Youth Mission Trip

We planned for this trip for what seemed like forever, but in reality, it was last December when we announced to our youth kids that it was Costa Rica & Nicaragua we were headed to come June.

We prayed about this trip and God helped us find exactly what we were looking for: a chance to broaden our world view, a stretching experience, and a third word country experience. Wow! Did we ever get what we wanted!

It was a big deal for Leon and I personally, to find the right man to take care of our farm while we're gone + the right place for our 4 children to stay. We were headed off the grid to where our phones wouldn't work and there would be no internet access, so taking care of these details was very important.

The children went to stay in the sunny South with their wonderful aunt and uncle and had the time of their life! They were so busy having fun they hardly had time to miss us! We had several very brief phone calls to them in the 12 days we were gone. And our hired man on the farm, well, he did an amazing job and Leon didn't have to stress at all.

We headed out on Monday, June 8, driving to Atlanta to take our children to meet their favorite cousins. Leon and I flew out Tuesday morning and met the rest of the group in Costa Rica. All 27 of us were there together! It was a bit surreal, when I remembered the HUGE amount of finances we had to raise at the beginning of the year. It looked impossible! We had so many amazing things happen in the fundraising that we knew without a doubt that God was totally in this mission trip!

We spent the first 4 days at a camp in the mountains of Costa Rica. It was a beautiful place to rest and prepare for Nicaragua. We had a guest speaker and a worship band there from Ohio, and God used them in a mighty way to minister to us during orientation time. I can't tell you how many times God answered specific prayers for Leon and I personally, not to mention everyone else, during this time of rich fellowship with Jesus!

In the afternoons we would practice for kid's ministry or prepare the dramas for when we got to Nicaragua. We also had some free time here and there.

Saturday morning, bright and early, found us packed up and heading for our adventure in Nicaragua. We traveled in a big yellow school bus. Unfortunately, the bus broke down several times along the way and we ended up not making it to Nicaragua that evening as planned. We spent the night at a little church house close to the border, on the Costa Rica side.

Sunday morning we headed to Nicaragua and spent a considerable amount of time at the border, making sure we weren't some kind of illegal criminals. Anticipation was high, we were finally entering Nicaragua.... and we had no idea what to expect.

We arrived just in time for church......It was the hottest church service I have ever been a part of. We sat in the blistering heat and felt the sweat run. Leon shared a message through an interpreter and we all sang some songs. After the service, we split up into groups of 2-4 people and ate in local villagers homes. What a special opportunity! Unfortunately, not everyone had someone bilingual in the group, and so communication was very difficult. We were blessed to be with one of our leaders and I got to visit with our hosts. They had a 6 year old girl and it made me miss my little Brooke like crazy.

After lunch, we had a camp to set up. First on the list was to dig wells to have water to shower with. Our drinking water was all brought in from Costa Rica but to take showers we had to dig a well about 6-8 feet deep and stir the water, let it settle, and hope it cleared up enough to take a shower.

The guys constructed showers by wrapping poles with tarp to make a private little shower house. That first very warm day in Nicaragua, when everybody desperately wanted a shower...well, the water was just too nasty, so we all went to bed without showers that night. By that time, we had discovered some of Nicaragua's specialties- bats, large cockroaches, spiders, and scorpions. I can honestly say that I slept well that night, but there were some in our group that hardly got a wink of sleep.....the fear of what creepy crawly would land on them during the night kept the sleep away.

The next day we started our routine...yummy beans and rice and scrambled eggs for breakfast...

....then time to wash dishes.....

...and then our blessed hour of quiet time with Jesus.

We set up tents that day that became our Grand Central Station to eat and meet and have Kid's Club and other ministry events in.

After that we launched into prayer walking through the village, or work projects........ we helped start a remodel project on the church house.

There was water to draw for mixing cement....

There were church pews to build.....

And there were cute little neighbor boys to get acquainted with...

New things to taste...

There were slivers to dig.... :)

And the people...oh, how we fell in love with the people. In just 4 days time, these dear people found a very special spot in our hearts. When it was time to say good-bye, I cried, realizing that it was very likely I would never see these people again this side of eternity.

Packing up...

Singing in the empty church house that had been our sleeping quarters...

And back to Costa Rica we go....

With a stop at the ocean......

We were an exhausted group that night as we settled in for another day in Costa Rica. This time it would be our "fun day". We went white water rafting and zip-lining. Both are things I said I'd never do. Guess what?! I survived and actually enjoyed  parts of the day very much!

And then it was time to leave our wonderful group leaders- the group who had led us the past week, showed us Jesus, became our close friends, and spoken so much encouragement into our lives.