Saturday Recap...

What a day! We jumped into the day by looking at God's word with the older boys and girls. James Balam for the boys and Stephanie Clark led the girls. You know those moments you have when you are aware of God's presence and nothing else matters at all? That was our morning.

At breakfast we watched Germany beat Argentina in the World Cup, much to the disappointment of the kids and then continued our work projects (painting and building closets in the older boys area). Some of our team also did art projects with the kids. The result of this time are now hanging all over our team center area. It looks amazing.

After lunch we set off for a boys/girls day full of fun. The girls departed and went skating at Chava Landia. They all had a blast and most of them had not skated in years. The girls from the orphanage and from our team were having trouble a time where they all laughed as hard and long as they did watching each other "gracefully" skating. After the skate party they went out for dinner and really leaned into our main goal on this trip of building relationships with these special kids.

The guys day, well it was guys so give us grace for this...we went and played paintball. Nothing like shooting the people you came to serve right? It was awesome! Picture 30 people laughing, competing and just having an adventure together.

An interesting thing happened to both groups as they were out an about in Managua. It is the anniversary celebration of the Sandinista Revolution in 1979 and the streets were full of parades and parties and speeches and songs. As we waded through traffic to get home both teams got an up close and unique cultural experience. It was humbling, unnerving, prompted much political discussion, helped us to learn about this community in a way a book or speech never could, and drove us to prayer and confidence in a God and Kingdom that is not bound up in this temporal world.

At porch time (where we process the days events and seek God's guidance) there was a lot of laughter over moments with kids, much discussion of where we saw and felt God at work, and encouragement to make our faith matter in this world.

This was a full day and the team slept well. All are healthy save a few bumps from paintball hits and skating falls. Enjoying God's presence and each others'. These kids are precious and it is an honor to get to be with them!