hello all,
welcome to what is most likely the last update from central america!
Eric and I have been having an awesome time the past 10 days or so back in nicaragua. We went to Grananda again, Masaya again, Leon, Esteli and now Matagalpa (all northern towns). We met a guy named Justin in Granada and went with him to Masaya where he got to meet Manuel, Alejandra and some of the street kids we became friends with on the beginnig on the trip. Justin bought them a soccer ball and we played a great game of soccer in the central park. We got to have great times with Justin both living out our faith in a real, practical way (with the kids) and then had an awesome conversation in whcih we were able to share the entire gospel that night.
Leon was fun, stayed in a SKETCHY 2$ hotel in Esteli where we did not sleep haha then moved on to matagalpa which is known as "coffee country." After looking at several cheap options in the town for staying and not feeling too great about any of them we came across one last hotel called Hotel Alvarado. It was incredible. 15 bucks for the two of us (a little pricy) but well worth it. Our room was big, great beds, TV, private bathroom and our own living room with couches and a balcony. It is also owned by a really nice family who happened to be christians. We were immmediately welcomed in as part of the family. They invited us to go to church with them saturday night and then dinner afterwards. It was so nice to be around a christian family again--we stayed at the dinner table till almost midnight Saturday night getting to know each other and talking about jesus.
Sunday morning we went to church with them again where we were introduced as youth pastors and an announcement was made (without warning) that we would be doing childrens church for the day---which means, due to erics wonderful spanish, i was leading childrens church haha. We all went into a back room of the church and the kids just looked at us as though we had a plan. So, we grabbed some little kids bible stories and read about five of them before struggling over a quick review of what we "learned." Because the preacher usually gives sermons for over an hour that meant we had 45 minutes left with no plan and no more bible stories...so we played musical chairs, some ridiculous game in spanish that i still dont understand sang father abraham, and took pictures. Luckily everyone in the church was so excited to have us there they didnt mind our screaming and yelling throughout the sermon. It ended up being a lot of fun and we agreed to come back to the night service later that day.
for the afternoon we were invited to go out to the family farm with Noel and Flor (the hostel owners) Flors mom and some extended family. We loaded into a pickup truck and drove out into the mountains where they have a beautiful farm of coconuts, banannas and mangoes among other things. They also had a pool and a building out back that can be used by mission teams or other christian gorups that are coming to Matagalpa. We had an incredible lunch and watched great home videos from different family birhtday parties.
It turns out that the family we met happen to be some of the most influential people in their church and in matagalpa. 5 of Flors siblings are doctors, as is Noel, Leonora (her mom) is incredible and started a school in a poor barrio on the mountain, and they all take turns leading worship/scripture lessons in the church. They were also just amazing poeple who had their house open to poor kids from the street to hang out in and maids who became part of the family and other friends always stopping by to hang out in the living room.
We also had the privilege of eating breakfast and doing morning devotionals with Flor, Noel Leonora and the maids every day and got to go with Leonora to the school she started today. She is an incredible lady. Everyone we passed on the drive up new her and would stop to talk and the kids from the school ran to hug her when she walked in. She is firey, energetic, and hilarious and everyone she talks to feels loved.
We checked out this morning and are now waiting for a bus that will take us back to Leon, then to Masaya to visit our friends from the beginning of the trip (the boy from the market and his family that we took to dinner) and then we will spend the last couple days at Laguna de Apoyo where we will be able to Kayak, Tube, Swim and enjoy one last taste of relaxation before heading back to virginia then newark!
No more time to really write but enjoy the pictures and ill do more of an update and post more pictures when we get back to the states!

