What is poverty. Do we really understand what poverty means? What is the face of the poor? Who are the faces of the poor? Our team experienced a place, that for many of us, was the worst place we have ever been. A place that is replayed in countries throughout the world. La Chureca is the dump in Managua and inside the gates is a city, a community of people that live off the trash and waste of others. In La Chureca, fires burn around the area with smoke hanging in the air. Flies buzz around everyone and the scent of rot fills the senses. Among the waste and smoke, a child smiles over the fence and waves at us. We wave and call greetings to those close enough to see us. Many are working and wave back to us. We have spent the first part of the morning with a ministry that provides child care to some of the youngest kids of the dump. The ministry is limited to the number of kids they can afford to feed. Part of our trip is a donation to this ministry to enable these people to feed kids what may have been their only full meal that day. Such a small amount can feed kids here for weeks. And having spent a day with these kids, babies, and workers, we see the face of poverty. We see that those faces are no different from our own. The children smile and climb on us, they help us wash walls and show us their worn toys. Back at the dump we see kids given food. We see the small spark that happens with the presence of those who want to make a difference. There is also a difference in us. The face of poverty has become personal. We struggle with how this can exist. How this can change. Can we change it?

One thing that strikes me, that I was not prepared for, was the community in this place. When I picture people living off a trash dump, I imagine a survival of the fittest atmosphere. And I'm sure that that is present. What I was not prepared for was a community caring for each other amidst the poverty. How can we build into this community the message of hope? We wrestle with this. And we hope that you will engage with us in our desire to enrich the lives of those we meet here. We live in a world that searches for a purpose, and we serve a God of hope. And we rejoice in the prospect of hope.                      -Lindsey

The internet is sketchy to say the least tonight...we've been trying to upload photos and update everyone for over an hour now. We're sitting outside next to the orphanage office under the lights, bugs hitting us in the face, kids just had dinner and have been surrounding us demanding to see pictures of our day. One of the boys is being pulled in one of our suitcases down the hallway at full speed. So, Im just going to post a few photos of our day at the beach yesterday.

Last night we were so tired, people were falling asleep during porchtime (our time each evening for processing our day) despite Joe's eloquent words.

I know...missions work is tough, eh? But connections are being made with the children and staff. Friendships are forming. God is good.

We're headed to La Chureca tomorrow, so we're off to bed. It ought to be a long day filled with much to think about.

We Are Here...

walking through Vera Cruz

making new friends

After many hours of travel we arrived in Nicaragua Thursday afternoon. We quickly loaded our luggage (over 2,100 lbs of donations from friends and family!) onto the bus and headed to Casa Bernabe in Vera Cruz. The afternoon was spent just hanging out with new and old friends as we played with the kids here. After dinner we got together for porch time where we were able to share our thoughts and stories of the day and saw that God was at work with us here already in so many ways.

Friday morning we met Eddie Morales, the on site director of OrphaNetwork and learned about the amazing work that is going on here! Then we took a walk through the village of Vera Cruz. As soon as we were outside the orphanage gates we were joined by dozens of women and children from the community. As we walked we heard stories and played games with the children.

We are looking forward to taking the children to the beach tomorrow and going to Verbo church in Managua to see a talent show some of the kids are performing in!

Arriving in the Nation's Capital

Ok...the trip is officially on its way!

Group A (11 people): Their flight is a 6:55 am in Norfolk. So, their alarms should be going off RIGHT NOW so they can make to ORF.

Group B (10 people): Our flight is at

Preparing to go...

We will be updating you as we can about what is happening on the ground in Nicaragua over the next week or so but we first wanted to introduce you to everyone who is going:

Laura Baity, Ryan Baity, Ana Vasquez-Morina, Luke Morina, Cailin Rogers, Annah Rogers, Mysti Koontz and Phil Koontz, Stephanie Clark, Eren San Pedro, Windy Mason-Leslie, Joe Caldwell, Colby Lenz, James Balam, Caroline and Parker Thurman, Caroline McKinnon, David Jeffers, Peggy King, April Rudman, and Lindsey Willis.

