Matthew McNutt

Wow. Today is a SCORCHER. And the power has been out since before we got up this morning (it just now came back on), so no fans! No wind, no clouds just mucho, mucho sunshine. Everyone is pretty much just sitting around trying to minimize movement and conserve energy! But enough of that! On to the update!

Yesterday was a GREAT day off! We took off from Campo Alegria first thing in the morning and headed out to San Juan del Sur, a small touristy type town on the Pacific Ocean. A bunch of the teens were pumped to stick their feet in the Pacific for the first time! We spent the morning and early afternoon there, walking through the town, playing in the ocean, and just chilling after a long, hard (but good) camp experience! After we had our fill of the beach, we hopped back in the bus and took off for Masaya Volcano. I have to confess, it was one of my favorite stops of the trip! Its a fairly stable volcano, but its still smoking a bit. We were able to drive right up to the top and look down into the crater theres just something awe inspiring to drive past miles of lava rocks and look into the smoky depths. Very, very cool. Parents dont worry, we were safe at all times and we wont be visiting any more volcanoes this trip!!!

Today we started our day camp at a local school. The kids are actually on school vacation right now, but close to fifty turned out for some educational lessons, game time and lunch. It was really great sharing and demonstrating the love of Jesus to these kids that no one else is helping. We also are using part of the money we raised as a team to take care of some physical needs of the school; weve hired some Nicaraguans to spend the next couple days working on the roof (dont worry, Im not putting your kids up there!!!), well be repairing the schools well (the only source for water there), and providing locks and latches that well install to help secure the buildings at night. The teachers were certainly happy to let us come and interact with their students and the kids were just phenomenal.

Well be returning to the school again tomorrow, and then Thursday morning as well. Thursday, however, well be bringing the kids back to Campo Alegria (the school is only a couple miles away) for piñatas and a huge slip and slide well be putting together. Actually, calling it a slip and slide doesnt begin to do it justice; well be running pipes into the lake to get water and have a pump churning out 300 gallons a minute on to the slip and slide check that, more like a raging water slide! Were all pretty excited about it!

For those wondering, we still dont have internet access (this is all coming from my cell phone), so no photos or video! I have to confess, Im a little bummed; I put together a two minute video update several days ago but I havent been able to do anything with it!!!

First the bad news: still no internet! It should be back on tomorrow, so for parents waiting for a call from their son or daughter, that’s when it will happen (we’ll be using skype – a phone service using the internet for pennies a minute instead of dollars a minute using a regular phone). If we don’t get internet by then I’ll let the kids use my cell phone, but the calls will have to be shorter in that scenario.

But enough on that! Camp is over, the kids are gone and my team is asleep in hammocks all over this property! We are beat! Those kids ran us ragged! The team did an amazing job, put in looooooooong days and truly created a memorable experience for the children. It was sad saying goodbye and loading these kids onto a bus to take them back to their ‘homes’ in the Managua city dump. Having spent two days in the dump and seeing the horrific conditions they live in made it tough to send these little children we spent four days bonding with back to. I’m sure our debriefing time will be a hard one tonight – the brokenness of our world is demonstrated in such a tangible way by the place these little children call home.

Tomorrow is our day off! We’ll be visiting San Juan del Sur, a town on the Pacific ocean for some beach time and swinging by Masaya on the way back. It’s some well deserved down time for our teens before we spend Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday working at a school a couple miles from Campo Alegria. We’ll be teaching English, doing educational projects, playing games, feeding the kids as well as some physical repairs and work projects, too! It should be quite an experience to finish our trip with – there’s a strong possibility that we could have an ongoing relationship with the school. Our teens are hungry to be a continuing tool for God in a place like this school we will be at, a place that noone else is lining up to help.

If all goes well, tomorrow we’ll have internet and I’ll be able to post another video! keep praying for us – we appreciate it!

Our first week is almost a wrap! There was a big storm a couple days ago that was fun to experience – but it knocked out all our internet access! That means I’m pecking out this blog update from my cell phone – forgive me if I’m brief!!!

We are in full on camp mode now! The bus load of kids arrived yesterday afternoon with energy to spare! Probably the thing that had them most excited was swimming in the lake – living in the city dump makes this their only opportunity to see this much clean water! In fact, that’s where everyone is right now! Swimming!

The teens are doing amazing with the kids and their different teaching responsibilities. We also have a crew of translators that are amazing!

That’s all for now! Hopefully we’ll have internet access back – otherwise my thumbs are going to take a beating doing this on my phone!!!