Well, I tried to post on the last day of our camp in Nicaragua, but we lost power and my half-way-written post disappeared. So… I will now post a general follow-up.

17 months ago, we made our first family trip to Nicaragua. It was mostly a scouting trip, to see how we might structure a group trip at a later time. Wyeth and I both had a strong desire to lead family mission trips to the area, but after returning to the states and doing some research, we quickly found that the general concept of “family missions” is pretty rare. Many many churches take youth groups on mission trips. Some also take adult-only trips. But very few take younger children.

The reasons many people avoid taking children on mission trips are plentiful… Is it safe? What can 7-11 year old kids really do on the mission field? What dangers will they be exposed to?

But we decided to pray for God to answer all those questions. A year ago, it was just a dream. But then, in the fall of 2008, we decided to send an email out to friends and family, seeking anyone interested in joining us for a summer 2009 family mission trip to Nicaragua. At first, the response was minimal. Eventually, we had a group of 27 people willing to travel to Campo Alegria, about 2 hours south of Managua, Nicaragua. The youngest was 7, and the oldest was 47.

Campo Alegria is uniquely suited for family missions because it IS safe (Nicaragua is safer than Philadelphia or Baltimore for the most part), and because mission teams lead summer camps for poor children. There is little (if any) manual labor. Our kids can participate in the camp right along side the Nicaraguan children, or help run activities like Arts & Crafts or Geography.

Now, looking back on our trip, we can say that the trip was a huge success! During our debriefing, one middle-school girl commented, “I learned how lucky I am just to have a house… I knew I was lucky to have certain electronics, but I didn’t realize how lucky I was just to have a bed, or a house. I am changed because of that.” AMEN!

We were tested, stretched, molded, and generally made uncomfortable by various elements of the trip. But that was different for everyone. Some were most affected by the bugs and heat. For others it was the food and unsafe water. Or, just witnessing the poverty. And for some… it was the fear of the unknown. But everyone was taken outside his/her comfort zone and asked to rely on God’s provision. It’s impossible not to grow from that. And when you serve as a family, you also grow closer with each other.

Many of the team members are already talking about returning next year. We hope there will be many groups from Harford County and Maryland traveling on family mission trips. And for those who are not able to travel to Nicaragua, perhaps you could consider organizing a fundraiser for the project? In particular, we are praying God would provide the funds to build additional family housing ($100k), to purchase two school buses for campo ($50k), and to put new roofs on the cabins ($12k). We seek your prayers and support to make this happen. THANK YOU! Gloria a Dios.

VIEW PHOTOS from our trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/wwccwillard/FamilyMissionTripJune2009#

Yesterday the kids arrived just after 11am, with a boatload of enthusiam and even bigger smiles! We split them into teams (red, green, blue, and yellow), then held our first chaple time. All of the campers participated in singing (which drowned out our out-of-tune, mispronounced Spanish!) and loved the skit our kids put on. Next, came lunch, then four rotations of activities (science, sports, health, and arts and crafts) before we all headed down to the beach for some swimming.

The lack of breeze left swarms of no-see-ums hovering over the water, and lots of fish jumping out of the water to eat the little bugs, but the kids didn’t mind at all! They swam and splashed and swam some more… pretty much right up until dinner time. After dinner, we played a few group games, then watched “Horton Hears a Who” on the projector. For the kids, the best part was the popcorn we served along with the movie!

After the movie, the kids were asking to go to sleep, so off to bed we all went! It was a tiring day, but one also filled with plenty of laughs (even if most of those laughs were from the campers, as they laughed at our attempts to speak Spanish).

Today (Saturday), went even more smoothly, as we had learned a few tricks on Friday and were able to tweak our schedule a bit to accomodate the needs of our specific group. For example, our campers are quite a bit younger than those of past camps (ours are 6-8). This means they get tired sooner, and lose interest in certain activities more quickly. Never fear! As Clark keeps reminding us, every “problem” is just an opportunity!

