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!