the Christian Business Guy blog

Nicaragua trip - A Perfect Ending

At the end of the day this missions trip to Nicaragua was about two things:

- Helping people in physical ways and sharing the love of God with them

- And it was about exposing my kids to different cultures and the concept of helping others

While we can and should help others with physical needs there are needs only God can fill. Today, on our way out of Nicaragua, God let us know He was there to meet the needs that are out of our control- here's the story:

A group was on our plane from KSM Missions - dozens of teenagers and their youth group volunteers. We were seated in row 12 and 3 of the KSM girls were in front of us. A young man from their group was seated near the back of the plane... and his passport was missing which he had to have to get back into the U.S. A lot of people were scrambling, going through the plane trying to find it, including me.

Eventually, an adult volunteer from KSM came down to the row in front of us where the 3 girls were seated to ask about the search because for a couple of minutes the boy who lost the passport had sat there as we were boarding.

In our family we have a habit to pray about everything (because it works like crazy). I wanted to give God a chance to show up for these KSM kids to build their faith so I got the volunteer guy's attention and kind of firmly said, "What do we DO in situations like this??" He started explaining what we should do to methodically find the passport and I said, "NO- we pray". He said enthusiastically, "Ok!" I said, "YOU pray."

The 3 girls in the row, their youth worker and I (strangers, now friends) just huddled over the seats and he prayed out loud asking God to help us. It was touching and sincere.

As soon as he said, "Amen", a loud cheer went up from the back and we all got chills instantly - the passport was found the instant we prayed.

The three girls were freaked out by it and went on and on about it. I got chills and frankly some tears.

God put an exclamation mark on the trip as if to say, there are lots of things we can and should do but He is ultimately in charge - not just of this trip but our lives. He answers prayer and wants to be involved in everything.

To some of my friends and people I have worked with over the years who have been reading this trip blog- thank you. And if you have no relationship with God just know He's real and He's ready to come help you find your forever passport- Jesus Christ. Just huddle and pray like we did.

Check out some of my other posts on this blog, there are almost 200 of them.

And feel free to contact me for any reason.

Thanks again, check here soon for more posts.

Nicaragua - A Perfect Ending

Day 4 in Nicaragua

Today is the last actual day of activities in Nicaragua. I am typing this in a van on the way from Jinotega to Managua - hope the signal strength holds up.

Thanks for putting up with unedited and uncropped pics- they may not even be my best choices but I'm blogging entirely on my iPhone and it's challenging (though fun).

8 must-brings to a Nicaragua trip:

- Sunscreen

- Mosquito spray with Deet (not just to avoid a bite but to avoid Malaria)

- Baby wipes, you will use them a lot

- Hand sanitizer

- Your own travel coffee cup if you like coffee, just trust me

- Your own water bottle is nice because your group will buy large bulk water supplies

- Non perishable snacks like protein bars and jerky

- Neosporin is optional but smart and small

Do not bring many outer clothes - bring multiples but not enough for every day. Focus on underwear as far as an everyday clothing supply item.

Takeaway for me - if I am going to help this organization (Alas de Dios) in a deeper and more regular way I have to improve my Spanish. These people politely say I've learned a lot and that I learn fast but truthfully I depend on them almost completely and my Spanish is more of an amusing side show.

Some pics of Hotel Cafe

The dining area

Garden in the middle - this does not do it justice

Basic but clean room

Today we started off at the Alas de Dios school site again, as always, and we picked up our gifts for the orphans and some wheelchairs we would be giving away to a home for the elderly. We also said goodbye to the school kids and the teachers. Lots of hugs and smiles, no tears.

Maddie with her favorite

Meeting "Steve the Alaskan"

Some Americans choose to retire in Nicaragua due to its beauty,?the exchange rate, and some government incentives. I met Steve the Alaskan last time and his wife and was glad my kids got to meet them this time. We met Steve today at a boat ramp and dock he is building on the local lake.

These local kids were cute but scared of us

We then went up to Steve's mini mansion he built in the middle of nowhere, it's shocking..

The views were amazing

He made us real, oil-cooked French fries on his outdoor kitchen

Next we went to the orphanage to give our gift bags to the orphan kids

Pink bags for girls

Blue for boys

We got everything at Dollar Tree and Party City - those places made our 82 gift bags do-able, I'll do the same thing again for sure.

Noelle also thought we should do a treasure hunt for them and we bought supplies for that but never had the chance do we left it for them.

How to do a kid's Treasure Hunt:

- Party City sells some plastic gold coins which is your treasure

- Buy some ziploc sandwich bags - one for each kid

- Buy some affordable boy and girl prizes, we bought coloring books, blow up beach balls, and some cool arrow shaped foot balls

- Hide the coins like you would Easter Eggs and those who find the most treasure can win a prize, maybe even exchange every coin for candy so everyone gets something

Next we visited the home for the elderly to give them the wheelchairs we brought, we had several. My neighbor Martin who is the founder of Alas de Dios discovered a cache of thrown-away wheel chairs near his house and rescued them. We arrived at the home to the delight of the director who indicated this was a severe need.

Getting them out of the truck

The Director gave a touching little thank you speech (in pink)

We got to love on the residents a little bit, our kids did great after getting used to it. They were sweet and we seemed to brighten people's day by being there.

Apparently this is an example of one of their better wheel chairs before we came.

One of our Directors, Ana, read off of a list on a wall what the needs of the home were. It was really do-able stuff like a shovel, cleaning supplies, goofy stuff like that we all could knock out.

I caught Riley giving the love

Ok that's all I'm doing for today, say a prayer for our long drive to Managua tonight. I posted this from the van.

Day 3 in Nicaragua part 3

OK the worst thing that has happened on this trip aside from burning my foot today is I discovered Nutella... Ugh it is so good, I am doomed!

Three rules for a mission trip:

1.) Expect your ministry not to be cute and dream-like but messy, a little spontaneous, and sometimes frustrating - but meaningful anyway

2.) Be willing to get dirty - both literally and metaphorically

3.) It's partly about being willing - and all about people

(Unspoken rule... it changes you too but you've already heard that)

Seven facts about Nicaragua:

- it's the poorest Latin American country

- It's both Socialist and popularly Christian which is unusual

- Lake Nicaragua has freshwater sharks

- They grow amazing coffee and cocoa here

- They have wild monkeys but the people are so poor they hunt and eat everything so you rarely see them near people

- They discovered a few years ago Nicaragua has good surfing so you always see gringos at the airport

- On the Cocoa River along the border of Honduras live at least 26,000 people with no healthcare or access to emergency medicine or surgical care (or much of anything)

More soccer fun today, focused them on aiming at a goal today