Hola from paradise! Here I am on the beautiful island of Ometepe soaking in the sunsets night after night asking myself, is this real??? We arrived two days ago and it's still sinking in. I sleep in a mosquito net, share a room with 10 girls, and pretty much eat more food than I ever thought I could. It's all so strange! So, in light of the multitude of new experiences and limited time to share them all, I have narrowed it down to five things I have learned since the beginning of this journey. You ready?? 1. Girls will always scream when there is a bug. Doesn't matter the...

Hello friends and family! I am Kayla Dawnn, one of the team leaders for this summers Passport trip. We have safely made it to Ometepe Island in Nicaragua and we are LOVING IT! We arrived yesterday just in time to celebrate Kid's Day with all of the children. We had a party for all the kids with dancing, skits, gifts, and a pinata. The girls have jumped right in doing ministry at CICRIN, the orphanage we live at. A few of the the things we are going to be doing these next two months are helping at the school, kitchen, cleaning up around the grounds, and gardening. CICRIN is almost a...

“You never know what you got ’til it’s gone…” Here in Nicaragua, what I thought were necessities are in reality blessings to be received with thanksgiving from my heavenly Father. Sufficient sleep, running water, full stomach, purified drinking water, good health, clean fingernails…I have learned that these are spontaneous gifts to be enjoyed rather than daily essentials.  Never before has roasted chicken for dinner (along with rice and beans, of course) or a jar of peanut butter from another mission team been received with so much...

Long time no blog! Life has been crazy here in Nicaragua! There is so much to talk about; God has been doing some super awesome things in our lives and the lives of people around us! I just want to focus on one day in particular, where God really revealed himself to me. Background story: A few weeks ago, we went to a city called Matagalpa, about 3 hours from Managua. Here we did a little outreach and then went to a church service. There, I bonded with a bunch of kids, including the Pastor's son, Kevin. Moving forward … Last week Curt and Hilary told us that on Monday we were going...

Living here at Casa Betesda has provided the opportunity for us to get to know the kids and to see them every morning. It has been an absolute blessing to wake up to giggles and children’s voices outside your room in the morning. What’s better?   There are about 20 kids here at Casa Betesda ranged from about 4 to 14. So much responsibility is placed on these children with chores, yet, at the same time, there is great freedom here. Once the children are finished with their chores, they are at liberty to do what they please. This environment is just so peaceful and provides...

On Monday, we did something called ATL (Ask the Lord).  Sunday night, we were praying to figure out where we thought the Lord wanted us to go. In all honesty, I was so distracted and not really listening during prayer, but one of my teammates, Katy, said something about going to a health clinic and I just felt very strongly about going there too. We had no plan other than going to a health clinic and praying for guidance throughout the day.   Monday morning, 2 teammates (Brittany and Katy) and I got a cab and asked the driver to take us to a health clinic, whatever one he knew. We...