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!