july 21

the other day I (finally) finished the chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis. Incredible. It is amazing the way that Lewis can write a book for children that has such incredible philosophical/spiritual/moral/biblical lessons that adults can learn from as well. As i turned through the last chapters of the "the last battle" i actually got kind of emotional haha. It is so cool to see the gospel of Jesus Christ Illustrated through fictional characters. As i read through the series i got more and more attached to the characters and wrapped into the story and, consequently more and more in love with Jesus. One part of the last battle really stood out to me. As the children, the professor, king tirian and all the other narnian creatures who loved Aslan got into his country, they describe the beauty of everything they see. Soon, they discover that this beautiful land that they are walking through (they think for the first time) is actually the true narnia. The same mountain ranges they always thought were so beautiful have reached new heights, the colors are brighter, the rivers seem clearer...etc. They suddenly realize that for the first time they are seeing the "real thing." Lewis explains it like this: " you may have been in a room in wich there was window that looked out on a lovely bay of the sea or a green valley that wound away among mountians. Andin the wall of that room opostite to the window there may have been a looking0glass. And as you turned away from the window you suddenly caught sight of that sea or the valley, all over again, in the looking glass. And the sea and the mirror, or the valley in the mirror, were in some snes just te same as th ereal ones: yet at the same time they were somehow different, deeper, more wonderful, more like the places in the story- a story you may not have ever heard but very much wanted to know..."

basically, to condense a lot of random thoughts, i have been seeing and experiencing so many beautiful things this trip. I have spent the past two weeks between mountain cloudforests, rainforests, and white sand, palm tree lined, nearly deserted carribean beaches with beautiful coral reefs for snorkling. The morning i finished this book i took a boat trip from the island we were staying on back to the mainland and couldnt help but sit in awe of Gods creation. It was a beautiful day, no clouds, mountain range ahead, islands behind, and water so clear we could see the bottom over 20 feet down. The idea that this is only a shadow of how beautiful earth will be when heaven comes down, and all creation is redeemed and restored is incredible. The idea that God can create something more beautiful, or allow me to see creation in a way that is clearer or more beautiful than i am seeing it is incredible.

so quick update:
after my last update from panama city we have been to el valle (small mountain town), boquete (mountain town), lost and found eco lodge (hostel in the rainforest), isla bastimento (quiet carribean island in bocas del toro) and now we are staying in a cottage in manzanillo costa rica (carribean again).
In Boquete Eric and I met a lot of great people, once again from all over the world, and really connected well with a couple from new zealand, Jacob and Emma. We convinced them to come to the lost and found eco lodge with us, where we met tons of awesome people and enjoyed the rainforest (including a four hour treasure hunt through forest and streams for a victory bottle of rum) and the awesome critturs it offers. There was a great group of people staying at the hostel and since it was in the middle of nowhere, we all hung out every night at the hostel and playing cards and listening to music. From here we convinced Jacob and Emma to head with us to Bocas del Toro in panama and then manzanillo. OUr hostel in bocas del toro was a really relaxed hang out spot for lots of local guys and we had a really good time hanging out with them and the guys that worked there.In lost and found we met annother couple named Greg and Aisha (south africa and australia) who met us at bocas del toro a day later and have been with us since.
the six of us have had an awesome time relaxing by the beach, snorkling in the reefs, reading, playing dominoes and cards, and cooking HUGE feasts for dinner. We really love them a lot and are heading back up to nicaragua with them tomorrow and hopefully spending a few days together going to towns none of us have been to before they head off to see many of the things we have already done. Tonight the four guys are all gonna get Cuban Cigars and hang out on the beach for sunset. Last night an american couple that lives near our cottage that we met invited us all over for a huge sea food meal and hanging out at their pool. I finally got control of a computer with internet and some speakers and played radical face and josh garrels all night for entertainment. God is blessing us with great times, great friends and great conversations.

