Cameron Skinner

Hello to all who are listening. Me llamo Cameron  Skinner, this is my first missions trip and the best one I have ever been on. My first feeling when I looked out the window of the plane was excitement. When we landed it was quite chaotic but when we finally got to the church where we were staying, things settled down.

The highlights of this trip for me was going to the orphanage, playing soccer and picking and eating fresh fruit straight from the tree with all the kids. Also one of the most fun times I had while here was on our free day where we all went zip-lining, free falling and swimming in a volcano. The water was beautiful and the dock was about 15 feet high where we all jumped from. Later we went shopping where I bought a hammock and a knife of course. I slept in my new hammock with Stig.

Through the the time spent here, we spent a lot of our free time playing soccer with the locals. The meals were good and with rice and beans at every meal we never knew what we were going to get. All the people I met on this trip were awesome but three in particular were some of the coolest guys to hang out with and had extremely compelling and inspiring stories. Thanks to the missions team leaders and everyone involved. Awesome work, keep doing what you are doing.

Linda McElhinney

Hello friends and family,

Well it's hard to follow last night's blog. We had such a wonderful day on our tourist day, there were lots of photo's taken and many places traveled. The tour guide asked if we were taking the next day off  to rest when he dropped us off at the end of our day, we had crammed so much into our day.

Today started out a bit slower and concluded much the same. We began devotions with the 34th Psalm reminding us that we should worship God if you want the best, as worship opens doors to all his goodness, as paraphrased in the Message. It seems this trip has been about being thankful and worshipping God for the simple yet plentiful gifts He shares with us daily. Here are some examples that may not have crossed your mind. I am incredibly thankful for a cool clean shower. You might be saying "Is that your shower"? Yes it was until it had a shower head replaced today. With or without a shower head,  it was so refreshing.

Another wonderful blessing is the washing machine. I dare say, I'm sure I grumble and complain more about the laundry that I do  praise the Lord. But washing machines are truly a blessing!

This woman will spend 3 hours, yes 3 hours making tortilla's for her family.  A supermarket just minutes from our home is yet another  gift given from the Lord that I am sure I rarely thank Him for.


 I am often grateful for my bed. Here in Managua you see this daily on the street. It is a sure reminder that we should be thankful for the extravagant luxury of a mattress and clean sheets.

One thing that I can say that I have probably never thanked the Lord for is garbage pick up, but after seeing the dirty city streets and watching the children play in trash littered streets, I am so thankful for this weekly gift.

Romans 8: 28 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him......
I pray I will be more thankful from now on.
Blessing to you. God willing we'll be home two days. 41 hours but whose counting.

Noah Meneghini

Monday - Tourist day

Today was Tourist day and for those of you who don't know what that is, it is a whole day were we act like tourists (spending lots of money).
First we went to a zip-line in Mombacho, Nicaragua (https://shop.cafelasflores.com/gp/3/).  They have 11 stops doing mainly zip-line, but also a Tarzan swing, a tight rope, and a 45 foot drop at the end (don't worry mom, we were attached to a rope).

 

 

 

 

 

Next we stopped for lunch, best place ever! They're right on the edge of a volcano crater that is full of water. It had two platforms and a huge dock that you can jump off of to go swimming, while you're waiting for your food to come (that was the only time I wanted them to take a long time to make the food). (http://lagunadeapoyonicaragua.com/food-restaurants-laguna-de-apoyo-nicaragua/)

 

And Cameron taught us back-flips. :-)

Then we went to the traditional tourist trap... I mean attraction, at the market in Masaya. Where a lot of us bought hammocks and "Machetes". Tonight Stig and Cameron are sleeping in there's on the roof.

Stig McElhinney

Stig -Blog-
         

Today in the church serves John spoke about how that in the Jungle they catch monkeys by cutting a hole in a coconut and putting rice inside. when the monkey comes the hole is just big enough for the monkey to fit his had inside but when he clenches his fist and grabs the rice the monkey is unable to get his hand free which ultimately leads to the downfall of the monkey. We are like the monkey we hold on to our sin even though we know that it will be our downfall and all we need to do is let go of our sin. I met a great guy named Guillermo who speaks three languages fluently and is working on his fourth. I’m very glad that I met him. I also played soccer in the street with many of the local boy and I did well for a baseball player.

