Mission Nicaragua: Day 3

One of my favorite aspects of our time down here is the morning (I'm quite sure not everyone on the team agrees) but it is just refreshing to have our TAWG after our morning devotional time as a team. We all are enjoying the space and silence to connect in greater depth with God and His Word as the start to our day.

I'm pretty sure that our bodies are getting adjusted to the time zone and the work load and even the food! We seemed to hit our stride as the "painting team" today. By the way, this isn't just like rolling up some latex paint in the States. We are working with a very thick oil based paint on very rough, uneven concrete walls and decorative concrete blocks. Most of us have a good indicator on when the fumes are getting to us and we need a break. It is hard work, but we are having fun while we work. We've been forced to get MacGyver creative in rigging ladders to paint hard to reach places and are grateful for God's hand of protection thus far!

And even while we work we are getting great opportunities to build some relationships in the community. Two years ago, we built a house right around the corner and so the word has spread that the 'gringos' are back in the neighborhood! One of the ways we are building relationships is through gifts - we bring goodies galore to give out. Today we created our first ever pinata (later called the Toddata) as I took a bag of candy and hid it under my shirt and after being hit with a baseball bat (softly, thankfully) sent it flying everywhere. Amazing what joy comes from a little fun (and candy) with the kids of the neighborhood. It's creative ways to share the love of Christ that have been the hallmark of our teams here in Nicaragua.

We had the rains shut us down a bit early today, so we headed back to the compound for some down time in the pool. We have some pool traditions in some of the games we play and even created a new one today with a frisbee. We are praising God for moments of down time right when we need them!

I have been so encouraged by our team time at night. We meet together to talk about what God has taught us and shown us throughout the day and then we get into our gendered family groups for some time of further discussion and accountability. I feel very honored to be leading this team that God put together and have been blessed getting to know them all even better.

Tomorrow we are looking forward to worshiping at church with the Buzbees and members from the other teams here when we go to Verbo Church. Then in the afternoon we are heading into Los Cedros - a community where we have been heavily invested over the years, building homes, taking their children to camp and working on the Christian school. We'll join those believers for worship in the evening.

We appreciate and covet your continued prayer support. And by the way, if you are reading this via Facebook, then you are missing out on some of the pictures. Just click over to toddveleber.blogspot.com to see the team in action!

Mission Nicaragua: Day 2

We were able to start our day together as a team up on the "3rd floor" which is a open air loft overlooking the compound and the beautiful countryside. Each morning we will meet as a team where we have a chance to connect through God's Word and to pray for our day.

So, today we got off and running on our first construction project. We were working outside of La Churreca (the city dump) at Sister Ruby's house. Sister Ruby has become a good friend to us as she has been serving here in ministry in a partnership with the Buzbees for many years now. She would have never asked for help but God has given us an opportunity to bless her and her ministry by painting her home.

God blessed us with some beautiful weather for most of the day and then the rains came in the afternoon. We figured that would be a good sign to get off the metal roof standing on a metal ladder. So we loaded up and headed over to Casa Robles. Casa Robles (the boys home) is the brand new home that was purchased by the Buzbees as a counterpart to Casa Havilah (the girls home). This is an awesome ministry where many abused, hurting or neglected kids can have a home to live in with a set of home parents and receive love, care and education. We will be doing some construction projects there later, but today we joined in a birthday celebration for Cesar. It was awesome to see how these kids' lives are transformed - many just by being able to leave La Churreca.

We are already being challenged as we've traveled around and seen different communities here in Nicaragua. It is eye opening to see how the rest of the world lives outside the States. Over the course of the summer I taught a series called 'Save the Planet' where we looked at the world from a global perspective with the challenge of living out the Gospel - the hope for the world. Most of the world lives on less than $2 a day and we are definitely being exposed to that reality here.

It can be easy to have compassion at the plight of the people here, but we want that same passion that we are seeking to live out the Gospel here, to come back home with us. Our desire is that God would allow us to see the world through the eyes of Christ. And we are eager to see what God will show us, teach us and do through us!

Mission Nicaragua: Day 1

Well our construction team has finally arrived after delays in the Tallahassee airport and then more delays in the Miami airport. Trusting in God is put into practice when the pilot gets on in Miami and says, "Sorry for the delay, but this plane had to get worked on a bit, but now we are good to go." And then later comes on the PA and says, "We've found some bags below that we don't know who they belong to." So we made it about an hour late, but at least we made it!

It has been a long day for all of us so we are looking forward to a good night's rest because we start early tomorrow on our first project. It looks like we are going to start with some home repair and painting on Sister Ruby's home right outside of the dump. We all love Sister Ruby and her ministry here in Nicaragua and are excited to serve her in this way.

Be praying for all of us - for our health and safety, but more importantly that God would do a good work in our hearts and through our team. We have some veterans on the team, but we have a majority that haven't been here before. So we are praying that God would meet us here and allow us to minister the Gospel in word and in deed. We appreciate your prayer support!

Kulauqa: Day 4

We have made it... almost! We had another jam packed day here at Kulaqua. After morning chapel our guys went to the guys only interactive to learn about being a dude in Christ and our girls went to hear Jen teach on body image and true beauty in Christ. Our hope and prayer is that they are hanging on to nuggets of what they are hearing since they have received alot this week.

