Journal Entry #1

Monday June 14, 2010

I'm on my way! The adventure has begun! The flight to Miami was fairly uneventful. We did see oil from the spill.

(The line at the top is a bumper to keep the oil from spreading)

Very sad, but also neat to see it in a weird way. Spent about 8 hours in the Miami airport. People watched mostly. Lots of interesting people to see. There was a family traveling to Colombia right behind where we were parked and they had small, fussy kids, so Sue pulled out her Ukelele and sang to them.

The kids loved it, and after awhile the parents were looking less stressed and had big smiles on their faces!

Reflections:

(after each journal entry, I'll write some more about the day since I didn't really go into big details in my journal) At the airport in Miami, we all piled our carry ons into one area and a few of us sat with them while the others walked, shop or ate. Great team work ladies! For lunch I went to a Cuban restaurant where Jenn and I had jerk chicken wraps. I totally told Jenn that no, they really won't be that spicy, not thinking about the fact that Minnesota jerk chicken is probably a little different than Miami jerk chicken. Luckily she had lots of ranch dressing. I also shared a Guava and cheese pastry with Beth. SO YUMMY! And here's a picture of Lucy looking pathetic while she watched me pack:

And I'm home

I made it back to Minnesota safe and sound... With a minor detour.... Our flight in Managua was delayed which caused us to miss our flight in Miami which meant we had to stay overnight in Miami and then fly to Dallas and then home. But we made it so it's all good. I had an awesome time and I miss it already. I will be posting my journal entries up here to share my experiences with you. :)

The Itinerary

Well folks, its about that time.... Here is the itinerary for my trip so that you can follow along with where I am and so you know how to pray for us.

Monday June 14

I have to be at the airport at 4:30 am... Our plane leaves at 6:20 for Miami and then we have a LOOOONNNNG layover and we leave Miami at 6:50 and will be in Managua at 7:30 (their time, which is I think 8:30 here?) Anyways we have to wait for the second half of our group to come in (about 40 mins later). We'll arrive at Casa Bernabe around 10 pm to settle into our rooms.

Tuesday June 15

8:00- Breakfast and orientation

9:00-Orphanage and Managua tour (Expose- introduce us to the culture)

2:00-Trip to the pool with the kids (Engage- interact and learn together)

4:30-Free time

8:30-Porch time (a chance for us to come back together as a group and process what we've seen and experienced that day)

Wednesday, June 16- Day of Compassion

9:00-Visit feeding programs at Nueva Vida/La Chureca - La Chureca is a garbage dump where people live. I believe Nueva Vida is a school withing La Chureca (Expose)

2:30- Work Projects (I'm on the Warehouse Project which is going to organize and clean and set up the warehouse where all the donations are kept)

8:00- Porch Time

Thursday, June 17

9:00-Visit feeding programs at Nueva Vida/La Chureca (Engage/Impact)

2:30-Work Projects

4:30-One on one English classes

8:00-Porch Time

Friday, June 18- Day of Compassion

9:00- Huembes- Marketplace (Engage/Impact)

2:00- Work Projects

7:00- Devotion time with the kids at Casa Bernabe (Engage)

8:00- Porch Time

Saturday, June 19

9:30-Work Project or English classes (Engage/Impact)

2:00-Game day with the kids (Engage)

8:30-Porch Time

Sunday, June 20

9:30-Depart for church with the kids (church is at 11 at Verbo Iglesia)

2:00- Lunch with the kids

3:00- Spiritual Gifts Assessments with the kids (not a work project that I'm on, but it's super cool)

6:00- Goodbye activity/dinner

8:30-Porch Time

Monday, June 21

My birthday!!!!

9:00- Depart for the airport

1:00- Flight leaves Managua

5:40- Arrive in Miami

7:30-Flight leaves Miami

10:15- Home

There are three different types of activities:

Expose- The purpose is to introduce us to the culture

Engage- The purpose is to interact and learn together

Impact- The purpose is to intentionally invest in the lives of those we are serving.

Getting closer.....

Time is moving so quickly..... I feel like I have SO much to get done and so little time to do it... I ran into a few snags this week. Lucy (my puppy) got really sick last weekend. She had been throwing up at random times over the end of last week and then Saturday night she had some diarrhea. I didn't panic or anything I just kind of was like "it is what it is" and let it go. Well then on Sunday she had a diarrhea accident in her kennel. And there was blood in it. Yikes. I ended up taking her to the puppy emergency room and she stayed there over night. She was extremely dehydrated and was just a sad little rag of a puppy. While I was at the clinic with her she threw up twice the poor baby. Monday morning I had to bring her from the emergency clinic to my regular vet where they decided to keep her under observation for the day and pump her with even more fluids. All in all she cost me about $1500. Which I of course don't have. Luckily I have the greatest mom in the world who covered it and now I (and Lucy) owe her big time. I feel like since then I have had other weird random money snags that have just been weighing on me but I know that in the end it will all work out all right.

