Team 547... reporting for duty.

After six months of preparation fifteen people put on a brown shirt, left for the airport, and boarded a plane headed for the unknown. Although many members of this team were here before, none of us have any idea what God has in store for us this week.

The trip began flawlessly. The flights were smooth, the layover was rather short and seamless, all of our luggage made it here, and everyone made it through customs without a problem (except Rick, but we’ll pick him up from the airport holding cell on our way home).

We were greeted by Summitview’s own Susie Miller (FEI’s field coordinator) and her sidekick interpreter Mario. (For those of you that came last year, we have the same father/son bus drivers, the famous Juan Carlos and his father, Don Juan Carlos. They say “Hola!”)

As we drove through the streets of Managua on our way to Villa Esperanza the eyes of many of the team members were opened to a whole new world. Eyes filled with tears and mouths fell open as we passed by garbage filled streams and children selling whatever they could on the side of the street. As Americans, when we view these things for the first time, we often can’t see passed the despair, but for many of us our eyes have already been opened. We pulled off the main road, onto a small rural road, and a block later we pulled up to a gate and Juan Carlos honked the horn. The gate was opened to what seems like Heaven on Earth. The Villa has completely changed since we were here a year ago. There are 4 team houses completed (which are probably rated nicer than many hotels back home), a Rancho (which is the huge common area for meals and team meetings), and 2 amazing homes for 16 beautiful girls. As we got off the bus some eyes were once again filled with tears, and every heart was filled with joy as the overwhelming sense of peace rushed through the group.


After claiming our beds and getting settled, we all came together in the Rancho and received our orientation and a tour of the grounds. Everything here is so beautiful. The plants are lush and green, the homes and buildings are beautiful and filled with love, and the laughter of 16 little faces fill the walls of this compound. After the unpacking party (which involved a LOT of organization, and then repacking) we took some of the toys we packed and spent some time playing with the girls. Many of us worked on puzzles, and played games with many of them. Then we cleaned up and were blessed with a wonderful meal where we each sat with one of the girls on each side. After we ate, several of the girls got up in front of the whole group and recited poems, written by Nicaraguan poets). The night ended very early for most of us except for those diehard skip-bo players. (You know who we are)



Breakfast was at 8. Many of us didn’t make it until a little later. (I guess they didn’t get the memo) We ate pancakes, bacon, and fresh cut pineapple (I don’t even eat that well at home in the morning!) Then we retreated to our secluded spots for a few minutes of devotion to prepare ourselves for the day ahead. The agenda for today was to build the playground (It’s larger than what most of us call a city park back home). The pieces were already assembled, we just had to dig the holes, pour the cement, and paint the cement walls and planters in the playground. We worked alongside 5 local workers who mapped out where our holes would be and made sure they were level. About an hour into today’s project our team suffered it’s first casualty. Amy accidentally tripped and fell into a hole (that David dug in the wrong place!) and hurt her knee. She limped around for quite a while, trying to help where she could, but once the swelling had more than doubled the size of her knee we decided it was best to go to the hospital and have x-ray’s taken. She’s okay! Don’t worry, they didn’t amputate! The rest of the team, after mourning the loss of Amy, continued on. A lot of the girls excitedly helped the team members paint, move wheel barrows and mix cement (They were better and faster than most of us!). All of the painting is done, all of the holes dug, and all of the cement was poured. All that’s left is moving a little dirt (old team members know that we’re the best at that!) and a little grooming. Then the girls will finally have the long anticipated playground that has been teasing them for weeks. (It was put together but they weren’t able to play on it) Then we all played for hours. Jeremy held a private concert for a few of the older girls (he’s like a rockstar), Trevor was a big hit when he pushed 4 girls at once in a wheelbarrow, and Rick got his butt kicked in a water fight. Then it was the long awaited SHOWER TIME! We all got cleaned up and started to wind down from our busy day. We shared another great dinner prepared for us by the wonderful Flora (Wilbert’s sister).






Most of the thoughts already expressed here were gathered by tonight’s debriefing (I took notes since you missed it). The debriefing seemed to open several hearts to a new level of vulnerability. As one team member shared, “the joy I felt today skipping rope and playing Frisbee with the girls we just met has reminded me that we have the same thing at home with our own families, but we get caught up in the daily tasks and don’t always see what is right there in front of us.” For those of you that don’t like country music, I’m sorry, but a great song writer wrote “You’re gonna miss this, you’re gonna want this back, you’re going to wish these days, hadn’t gone by so fast. These are the good times, so take a good look around, you may not know it now, but you’re going to miss this.”

That leads us to our message for all of you. Don’t miss what’s in front of you. Don’t get so caught up in providing for your family, that you miss our on enjoying your family.

Some of the favorite things we heard today were from the youngest members of the team. Jeremy said, “It felt so good to work so hard and accomplish so much for somebody else.” And Trevor said, “How am I ever going to leave this place?” (That’s one for the scrapbook Mom’s!)