I will just say from the outset that this is going to be a hard day to put into words. Our construction team started our morning off with a visit to La Trudecca (the city dump) which houses an estimated 1200 people with the majority being children. The Buzbees run Collegio de Esperanza (the school of hope) in the dump. The dump is an emotionally overwhelming experience. It is hard to drive through the sights, smells and see the conditions…
We are starting to see a house! The completion is almost in sight. We were able to completely finish one side wall and the rear wall. We also got the dirt level to pour the foundation and the posts set for the porch and roof. It was a ‘regular’ work day for us, but we were all somewhat dragging after our long day yesterday. I was able to work in a special treat for the team. Instead of the regular…
Wow… we had our longest day of work today so far. God granted us with another beautiful day – He provided the cloud cover when we needed it and even a breeze at other times. Building a home in just over a week is a huge undertaking and we have all been nervous as to whether we will finish or not. But today we were able to make really good progress – the walls are up to the mid-level to…
What a great Lord’s day we all shared together today. We started our morning with some time alone with God before heading to worship at Verbo Church in Managua. Verbo is very much like Wildwood, with contemporary worship (we even knew some of the songs in English), air conditioning, powerpoint, lighting and a celebratory feel to the service. We were fortunate to have Elizabeth Buzbee translating the sermon for us so we could understand what was being preached! God really…
Today was an exciting day for us in many ways as we journeyed back to work, instead of taking our Saturday off. We divided our team by gender (or maybe by creativity) and our girls went with Karen over to Collegio Cristiano de Los Cedros (the Christian school of Los Cedros) to paint murals in the preschool building. This wasn’t at all planned, but the opportunity, skill set, supplies and timing all fell into place. So our girls had a…
Well we have made it through our second full day of work and again we praise God for a beautiful (although sometimes hot and very sunny) day today. It was amazing to see God present in our lives and in our midst throughout the day today. I challenge our students to be aware of God and where He is showing up and it keeps us more focused on His presence throughout the day… even in simple, but much appreciated ways…
What an amazing first full day (and first work day) we had here in Nicaragua. God gave us beautiful weather with a great view and plenty of sun… maybe even too much sun for most! We started our day early with our team devotional time and then some individual time alone with God. We then loaded the bus and headed up the road about 30 minutes to the Los Cedros community. We’ve worked in this community on previous missions, building…
Just a quick post to let you know that our construction team has arrived and without incident. Praise God for good weather, a safe flight and all our baggage arriving intact! We have be debriefed and settled into the rooms and are ready to eat dinner. We hit the ground running first thing in the morning at the worksite!
It was somewhat of a bittersweet day today knowing that it was our last full day of camp. This has really been a special camp for our middle school students personally, but also for us as a middle school ministry. We’ve had some bumps along the way this week, but God has definitely been present and moving here at camp. We had a faced paced morning today in order to get us fed and ready to go down the river….
It is hard to believe that we are halfway through camp already. The time is really flying by and we are having a great week. Today was a pretty typical day for us, even down to the time the thunderstorms roll in during free time. I have been really encouraged by this group of students and their interaction with each other this week. We have had a few minor setbacks, but for the most part they seem to be enjoying…