Michaela

Today we visited the orphanage in Jinotepe, a small suburban town in the mountains about an hour drive from Managua. Pictures are worth a thousand words and I am in no condition to write that many words so we will do this the visual way.

 We started out for Jinotepe right after breakfast, piling the fourteen of us into the church van along with beans, rice, pancake mix, oil, cookies, mashed potato mix, apples, and oranges for the orphanage. 

Halfway up the mountain, the exhaust turned black, the engine started smoking, and we had to pull over and offer up our water bottles to the leaking radiator hose. 

After some waiting, the passengers started walking, leaving Pastor Cal, Jess, and longterm missionary John to try and get the engine cool enough for the rest of the trip. They would drive it up the steep part we had walked and meet us on the road ahead. We soon found that the van could no longer serve us for the journey to Jinotepe. They drove it back to CC Managua in neutral.

We finally got to the nearest bus stop, about a mile or so up the road, and found a bus with enough room for the twelves of us.

We road it down the mountain to a different bus stop on the edge of Managua and boarded a city bus to bring us closer homer.

After that ride, we walked the final eight or so blocks to CC Managua,

reloaded all of the food into a different and even smaller the van, and began our journey again.

After a beautiful ride through the rural Nicaraguan mountains, we reached the orphanage and found the older kids working in the one of the many fields of the property, harvesting beans.

 

Then commenced the soccer game, and a small basketball game for five of us on the side.

I'm pretty sure we got pwned in both.

We then got an awesome taste of not only the kid's musical talent, but also all the fruit that surrounded the orphanage in their fields. Some stayed back for the concert while others were taken through the acres of fruit plants -- up trees and through fields and woods and ant colonies and along cliffs. 

We had to leave way way too soon, squeezing into the van and back down the mountain, where we went to "The Diner," a very air-conditioned American 50's-styled restaurant in Managua. There was many a blessed reunion of gringo and hamburger.

Aveline y Alysha

We returned to the Church and began the evening "hanging out" with our friends in the street, something that I think is a really cool part of the Hispanic culture. We played more street fútbol, sucked on more mamones, and socialized with all the kids of the neighborhood. 

Shout out to Guillermo, our awesome Nica guide during our brief hitchhiking excursion and translator during the outreaches of the past few days. He is probably one of the most crazily-gifted incredible people I have met and I'm sure others of the team can agree. 

Altogether, it was quite an adventuresome day. I will never cease to be sad when I leave any of my new found spanish-speaking friends, but I would really like to thank those of you supporting us with prayers and finance who make this trip and these experiences possible. You are the hands and feet of God in my life at least, and I cannot aptly express my gratitude. 

Bendiciones y agradecimiento, 

                Michaela Meneghini

John Meneghini

Buenas noches

Cal, John, Robert, John, Joe, Julio

This morning I got up at 5:00am to go to a bible study with 4 other men from the church we are staying at.  We went to Robert's house, in a nearby neighborhood, where we read a few chapters of the old testament, and talked and prayed together. We had a great time, and told Robert we'd like to come again.





Robert is an American who met, and eventually married, a Nicaraguan woman named Marisol while he was on a short term missionary trip to Calvary Chapel Managua in 2000. After living in the USA for a number of years Robert and Marisol moved to Mexico and eventually came to Nicaragua where they were closer to Marisol's family.  Robert and Marisol currently have a house church meeting in their home.  "This isn't something we planned", say Robert, "it started as a small bible study in our home, and just grew".

Robert and Marisol's home in Las Brisas, Managua

Later in the day we returned to Robert and Marisol's home with the rest of the team to visit the church.  We met some of the members, saw a slide show with pictures of different church activities, sang some songs, and prayed together.

Los Martines

While there we walked through the neighborhood and went to visit one of the members home.  This home is in one of the poorest neighborhoods, in the barrio of of Los Matines, Managua - which is only two blocks away from Robert and Marisol's home.

Living Room

While visiting their home, they graciously invited the whole team to come in and spend some time in their back yard.  They were very proud of their little three room home, and they wanted everyone to come in and see the new addition they just added at the back of the house (a kitchen).  They also shared their plans for wanting to use the property as a site for a new building for their growing house church.

Back yard

After spending some time passing out literature and talking with many of the people in the neighborhood, we walked back to Robert and Marisol's house and said our good byes.