Somehow we managed to go from 5th place to last place in true Wildwood fashion in competition for the all camp trophy. I guess I'll have to just accept this as tradition for the Wood. I'm guessing most of our lack of advancement came from our students who were too hot, too tired or didn't want to get wet or sweaty when it came time for our morning competitions!

During free time I took our group of students over to our snorkeling excursion to Ginnie Springs. This is always a fun bonding time for me and the guys that choose to go. It was cold as ever but this year the Santa Fe River is having some backflow issues and so it was so murky we couldn't see our hand before our face. So we spent the majority of our time snorkeling in the springs.

Chuck wrapped our chapel talks with the big picture of what is to come for eternity. He has done a great job presenting the meta-narrative (big picture) of the Bible, and it has given our students loads of information to process and understand about God.

Camp always wraps with our big hang night in the gym where we had inflatables, video games, basketball, soccer, dodgeball and other crazy games. I think it successfully wore us all out! But before that we did have a chance to celebrate our two camp birthdays - John Henry & John.

So, we've wrapped our last full day of camp and it was a roller coaster of a day. We've pushed through some tough stuff this week but we've also had some 'mountaintop' experiences where we've all felt closer to God. We wrapped up last night in our huddle times with a time of sharing and Q&A and I was really encouraged to hear our middle school students sharing what God has been teaching them this week and how their lives will be different. Sometimes it's hard for us to believe that through all the excitement, lack of sleep, camp food and high energy that our students are engaging, but I remember back to my time at ms camp and that's where God radically changed my life. So praise God for the work He has done and will continue to do in the lives of our students!

Kulauqa: Day 3

It's hard to believe that we are already halfway through our week here at middle school camp. We are really having a great time here as a student ministry - learning to love God and love each other. I'm really encouraged by this group of middle school students... even though we do have our 'moments'... it's a really neat group that I pray will serve as the core of our ms ministry as we move toward the new school year.

Camp is a great place. Yesterday we were challenged in so many different ways - from our chapel time in the morning and evening, our interactives and even our time alone with God. Our staff have been praying that God would speak clearly this week to our students and that they in turn would hear from Him and be changed.

We had a blast yesterday hanging out a camp and participating in everything from go karts, to horseback riding, to the blob and even the waterpark. I had a special treat in having my family drive over to see me and hang out with our students. I cherish every moment I've got since I spent most of my summer away from Tallahassee and my family!

We had some great representation from Wildwood in the dodgeball tournament as two of our teams advanced pretty far, but not quite enough to bring home the championship. Then for our late night activity we had church hang night so we took over the gym for more dodgeball, some hoops and some hanging out.

Thanks for checking in and for praying for us. Thursday will be our last full day at camp so we are trying to get it all in!

Kulauqa: Day 2

We have wrapped up a busy, but awesome day today. Morning comes early for sure, but we are grateful to God for some great weather for camp so far. After our morning chapel time we go to interactives for a smaller type Bible study. You can be praying for Jen as she is doing an interactive for girls and me as I'm doing a co-ed interactive. From there we move to a personal devotional time.

Morning competitions were a blast today as we competed in a game in the wave pool and one in the lazy river. The majority of us stayed wet today as we made our annual tubing trip down the Itchnetuknee River. This trip always is a blast as our students enjoy flipping each other, jumping from some trees and spotting for some wildlife. This year we were able to see (but stay away from) some water snakes and we even spotted a wild boar eating right along the riverbank. A few students stayed behind to check out all that Kulaqua has to offer!

Tonight was a great time in worship and in hearing Chuck share about part 2 of God's story. We took at look at the fall - how sin entered the world through mankind's disobedience and how that continues to affect our lives. In our family groups we were able to go a little deeper and talk how we all struggle against our sin nature and what God would have us do.

Our late night activity was pretty spectacular as Ben Glenn (aka the messy preacher) did his amazing chalk drawing and presentation of the Gospel. We were all pretty amazed at his story and also his beautiful artwork. God continues to speak to all of us this week through so many different means and we appreciate your prayer support!

Kulauqa: Day 1

Well here I go again... after just being home a few days from HS Camp, I'm back on the road at camp - this time with our middle school students. I always look forward to middle school camp at Kulaqua. It's a great place and God always does a great work in our hearts here.

We arrived in early afternoon to some rainy weather that cleared quickly so the students could get out and burn off some of the 'sitting on the bus' energy. They quickly took off for the blob, go karts, water park and sports activities. We all came together for dinner and then had our first worship time tonight. We are always excited to have Wayne Kerr as our worship leader for times of high energy worship! This year we have Chuck Berry speaking on the story of God in four chapters. Tonight we looked at creation and how we as unique and special creations fit individually into God's story.

After worship we have what are called huddle times where we meet together as a church and then we divide down into family groups for some in depth discussion and community time together.

Tonight was our annual huge game of counselor manhunt followed by our water park night. We had a great time but are all pretty exhausted and hoping the students are too. Please be praying for us and for what God has in store for us this week!