in honor of indepence day

I hope all is well in Amurrica!
i am currently in panama city, having an incredible time doing ministry both in my hostel as well as in a poor urban community a few blocks down the road. The other day i drove in a taxi past these crumbling (literally) projects with people sleeping on the sidewalk, selling drugs in the street, and prostitutes on the corner. I went back to the hostel and felt like i needed to go back down there. I was really tired and tried to brush it off, however, i couldnt get it out of my head that i needed to be down there. So, Eric and I grabbed our drivers licences (still ID but less important) and just enough money to take a taxi out if necessary and walked down towards the neighborhood of el Chorillo. We got stopped by a cop about 2 blocks down telling us not to go any further we would be shot. However, I could tell my desire to go there was not from me, so i told him i knew what i was doing, we would be fine. we walked two more blocks down and people started shouting out their windows telling us to turn around, dont go further. Finally a woman cooking outside her apartment yelled at us, this is a red zone you are not allowed here. I tried to explain to her that we knew we had to be out by dark and that we just wanted to find a church we could go too and worship with people on sunday. As we argued, haha, I noticed she had some fish cooking on her grill. I interupted her to ask what it was and she said it was jamaican style fish. Soon, as we started asking questions about her and her friends, we went from unwanted intruders to having chairs and seats brought out for usa nd great conversations with neighbors while she cooked fish for us (3 dollars for a whole fish, shrimp, and fried plantanes). We learned about life in urban panama and got to share stories, laughs and the gospel with them.There were kids playing soccer in the street, men lining the sidewalk drinking beers, families bringing their meals to the curb to eat outside with everyone and music blaring out a top story window for everyone to enjoy. At the end of the evening, one of our new friends, stanley, walked us home so their would be no trouble.
It is so cool to see how quickly the gospel can break down barriers. the Gospel is personal, it is individual, does not group people together. The gospel says that God loves people individually, chose them individually, and dies for them individually. Looking at the world with this in mind, color is no longer important, social class doesnt matter, and stereotypes (although difficult) can be broken. I am realizing that that, among many other things, is what is so unique about the gospel and is one of the many things that gives it such power. Lorraine, stanley and their neighborhoods have been categorized. They are seen as poor, dirty, dangerous, and better avoided. They have begun to believe that about themselves and even see themselves as dangerous people. However, despite the fear that so many panamanians and "gringos" have of them and their neighbors, god is not afraid of them haha. The gospel is so much more powerful and so much bigger than that, that it doesnt back down in the face of stereotypes, racism, and dangerous neigborhoods, it thrives. In case anyone was wondering, yes i am very excited about Newark New Jersey.
We got back to the hostel, excited, and as we told people about our evening we were able to easily transition into conversations about what we are all about. We invited people to come back the next day with us to support Lorraine (the fish woman) by buying her fish instead of going to a bigger nice restaurant. so, yesterday, we went back with two friends. Once again, we got stopped by a cop (two this time) and had people telling us not to go any further, but when we turned the corner lorraine jumped up and gave us a huge hug and went and called her friend stanley who had been their the night before. Our friends were nervous, didnt talk a whole lot, but got to be a third party in a night of great conversations displaying Gods love for us individually, his love or people in general, and the way that that should manifest itself in the life of a christian. when we left, both guys that came with us were really excited. one guy had been working as a doctor in costa rica for 6 months and had never had an experience like that with locals. It opened up for a night of great conversations about Jesus, incarnation, love, and travelling in a way that is respectful to locals. Being the 4th of july, these conversations all took place after our journey through the night to find a six pack of the king of beers haha. the whole time really reminded me a lot of summer up in Newark and got me so excited to get out there again and get to live in a community like this. God is really preparing Eric and I alot on this trip for the next year up there. I cannot wait!


- i wish i had pictures, but i did not want to offend anyone or get my camera stolen!

