HCS 3

Good morning everyone! or better, buenos dias!

It is about 4:30am here in Managua. I know that likely sounds like an absolutely hideous time of the day to be awake, but Managua time is the same as mountain time in the states, so I'm two hours behind my usual wake up time. That means I slept in today!

Oh my gosh! I'm in Managua, Nicaragua. That statement stands by itself for a truly unique and potentially life-changing status. Let me recap our first day!

We arose early Monday; actually about 4:30am, so maybe this time is the standard for this trip. Muggy, Erik and I loaded our bags into the car and said a prayer for God's favor over Grandma, who is staying behind in Georgia and Roberta, our friend who is staying with Grandma, for Luke and Rachael who are returning to Georgia today from their honeymoon and for our travels on our missions trip. Got your scorecards ready? You may need them to keep track of all this!

As we drove to the church Monday morning, (Harvest Cathedral in Macon, GA) we listened to NPR. Now, I'm not trying to make something out of nothing, but one particular story this morning really caught my attention. The story was of young people "hearing the call of God on their lives". It profiled two young people becoming Methodist pastors as God had called them. The story caught my attention for a couple of reasons: 1) For NPR to do a story on "God's calling" on people's lives was unique in and of itself, 2) Muggy, Erik and I are on this trip to see what God has for us. Not just for this week, but actually for the rest of our lives.

We met up with the rest of the group at the church and had an uneventful van ride to Atlanta for our flight, scheduled to depart at 10:15. The Atlanta airport would prove to be a very interesting environment.

After obtaining our boarding passes, we were directed to the security processing lines. Now, if you've ever been through Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport, you know it's a huge airport and that the lines can be very, very long. Well, on Monday, July 23, 2007, the lines were absolutely unbelieveable! The lines went from the security area, across, the atrium between the north and south ticketing area, double-back across the atrium, went back to the baggage claim area where the line snaked around the baggage carousels, out the middle door of the south terminal, and down the sidewalk in front of the building!! The estimates were that it would take 1 1/2 hours to process security! As it was now 8:30 and our flight left at 10:15, we potentially had a problem. I quietly lifted a prayer that we would make our flight and accepted the fact that God is in control and knows that He wants this team in Nicaragua. I knew we'd make our flight.

As we moved through the baggage claim area, a airport agent stopped the line five people in front of me and said all of you come this way, and led us off to the other side of the airport. We queued up outside a door to a part of the airport I'd never seen before. We processed through the door, down an escalator to a temporary security screening area the airport had established and were through security in about 15 minutes. We were at our gate by 9:15, plenty of time to relax, have breakfast and get ready for our flight.

Delta Airlines has a direct flight to Managua from Atlanta. I understand this is a relatively new route as previous trips always had lay-overs. We arrived in Managua 3 hours and 15 minutes later.

But I must note what I consider to be a significant item regards the passengers on the flight. There is apparently a huge Christian Church effort underway in Nicaragua. There were at least five separate groups, or representatives of groups on the flight. Ours, of course, and through our youth pastor and wife and family that represents a long term effort. Darin has been to Nicaragua 13 times. There was a group from Arkansas, another Asian group from Oregon I believe, a woman representing the Methodists seeking to hire teachers in Nicaragua. It was eye-opening to realize their is such a tremendous outreach effort by churches.

We were met at the airport by Tim and Chris. We piled into two busses and set off west through town, taking in the sites and being totally awed by the fact that we were driving down the streets of Managua, Nicaragua.

A particularly poignant moment for me occurred at as we sat at a stoplight. Picture two busses full of Americans who've just arrived in the country generally considered to be the poorest in North America. We were stopped at a light on a six lane road through the heart of Managua. As we waited for the light to change a single horse-drawn, two-wheeled cart pulled up next to us and stopped. At the reins (literally) was a man of about 50 years of age and seated next to him was a young boy of about 4 or 5 years. The little boy was perched on the driver's bench of the cart next to his (?dad/grandpa?) and he was falling asleep as he sat there in the hot Nicaraguan sun. No car, no air conditioning, no modern items we take so much for granted. Just a man and his son moving through their lives on a horse-drawn cart and the little boy doing what my own boys have done so many times...dozing off, waiting for Dad to get them to where they're going. I realized at that moment the distances that I had bridged that day in simply coming to the country! And it provided me an insight into what waits for us here!

We stopped for lunch at (where else?) MacDonald's, primarily because it was efficient. A Big Mac is 70 Cordovas, with an exchange rate of 18 Cordovas to the dollar, that's about $3.90...not much different than at home and way out of the affordability range of most Nicaraguans.

The home we are staying in is owned by the Partners in Christ group. See their website at
http://www.partnersinchrist.info/. The home sits on fairly high hill on the southwest side of Managua and is surrounded by other beautiful homes. We received a short instructional talk from the missionaries we are here to support and then spent the rest of the day and evening relaxing and settling in. Pastor Darin spoke to us last evening about serving and putting ourselves last. All of us are tremendously excited to see what God has for us here.

Tuesday promises a trip to the nutrition center and orphanage. Muggy can't wait to hold the babies!

Keep us in your prayers! We again thank each and everyone for prayer and monetary support to enable this trip!