Friday-In Managua

Hey everyone the team wrapped things up well in Puerto Cabezas and everyone made the voyage back to Managua! We had a fun day visiting a local volcano which proved to be an interesting experience as the team loved the views but didn't care for the sulfur smell! After that we had some time at a local market getting some souvenirs and now were back at the hotel for dinner and our final team evening debrief before we start the trek back home tomorrow!

We'll be posting updates and estimate arrival times using the GSM Facebook and twitter!

Photo's from Tuesday and Wednesday

Hey everyone! We've been busting really hard trying to get these homes finished so we haven't taken as many pictures as usual are we want to get all the available hands pounding nails and cutting wood. But we have a fresh batch of shots from the last few days so you can see the progress both teams are making! Enjoy!

Wednesday Recap!

It feels like were posting the same thing everyday now but today REALLY was another awesome workday! The team worked really hard and got a LOT of work done! One of the houses got finished today with the roof and the other house saw 2 more exterior walls go up and one massive interior wall as well as two exterior walls getting sided! That team will be heading back to finish up that house tomorrow (minus the roof) while the other team helps out Ausin with an agricultural project. Austin is an American who is living here in Puerto Cabezas at Verbo Ministries. He has helped us out immensely this week with translation, oversight at the construction projects, helping is around the base and using his truck as a shuttle for all of us stuck out by the beach! He's working on some planting and farming techniques that could increase crop yield on these climate conditions and that could be used in all the remote villages as a means of adequate and replenishing food supply. Hes a great guy and again has been a huge help to our team so since half our team is done at their house, were gonna help him out on this project!

Tomorrow also marks part of our process to begin heading home, due to the domestic airlines constraints, half the team has to fly back to Managua Thursday afternoon while the other half will join them Friday morning. The whole team will spend Friday in Managua doing some fun stuff and then get a good nights rest before flying home!

The team still has 3 FULL days left on this trip so keep praying for strength, patience and love as we continue to engage in all that God has for us on this trip right up until we pull in at church!

Tuesday Recap

Today was the teams 2nd workday and they got AFTER IT AGAIN!! The team building the stilt house finished the entire floor up this morning and this afternoon we began framing up the walls! We got one completely done and got it set and will finish framing up tomorrow!  The other team continued siding their house and made some great progress and that house is almost ready for the roof!

This evening then we had a BIG pizza party with all the kids and just like the ice cream party, the power went out! We had a generator for lights in the church but the restaurants generator ran out of gas which meant half the pizzas were delayed until they could get it running again.  The team jumped in though and entertained the kids and had all kinds of fun until pizzas were rolling out again.  It was a great evening and was capped off by the greatness of the power coming back on which means everyone got showers!!!

Another big workday tomorrow!

And more pictures!

Hey everyone! Today we had a chance in the afternoon a lot more photo's than we could this morning so here's some updated set's of photo's from the two worksites and the evening ice cream party that, by the way, was in the dark since the electricity decided not to play nice for awhile. Enjoy!

Finally Photo's

Hey everyone, we've had some crazy days with El Electricidad down here so it's been kind of hard to post pictures. I could only get on from my phone yesterday so I posted a link to the photo's in the comments section of Sundays post, but for those of you that missed it, I'll through those photo's in with yesterdays. Enjoy!

Jeff

Monday Recap

Our work projects got off and running in a BIG WAY today! The team split in two to maximize our impact and help with 2 homes for family deeply in need! One family has severely outgrown their tiny house and one team is helping build on an addition that will from the looks of it triple their living space.  The other family does not have a stilt house which is a huge safety and sanitary issue when flooding happens.  Their current house is more of a lean to and well be able to get that family up in a stilt house this week.

Both teams today did lots of measuring, sawing and hammering! With the help of some great Nicaraguans we were a well-oiled construction crew in no time!  Great progress was made today and the team is eager to get out and get after the projects tomorrow!

This evening we spent more time with the orphans as we played more games, laughed together and we played a sport which we had a chance in, BASKETBALL!  Needless to say it was much more victorious than our soccer games :)

After dinner we were also able to throw an ice cream party for the orphans! The ice cream was a great treat but I think the orphans and the team would agree that it was even better to get all that time together!

Time for some rest so we can work hard again tomorrow! Pictures coming in the AM!

PS-just a reminder you can get short live updates from our days on the GSM Facebook page.  Just go to facebook and search for Granger Student Ministries! Or follow @gsmlive on Twitter