- David

july 2nd

it has been so long! my apologies!
Although there is internet almost everywhere, it is often hard to find a spot/time to sit and blog. Since my last post we have been so many places and had great experiences. Here is a quick list of places we have been to thus far (stayed at least one night): Managua, Masaya, Granada, Isla Ometepe, San Carlos, El Castillo, San Juan del Norte, Managua again, San Juan Del Sur, Playa Matilda, Jaco Costa Rica, San Jose, and now panama city!
After my last post we said bye to the guys we were travelling with and headed the rest of the way down Rio San Juan. We got to San Juan del Norte, a tiny town with one hostel, no roads and no electricity until 2pm. Here, we stubbornly came to a realization that has begun to change our whole trip. As many of you know, Eric and i came here wanting to love locals everywhere we went. We wanted to get off the beaten track and really experience local culture. We have had and will continue to have great experiences with locals, however, things have changed. Jesus did incarnational ministry. HE came to earth, from heaven and dwelled with man. We realized that really doing incarnatoinal ministry in local cultures is next to impossible, especially if we want to travel to more than one village our three months. On the other hand, the backpacking community is transient. People meet in hostels for a night and maybe spend a day or two together, maybe not. Hostels are set up with huge communal spaces for eating, drinking, and conversations. We realized that instead of running from the backpacking community "off the beaten track" God could be leading us into these communities where we can really do incarnational ministry. So, we headed back to managua and have gotten back on backpack row hitting up more touristy areas and staying in hostels with lots of people, forming friendships, hearing/sharing stories, praying for opportunities to talk about jesus with a group of people who seldom have any idea who he is, and meeting AWESOME people. Of course, we will still love local poeple, eat in small family restaurants and play as much street soccer as we can between now and august.

So, from San Juan del Norte, we headed back up the rio san juan and took a miserable bus ride all the way to managua, where we stayed with the Sharpes for 3 days, did laundry, rested and got ready for the rest of the trip. We also got to visit Mandy in managua and met a great guy named Cobren who let us help out at his ministry center for a day. Mandy is working with some really sweet girls at an orphanage in managua and is doing an awesome job. After Managua we went down to San JUan del sur which is the biggest surfing town in nicaragua and went to an awesome hostel called casa oro. HEre, we met a guy named Bubba who pointed us toward another hostel on a less populated beach where we could stay for cheaper so we went out there with him and a canadian couple and stayed 3 days. We swam, read, surfed ( I caught an overhead wave and succesfully turned left down the beach), ate HUGE oysters, raw muscles and clams that had just been taken out of the rocks in the water by some nicaraguan divers, and hung out on our basically private beach the five of us every night. We went back into the town for 2 more nights after leaving that beach and stayed at Casa Oro again. Here we met an awesome guy named Josh from richmond and also ran into one of our friends that we met in Granada. We had an incredible night our last night in San Juan Del Sur where we had multiple conversations about Jesus. Also, i met a woman who works for a non-profit organization working with women--many of whom are prostitues or victims of domestic violence-- who, after listening to eric and i talk about how we think a man should treat a woman invited me to come and speak at the center in august. She says i have free range on what i choose to say, so although it is not a christian organization i cannot wait for this awesome opportunity to preach the gospel.
From San Juan Del sur we crossed the border into Costa Rica and hopped local buses all the way to Jaco Costa Rica where we met up with Brandon Duke and Josh Poe. We slept on hammocks outside their hostel had an awesome time with them and the crew staying at Christian Surfer hostel. We hung out with some local kids, went to a YWAM mission site and watched a lot of soccer. It was crazy hanging out with a group of CNU guys in Costa Rica--definately felt like we were at VA beach.Costa Rica is nice, and we enjoyed seeing the guys, but it is very touristy and overpriced and almost all the backpackers we met encouraged us to skip over it and go straight to Panama.
So, two nights ago we took a sixteen hour bus ride from San jose to Panama city and got here yesterday evening. We met some really cool israeli girls on the bus on the way over and went to the same hostel as them. They made us easily the best dinner we have had this trip so we are hoping to continue travelling with them haha. It is a HUGE colonial mansion which fits 100 people and has awesome social areas and probably the coolest bar i have ever seen (pictures to come).
Today we were walking down the street to find a place to watch the Brazil v holland game and some guys called down to us from their apartment and invited us to watch with them. It was awesome. They lived in a room smaller than my bedroom in a large apartment building. Most of the windows in the building were blown out or borded up, the stairs felt like they might collapse underneath us, but when we got upstairs the guys gladly shared their one fouton (probably mispelled) with us to watch the game. If it stops raining we are gonna go play soccer with the guys tonight. Tomorrow, we are gonna go visit the canal as well as be super tourists and rent roller blades and skate through a huge park that runs along the water and is home to all sorts of cool wildlife and trees haha. Pray i dont die...its been at least ten years since my roller hockey days at Tuckahoe elementary with the cousins.

on a side note, Erics bag was stolen in San Jose and we are now down to one backpack with 4 shirts and 3 pairs of shorts for the two of us haha. Luckily nothing happened to us and the passports were both in my backpack.


also-- quick shout out to England, Holland and Denmark! we miss you guys and cant wait till you come to New york!

