Sorry for the delay

We had some internet problems that prevented posting for the last couple of days, so we have some catching up to do.

On Wednesday we began the day with a trip to a marketplace for a little culture, shopping and an excercize where the team was divided into groups, or families of 4. We were then given $10 dollars ($190 cordovas) and told to go shopping to purchase enough food for our family for a week as many families here do. In addition to simply navigating through the marketplace and dealing with the language barrier, it was hard to make choices about what to buy. Make it taste good? Make it stretch? Get vegetables or just rice and beans, how much oil to cook it in, can we afford chicken or not? It was a good experience to walk, however briefly, in someone else´s shoes. We later gave all of our ¨family´s¨food to the security guards at the orphanage for their families.

After the marketplace we went to lunch with Bob and Myra (sp?) Trolese. They are the couple who started all of the ministries we served in this week. They moved to Nicaragua right after the revolution in 1979 and have had an incredible impact in this country and on us. They shared their passion for the people of Nicaragua and a hope that rests in Jesus that was incredible. Their message to us was that doing things within the context of a real relationship is the best way to serve and that churches must find ways to address peoples real needs (food, jobs, health), while bringing Christian principles to all of the issues.

We spent the evening in what we call ¨Guys night/Girls night¨. The guys went to the Sportsplex to play soccer and then went out for pizza. We gave it our all on the field but ultimately we have a ways to go to approach their level in soccer. It was fun to compete with them, to see their passion for soccer and to be with these incredible boys.

The ladies spent the evening at the Ranchon at the orphanage where they had dinner and spent the night getting to know one another better. Make-up, nails, new clothes, dancing, Cindy Lauper´s ´Girls Just Want to Have Fun´, and a craft project were all of the ways that the women were joined together this night. (it was great to see that the following day one of the staff members was working with the girls on the knew craft technique that they learned with our team, in addition to fun, there was a skill learned that they can carry with them) (good job God, thanks for putting Eren and Laura here!)

At porch time we talked about how this was another day that was full enough to be 3 days.