Dec. 23, 2016
Team Nicaragua - Day 2- Barrio Basketball
Team Nicaragua had a great day serving out in
the communities of Managua. Wasting no
time, we were all up and eating breakfast at 7:30 that was prepared by an
awesomely sweet Nicaraguan woman named Esperanza. We also found a friend who traveled with us
all the way from Maryland via the North Pole, see if you can find Lily our
resident Elf on a Shelf.
With most of our group digging on the
Nicaraguan coffee, we ate and then prepared for our first day of FCA Barrio
Basketball. We were picked up at 8:30 by
another friendly Nicaraguan, our driver Luis amazes us as he delivers us around
the city. With buses and tons of
motorcycles whizzing by at all times, it definitely takes some skill managing
through the city streets.
Our morning was spent at a local park where the
children come out to learn about basketball, as well as receiving a devotional
and getting to spend time playing and enjoying themselves. Jeff, with help from his FCA Nicaraguan friend
Cesar (what a super cool dude, very friendly and willing to talk to us about
anything cool like God and surfing), spend about 2 hours at the park playing
with the kids. Part of this outreach is
being to take some time and also talk to some of the parents and sharing the
gospel through basketball and other activities such as dance and jump roping.
Let me tell you, these kids love the attention
and spending time in the park that is literally right in some of their back
yards. As soon as we pulled up, we were
met by a little boy who was eager to begin playing. We unloaded the basketballs, and asked for
kids who would like to help us clean up some of the litter in the park. Many eager young girls and boys volunteered,
and everybody pitched in and took trash bags around and helped beautify their
playground. You could tell they were really taking ownership of making their
playground look much nicer. The street
surrounding this particular neighborhood and much throughout the city are
littered with trash and dirt. The smiles
on the kids faces knowing that they were helping their park look clean, went a
long way.
While that was going on, a handful of team
members helped put up 2 new nets. When
one of the park adults was asked about a ladder, he was willing to go get one
from his house and share it for the effort.
2 brand new nets really brought a new sense of enjoyment for the kids
learning how to shoot hoops and play some cool basketball games.
Pastor Uriel Gonzalez was on hand to help out
and lead the group in prayer. Some of
the others from his church were there to support the activities, and a group of
girls performed several dances for everybody to enjoy (they really did a
fantastic job with smiles on their faces).
Team Nicaragua brought some sidewalk chalk for the kids to leave some
special messages and drawings on the sidewalks for others to see.
This part of the day was filled with some great
interaction with the local kids and families.
Near the end of the time together, Team Nicaragua shared The Story of
the Candy Cane, a devotional explaining the meaning of Christmas through the
colors and stripes on a candy cane.
After the devotional, all the kids received some lemonade and each one
got a candy cane. What a cool way to share the gospel!
Our time at the park was finished, and lots of
hugs and smiles and handshakes were exchanged, we will be going back to the
park next week to spend one more day sharing in this great and supportive FCA
ministry, what a super outreach!
We then packed the van and went to lunch at a
cool local establishment that makes Pupusas.
Pupusas are maize flour pancakes filled with various ingredients. The
recipe is from El Salvador where the most popular are with refried beans,
chicken or pork, and cheese. We shared
some stories from our time at the park, and already started planning a post
trip get together where we would try our hand at making this yummy meal.
We ended our day by visiting a local, active
volcano. There are many volcanoes spread
throughout Nicaragua, with a handful of them being active over the course of
2016. Masaya Volcano National Park is
home to a huge, smoking crater with flowing lava in it’s depths below. This was a fantastic sight to see, thanks to
Jeff for sharing in some of the local history and flavor.
After dinner back at our house, we spent some
time together sharing in worship, a little practice singing some praise songs
in Spanish (well Frank playing guitar, Nate Izzo on some sort of cool drum, and
Kiley singing), as well as some time in prayer and reflection of our day (which
by the way, was Mucho fantastico).
Tomorrow we will spend time with some local
folks as we embark on a morning prayer walk, also getting ready for Church and
a Nicaraguan Christmas Eve celebration.
This concludes day 2, Buenas Noches.
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