Mission Trip to El Salero Chiquilistagua, Nicaragua

Week 1 Update
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Update from the first few days......

Hello everyone!
This is Wendy..I am the designated person to be in contact with you all so please watch for my emails in the coming days.
On Saturday we toured the city of Managua and enjoyed some time together. A few small projects were completed and preparations were made for the wedding of Luis and his bride. Luis is a good friend of the team from last year. Luis was instrumental in the completion of the large stone patio.

We were special guests at Luis's wedding which took place in the Ranchon (Where we eat our meals and have our devotions.) The ceremony was a traditional NICA Ceremony...it lasted almost 2 1/2 hours and was filled with song, dance and giving praise to God! I will post some pictures on the website for you to enjoy too!
After an evening of cards and conversations we all welcomed the opportunity to sleep!
This morning we woke up to the sounds of many birds and creatures that we are not used to hearing in the states. The many roosters from the neighboring homes tend to crow all night and not in the morning as they should.
We have learned that the pounding on the roof from time to time is nothing to worry about. It happens to be the mangos falling from the trees! Other sounds that we enjoy are the chirping geckos, dogs barking, the blowing of whistles from the guards throughout the night and the various tones of snoring!

After a great breakfast this morning we journeyed to church at Verbo. Verbo is a contemporary, up beat service that lasted about 1 1/2 hours. Since the service was entirely in Spanish some of us did not know what they were trying to say. However, we were able to get an idea by picking up words here and there and observing the props used by the pastor. It is always an amazing church service to experience.

We are now enjoying a bit of R & R before all of the projects begin.
The sun is shining, the wind is blowing and the birds are singing. It is a great day in NICA!

Please know that we are all doing well and enjoying our time together here. Please feel free to email your loved one with an email back to me that I can share with them (if they do not have their own email.)

Have a great day! I know that we will!

Grace & Peace,
Wendy

Update as of Tuesday evening 1/24/2012

So far, we have been able to pack around 550 backpacks, hold 3 sewing classes, jackhammer concrete slabs out of the basketball court, dig and prepare the hole for the extra concrete, fill the hole with the extra concrete, hold a game night (with games, basketball games, and sewing handy bags with the guys and gals), enjoy devotions everyday and play some cards until we cant keep our eyes open.

We have enjoyed spending time with Samantha and Anthony during the day and evening! We do miss Sami until the time that she comes home from Pre-school!  She is growing up so quickly! Anthony loves to be outside and playing with balls so we are getting our exercise playing with him.

The sewing classes that Lisa & Barb have held are amazing!  The machines are buzzing from early morning until late afternoon!  It is encouraging to see all of the young ladies and men learning a new skill!  So far they have made skirts, shirts, pants and small purses!

We have been reunited with many of our old friends from Nica and have met a ton of new ones too!  It is delightful to give and receive a hug and exchange smiles with the people that we encounter....even if many of us do not speak Spanish!  Love is truly a universay language!

When the backpack packing began we knew that we would be packing about 670 packs! In record time we finished all but 33 of them on Tuesday morning!  What an amazing team we have this year. Everyone has been so willing to pitch in wherever they are needed and the work is getting done very quickly.   However, the jackhammer crew might feel a little different about that Laughing !  The first task they had was to rent a concrete cutter and cut lines on the basketball court so they could jackhammer it out!  This morning a jackhammer arrived and as soon as devotions and breakfast was completed... off to work the men went! Greg and Kevin will probably continue to vibrate for quite a while!  It is very hard work!  All of the miners that helped carry the rock and take it to the open french drain hole were amazing today! George,Bob, Rich, Dave and Kim got the entire hole filled with the debris.  (make sure you check out the pictures that are posted for all of you to follow this journey with us!

I wish that you could be here to experience the joy on the faces in the sewing room!  All of the people that came to learn how to sew did an amazing job and they learned so much from Lisa, Barb, MaryEllen, Mary and crew!  What an incredible ministry this is!

I know that we will all sleep well tonight! And I wonder if the concrete crew will ever get themselves clean!

Please know that we are all so grateful for our families and friends that support us in this Mission! Without all of yor support this would not be possible! We hope that we can help brighten the day of even one person while we are here.  God is certainly present with us and continues to be our strength while we are here!   Thank you for your love and support!  Keep the team in your thoughts and prayers in the coming days!

I hope that I can update this atleast every other day! Check back often!  

Wednesday

The backpacks are finished! Nearly 575 backpacks were completed and about 60 other bags were packed.  The drainage hole was filled in beautifully by Bob, Rich and George!  Kevin and Greg also brought along some stone from their concrete project to help get the hole filled to the brim! Head engineer George made sure that the "zinc"covered the hole properly. This French drain will certainly help control the flow of water in the rainey season!  I also believe that I failed to mention that George prepared a great sideshow for us on Nicaragua per and post earthquake. He visited Managua in the 70's before the earthquake and had some awesome pictures that showed the before and after.  However, it was interrupted by a power outage! The power remained off for quite some time so we will have to pick it up another day!  In the evening on Wednesday we were blessed by the children at a small church in Managua. We have been ther many times before and it is always a great blessing to us all.  It was really great to see the first timers enjoy this emotional experience!  An evening of card playing and conversation was enjoyed by everyone. I almost forgot to tellmyounhowngreatbthe sewing classes went!  Lisa, Barb organized some sewing classes that were well attended. Marybeth was blessed by Manuel who made his mother a beautiful skirt and purse . Many other ladies, teens, and young men came to take their hand at sewing.  Many beautiful purses, shirts, and assorted items were sewn with the aid of Amani other team members.  Tshirt necklaces and headbands were cut and created as well.  If you cut a Tshirt into strips and pull them you can make beautiful creations.  Be sure to check out the pictures on this site for all of our activities and encounters.  Greg, Kevin, Rich, Dave & Halle were very eBay creating the concrete forms for the new concrete entrance into elSalero.  Hopefully the concrete comes tomorrow.  B this time in the week we retire early and enjoy a good nights sleep!  Halle also spotted an owl up in one if the trees aghast was serenading us. Oh and one more thing I wanted to share!  When the power was out we were given a a great gift!  Stars like you have never seen! The sky twinkled and was a dazzling display of stars, planets and the constellations were amazing!  Did I also mention that Kathy is an amazing baker!  Her banana cake, chocolate chip cookie bars and another creations are spoiling us terriblly!