Campionas!

Nathaly kept calling us that last night, so the title of this post felt appropriate :) It means "champions."

Today, we spent most of our day at the school simply playing with the kids! A couple of us had some minor injuries due to intense soccer playing, haha.  Kate found that nail polish unites nations! She painted the girls' nails and quickly made many friends. Kids also jumped all over Russ and he was able to lift 5 of them in a bear hug! Playing frisbee with the kids was one of our favorite activities today--they were so happy and just wanted to play forever!

If you would like to leave some words of encouragement to a specific team member, or the team as a whole, please comment! You don't have to have a google account or blog account to comment either. We love reading your comments!

Tu Alabramos Dios

Just a few captured moments from yesterday:

The little girl in the red shirt in the picture above is one of Henry's daughters. Her name is Nathaly and she has won a spot in all of our hearts from the moment she arrived! She is so bold and outgoing and will  pull your hand to lead you anywhere and everywhere. Language barrier? Not a problem! She smiles, you smile....that's all it takes!

This morning, we woke up to a pancake and eggs breakfast that Henry and his family prepared for us before we left for church.....so so good! Little did we know, it was just a foreshadowing of more meals to come.

The church that Henry and his family go to is right around the corner from their house. Henry said that we would get there early to get seats since there are so many of us.....'early' means 5-10 mins. Nicaraguan time is very laid back! The church service was entirely in spanish, but a couple of us managed to understand a good portion of the sermon and we were able to fill each other in on the message. The worship lyrics were projected on screens, just like churches that we are used to in the States. This made it easier to follow and sing along for us! Rose counted 28 ceiling fans which weren't on but the AC was :)

After church, we relaxed for a little while. Picture this: Elly, Amanda, Dana, Niquelle, and Kate sat in the sun on rocking chairs while the boys and Heather practiced salsa dancing! Check it out:

Some of us took naps, other went for walks and found some interesting things...

Henry again made us a delicious lunch! We lacked the spanish vocabulary and the english vocabulary to describe how good it was! Maybe a picture will do it justice:

Estamos Aqui!

We're here!!

We arrived at the airport in Managua around 4pm, where the director of the Christian Academy (Henry) we will be working at picked us up!

Their house is beautiful and all the doors remain open to catch the wonderful breeze. It's so colorful and surrounded by many potted plants. We were introduced to Henry's family, which he proudly says "God gave him!" this year after some hard times in the past 3 years as he lost his first wife to cancer.

Immediately after putting our belongings away in our designated rooms, we jumped right into various games with the kids. Basketball, futbol (soccer), frisbee, and rhyming hand games are just a few! Right now, we are gathering around for a truly American dinner of hamburgers cooked by Henry himself. :)

Thank you all for your prayers! Travel was so smooth and we feel so blessed to be here already! Pictures to come, of course!

As always, keep us in your prayers as we continue to experience what God has in store!

Hola San Salvador!

we have arrived in San Salvador where we wilm board our next plane to Managua!

smooth flight so far! It's 1:50pm and about 90 degrees. And Shania Twain music videos are playing on the tvs on our gate area, haha.

That's what you're missing on this beautiful city!

First Photo

Adding on to that prayer list.......Please pray for Amy. She is really planning on using this fanny pack for the duration of the trip!

T-5 Hours!

All of our bags are packed and strategically piled into our 15 passenger van! .....which all of us will be strategically piling ourselves into, much like a clown car in about 5 hours.

AH!!

We're nervousexcitedhappy all at once!

Please pray for the following:
--for our van to safely get us to the airport in D.C.
--for the team to be well-rested......well, actually just energized! The team is currently split up into 3 different locations to sleep so that we will all get to our meeting spot at 3:35 on time.  If we plan on sleeping!
--for a hassel-free security and customs processes.
--for the pilot, crew, and flight attendants
--for the flight itself!
--SAFETY SAFETY SAFETY.
--For God to just keep preparing our hearts!

Crunch Time!

We are just 3 full days away from our departure date! Ah! Most of us are just antsy to embark and embrace all the amazing ways God is going to show up in Nicaragua! The warm weather has also been longingly desired, as we have had our fair share of rain and gray skies recently.

This week, we spent a lot of time in prayer for safe travels, for the children we will spend so much time with, for the director of the school program we are working at, and generally for God to prepare our hearts so that we can spread His love to everyone we encounter. We also prayed for patience and understanding, knowing that both will be exacerbated in the intense Nicaragua heat!  Please pray for all of these things as we continue in preparation before we leave and of course while we are in Nicaragua as well. Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support! God is so good! (All the time!) So without further ado, here's the "little ditty" promised from the previous post!

Elly:

Elly’s dream job would be to write the humorous little blurbs on the side of Vitamin Water labels. Out of many embarrassing moments in her life, the most honorary (that the team jokes about often) is the time when she walked into/through a screen door. Twice. If Elly could name a crayon color after her own personality, it would be “wild summer sunset.”

