Wow! What a day!

We had a very long day today, so this may be a very short post. We arrived at our clinic this morning and set up our stations. Registration and triage was in the church building, doctors were in "booths" under the overhang ourside, the pharmacy is in the classroom area behind the church building, and in prizes and hygene items were handed out in the courtyard. Martha Ellen also did a great job keeping the children occupied in the waiting area with crayons and hugs.

Ministers from local churches of Christ were on hand today studying the Bible with patients. Brenda Chavez and her family cooked us a wonderful lunch. The construction crew was able to get the roof on the second story of the classroom buiding, as well as most of one wall. We were very productive today, but it was also a day to work some kinks out for the next few days.

Probably our greatest struggle today was finding a way to make the pharmacy more efficient. In the morning, it became very backed up, but over lunch we restructured a little and it ran much, much smoother. Tim and Monica deserve very big pats on the back. They worked without breaks today, and by the time we started seeing patients again after lunch, they barely finished the morning's patients, so they only got to eat a quick bite standing up while working.

We saw roughly 220 patients today. One of the saddest cases we saw today was a woman with this leg wound. Dr. Adams called it Elephantitis with a secondary bacterial infection. He said it would be hard to treat even at home. We dressed it for her and told her to come back tomorrow to have the dressings changed.

Tonight, we attended worship again where a very dynamic speaker presented a lesson about Peter waling on the water to Jesus. He told the audience of about 200 that Jesus could reach out and take your hand right now just like He took Peter's and save you also. And he did exactly that for TWO MORE NEW CHRISTIANS! Yay! There were two more baptisms tonight, totaling 6 we have witnessed this week.

The tickets for tomorrow's clinic were passed out tonight and, although there were not quite as many distributed, we still expect tobe very busy tomorrow.

Buenas Noches!

Tonight we attended the worship service/gospel campaign at the church. This morning, we sat inside, but tonight there were too many people. The chairs were set up in the courtyard outside the building, and though they weren't all full at the beginning, as the service went on, they filled and more and more were added. There were 260 people present tonight. The gospel was preached and the plan of salvation taught. There was one response and at the end of the service, there was another baptism. You have another new brother in Christ! After the service, the visitors all raised their hands and were given tickets with numbers that they could bring to the clinic tomorrow to be seen. In order for them to attend the clinic and see a doctor, they had to sit through the gospel meeting. We got back to the hotel late tonight and waited quite a while for dinner. The pharmacy was stocked and organized this afternoon, but tomorrow is going to be a very early morning becuase we have to arrive early to set up the stations for the first day. So, good night from Managua!

Buenas Tardes!

We had a wonderful worship experience this morning. We were welcomed with open arms, hugs, handshakes and smiles. There were many happy reunions for those who have been here before on trips. We sang in Spanish, and Terry Lofton led singing in English for those of us who only know that language. He, of course, implored us to sing out and not leave him hanging since he was the one standing alone in the front of the audience. The congregation had prepared a song for us which they sang in Spanish and English. It involved shaking hands and hugging during the song. Hugo Rivera, the minister, delivered a great lesson this morning and Gary Hall from Baxter translated it for us. Hugo and his wife Velasqua (sp?) have a two-year-old sone named Sanders and are expecting a little girl in a few months.

At the end of our assembly, members were called by name and given instructions to go in pairs and take one of us with them to canvas aq six block radius around the church building giving out Bibles and invitations to the gospel meeting this week, as well as the medical clinic. So, we hit the streets. Jonas explained that while there were 400 people at the assembly we attended last night, there were only 23 visitors. He said that even though this congregation is much smaller, we will have MANY more vistors to minister to in the next few days. Afterward, we came back to the building for water and shade, and another young man was baptized. Praise God!

We went to the local mall for lunch. There was a food court with some familiar restaurants and some not-so-familiar ones. Burger King and Subway got a pretty good bit of business from us today and many opted for ice cream fo dessert. Who could blame us when we're wearing church clothes in Taylor Christian Camp heat? The fact that two scoops of ice cream in a waffle bowl was less than $1.00? We were able to hang out at the mall for about an hour while we waited for Jonas to come back. During this time, many of us were able to make phone calls from a store of phone booths. A 10-minute call was about $1.50. This is super cheap!

After we left the mall, we drove to a historic part of downtown Managua where the presidential home is located, as well as a beautiful old Catholic cathedral. The cathedral hasn't been used since it sustained damage in the 1972 earthquake. There were children at the historic area willing to sell you flowers and other shapes they make from reeds while you are there.

