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After two busses, one truck, one small plane, two huge planes, and a walk across the Nicaraguan/Costa Rican border, our team has safely made it home. We greatly appreciate all of the prayers and donations of time and money that made our trip a possibility. Unfortunately we didn't blog every day and keep you all updated on exactly going on, but know that your prayers were felt by our team steadily. There is much to say about what we experienced, learned, and shared this past week in Nicaragua. To summarize: God was present. I think each one of us is still reeling from our trip and trying to figure out how God will use it in our individual lives to love Him better and love others better, but we all know that He has much to do with us.

Expect more to come from this blog as we share more stories and start building this relationship between Denver and Nicaragua. For now, here are some thoughts from the one and only Lindsay Carson:

When I asked Steve this afternoon how this trip made him feel, he simply replied, “It has made me feel feelings.” While I’ve only known him for a short stint, I’m pretty sure that’s saying a lot.
The boys on our team have done incredible handyman work in the hot, hot sun. It’s been crappy work, and they were given insufficient tools to work with, including a highly unstable ladder, and an ancient wire brush—the ladder so wobbly, we had Jessica and Tiffany spotting them. The work that took them three days could’ve been done in four hours with an angle grinder and power washer. But the reality is, bringing our tools from the United States wouldn’t have given them the perspective that they acquired in doing such tiresome labor, though the desire for shortcuts, at the very least an air compressor, (says Steve, I don’t know what that is) swam in through their American minds.

That perspective is still growing in our hearts, but what we know is this: Nicaraguans work hard and do tremendously difficult, mindless jobs and usually still can’t make ends meet. They’ve got 10 kids living in a tin roofed house, while many American families have enormous houses with empty rooms. The easiest emotion to feel is guilt, but I don’t think that’s exactly what God would have for us, but I don’t know because I’m not God. But what I do know is that we are all inspired to pour more of ourselves into Jesus in order to love his children the way he would.

We American minded folk are absolutely dependent on shortcuts. Drive instead of walk; eat fast food instead of cook; take pills instead of work through issues; need money, rob a bank or sell some drugs; undergo surgery instead of work out and eat right; on a more pragmatic scale, when you’re hungry you eat. When you need soap, you buy. When you need a hot shower, you take. And the lists goes on, and on and on. Believe me, our 2010 conveniences surely make life easier, and our reliance upon them comes to fruition quite blatantly by way of traveling to countries that still don’t have running water and electricity in homes. But all that is stuff you already knew, and we probably did too, but definitely not something I give thanks for every single day. These things do set us a part from our Nicaraguan friends. Their lack of development tempts us to send more money, or buy them more American things that would make their lives easier. But would it really make it any better? Debatable.

There is one thing that is universal regardless of our everyday eases: to have a loving relationship with Christ requires obedience, perseverance, prayer, submission, faith, and a relentless fight against the flesh. It’s not easy; there are no shortcuts; there is no machine that can change hearts except for his love. That is a universal truth.

Lord of Heaven and Earth, I pray over the people of Nicaragua and the US; that we would not be tempted by false fulfillments. That we would work hard for a relationship with you. That we’d surrender all that we are at your feet and allow you to build us back up through the Holy Spirit.