Last Night

Last Night we went to church...the service started at 7:00 and ended around 8:30...it is much like our service, but at the same time very different...there music part of the service goes 40-45 minutes and it sounds very Reggae influenced...The speaker was a pastor from one of the American groups and then Earl (the Pastor) translated...it was a great time...

Today the kids are out of school all day...so that means we might be hanging in the orphanage all day...there is some more concrete work that needs to get done, but we arent sure if that will be our location...

After lunch today the plan is to go to the river...the river has some small cliffs we can jump off of into the water...lots of fun...and don't worry, pretty safe...haha...

It has been raining a ton...and when it rains here they can get a foot in less then 15 minutes...it is nuts...it is literally likes buckets pouring out of the sky...

Today around 11:00AM I will be sharing with the pastors...I am going to share some simple youth ministry principles and then I am going to talk about forgiveness and how it is central to youth ministry...being able to teach a student to forgive at a young age is priceless...so please pray everything goes well...

Please keep the whole team in your prayers as we are reaching the halfway point today...

We Love you and miss you all,

Justin and The Team

Lots of Work Today

Jessica and I stayed back and sorted through all the clothing that was donated from the church because the extra stuff is going to go up river to some of the villages that are really in need right now. We had to inventory everything for the orphanages records.

Brian and Noah helped build an outhouse and washroom at the Nurses house.

Brittany, Kim, Alex and Laurie worked at the widows house mixing and pooring concrete...the widow I am referring to is a widow from the church whos husband died in a bus accident not to long ago...so we are finishing her house...this team came back for lunch with concrete all over their clothes and have truly been working hard...so please pray that these individuals would recieve an extra blessing of energy as they worked so hard.

Thanks so much for all your prayers,

We love you all,

Justin and The Team

Wednesday Pictures...

Coffee

Hey y'all...

I was up early this morning...5:15AM to go to the boys morning devotionals...it was amazing...

Now I am enjoying a cup of Nicaraguan coffee...best coffee, next to Dunkin Donuts...haha...

Breakfast is at 7:30 and we are looking at a time of 6:38 right now...I know there is an hour time difference...

Pray for Alex and Brian as they will be sharing their testimony with the school this morning at 8:00. They worked hard yesterday on getting them ready and prepared, and I think they will do great.

The plans for today:
1) Start building a house
2) Sort through all of the items we brought and maybe give them to the kids today.
3) VBS at 4:00PM

Those are the things going down today...so be prayerful for the ministry that Living Hope is bringing to Nicaragua...

Love you all,

Justin and The Team

Showers, Prayer then BED!!!

Us guys are in line to take showers then we are going to pray for the orphans...then we are going to bed...

Today we started VBS stuff with the kids...it went really well...

Found out tonight that the kids have Friday off of school...this is extremely exciting for the team, because we have only been able to hangout with the orphans from 4:00 - 5:30 due to school...but Fri, Sat and Sun will be all day...Pretty amazing...

Tomorrow I am leading morning Porch time (devotionals)...so please pray that God gives me the words to say...

Love you all,

Justin and The Team.

Lunch

Eating Lunch now...Enchiladas...Amazing...

I know I have been able to stay in contact a lot lately, but I just want everyone to know that if I am not on for a couple of days it probably only means the power is out...

Ok,

Later,

Justin and The Team

Our Sleeping Area

Working on VBS

Alex working on his testimony

Students...

Our students have been asked to share their testimony at the school this week...the school consists of 500 kids...and 102 from the orphanage...the rest are locals...

Pray that God gives them the words to say...

Currently Brian and Alex are working on writing out their testimonies for when they share...

It is exciting to see our students challenged to share what they believe...

I hope it grows them as much as it will the students who hear their story...

We Love You All,

Justin and The Team

The Teams Are Out!!!

Brian, Alex, and Noah are helping build class rooms in the church...lots of sheet rock and concrete work...

The girls are working on VBS things for this week...

And I am getting ready for teaching at the pastors conference which started today...

It is going great...Everyone is healthy and in good spirits...the groups we are here with from VA are awesome...keep prayer for our health and energy...it usually takes a day to feel the effects of a full day of traveling...pray that tonight and tomorrow God would bless us with renewed energy...

Love you all,

Justin and The Team

Justin and Franky

For those of you who do not know...this is the child that Brittney and I sponsor.

Brian, Noah and Alex giving piggy back rides to the orphans.

We are here!!!

We got in yesterday around 5 o’clock Wisconsin time...4 o’clock Nicaragua time...I think Wisconsin is on daylight savings and Nicaragua is not, because they are in the same time zone...but anyway, the 12 passenger plane over the country was good...unfortunately when we got to Nicaragua and boarded the 12 pass plane we had to give them our carryon luggage and we kept our backpacks...when we landed none of our luggage was there...the next plane came in and had 4 bags of ours on it...but other than that, half of our group is without till 9 am this morning...the airline said the luggage would be on the next flight. We are also expecting the 12 bags we sent in a truck to drive across the country to be here around Noon today...that is the luggage that has all the clothes...As I started talking with Jeff (American that has moved down here) he told me that they REALLY needed the clothes...so it is exciting to see that we (the church) met a real need.

Lastly,

Please feel free to send this blog address through the prayer chain so they can stay up to date on the prayer needs of this trip...Also it would be awesome for the church to just see what we are doing...

I will try to continue to post pictures when I can...even though the internet is working now, there are rolling black outs with electricity, plus the internet service goes out at times too...so anyway, all that to say I will do my best.

We love you all,

Justin and the Team...

The smallest airport terminal...haha

Holding Laminated Tickets at Managua...

Milwaukee Airport waiting for check in to open...

We are in Managua...and they have internet???

haha...we have wireless internet in the airport terminal the size of the offices at the church...crazy...Anyway...we had two awesome flights...we are safe and have met up with our guide Greg and we are awaiting a 2:30 departure for the Orphanage in Puerto Cabazes...hopefully I will be able to continue to update this at the Orphanage...all the kids are really excited and cannot wait to see the orphanage...

Pray that Kim stays healthy on the plane ride...she got sick a few times on the first flight...Brittany got sick at the beggining of the second flight...so we got some Dramamean and it should get better...

All the kids send their love...

P.S. Love you Brittney and Noli...

Talk to you all soon,

Justin