TOTOGALPA - SECOND DISTRIBUTION

Tuesday's school pak distribution was in Totogalpa (Bird's Nest), noted as being one of the poorest cities in the Nuevo Segovia region of Nicaragua.  We were hosted by Pastor Santos and his wife at the Pentecostal church in town, with about 20 of the children having walked several miles from Cayantu - an area too hilly and steep for our bus to visit. 

We have adopted the prayer with children and their families and were again able to bless each child as they received their Hope for Tomorrow School Paks.  Our team rotated duties, handing out the paks and praying.  It is a powerful time in the Lord!

Since so many children walked from so far, and rain was forecast for the afternoon, we made sandwiches for all for lunch, ate quickly, and went straight away into our activities.  We split up the boys and girls and worked in teams - crafts and games.






It's familiar and heartwarming to see how the kids get so excited with the simple activities we bring.

Crafts consist of creating and coloring bookmarks and paper-folded "Word Givers" (ask Laura).  Games included frisbee toss, bean-bag toss and soccer.  And the grand finale is the much loved pinata.

As day 2 was drawing to a close, Pastor Mike shared some thoughts with Nicaragua Pastor Jerson Gonzalez in this short video.  Pastor Jerson has been the point person in Nicaragua for our trips from day 1.  He begins preparations months in advance, selecting the most needy cities and towns and contacting local Pastors to identify children who will receive the Paks.   At the distributions, he also shares his testimony of growing up poor and how God can change the children's lives.

In this video you can hear how much this project means to him and to his country.  We could not do this without him!

ADDITIONAL NEW ACTIVITIES WITH THE CHILDREN

We also included a new afternoon activity with the children at our first distribution Monday afternoon.  Thanks to Mike Huyck, who suggested Rocket Balloons and provided them, the kids were very excited to launch the balloons into the heavens.

As the video attests, the balloons were something new and different and the kids had a ball, almost as much fun as Mike had!

FIRST DISTRIBUTION

Monday morning we traveled north to Dipilto, to an area know as La Manzana (The Apple).  The church, Lirio de la Valle (Lilly of the Valley) was located in a very hilly, mountainous, area that required we hike in about a half mile. 

One new aspect to our distribution, suggested by Dave Waters, was to ask parents for permission to pray for them and their children as we handed out the school paks.  What a wonderful opportunity this was to extend the Lord's blessing upon the kids.   

Sunday, November 2, 2014, late evening

After loading up all of the duffel bags containing the school paks into a van and a pick-up, with a additional van for people, it was obvious that we needed a larger vehicle.  As you can see from the photo, we overloaded the van:

Everyone took it all in good spirit, as testified by smiles from Beth, Laura, Carlos, Ana and Larry!    

It was a long 4 plus hour drive from the airport to Ocotal, only 105 miles, but almost all two lane twisty mountain road.  We arrived after dark at our hotel, and base camp for the next 5 days.  Tomorrow morning we hit the road to our first school pak distribution at 8:30am.  Praise God we made it safely, in great spirits and tomorrow will be fulfilling our role as His hands, feet and disciples with the children.  Amen!