Nicaragua Journal Entry Day #3... El Porvenir

Encouragement for today...

"And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."  Matthew 21:21-22

Lord, I ask today that we might impact some lives today, including our own!  I pray for safety, and for our ability to love the needy unconditionally!!  I hope our day can go smoothly.  I can't wait to shine your light :)

Wow!!!  The most beautiful and amazing day :)  We drove to the community of El Porvenir, about 15 minutes from our hotel in Chinandega.  We drove down a dirt path to get there.  My heart was full of sadness upon arriving and seeing the poverty.  The animals are all bony and skinny.  The houses are made of trash, long plastic sheets, and aluminum roofing.  However, when we got out of our van, the community people gathered all around to watch us while we were introduced to the FH staff.  Then, we broke into groups to begin our mission of planting lemon and orange trees for the families.  Our group (Pete & Anna with us) went to our first house.  Braydon and Bryce planted our first tree for a dad and his son.  The families had to decide ahead of time where they wanted their tree and had to have a hole dug and ready for us.  

While the boys were planting the tree, we were talking to the dad.  He told us his son's name was Wilberth, sounds like Wilber.  Im thinking... "What are the chances that this is OUR Wilberth?!?!?!"  We began asking questions about his sponsor.  The dad walked away and went into his home and came out with some tattered and dirty letters... they were OUR letters!!!!!  I was SO excited!!!  The Lord had this all planned... our first stop!!!  I realized at that very moment just how important our letters are.  They have very little but it was obvious that our letters meant something special to this family.  I prayed with Wilberth and his dad.  

We presented the tree to them as a reminder of our friendship and God's greatness of life.  Praying the tree brings much fruit to them physically and spiritually!  Wilberth and his friends followed us the rest of the morning... SO special!!!

We continued to plant trees for other families.  I was so proud of Braydon.  He did all the planting and pushed the wheelbarrow through the community.  Both boys were so loving to the people, it made my heart happy :)

At noon we went to the FH feeding station, which our last ECC team helped build. 

There is a team of moms that come to the station to cook food on two stoves for the kids.  FH has done an amazing job of beginning to equip this community to work hard for each other.  

The kids started showing up, each with a bowl and spoon.  Most of the bowls were dirty.  Jairo asked the ECC kids to serve the community kids.  It was beautiful to see our children serving in this way with such joy!

Once the kids were done eating, we started our VBS programming.  I hung out with the craft team to work on learning the names of the kids from the name tags that they were creating.

Helping Wilberth cut his puppet :)

We left the community to head back to the hotel for the kids to swim for a few hours before dinner :)

We gathered at 7pm for devotions.  We talked about what poverty means...

...God's concern for the poor is a central theme in the Bible.  Over 400 verses, sprinkled throughout every genre of scripture, speak about God's passion for the needy and His desire that His followers share that passion.  Whenever we are passionate about something, we talk about it often.  God, through His word, speaks frequently about the poor and needy.  Poor = Those whom lack both the material necessities of life and suffer from low social status and vulnerability to oppression.  He displays "tender mercies" to the poor and needy, desiring that they find refuge, protection, and provision.

"Blessed is he who has regard for the poor."  Psalm 41:1