragua my home for the next two months, wooohooo.  Right now we are staying at Casa Mateo, which is a hotel that houses many mission teams coming in to work around Jinotepe. .  The ministry we are working with has just acquired an old chicken farm and offices that they are turning into a youth center for the surrounding barrios.  In a few weeks we will move to the youth center to continue working on the facilities and we will visit the surrounding barrios to bring teens in to use the center.  There is a lot of potential for the center to be a safe haven...