KING OF THE MOUNTAIN!
view of the mountain.
VBS at Felix´s church.
HIGH FIVE!
Up on the mountain!
Volcano Masaya. Beautiful!!!
abandoned catholic church way up in the mtns.
Mount of Olives at Palo Solo. (Mountain church)
Pushing the broken bus to the volcano! hahaha!
Sarah and her clan of little children =) they love her!
In Miami waiting to board the flight to Managua!
sitting on the front porch of Provadenic

Yesterday was the day of the mountain church. We all woke up and got ready, ate breakfast, and loaded on the bus. Then we drove up to the mountain and we drove as far as we could (the view was amazing!) and then unloaded our many trunks and backpacks of vbs luggage to carry. I don´t think any of us had a clue as to how much we would be walking, but it was a lot! We hiked for about 45 minutes up hill and it definatly was not a chilly day up there! The sun was very warm and pretty much everybody got sunburnt. We arrived at the church and had vbs and womens ministry at the same time. There was about 45-50 children present. We shot off our water rocket that Dave recommended we build, because the children love it. Then we had our lunch up on the mountain. After lunch and everything with the church was finished we split up into two groups. Some walked to an old abandoned catholic church that was higher up the mountain and the others walked back down to a really nice library that was built by a Nicaraguan lady. The group that went to the library also took a rigourous hike down further to see monkeys! The walk back to the bus was a lot easy because we had less luggage to carry, but we were all really tired and very very dirty! It was a fight for the showers when we got back to Provadenic haha. Later that night we went to a church service at Pastor Luis´church then came home and went to bed!

Today was more of a relaxing tourist day. We started out by going to either Pastor Felix´s church or some went to Pastor Migel´s church. Either way they were both a great way to start the day! Then, we ate lunch and headed out for the volcano. On the way to the volcano our lovely bus broke down!!! haha. The very manly men that we have in our group got out and pushed the bus to the side of the road. Then they had to move it more out of the way and mentioned that it was easier to push once all the women were out of it. HOW RUDE! haha. We found a ride up the mountain to the volcano. The view from the volcano was amazing! You could see way deep down into the volcano and there was lots of smoke and the lovely smell of sulfur in the air. Then, Ernesto had our autobus fixed when we got done sightseeing and we loaded up and drove to Masaya to go shopping! Hooray! We only had about an hour and a half to shop so don´t be to picky about your souvenirs familias! =) Then we came back to Provadenic and prepared for VBS tomorrow. It is at San Rafael and then we´re headed to the BEACH! woohoo!!! Keep us in your prayers. We appreciate them all and miss everybody! LOVE YA! see ya in 3 days!

P.S. Thanks for all the support and prayers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HOLA from Nicaragua!!!!!! Sorry for the delay in informacion. We have been very very very busy here. Everybody and everything is going well. Traveling here also went well. Everything went perfect and we got in and out of all the airports very quickly. Thank goodness we didn´t lose any of our MANY suitcases. We got to Provadenic and unpacked and settled in a little before our first lunch. The food has been pretty different here. Some people have enjoyed their plates (and everybody else´s haha) and others not so much. Monday night we had dinner with the pastors and their familys and met a lot of new people. Then we had a planning meeting about what we were going to be doing all week. Tuesday morning we all woke up bright and early and had a wonderful breakfast of eggs, pancakes, beans and rice (every meal) and lots and lots of fruit. After that the men went to Pastor Felix´s church to look at the construction site and the women stayed here to organize all our stuff for VBS and women´s ministry. (we ended up with 710 potholders! woohoo!) After everybody got back we had lunch and then we left for Pastor Luis´ church for womens ministry. We learned quickly that the children love to have their picture taken! Later that night after dinner we went to Pastor Felix´s church for service. We had our first experience with a Nicaraguan grocery store and dealing with money! That was a lot of fun!

On Wednesday the women and men went to Pastor Felix´s church for VBS (over 100 kids came) and construction. It was pretty much the same as Tuesday´s schedule. In the night we went to Pastor Ervin´s church. On Thursday the women went to Ervin´s church for VBS (we were expecting 70 kids and got 130!) and the men went to construction. We went to Migel´s church for service that night. Today, Friday, we went to Migel´s church for VBS and ended up with over 200 children!! We are going back to Migel´s church for women´s ministry this afternoon and others are going to painting and construction. Tonight, we are taking a break with no church service, because we all need the break haha.

The people here in Nicaragua have definatly touched all of us in some special way. They are so grateful for everything they have and they appreciate everything we do for them. The men and children here help us work too. The kids love to help paint and the men are extremely helpful with construction. They don´t cut corners when they do a job.

Adios familias!!! =) Have fun in the cold!!!! Be home soon!

We love you all!

First Post!

Well, I'm new to this whole blogging world! I'm really just posting this to make sure my blog works haha! Hopefully this can be updated as much as possible while in Nicaragua to keep everybody back here (in the winter wonderland) up to date on what's going on with our missionary progress. Wish us luck! Pray for us!!!! Nicaragua, ready or not, here we come! :))