Well, we have just spent our second week here at the Cicrin Orphanage, and week two was just as good as the first! We have done a lot of playing with the kids (including lots of soccer), we’ve worked hard, and we have relaxed just a little bit in the lakeside hammocks…ok, that’s not entirely true…we have actually taken every single available opportunity to kick back in the hammocks and enjoy life. And man is it GOOD. It has been so cool this month to experience the peace that the Lord has placed over this orphanage and the kids here, especially because our leaders felt this time was an incredibly important month for our teams to grow in unity as well as for individuals to really embrace the greatness God has placed on all of us. For myself, this has been such a time of nurturing, like God is cultivating different gifts and aspects of my life in preparation for the next nine months (as well as the rest of my life). If you want to know more details, just ask. 🙂
Some highlights from this week:
Digging giant holes in the ground! The big job for the boys (me, DJ, Brad, Will) this week was digging three very big holes on the property, which is their way of getting rid of trash – they throw everything in the pit and burn it, plastics and all! With the help of Hilario (a forty-something year old dude who is way more ripped than I’ll ever be and I’m confident can do anything in the world of manual labor), we pick-axed and shoveled and pick-axed and shoveled and dug and dug some more, and now have some fine-looking garbage pits to show for it! [unfortunately, we also have some nasty blisters because they don’t believe in gloves and we have rich folk white-collar hands] But all in all, it was a lot of fun! We got some really good sweat going and did some good old-fashioned manual labor! Woohoo!
On Tuesday our two teams decided to take Communion, and because I had initially tossed that idea out there, I was asked to be in charge of putting it together and “emceeing” it, if you will. While we didn’t have any wine or even grape juice (turns out purple Powerade makes a fine substitute!), the ladies in the kitchen here were kind enough to bake us some fresh (and delicious!) bread for that part of the Eucharist. So with the Powerade in Brad’s bowl from his mess kit, we dipped the bread and partook in the Lord’s Supper. It was an amazing night of prayer, scripture reading, and music, and it completely rejuvenated my spirit! So awesome!
On an equally-awesome-though-far-less-spiritual note, yesterday we went to a beach here on Ometepe Island! And let me just state for the record…I love the beach. Total beach bum, that’s me. We spent about 6 hours there on the volcanic black sand, and I think about 4 of those hours were spent chasing a frisbee and diving into the water after it. Don’t ask me why boys love diving after balls/frisbees, especially if it is into a pool/river/lake/ocean/etc. It’s just in our genes, I guess. Anyway! It was a ton of fun, I had a very tasty lunch, and I didn’t get too sunburned! Also, Will and I climbed a big tall tree and jumped into the [too shallow] water! I cut up my hands pretty good and bruised my heel, but it was totally worth it! Hopefully I can get a blog posted with the video we shot of it (thanks DJ!).
I think that’s about it from this week. We are here in Cicrin until December first, and then we head back to meet the rest of the teams for a debrief. Then on the 7th-ish we will fly to Miami to LA to Taiwan to Bangkok, Thailand! Pray we retain our sanity! Actually, if everyone could be praying we make our connecting flight in Miami, because I think we have like one hour between them, that would be great!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone! Love you and miss you all!
