and the gumby goes to....

it's thursday morning and because of her willingness to share her coke, be attacked by flying beetles and use her spanish, the gumby goes to....

STACEY!! she was so moved, she could barely control her emotions.

Another day with the ladies!

Greetings from Nicaragua! This is Lee Anne. Today was an emotional day with missing family (love you Derrick and Mason!) but God is doing amazing things. We woke up early to the birds chirping and enjoyed another amazing breakfast. We left to meet with the core ladies and enjoyed team building activities, fellowship, devotionals, and sharing testimonies. We have only just met these beautiful women and they already trust us with their life stories. They are grateful for us to be here and we are thankful for the opportunity. Tiffany has done an excellent job leading our team building activities. The ladies have said that they have had fun, enjoyed laughing and as one lady stated, "I feel like a girl again." I just want to thank the Lord for uniting us with these women and letting us love on them. We have laughed and cried together. We were able to meet even more women this afternoon and are looking forward to getting to know them better tomorrow. There is more to say and I can't find the words...I just tried to put my camera battery in the computer instead of the memory card to load pics so I'm going to go get some sleep! Oh ...and Jill got her first haircut in Nicaragua!! (maybe we'll sneak a pic in on a later post). Love to all!

and the gumby goes to....

so... we have our own form of the oscar's here. actually, it's better. it's called the gumby. given to the girl who was most flexible the day before. the second gumby has been given out and we wanted to update you.

yesterday, because of her her willingness to use her 10 spanish words, the gumby went to.....

KIM!!

and today, kim's job as the academy came. because of her willingness to sacrifice her personal time and make sure that we did not leave the job undone, the gumby went to....


JANET!!

more tomorrow morning.

Jumping in!

I'm just not sure where to start with the post tonight (this is Janet, by the way). What an amazing place this is. I think I can speak for all of us when I say we love it here. We jumped all in first thing this morning at 5:15...the sun comes up really early here! =) We spent the day at Nueva Imagen meeting with the core women, getting to know each other, doing some initial team building activities, oh, and a whole lot of painting! We were asked to paint the room that the ladies use (you can see the before picture above...the after picture will be posted later as the project is not finished yet). Each of the ladies we met today is so gracious and thankful and beautiful. We're really looking forward to tomorrow when we go back and can start sharing our testimonies and really begin loving on each other. And for those of you who were wondering if we were going to come back a little slimmer, well, I hate to make you jealous, but the food they are serving us is FABULOUS! I'd post the pictures of the meals we're eating, but it takes to long to load the pics. =)

I'm having a hard time with words as I'm writing this because there are so many emotions that are stirred up within me right now. All I can say to make any sense of it to y'all is that God is all over this mission. The work that is going on at Nueva Imagen is life changing and I feel so humbled to be asked to be a part of this. Though our cultures and lives are completely different, we still have our common ground in womenhood, motherhood, and sisterhood in Christ.

We are surely having more fun than we ought to be, but I don't see how it could be any other way with the girls on this team. Can't wait to see what the Lord brings us to tomorrow.

I love you, Keith, Sam and Ruby. Can't wait to share all my stories with y'all when I come home. Love to everyone and thanks for your continued prayers.

it's us!

tiffany, janet, jill, kim, lee anne, stacey, katy


the long awaited picture! this update will be a quick one until i turn over the keys to another team member tonight. we are so very grateful for all the prayers...

"we will praise the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. my soul will boast in the Lord; let the afflicted rejoice. glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together." psalm 34:1-3

that's what we are doing today: praising the Lord! (HC girls, we love you. enjoy your time together today, we are with you in Spirit.)

we made it

we are here... all is well... we are exhausted. i (jill, not maria) will try to write in the morning... pictures to come. thanks for the prayers. love to all.

outta here!

this has really been very short in planning, but i feel like it's been forever. i think i'm ready. am i ever really ready? it's like starting college or getting married or having a baby. you prepare and plan and listen to stories and reflect on past experiences, but are you really ready?

this is a trip like no other: to be taking off with women i have grown in relationship with for years. we have shared hurts. we have dug each other out of pits. we have laughed together, studied together, prayed together... we are a community. to travel with community is different than anything i've ever done. i can't wait to see what happens.

here we go...