Rose: 

Rose has an irrational fear of staying in one country for too long! Good thing she’s going to Nicaragua with us! J Her dream job would actually be traveling the world creating documentaries. Her favorite food that she could eat anytime anyplace is potatoes. Any kind. Mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, twice baked potatoes, potato soup, potato chips, french fries.... anything but potato salad.  Because mayonnaise is nasty. (direct quote!) 

Kate:

When asked about her irrational fears, she jokes “There’s nothing irrational about my fears!” Kate’s dream job is something where she can let all of her creative juices flow and be in the sun A LOT. If pizza is involved in that job as well, Kate would be ecstatic because she is always in the mood for pizza!

Greg:

Our Fearless Leader is currently doing his dream job! He also really enjoys wood-working and long walks on the beach with his gorgeous wife.  If Greg could speak another language, it would be Klingon so he “can tell Trekkies how dumb they are.”  He is a Jerry, not a Tom, fan simply because Jerry’s “not a cat.”  If Greg was a crayon, he would be Tennessee Volunteer orange.

Ezequiel:

Also known as Zeq, his favorite food that he could eat forever and after is “rawcos” (organic raw tacos)! If he could pick a crayon color to represent his personality, it would be either sky blue or Dodger blue.

Alex:

Alex loves traveling and people.  Her most recent traveling experience was a trip to the UK to visit friends, and next year she will be teaching outdoor adventure activities to students in Switzerland!  We affectionately call Alex a gastronome, which means “lover of food and drink!”

Russ: 

As our team has experienced on multiple occasions, Russ has the super stellar skill of mimicking famous youtube character voices. Russ also votes for the mouse out of the famous cartoon duo, Tom and Jerry because he really is “sneaky like a ninja!” Russ’s favorite color is purple so it’s no surprise that when asked, he said that if he was a crayon his color would be “Purpley McPurple”! 

Niquelle:

Niquelle aspires to open her own elementary school one day.  She would love to learn Greek and better communicate with her Greek side of the family.  If she was fish, she’d definitely be a saltwater fish, exploring beautiful reefs and seeing all the ocean has to offer!  If Niquelle was a crayon, she would be Sun Glow or Inch, or maybe just Gloworm, and have the best of both worlds!

 

Dave:

Dave is a pogo-stick jumping superstar!  He has an irrational (or not so irrational) fear of clowns, and votes for Jerry over Tom because “Tom Cat is just a big bully pretending to be the protagonist.”  His most recent traveling experience was a honeymoon trip to DisneyWorld with his lovely wife Niquelle!  Also, if Dave was a crayon, his color would be Crayola Crayon #53 Laser Lemon, because what is cooler than that?!

Amy: 

Amy is the emailing comedian on our team! Her emails never fail to make you smile and laugh. She is the proud owner of a red, yellow, and blue tracksuit picked up from a retirement community's local thriftstore in Florida. Her dream job is making awesome movies, which is great because she has plenty of material from her own life experiences: she once was so afraid that a Great White Shark  inhabited her basement that she wouldn’t go down there for a year!  Keep your eyes open for a short animation starring a girl and her shark.  ;)

Kendra:

Kendra’s most recent traveling experience was going to Riviera Maya, Mexico on a family vacation over Christmas break. She definitely wishes she could speak Spanish fluently so that she can communicate with all the little kids in Nicaragua! Smiling is a universal language though and she definitely has a great smile! If Kendra could be any crayon color, it would be fuchsia.

Dana:

Dana is a super chill girl who loves to jump on trampolines in her free time.  We’re hoping to get Dana over her irrational fear of lizards and frogs while we’re in Nicaragua, since we’re sure to encounter a plethora of scaly slimy creatures!  Dana is embarrassed of the things she says in her sleep, so we’re looking forward to funny stories from her roommates over breakfast :)  If Dana could speak another language, she would love to communicate with the elves in Lord of the Rings in their native tongue. 

Heather:

Heather’s dream job is to be a teacher and she is fascinated by languages in general! In terms of food, Heather just can’t get enough of the end slices of home-baked bread, buttered fresh out of the oven. (Just take a moment and breathe in that imaginary smell! Mmmm!) If Heather could be a crayon color, it would be a really light blue-grey, like a periwinkle.

Amanda:

If Amanda were transformed into a fish, she would keep swimming, swimming, swimming! (If you caught the Finding Nemo reference, give yourself a pat on the back!) Amanda is super stellar at singing, but one of her most embarrassing moments is when she forgot the words to the song she was supposed to be singing in front of people.  Amanda also loves bourbon chicken with a passion and simply dreams of being a food connoisseur.

Jess:

Jess is an honorary team member! Unfortunately, she is not traveling with us to Nicaragua but she is certainly nothing less than honorary because she has helped us immensely in our preparation process :)  Specifically, Jess has been supercalifrailisticexpealidocious at helping us with our Spanish and translating our testimonies. We owe her so much gratitude and have been very blessed by her servant’s heart!


 And last, but absolutely not the least....actually, it may be the most: All of our supporters, friends, family, loved ones. May God bless you ABUNDANTLY. You are a huge part of our team.