In preparation for the trip we have walked together through a couple of scriptures and we figured we'd share those with you as well.

We first discussed Phillippians 2:5-8
"Your attitude should be the sames as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-even death on a cross!"

We talked and prayed about this verse and are committing to a humble attitude and to a servant mentality on this trip. We are excited to be able to wake up each day with a clean slate and no distractions that we seem so often pulled into. We will be looking for ways to serve and encourage the kids and staff that we meet and to learn as much as we can along the way.

A second part of this verse we talked about was that Jesus gave up a lot to take on flesh and walk with us. From creator to servant is quite a travel and we think this creates a special relationship between the poor of this world and Jesus. Who could understand poverty like a Creator who left heaven to be human on this earth?

Another verse we spent some time looking at is Luke 9:46-48:
"An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him. Then he said to them, "Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you all-he is the greatest."

We talked about how curious it is that the child Jesus grabs is described as "little" and not "cute" nor "smart" "athletic" "gifted" or anything like that, just a little child. Eren San Pedro walked us through this verse and had us think of how we would describe success. Then she had us think about how we would describe greatness. We noticed that our lists of adjectives describing these two things didn't match up very well.

We ended the discussion by deciding to look for the image of the creator in the people we encounter in Nicaragua and in each other and finding ways to "welcome", care for and love Him!

Random thoughts

August 17th after the 2nd service at Spring Branch we will be gathering to share laughs, and stories from our trip. You are invited to joing us. We will share some more details later but pencil that into your plans.

The team is on their plane to Miami, they left at 930am (your time) and should be arriving in Norfolk around 930pm.

Last Day

It is hard to believe but Thursday is it for the team. We leave really early Friday so we squeezed every drop out of this day. We finished our portion of the painting of the orphanage, got shower curtains up in the girls bathroom, hung some doors in the bathroom stalls, all while having fun with children by our side.

A couple of our team members spent time in the school where they were grateful to see that the kids are being well led, but also found the school lacking some basic resources. A great connection was made here between the science teacher and Gillian (our science teacher). They have decided to stay in touch and to encourage one another in the work for growing children!

We had a farewell party late in the afternoon where a crazy clown led us all in some fun games as we ate popcorn, cotton candy and watched the little kids (and stephen, caroline and matt) bounce around in a moonbounce that was rented. It was a great way to end our time with the little children in particular.

In the evening we took staff and most of the older kids to the boys soccer game. While they didn´t win they did have about 80 more fans than their opponent! Having one last time to encourage and cheer for them was great. We hadn´t planned on being at any of these games and this proved to be a special treat for us and a great encouragement to them.

After the game we had our final porch time where we shared what we were feeling, what our experience has been like and we looked to the parable of the Good Samaritan for guidance on what to do with it. In this parable we find a man who crosses cultural boundaries, disrupts his plans, and pays money all to care for someone he saw that was in need. He also promised to return. We talked about the ways that we might return. Maybe that means to this place physically, but we talked about how to honor the relationships that were born while we were here. We were challenged to not allow this to be a trip or retreat that we return from to consider just the ways that we have been impacted but to consider how to honor these kids that we love.

We are not sure where all of this will lead but we are certain that He will be there with us as He has been this week.

Final thoughts for you. We have experienced a culture where everywhere we went and everyone we met was open and accepting. It has been moving to see the care and community that exists here. As we talked this out, we believe that there is something that rests in this community and it is something that is beautiful. We believe that in this place with great needs, there is also great need for one another. Being welcomed into that, and being able to meet many of the needs, has led us to a deeper understanding of what community can look like.

We have been forced to consider all of the ways that our culture tells us that we don´t need each other. We realize we have neighbors we don´t know that live right next door. The poor are rich in community! Rich in their relationships with each other and with God.

We are glad to be a part of a community at Spring Branch that by trips like this, and through A2 in particular, is committed to this same ethic.

Last thought and most important one! The kids at Casa Bernabe are growing! They are growing spiritually, they are growing in their knowledge of the Lord. They are growing physically. They are growing in their education and in their desire and hope for a brighter future. We are humbled to have been able to participate in our small way toward this growth.