Safe in Managua!

Hey everyone just wanted to let you all know that we for over to Managua safely today! After landing we checked into our hotel and then went and had lunch at Mcdonalds! It was great and then we took the team to see the volcano here in Managua. It's a really cool experience and something that you don't typically see back home! We're currently hanging out at a pizza hut for dinner before we head back to the hotel and have our trip debrief! Once we start traveling tomorrow well be posting quick travel updates on the Granger Student Ministries Facebook page! This team has done amazing things this week and you should be extremely proud of them. Just one helpful tip for re-entry, let them sleep for 32 hours and then they'll be readyto tell you all about the trip! :)

Day 7!

The team has pressed through yet another workday and finished up well. Things run a little differently down here in Puerto Cabezas so we were not able to get anymore of the wood siding from the mill because it had not been planed yet for us. And since there's no Home Depot or Lowes around here we leaned into what God had for us. Some of the team continued working on the houses to frame the roofing so that the crews after us could get the house covered. This crew worked hard through the heat and sun to get a lot done! The rest of the team went to a new place for us. It's a feeding center that Verbo ministries operates and we had a chance to help prepare a lunch and play with the kids that would receive the meals. The team immediately connected with the kids and began playing all sorts of games and just hanging out with them. We discovered that this center feeds lunch to 250-400 people every day! The vast majority of those are children ages 2-12 and for about 60% of them it is the only meal they will have that day. It's a great outreach and is truly making a difference as they have been able to track the health improvements in the children who have been receiving these meals. The team continued working on the houses in the afternoon doing as much as we could without the siding boards and once again played with the children in that area. After dinner we were able to go to the midweek Verbo Church service and well begin packing and cleaning as we start the first leg of our journey tomorrow! Well spend the day in Managua and then have some time together as a team to talk about our entire experience and what that means as we head back home. It'll be a great day!

Photo's are finally available

Hello to everyone back home! Jeff Myers here. We've had some difficulty this week connecting to internet long enough to upload any pictures. But as luck would have it, we finally got a connection for our last full day here in port. I had an opportunity to upload the photo's to the GSM Facebook page so you all could have a look at the great work that our students and leaders are doing down here! You don't even need to be a member of Facebook to view them. One more full work day to go and everyone is ready to dive in! I hope you enjoy the photos! Link: GSM Nicaragua 2012 Photo Album

Day 6!

The team had another phenomenal workday today! We kept cranking on the two houses and worked on the siding today! We had quite a few setbacks today with rain and some bad boards that made the process a little rough, but the team pressed through it and encouraged each other and things turned around. We got things rolling with measuring, cutting and hammering and the siding started to go up! It was an amazing day to see the team press through and not only make the best of the work but to also know when to stop working and play with all the kids! A lot of kids from the area congregate when 47 Americans roll into the neighborhood and our team has loved on them so much this week! Another cool story from the day is the generosity of the team. We were told of a need in the orphanage for mosquito nets to not only help with possible diseases but also so the kids could just get rest. When the team heard about the need and the plan to purchase them they just wanted to be a part of it. They took some of their spending money and all chipped in and we were able to buy 28 of the 60 nets needed. It was an amazing act of generosity and love from this phenomenal hard-working team! Tomorrow is our last work day so pray for strength and perseverance to give it our all through the last board and nail! Also we'd love for everyone back home to be praying for a friend of ours down here. Polo is one of the workers who leads the entire build project and was not there today because his daughter was sick and had to go the hospital. We don't know all that happened but I'm sure Polo would appreciate it! More tomorrow!

Day 5!

Another amazing workday today!! The team got back at it on the houses and once again did some serious work!!! After finishing up the flooring we got to work framing up the walls. It was a pretty productive morning considering we didn't have any power! Yup, we did all the sawing for the end of the flooring and the first two walls by hand! Made for an interesting but awesome morning! After lunch the team got cranking and we had power back so we got some great work done! The walls on both houses are almost completely done! We've just got a couple short walls left and then it's on to siding all the walls on the outside! Were making great progress and expect to have another great update tomorrow!

Day 4!

So today was our first team work day and let me just say, this team DID WORK!! We are building two homes this week for families in need and houses are built on stilts which makes everything a little more interesting! When we got there the basic prep work had been done which consists of 12 pillars in the ground and then 4 long 6x6 beams each running across 3 of the pillars. Hard to explain but that's what basically serves as the stilt structure. So from there our team framed in the whole floor (just like framing a wall but it's over the entire floor) on both houses! And that was just before lunch! After lunch we got back to work and started putting the actual flooring boards down. These boards are a tongue and groove system so it requires some precise squaring of the boards and leverage to get the flooring tightly together. One of the houses floor is done and other only needs 5 more boards on it. The amazing thing was the teams excitement and perseverance because all that wood that we put up had to be carried from the base down the street to the worksite! That plus some heavy rainstorms mixed in and the challenge of HARD wood/SOFT nails which is very different from building in the US where the wood is soft and the nails are hard! The team did amazing though and pressed through all the crooked nails to get a lot done! Back at it tomorrow!

Day 3!

Another great day here in Port! We're settling into our normal routine of having breakfast, devo times and small group first thing in the morning. After that we joined a couple hundred people for sunday worship at Verbo Church. It was an amazing experience as the team got to join in singing songs to God in 3 different languages! That turned out to be a marking experience for a lot of the team as we debriefed our day. After church we loaded up a couple busses with the kids from the orphanage and headed out to the beach for an afternoon of fun! There was a lot of playing in the waves, building with the sand and a great game of beach soccer! The beach time started with a massive rainstorm dumping on us right when we got there but the team had great attitudes and made the best of it! And when we were getting ready to load up and leave, there was another massive rainstorm! So needless to say there's been a LOT of rain here in the last few hours! Tomorrow we start up on the work projects so were praying for a beautiful day to start building some houses! We've been having some serious struggles with the Internet here which is why we haven't been able to get photos up yet, but I assure you Jeff is taking some great pictures and well get them up when we can! Thanks for praying for and encouraging this team!

Day 2!

Saturday blog post Hey everyone today has been a great day! The team made it safely from Managua over to Port and were welcomes by some familiar faces. Pastor Earl was waiting for us at the airport as well as our trusty bus driver from last year Roy. After getting settled in and having lunch we started to take a tour of the compound but that didn't last too long. As soon as we got over to the orphanage and kids started coming out our team jumped all over the chance to play with the kids! There were games of tag, soccer, frisbee and even some red rover. Kids were teaching us songs and other fun games and there was laughter and smiles all around. We decided the tour could wait till later so we could spend more time with the kids before dinner. This evening we had a great team debrief as we shared stories of why each of us decided to go on this trip, what we are nervous about and what we are excited about on this trip. It was amazing listening to all the diverse stories of how God has brought this team together. Just as amazing was hearing this team verbalize how much they want to make an impact this week and to take huge steps in their faith. This team is beyond ready and is diving in with everything they have! Tomorrow morning we have church before taking the kiddos from the orphanage to the beach tomorrow for a fun day! And just a heads up the Internet here has been a little glitchy so we may not be able to get lots up but well make sure to keep everyone up to date as much as we can!

Touchdown in Managua

Hey friends and family the team is landed in Managua! We're all checked in at our hotel and taking some much needed nap time! Well be spending the night here in Managua before flying over to Puerto Cabezas in the morning! Everyone do great with all the flights and customs, this is a great team and were off to a great start! More later!

GSM NICARAGUA '12 team is off and running! Our bus driver Joe is taking good care of us and were on our way to Ohare! Well post updates along the way as we can to update on our travel status! Thanks for following along and remember to leave the team some love in the comments!