--more updates to come
- David

Hello all! Its been a while and im sorry for that!

Quick overview:

After my last post, eric and I left for Granada which is a pretty cool colonial city bordering lake Nicaragua (the biggest lake in central America). We stayed in a dorm room in an awesome hostel with a beautiful bright courtyard with hammocks and rocking chairs. The next day we took a day trip to the laguna de apoyo which is a huge volcanic crater lake and met an awesome group of travelers also staying in Granada. We hung out with them the whole day there and went out in Granada that night with them. We took a ferry and spent the next 4 days with them on isla de ometepe—two volcanic islands in the middle of lake Nicaragua. We hiked Volcan Concepcion all the way up to the crater where we scrambled up hot volcanic rock to get a view over the top. haha, we did have a guide--although he was useless. we found out after getting back, that there had been a slight eruption that day and that it is illegal to climb to the top during the rainy season. haha, however, we made it, were not sick by the gases, and will never hike again because my legs are still sore haha. After a day of rest Holland, Denmark, Eric and I rented bikes and went all the way around the island. It was the hardest biking I have ever done, encircling the whole island on crappy dirt roads with tons of hills and rocks to go around and over. We ended up doing the whole last 2 hours in pitch black with only the guidance of dim flashlights up and down dirt roads with no street lights haha. Without our flashlights it was so dark you could not see your hand in front of your face. Monday night we took a ten hour all night ferry ride across lake Nicaragua to san carlos, where we then caught a river boat to take us up the rio san juan to the town we are in now called El Castillo. The town is awesome. It is on a hill in a clearing in the jungle coast of the river. There are no real roads, just sidewalks and I am yet to see a motorized vehicle other than small boats (its amazing that even here they have an internet café). The Rio San Juan is considered Central Americas Amazon river. The next boat leaves tomorrow and we will be going into an area where we will be seeing bull sharks, caimans, crocodiles and monkeys among other things. Our group has dwindled down to just five of us: Me (who they call union), Eric (the confederacy), Lars (who we call Holland), Danny (Denmark), and Henry (who they call England).

Alongside these other more touristy activities, Eric and I have been trying our best to get to know locals everywhere we go. We have played a few more great games of street soccer and are getting more used to just going up to peoples windows and starting conversations. Yesterday we watched the world cup at three different peoples houses haha. In ometepe we got to go to a really great church service and tonight we are going to the church right across the street from our hotel.

It has been interesting to see the different route that God has taken this trip from what we originally thought by placing us with this group of friends. Im sure it sounds as though we are settling for a more comfortable route by doing all these touristy things, but in reality, it has been a big challenge and a test of my faith. It is a lot harder for me to talk about my faith and live as a Christian as a part of this group than it is for me when I am just with Nicaraguans. I am realizing I have fallen into this trap of speaking vaguely about my mission here as a Christian as though I am ashamed of the gospel. It is really easy, especially in this backpacker culture, to talk about how we are here to just love people, which everyone loves, and kind of take God out of the equation. I am hoping to be more bold, not only with my actions, but with my words as well. I am realizing that my whole life as a Christian I have loved God and other through structure of ministries, and now that I am here with no structure it is hard to figure out what walking with Jesus looks like. That being said, I am confident God is using us and teaching us a lot here and I am excited for what lies ahead. I just finished reading 1^st and 2^nd Samuel, which I really enjoyed and learned a lot from.

Pray that God continue to bless our friendship. Pray that Eric and I challenge each other rather than fall into complacency together. Pray that God assure us of his love and his truth and that we have true wisdom and knowledge in his Gospel (it is hard talking about faith with people that are way smarter and more educated than us haha). Pray for continued safety.

