Our first short-term team

Well, we did it! Our first short-term missions team just left. They were 16 college students and 2 leaders from Purdue University, and they were such a blast to work with! We had so much fun and learned a lot about God and each other in the 10 days that they were here. We started their experience in Nicaragua off by taking them for a two hour ride in the back of a milk truck out to a rural village called Likia. There we taught a literacy class. The whole village seemed to gather for the night. 23 gringos makes for a real party out there. They had a long church service and even killed the fattened calf for us...literally! We spent the night in hammocks in their one-room church and got up at 5 a.m. to watch the sunrise and milk a cow. Then we made some fresh corn tortillas and had some tender cow heart for breakfast! The group embraced rural life like pros! They were eagerly helping them cut grass with a machete and planted yucca and corn with the farmers. They rode horses...and one burro, and overall had a wonderful experience.

Brad teaching in Likia

Then the real work started! We came back to the bustling city (not really) of Rio Blanco and started working on helping a local church build their new building. All I have to say about that is...MUD MUD MUD! Mud is lodo in Spanish, and we sure did have a load of it! We were put to work leveling a floor, which basically means shoveling mud all morning for four days, but the group had an amazing attitude and worked like true loving servants all week!



They also did a great job teaching four nights of ESL classes. We taught them conversations and games and Bible verses, and the students really enjoyed having them here.


Oh yeah, and did I mention there was a mariachi band? (We had a fun night to celebrate three of the team members' birthdays that happened while they were here. So fun!)


The team did a wonderful job. Rio Blanco will not soon forget them. And I'm sure we won't either!

And the next one arrives in a week. Wow! We'll be leading that one, so keep us in your prayers, and we'll let you know how it goes!