Our pharmacists are setting up their drugs this afternoon, while the rest of us hang out at the hotel fo a little rest. This evening, we will return to the church for worship at 6:00.

Good Morning!

Everyone seems to have slept well last night. We enjoyed a delicious breakfast buffet at the hotel this morning with cook to serve omelets, fresh fruit, bacon, rice and beans, pastries and juice. In just a few minutes we're off to worship. Steve White will be leaving after worship to return to Tegucigalpa. This afternoon will be a work day to get ready for the clinic tomorrow.

It's wonderful that this morning, we are worshipping here, our families back home are doing the same thing, as are brothers and sisters all around the world. The church is world-wide!

Saturday Evening in Managua

This afternoon we rented these two vans to get us around Managua. Steve Simmons is driving one of them and Mike Thomas is driving the other. So far so good.







We went by the church where we will be conducting the medical part of the mission. Those who had been here before were amazed at the progress that has been made to the property. Our last construction crew built the lower part of the building, and the metal structure has been added to the top. This week our construction crew will be working on the upper part of the building.

This overhang has also been added, and this is where the doctors will be seeing patients.

This is another view of the building we built on bottom and the top we will work on this week. The pharmacy will be located in the room on bottom. Tomorrow afternoon, we will be going to set up the drugs there.

Our crew.

This is Jonas and his family, as well as the church caretaker and his wife that live at the building. Also, the minister and some of our interpreters were there today to show us around.

Steve Simmons takes pictures of everything! This is a little family across the street from the church property.

Tonight we attended a worship service at the largest congregation in Managua. There were about 300 in attendance. A couple of our crew stayed back at the room to rest. Everyone is doing okay, but many of us do have swollen ankles from the heat and flying today.

This is the church where we were tonight. Ten points to whoever can name these travellers by the backs of thier heads!

We were all sitting together in the front left of the auditorim. All visitors were asked to sign in at the door and were recognized at the end of the service. Those who were not there as part of a group were called by name and came up front to receive a New Testament as a gift for being there.

We are so happy to report that we have a new brother and new sister in Christ tonight. There were two baptisms that resulted from the message tonight. Dulce said preacher was a good speaker. We just had to take her word for it.

Most came back to the hotel tonight and had a little dinner. Given the heat, Vivian and Virginia had the best idea. Strawberry Ice Cream for dinner anyone?

Greetings from Managua, Nicaragua!

Praise God! We're safely in Nicaragua!

We are one hour behind Bowling Green time, and right now it's 3:45 p.m. here. At 4:00 we are going to take all the medical bags and supplies to our worksite and check it out At 6:00, we may go visit a congregation in Managua that often works with the congregation we are visiting with, as they are having a gospel meeting tonight.

It wasn't easy getting here, but relatively uneventful. All 23 of us and our 46 checked bags made it safely. Some minor shifting had to be done to some luggage at Nashville to even out the weights and stay under the 50 lb. limit. We had to run from one end of Houston's airport to the other to catch our connecting flight, but we made and the closed the doors after our last "yellow shirt" boarded.

We made it through customs fine. No one's luggage got searched. God blessed us with answered prayers today for sure. There were some familiar faces at the airport, too. Jonas was there with some church family and Steve White drove from Tegucigalpa to see us. It's always nice to see Steve at an airport waiting with a big hug and a kiss on the cheek!

The Best Western where we are staying is directly across the street from the airport. It's a pretty place. Lots of gardens and flowers. The rooms are along long outdoor breezeways and it has a nice open air restaurant by a beautiful pool. It's a nice warm 95 degrees and sunny. Most of grabbed a late lunch there just a little bit ago.

Everyone's doing well, but I think we will all sleep well tonight since some of us still haven't had any sleep. We left the church at 3 a.m. Thanks to all the sweet people that came to see us off. we had to be up that early, but you didn't! Thanks especially to Mike Brown for driving us to the airport, and to Curd and Emily Thomas for bringing the luggage truck back to Bowling Green!

Apparently this little one-legged bird has been here at the hotel for some time. Everyone remembered him from the last trip. When he wants food he sings and when he gets tired, he rests on his other little nub.

This is a volcano that was actually part of a chain of volcanos just before we landed in Managua. (Surely we would've heard about these if they were still active, right?)

Hopefully we will be able to update you with pictures of the trip throughout the week. Feel free to leave us messages ans we will share them with the group.

We love you all! Keep us in your prayers!