I love you all and will write back soon---(although we may not have internet for a while as we head out into the jungle haha)

--david

the pics are:

1. the town of El castillo from the river

2. some of our friends overlooking the crater at volcan concepcion

3. eric and i with the infinite crater behind

Im trying to write a little more regularly so they dont get as long as the last one:

We met Manuel Satuday afternoon in the market. He was walking around sellng small ¨flowers¨ he made out of pine leaves for one cordoba (about a nickle). We were just about to order something to drink at a café and invited him to sit with us and eat. His face lit up when we invited him to sit down and started asking him questions about his life. We talked about his family, sports, food, and played jokes on him while he ate. He, as you´ll se in our pictures, is missing most of his teeth and the sándwich was huge so it took him forever to eat. When he was done we asked him if we could meet his mom and he lead us running through the crowded market to meet her.
Alejandra, his mom, is an incredible woman. She greeted us with warm smiles and thank you´s and was ¨honored¨ to meet us. She has two other children. Alejandro, ten, has a severe mental and physical disability and is confined to a Wheelchair. HIs sister, Mercedes, has been deaf at birth and therefore is uneable to speak. I told her that we would love to get to know her and her family and that we would be honored to take them out to dinner the next day. Manuel started jumping around for joy and his sister, after her mom told her what happened in signs, gave us huge hugs and signed to her mom that eric and i were very ¨guapo.¨
When eric and i showed up at the market last night for dinner, the whole family was outside waiting, and they alongside some other street boys, came running towards us. We asked them where they wanted to go and manuel started jumping up and down yelling ¨pollo tip-top!¨ During the long walk to the restaurant, Eric and Manuel ran across the street jumping over the curb on and off the sidewalk and down any steps they could find. I walked behind with mercedes (who is adorable) and Alejandra as she pushed her son in the Wheel chair.
Alejandra told me that the father of all three of her children packed up after manuel was born and moved to costa rica with another woman. By ¨the grace of God¨alejandra is now supporting her three children by the CD´s she sells for about a dollar in the market and any extra change Manuel makes from his flowers. I kept offering to let her rest and push around the Wheel chair but she did not want us to work.
After about 20 muinutes walk, ¨Pollo tip-top¨came into view and the kids started laughing and jumping with excitement. When i joked with Alejandra about how good the food must be she said they had never been before but had always wanted to. It is basically the NIcaraguan equivalent of a KFC with a playground. The kids were so excited they ran into the playground immediately and would come out every couple minutes sweating just to tell us how much fun they were having. After eating a family combo fried chicken meal which most of them saved for later, we walked home with them to meet the rest of their extended family. We were quickly warmly received with chairs and drinks and coversation. Alejandra refused to let us walk home alone at night so she and the kids walked us the 15 minutes all the way back to our hotel door to make sure we were safe.
Today, we waited for Alejandra at the market to take us to her kids school and she arrived late because she had been at the hospital. Both mercedes and Alejandro had gotten sick, which she said happens a lot, and were in the hospital. We got to minister to her and pray with her and offered to go to the hospital to visit them. Other people in the market saw this and it opened a chance to talk with a woman about why we were here.
The past couple days have been incredible. To wake up in the morning in a country we dont know and say God we have no plans but your plans has been awesome. We have ventured to the barrios outside Masaya and gotten to get to know more of the local culture here. We played pick-up basketball yesterday in a poor barrio (dominated of course) and walked through the streets saying hi to everyone we saw and stopping at small, local restaurants to eat and drink. We went out with our nicaraguan friends the other night for beers again before they left and last night had a great time hanging out with a couple swedish medical students staying at our hostel. Today we walked down to the ¨laguna de Masaya¨which you will see in our pictures and we are planning on renting kayaks and hanging out at ¨laguna de apoyo¨ tomorrow. Pray that God continue to keep us safe, bless the weather, give us time in his Word and in prayer, and have us see Nicaragua the way that he does.