This evening I got together with three other of my warehouse project group ladies and we did a little shopping for some supplies. We got all the ingredients for our anti lice potion (I am after all the go to lice lady) and then also some stuff for the organization of the warehouse. I am so excited for next week when I get to spend lots more time with them! (and no I'm not just saying that since I know they're reading this.... I really do mean it!) They are an awesome, fun group of women. The best part was that the four of us met up with one more group member and had ice cream at Izzy's after all our shopping was done. So. Much. Fun. We just talked and laughed all evening and maybe I'll get some of the pics that Tami took and put them up here :)

So there's tonight and then after tonight is tomorrow. Then after tomorrow is Saturday which is when we have our Prayer and Commissioning. Then after Saturday is Sunday which is when I run around like a chicken with its head cut off. Then after Sunday its.... THE day!!!!!! We'll be leaving! I can't even describe how excited I am!

Preparation

In preparation for this trip we were given a book called Before You Pack Your Bag Prepare Your Heart. I've been going through it and came across something that I thought was interesting and thought that I'd share with you. There are a few passages from Philippians that I really love. The first one is Phil. 1:6 and it says "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect until the day of Jesus Christ." (NASB) Just the idea that God has begun working in me and I'm learning how to love more fully and more actively and that He's going to continue to work and to perfect that part of me. Can you imagine how I will be different a week from now? a year? 10 years? I'm excited to see how God is going to soften my heart and give me more compassion for others.

The second passage is Phil. 2:2-5 which says "make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves, do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus." (NASB) This is a good reminder for the group I'm going with to be united and selfless and to hold each other accountable to that.

The last verse is Phil. 2:13: "For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." (NASB) This is another good reminder that I'm going on this trip not for myself, but for God's pleasure and plan.

Meeting #4--The Last Training Session

On Tuesday we had our final training session. Yikes. Time has flown by so quickly that I can't even believe it. 11 days. In 11 days at this time I will be *this close* to landing in Nicaragua.... So anyways... The meeting.... We got our flight information (yay!) and it made things WAY more real. Originally there was supposed to be a smaller group going so they reserved spots one one flight for all of us, but then they ended up letting more people come so we are split into two different flights. Nate is in the big group and Jenn and I are in the smaller group (15 women, it's going to be a partay!). We leave at 6:20 am on Monday the 14th and fly into Miami where we have an 8 hour layover and then we fly out of Miami to Nicaragua and get there around 7:30 pm. Coming back, we leave Managua on Monday June 21st (my birthday!) at 1:00 and fly into Miami, only have a 2 hour layover and then get home at 7:15.

We also got our itinerary, which I am SUPER excited about! I will post it before we go so that you can follow along and pray for us as we're going along.

We talked about having good, servant attitudes on the trip and it was broken down into 5 A's:
     1. Aware- Be aware of who we are serving and of each other.
     2. Available- Be available to what is needed.
     3. Accepting- Be accepting of where we are.
     4. Abandon- Abandon your own agenda
     5. Abide- Abide in the Father's way.
I really like how it was broken down like that. They also said that there could be last minute schedule changes and so we all need to be really flexible.

We also did some cultural training and talked about being aware of what we are doing and saying and how it might be seen by others. We also talked about safety and using common sense etc. Some of the subjects we talked about were:
     1. Alcohol- These kids have been surrounded by alcoholism and therefore to them there is no such thing as "casual drinking". Drinking means getting drunk and out of control.
     2. Dress- Being modest
     3. Gifting- How giving love (quality time, attention, encouragement) can build independence.
     4. Politics- There is widespread distrust of officials and the unemployment rate is 65% so there is severe poverty, alcoholism and orphaning. So going in and complaining about our government problems, which really seem small in comparison, is probably not the most sensitive way to go...
     5. Dating- The orphanage has a no dating policy. I guess there was a girl who befriended a guy that came down there on a trip like ours and was emailing back and forth with him and then felt burned when he stopped emailing and really these kids have had a lot of being "burned" by the people in their lives that we don't need to be adding to that.
     6. Religion- Again, be sensitive to things that they've experienced in the past.

I think I'll break this post into two posts... So I'll save the rest for tomorrow...... :)

My Story (revised)

So for our third meeting our assignment was to write our story and share it with our small group. I had a really hard time coming up with my story so I ended up writing it at the last minute, but whatever, here it is:

I've been a Christian all my life but I've never felt adequate or bold enough to do missions. In early 2002 I meat Tiffany who I became great friends with. She was incredibly, painfully honest about her struggles and over the next few years I watched God completely changer her heart and help her deal with the sin in her past. She is the first person who I saw God completely change. In 2006 Tiffany went off to Youth With a Mission to learn how to be an effective missionary. I had the attitude of "yeah that works for you, but not really for me." On December 7, 2007, my amazing friend Tiffany was shot and killed at Youth With a Mission in Denver, CO. Before she was killed Tiff declared that she was going to "change the world by loving on people." Over the past 2 1/2 years I've been thinking about what it means to show someone so much of God's love that it changes their world just like knowing Tiff changed mine. In February of this year there was a message series at church called The 6:8 Challenge which was based on Micah 6:8 which says "He has showed you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." I learned about being compassionate and merciful to those who need it. I learned the importance of loving people in an active way, not just with good intentions. I also learned to ask God to break my heart for the things that break His. The last entry of Tiff's prayer journal held Genesis 50:20 which says "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." God is still using Tiff to inspire me to go change the world by loving completely and unconditionally. My mission is to pick up the torch that Tiffany carried and to let God use me to touch other people's lives.