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!