Another team in Nicaragua

The team spent their second night in hammocks at the church in Likia.

The villagers had a lot of fun showing us how to ride their horses...

... and we had fun learning from them.

We'll miss Velloso, our trusty, loving, and protective companion.

Scott was a great ESL student and even better friend.

Heidi was another dedicated ESL student and such a sweet friend.

Our goodbye dinner with the team's host families

Everyone shared their stories of living together

Relaxing and reflecting on the experience at debrief

Amy with Ana, one of the team members

Wherever we went, we tended to attract a crowd, so the teams were prepared for the kids with bubbles..

Saying goodbye to our youngest ESL class

There's often a shortage of pictures of all the hardest work, because there's a shortage of time to take them..

The second short-term mission team in Nicaragua went really well!  We taught literacy, ESL (English as a Second Language), helped build a church, and taught community health with educational skits.  The team also had a great mimed drama that the locals really connected with. 

It was really amazing to see the team bond with their host families that they lived with for the duration of the trip.  By halfway through their trip, they were a real family.  They were calling each other "mama" and "hijo/hija" (son/daughter), and the siblings grew to be real brothers and sisters as well.  The impact that the mission team had on the people of Rio Blanco, Nicaragua amazed us.

This trip has dissolved all the skepticism I had about short term missions.  Prior to this trip, I (Brad) didn't have much international short-term missions experience, so I still didn't know what to think about them.  Short-term missions can sometimes catch a lot of criticism for not being cost-effective.  Some people say why pay to send your own people to help, when you could just send the money in the mail so that the people there could hire their own help and buy their own things.  However, this trip has blown that viewpoint out of the water.  This trip showed me first-hand the unseen personal impact of a short-term missions trip that is never to be underestimated.

Short-term missions fill work with love.  With love, they are worth well beyond the good work they accomplish.  God could have sent us a letter from heaven to say "I love you", but He knew how much more effective it would be to come here in person as Jesus.  We would do well to follow that same example.