We met brian, in the red shirt in the above pictures, in the market yesterday when we arrived to pick up manuel and his family. Brian walked with us to the grocery store where we could buy something pay with american cash and get córdobas in Exchange. Eric and i did not need anything so we offered to buy up whatever he wanted. We looked at fruit drinks, soda, cookies, candy and he said he didnt want it. Finally he asked us if we wouldnt mind buying some rice for him to take home to his grandma brothers. He ended up going with us to get food and had a great time. We are hoping to meet up with him and his friends this evening to play soccer. God is good and he is working.

june 5th

hello!
i know it has only been five days but so much has happened we had to blog now so i dont leave tons out. We got into managua tuesday night around 8, where we were picked up by Anne and Danny Sharpe, a couple from north carolina who work with vida joven (young life) here in Nicaragua. We called them about midnight on monday and they did not want us to take a taxi into managua to find a hostel late at night so they picked us up. They are amazing people and gave us a great welcome into the country.
Wednesday morning we woke up at about 5:45 (everyone here does) and had great nicaraguan coffee and breakfast at the Sharpes. We got a ride into the city with anne who had a meeting and started walking around. We ended up walking about ten kilometers that morning into the city and around a really cool market place called Plaza Israel--it was like nothing i had ever seen. From the outside it looked like a row of store fronts on the street but soon we realized there were little pathways that lead you back through the stores leading to more shops, restaurants and stands. It was so packed of little shops that about 4 shops would squeeze into an average american living room. After exploring for a while and doing our best to smile, say hola and seem as little like tourists as possible, we sat down at a tiny restaurant for our first meal of beans and rice. for a plate of beans, rice, salad, chicken and a coke, eric and i spent a little less than 5 dollars together including a huge tip.
that first afternoon we met up with a woman named Amira who was a friend of Anne´s who works with the manna organization. Manna is an organization that has a clinic, multiple english classes and sports programs centered around the city dump and the surrounding barrios (neighborhoods). She gave us a general overview of their work, took us to an english class for little kids and offered to take us to a dump the next morning.
That night we had a great dinner with the Sharpes and went to a vida joven club in a poor neighborhood in managua. Since my name is easier to remember and pronounce than ¨eric¨ in spanish, they called on me for every embarrassing game and skit haha. we had a great time. It was really cool to see the young life model put to work in nicaragua.
Thursday morning we went to the city dump with Amira and Harrison, a young life summer intern. It was the most extreme poverty i have seen. People live as squatters in a shanty town right next to the city dump which stands out like a mountain and takes up the whole panoramic view of a camera. The streets are covered with trash and the people live in tiny homes made with scrap metal and wood. Not a single family home was as big as a dorm room. Only, recently have the people had access to water or electricity. Manna project has a feeding center, clinic, and english class in the neighborhood.
Thursday night, anne had organized for us to a homestay at a village near managua called ¨bello Amanecer¨-which means beautiful sunrise. Narcisso, the area director for vida joven nicaragua lives there with his family. He lives in a small home, about the size of my living room which has a curtain separating the living room and bedroom. He shared his testimony with us when we got there. He has an amazing story. He grew up in a broken home wiht an abusive father who came home every couple months only to beat his wife and children. when Narcisso was 14 he started doing drugs, joined a violent gang and eventually became the leader of his gang. He was stabbed in the chest in a violent gang battle when he was 17 and this eventually him to young life camp that summer. Beacuse he was such a hated member of the community and had so many enemies, he forced some lower members of his gang to go with him. At this camp, he felt love for the first time and he and the guys from his gang accepted christ. Now, almost everyone in his former gang has become a christian, his parents have gotten together and our living a healthy marriage, he is the area director for vida joven and his brother is a pastor.
Eric and I stayed in separate homes on the street with nicaraguan young life leaders our age and their families. We payed them each 15 dollars for the night to buy food and help out the families.The guys were awesome. we walked around the neighborhood in the evening to meet all the leaders in the area. As we walked the guys would point out who in the community were christians, who they were discipling through young life and where they did contact work. Lots of people invited us into their homes to talk and get to know us better. Julio, who is 19, married and has a daughter was erics host for the night. At one of the homes we went to he explained the gospel and the mission and purpose of young life in the most beautiful way i had ever heard.
I had a great conversation before bed with Gloria, the mom in the family i stayed with and did bible study the next morning with Adan, the father. They were incredibly humble, hospitable people. The four of them slept in one bed so that i could have the other to myself. Yesterday morning we played soccer in the street with a bunch of guys our age. It was hilarious. I though we were gonna go to a field, but instead we moved two small, makeshift goals to the middle of the street and played there. It was so funny to be running around this tiny dirt street, falling in puddles, avoiding curbs, trees and knocking each other over while trying to score. Eric and i, who are less accustomed to the conditions had huge wipe outs and got disgustingly dirty haha. it is the rainy season here, so the dirt streets are basically mud. The picture at the top is of eric and i and the leaders from bellow amanacer

