We have a team preparing to return to Nicaragua to the Arms of Love children’s home in July. Our group of 14 has met twice now to plan our activities and learn more about ministry to the kids there. We expect to do some more construction work, painting and repairs as needed, and spend as much time as possible with the children. When they come home from school in the afternoons we usually engage in crafts, singing, dance lessons, sports and sometimes helping with homework–especially for the older ones who are studying English.

Luis models a craft necklace. Lookin' sharp!

Once again we will have team members with expertise in education and inner healing counseling who will work with the house parents and other staff to enable them to be more effective after we leave. We may also take a short excursion with the kids to a nearby national park on top of a volcano that you can see from the compound. It’s a great, low-cost opportunity for the kids to get some time out and about, and the views from on top of the volcano are amazing! Nicaragua is a beautiful country.

Please pray for our team. We will need God’s protection as we travel and His wisdom as we minister to the children. Pray that we will have the power of the Holy Spirit to discern how to pray for the kids, how to meet their emotional needs, and how to minister the gospel to them despite the inability of most of us to speak Spanish.

If God leads you, feel free to support us financially as well. We will need about $18,000 for the week, including our air fare. We are trusting God to provide the funds, and if He lays it on your heart to give, just mark your donation to VCC as for the Nicaragua Missions team.

However you decide to support us, thank you, and stay tuned to this blog for updates as we prepare, and for more pics live from Nicaragua in July!

The team returned on Tuesday, January 27th, although for awhile there we wondered if JR would make it back with us! He was pretty sick, but God and a couple of Nicaraguan hospitals looked after him.

We were blessed by the children much more than we blessed them, as usual. The change in the atmosphere at the children’s home in Jinotepe was dramatic—God is reaching the kids’ hearts and drawing them to himself. They have devotions regularly, many read their Bibles frequently, and the new house father, Aldo, has instituted daily exercise (optional) and is teaching the boys to be good stewards of God’s gifts to them.  When some of team members were ill the children prayed for us and we were healed.

Some of the things that we accomplished were:

     - Prepped and painted the iron railings on one side of the Casa Grande
     - Built and painted four tables for the ninos to use for study and play
     - Purchased blankets, dishes and flatware for the kids to use
     - Provided a new laptop computer for Javier Sanchez, the director
     - Inner healing counseling and education training for the house parents and kids
     - Repair and restoration of the basketball goals and backboards

In addition we spent many hours playing with, talking to, and hugging the children. It was a joy to give them our attention and love, to talk with them, laugh, play Uno, sing worship songs and hike on the beautiful trails on the property. 

Thank you again to all who prayed for us and supported us financially. Look for more updates and phots from this trip, and for announcements about our plans to return to Nicaragua with a team in July!

Title: Skate Night
Location: Hot Wheels Skate Rink
Description: We’ve rented the whole place for the night! Come skate and eat for free, and you can totally invite family, friends, and neighbors to join the fun!
Start Time: 6:30
Date: 2009-02-15
End Time: 8:30

The chicas are in the internet cafe in Jinotepe for a bit while Bradley and Javier go “shopping” for hardware and supplies.

Last night we had a party for Christmas/New Years/January birthdays complete with dancing, cake, icecream and the most sugary soda you can imagine. Isabella did some traditional dances with the older girls, and Deborah led all of the little girls and older girls in ballet. The little ones were so precious in their outfits and crowns. At one point I looked at JR and remarked that God must be telling everyone in heaven “hold on a moment, my daughters are dancing and we need to watch…”

The children were truly precious, and just looking around the room I saw Beka cuddling with the little ones, JR snuggled with his constant shadow Fabian, Bradley holding Eliezar, Jason running amuck with Karla, Karen talking to Julia and Fracella, Sierra taking pictures of Gioconda and Valeria, Deborah coordinating the different groups of girls and me with Gloria on my arm with Meyling and Estrellita playing with my hair and I thought: this is God´s kingdom here on earth. This is it. This is the love of Christ redeeming relationships and healing hurts, the sounds of dancing and little kid laughter are truly the sounds of victory over the kingdom of darkness. Right here in Jinotepe, in the Arms of Love children´s home, Jesus is delighting over his beautiful bride.

I hope that we can get some pictures sent to you from the party. See you all soon!

Hola Everyone!

We are sorry that we haven´t updated the blog. We have had some techincal diffuculties!

Everything is going really well here, and we are thankful for your prayers.

We have been able to paint and fix a lot of things at Arms of Love and we can really see the Holy Spirit at work in this place.

Everyone is doing well, and our health is fine, with the exception of a few bug bites and random skin rashes

Thank you so much for checking our blog and praying for us

After months of prayer and planning our team of eight people leaves at 5:45 pm today. Six of us are returning members of the team that went in July, and two are new, but all are excited to go and minister to the children at Jinotepe. We’ll be there until Tuesday, January 27th. (more…)

by Israel Papavies

I have always had this picture in my head that represented the hardest time in my life… when Josh had cancer. There’s a yellow hallway. There are several red doors but all of them disappear and just one is left. There is a little blonde girl sitting in front of it with her knees pulled to her chest. Her hands are clamped over her ears and she rocks back and forth humming to herself to block out the noises. (more…)

We issue a call to all men:

Join us in pursuing a closer walk with Jesus by reading about David’s life together with us for 40 days. At only a 10 minute commitment a day, it’s an easy yet highly impactful choice you can make for you life.

Download the PDF document here.