Some highlights so far… listening to the campers sing a song we taught them - on their free time, throwing them countless times in the waves (after the wind picked up this morning), watching them attempt to play a Chop Point favorite - Glow-timate Frisbee, trying fried cheese (wait, that was one of my lows, not highs ), and being so so proud of the youth of our team as they friend, lead, and care for the campers.

It’s time to get some much needed rest now. We will say good-bye to the campers tomorrow afternoon, and I will try to post again then. In the meantime, we appreciate your prayers that the wind would return, that we would be refreshed by this evening’s sleep, and that the campers would leave Campo Alegria feeling God’s love through us.

So today we spent some time getting ready for the campers to arrive tomorrow. We also painted the latrine (a bright sunny yellow!) and took plenty of time to swim in the lake.

I think everyone felt much better upon waking up this morning. The sun rises early here (BEFORE 5am!) which means we do too… but then it sets by 6pm. (We are two hours behind our friends and family back home.) The chickens and rooster were gracious enough to wake us, lest we might have missed the beautiful sunrise .

A wonderful storm blew through last night, bringing us a bit cooler weather, and wind to blow away the bugs. They seem to have returned a bit tonight, as the wind has died back down. Everyone who lives here says they’ve never seen the wind this calm for this long. Hmmm… the only downside to that is this: the normal 40-50mph winds blow away the bugs. So, can you send up a few prayers for some wind at Campo Alegria? Thanks!

Our kids really enjoyed swimming, riding the horses here at Campo, swimming, and more swimming. Tonight for dinner, we enjoyed a wonderful Nicaraguan specialty - nakatamale. It’s essentially a tamale with chicken (bones and all), potato, rice, and some other delicious extras, all wrapped in a banana leaf. It was wonderful!

Now we will spend a little more time getting ready for the kids to arrive tomorrow morning. Until then…

Well, we are here!!!

After 2 airplane rides. and a long bus ride, we have arrived. We went up to a volcano crater on our way here to the camp. Very cool, but very hard to breathe!

We are all exhausted due to very little sleep. We had leave for the airport at 3 am. The teens were out at the movies, and many adults were up getting ready. Even the ones who did sleep only got a couple of hours.

Well, I think it is safe to say that everyone is shock. With emotions running high, exhaustion set in, and the sweat pouring well need to settle in. It is the buggy season and the wind is not as strong as we expected. Our meal was yummy when we got here, but the bugs liked it too. Use your imagination!

But that’s how we grow. If things were going to be easy, then we wouldn’t learn as much. I (Erinn) think on every mission trip I have been on, I have doubted my fitness for the task. But, God knows more than me and I trust that. He has provided us with the necessary skills and we can do this!!

We just need to remind ourselves that God is in control and he will take care of us. “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.”

… Lord, remind us that you chose us to be here and when we are doing your will, only joy can result.

–Erinn

Well… we leave the church parking lot at 3:30am very early Wednesday morning to travel to DC for our flight to Managua. There is so much to do before then, that we can hardly let ourselves think *too* much about the trip yet. We’ve all agreed to let out a collective sigh upon the plane’s take-off, and to then allow the feelings of excitement to take root. Until then, there is much planning, packing, and preparation to do.

In fact, there was a flurry of activity at our house for several hours on Saturday as our mission team packing the first aid kits we’ll be handing out to campers in Nicaragua. We used an assembly line (of sorts) to place hygiene items (like toothpaste, soap, and washclothes) and medical supplies (like band-aids, antibacterial ointment, and other bandages) into 2-gallon plastic bags.

THANK YOU to everyone who graciously donated time, money, and/or supplies to our trip. We are well prepared with thousands of dollars worth of medical supplies to give out in Nicaragua. After receiving so many medical supplies, we turned our sights on something fun, and sought donations of baseball equipment. (We’re still looking for a set (or two) of bases, in case you happen to have those laying around ) How exciting to be given gloves, bats, balls, and even some catcher’s gear to take with us! We plan to have an all-camp baseball game at the end of our time with the children from Managua, thanks to your support.

I plan to update this blog as much as I am able while we are in Nicaragua. We covet your prayers throughout our trip!