After leaving Bello Amanecer we tood a taxi then cuaght a bus to the village of Masaya, about 40 minutes outside the city. Yesterday we walked around till we found a hostel (4 bucks a night for a room with two beds)and dropped off our packs. We walked all over the town to try to meet people but received mostly blank stares or scared looks haha. We went into a market last night where there were about ten open air restaurants with local foods and tables set up that we could eat at. (for anyone that saw ¨bizarre foods nicaragua¨we were at the same place shown in the show haha)We had wanted to eat with other people, but a really nice man grabbed chairs and a separate table for us and we couldnt refuse without being rude. All in all it was a frustrating and discouraging afternoon without really meeting people. We retreated to a bar near our hostel to have a beer and met an awesome guy who offered to take us around but works every day but wednesday.
However, just when we thought the day was a waste, we went back to the hostel to find the courtyard full of a loud, friendly group of nicaraguans from out of town who invited us out for drinks. We went to a small bar across the street and hung out with them for like 2 hours. It felt like hanging out with our friends back at school. They asked us tons of questions and were really open about themselves and also just loved joking around. Tonight we are gonna go out with them again when they are done with their meetings today. They are part of a group of indigenous poeple from different tribes from all over the country that come together in masaya a couple times a year to share culture, get to know each other and discuss issues having to do with indigenous cultures in nicaragua. I prayed last night that God would open doors for us here in masaya to share his love, get to know people, and that we would be welcome. We are getting all of their contact infromation which now opens doors to us in at least 4 cities. One woman who we met lives in San Juan del Sur, a surfish and fishing village near the Pacific and said we can stay with her brother for free, surf with him, and even go out on his boat to help him fish if we pay for his gas.
i´m excited to see what happens with these new friendships. None of the poeple we were with last night were christians, but by having a beer with them (which apparently christians dont do) yet talking about jesus it opens a cool ministry opportunity.
Today, we slept in (finally) and walked towards the central plaza for breakfast to have coffee, read our bibles and journal. However, we had not been there for five minutes before two middle aged men came in and asked to join us at our table. ONe was a lawyer and the other and economist. We talked with them for about 30 minutes and they told us about a couple good churches and a youth pastor that we could meet. There is an evangelical church with a service at 4pm today and we are hoping to meet some poeple there that we could get to know better.

We are learning that nicaraguans, for the most part are very shy and almost afraid of us and it is a little harder to get to know poeple than we thought. However, it is already a great exercise in faith as last night right when we started to doubt, God gave us an awesome night out with friends and then a great breakfast conversation this morning. It is so hard being in such a needy area, even i sit here writing my blog a woman and her 2 year old daughter who could barely talk came and asked us for money so they couild eat. Dont know what our response should be to that. We cant just give money to anyone who asks, but i feel guilty and selfish when we dont. Yesterday we had a cool chance to sit down in the park and get to know a man who had asked for money, and after talking with him for a while and showing him love, we gave him enough for a snack or small meal.
I know this is alot, but we have done a lot haha. I will try to keep them shorter in the future!