I am very grateful for the hospitality we've experienced today.  Every time I come to Nicaragua I am impressed by the very unassuming and gracious nature of the Christians in this country.  Despite any material lack or want, they don't think of themselves as being poor.  Instead, possessed by a humble dignity, they willingly open their lives and their homes and share what they have in a spirit of generosity and love. This is both refreshing and challenging. I seldom see these qualities in my own life, or in the lives of the Christians in my own country - where there is very little material lack or want.

 

Robert and Marisol with their two daughters

Thanks for reading,

John Meneghini

Keirsten McElhinney

This is my first time coming to Nicaragua. Its very different from being home in the U.S. Its pretty hard for me to talk to the kids here because I don't speak their language.  But even though I cant speak their language I can still communicate with them in some ways.

Last night there was an adorable little boy named Nathanael, who stayed here at the church with his mom and dad who are missionaries here in Nicaragua. He is 1 years old and loved playing with my bubbles that my mom had brought for the kids. He just left this morning. Seeing him and playing with him made me smile every time, and this is him.

Today we went to "tent city". There aren't any tents there any more, the government has built the people there new homes to live in. The people who live in "tent city" started living there as a way to protest against the use of Pesticides on the fruit where they worked. They protested against the use of Pesticides because they had no protection when they worked so the Pesticide would get on their skin and eventually it caused diseases and other problems. This one man that we met and prayed over had a tumour on his hip.

Sandi Wood

Aug 14, 2013
Day 3

Buenes Noches,

As a first time missionary I didn't really know what to expect except for the weather to be hot, rice and beans to be served with every meal, and to do work projects and outreaches.  So far i haven't been disappointed ; the weather is hot, we do have rice and beans with every meal including breakfast, and we have done work projects around the church and outreaches in the towns.  During one of these outreaches there was a particular woman who touched my heart named Helmi.  Helmi is a 90 year old woman who use to work at the dump.  Since the dump is no longer there, it got turned into housing communities and a recycling site, Helmi is currently without a job.  Without a job she cannot pay the rent, the lights, or for food.  Surprisingly though her financial needs and constant worry about loosing her house,  this is not the first prayer request that she had for us.  Helmi started crying stating the she has no husband, no family, no friends and she is constantly lonely.  She is a Christian though and goes to a local church in the community.  I just felt like there was something i wanted to do but didn't know what yet.  The next house that we went to evangelize to there was a little store inside their house.  We bought some milk, bread, eggs and bananas for her.  Myself and the translator went back to her house and presented the groceries to her.  Helmi started crying and gave me a hug saying that she loved me like a daughter.  This is truly one of those experiences that I will always remember.  Today we did work projects around the church, myself and John worked on some computer project that i can't even start to describe except i did what i was told to haha.  Then we went downstairs and helped the rest of the team paint the church.  We were surprised by Julio showing up and was given a lovely sermon about God's grace even when we don't deserve it.   After the sermon we played soccer with the locals and got beat miserably, but had a great time doing so.  With that I bid you good night from Nicaragua.

Sandi Wood

Alysha

Hello all!!
This is my second year coming to Managua, Nicaragua and I've been more than excited for this trip back. Today I woke up early and after devotionals and breakfast Michaela, Keirsten and myself washed the two guard dogs Sasha and Oso. It was interesting but bribery and food can calm any dog down. We then washed the walls of the sanctuary and taped around the edges to prepare them for tomorrow where we will paint them. After spending time with the guard who not only remembers me but thinks I'm his granddaughter, we went to lunch. Guadelope was out tourist attraction this afternoon where we split up into two groups and went to peoples houses and prayed with them. The amount of appreciation and emotion they put into their prayers will always amaze me. We then ate dinner and got ready for Prayer Night which also amazes me every time. People can pray in english or spanish but God hears all languages from all hearts. I saw my friend Reynaldo and a lot of others that I made friends with my last trip and I'm astonished that they remember my name sounding like Alicia because Alysha doesn't exist to them. We were able to stay out late and talk to them and "bond" once again in an unexplainable way. I was able to see Mariling my dearest friend here and her baby boy and that experience was something I'll never forget. My long awaited trip back is taking my breath away and I can't wait to see what the rest of the trip has in store for me and my heart.

Buenas Noches.