Our team arrived home today. After a 2 1/2 hour plane delay, our connecting flight finally left Miami and we arrived in San Francisco at 12:50 am. We were all grateful to see Tim Loomis patiently waiting for us at the airport. We were exhausted. We had gotten up at 5:30 am California time and most of us did not get to bed until almost 24 hours later.
It is good to be home. It is even nice to be able to blog this message on a computer that is arranged for typing English rather than Spanish. On the way home, the driving almost seemed boring compared to the thrill of riding with our Nicaraguan taxi drivers.
It was a good week. The entire team left this pueblo with a real feeling of being loved by the amazing residents there. We were humbled by their generous hearts as those who had so little insisted on presenting us with gifts. Unlike so many other types of "mission" experiences, this one made an impact on our team in a different way. We had lived with our families and in turn became closer in a week than we could have another way. We shared meals with them and we spent real quality time with them. Unless you experience it, it is really hard to explain the deep connection that we made there.
On Friday night, we had begun saying some of our good byes. Claudia, a very amazing woman whose family had housed Grace and Rina called Angela over to give her some gifts. Angela had met Claudia last year. This year Claudia had made bracelets for all three of Angela's girls along with a necklace for her son. It was amazing to realize that as we had gone through our busy year our friends in San Juan de Oriente had thought of us and remembered so many things about us. Once again the feeling of being loved enveloped us all.
The week was simply beautiful. In the next week or so we will be announcing a time when we can share a meal with all of you and give you a report on our trip. While we came back from this week down there serving the community intensively, our chance to be a part of these people's lives is not over. We are already excited about planning our next visit which we hope will include more of you. We also have several ways that our own Emmaus community can continue to support these people throughout the year. We again are thankful for all the support and prayers!
It is good to be home. It is even nice to be able to blog this message on a computer that is arranged for typing English rather than Spanish. On the way home, the driving almost seemed boring compared to the thrill of riding with our Nicaraguan taxi drivers.
It was a good week. The entire team left this pueblo with a real feeling of being loved by the amazing residents there. We were humbled by their generous hearts as those who had so little insisted on presenting us with gifts. Unlike so many other types of "mission" experiences, this one made an impact on our team in a different way. We had lived with our families and in turn became closer in a week than we could have another way. We shared meals with them and we spent real quality time with them. Unless you experience it, it is really hard to explain the deep connection that we made there.
On Friday night, we had begun saying some of our good byes. Claudia, a very amazing woman whose family had housed Grace and Rina called Angela over to give her some gifts. Angela had met Claudia last year. This year Claudia had made bracelets for all three of Angela's girls along with a necklace for her son. It was amazing to realize that as we had gone through our busy year our friends in San Juan de Oriente had thought of us and remembered so many things about us. Once again the feeling of being loved enveloped us all.
The week was simply beautiful. In the next week or so we will be announcing a time when we can share a meal with all of you and give you a report on our trip. While we came back from this week down there serving the community intensively, our chance to be a part of these people's lives is not over. We are already excited about planning our next visit which we hope will include more of you. We also have several ways that our own Emmaus community can continue to support these people throughout the year. We again are thankful for all the support and prayers!
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