Back in the good ol' USA!!!

Just got a text message from Polly that they have landed in Houston!!! All kids have been accounted for...Whew!!! Praise the Lord for their safety!!! Can't wait to see their excitement for the Lord...can you??

One final greeting from Jinotepe...

We can't and probably never will be able to fully describe what God has done down here. The work HE is doing in this area is so incredible. We can't wait to share all of our experiences with all of you. God is so powerful. Each of us has a renewed passion for our Savior and a heart for what God is doing through the ministry here. The need is so great. We have fallen in love with the Nicaraguan people. I don't think any of us will return home unchanged. Thank you so much for your encouragement, prayers and financial support. I can't even tell you how incredible this experience has been. Simply life changing. The next time you hear from us, we will be back in the States. We have to get up at 2:30 in order to be on the road by 3:30. We have to be at the airport at 5 and our flight leaves at 7. We should be in Houston around 11:15 if all goes well. We are looking forward to coming home but are sad to leave the friends that we have made down here and leave behind so much work that still needs to be done. We love you guys and will see you in a few more hours. God bless.
Love, Jamie, Karissa, Andrew, Linc, Austin, Del, Logan and Polly The Nicaraguan Mission Team!!

Mobbed by kids!!

Greetings from Jinotepe! The best way to describe today was wild and crazy and I promise never to complain about doing children's church ever again and I apologize right now to anyone that I ever complained to about it. Oh my. This morning we went to the church, orphanage, compound where we often work. When we got there we were one of the last van loads of our team to arrive. By now, ¨theNebraska boys¨ as they are called are a huge hit among the orphans and teenagers who live at the orphanage and the surrounding barrios (village). When our boys got out of the van instantly all the junior high and high school aged Nicaraguan boys went nuts. They start to clap, whistle and immediately run to the soccer field. The older boys in the area won't go into the church to sing and listen to Bible stories but they love playing soccer with our boys. So, the 5 guys on our team played soccer for several hours this morning. They are getting to know some of the kids fairly well and have built relationships with them even though we can barely communicate with them. I think that every one of the kids have at one point said to me that they wished they had paid attention more in Spanish class. We are all woefully inadequate. More than once we have wished Jeanette was with us. You would love it here, Jeanette. Then after the VBS and the hours of soccer, we prepared to feed all 300 children and many of their mothers. We brought with us a chicken and rice kind of thing for their lunch. Each child got one scoop of this stuff that most of the kids in the United States would have refused to eat. They were so grateful. For most of them it was the first meal of the day. We ran out of bowls and spoons so as some children got done, we just rinsed out their bowls and reused them. After lunch, the fun began. We had been told to be prepared for a childrens festival. So, each team had prepared several different craft and activity stations. Between us, the North Carolina team and the team from New York, we had bubbles, balloons, face painting, hair and make up,stickers, coloring, balloon shapes, pinwheels, tissue paper flowers, etc. And in my life, I´ve never seen a mob like that. All 35 of us were unbelievably out of control at our stations the entire time. Poor Andrew somehow ended up with me making pin wheels. Our intention was to have the kids sit nicely and color their paper part of the pin wheel and then wewould help them put it together. Yeah, that pretty much didn't happen. Within seconds it was a complete free for all. Karissa, Andrew, me and one of the Nicaraguan men spent the next several hours doing nothing but putting pinwheels together as fast as we good. At several points the kids were crowding so close to me that I couldn't work or move my arms and they were shoving my chair backwards. They were so excited to get the pinwheels. By Andrew´s own admission, he is slightly coordinatinally challenged. The couple of times I looked over at him, he looked fairly overwhelmed and miserable, but bless his heart, he never complained, worked hard and did what was asked of him. Austin mistakenly started passing out stickers at one point and was completely mobbed by kids wanting stickers. They jumped him from behind, climbed up on him and eventually took him to the ground. Del and Linc came to his rescue and got points for the assist. Del brought out the bubbles that we had brought with us and I´ve never seenanything like it. They went nuts. Jamie and Logan spent the afternoon passing out stickers which were a huge hit. The place was a complete zoo. I never really even saw what all was going on all over the building becauseI was so swamped at my pinwheel station but everyone said the samething...that they were so mobbed and overwhelmed with children that it was all they could do to maintain some semblance of control. However, in the end, it ended up being one of the best, most fun days we´ve had so far. As each one of those precious children stood by me begging for a simple pinwheel, I looked into their eyes and said a quick prayer for them. you can't help but love them. They are so adorable. Several of them would just put their arms around my neck and hug me. I kissed many of them on the head. They are just so precious. And so grateful for these very simplelittle prizes that we were giving them. They were so happy and cute as they left with their hair braided, their faces painted, a ballon hat, a pinwheel and covered with stickers. It was amazing. What a life changing experience that none of us will soon forget. We finished that up around 3 and came back here to the hotel. Then our interpreters took us to the market area so we could experience that. It was interesting. We are waiting for dinner now and will spend our evening after dinner in a time of praise and worship. Those are some of our favorite times. We really enjoy coming together at the end of the day praising God for what HE did and talking about how we saw HIM at work. Once again, thank you so much for you prayers. As you all worship together tomorrow, we will be thinking of you as we worship with the Nicaraguans at the La Quinta church. We are in charge of the service tomorrow. Austin, Del and Andrew will be sharing their testimonies. We will also be doing a skit of David and Goliath. Austin, obviously, is Goliath. He is a huge novelty down here. He is so much bigger than any of the Nicaraguans. They are so fasinated by his size. So, that´s fun. Anyway, we hope that your worship is powerful and that you will feel God´s presence in the service at Holcomb as we will in the service here. In His Holy Name. Polly, Jamie, Karissa, Andrew, Lincoln, Logan, Austin and Del

Two more days of ministry....

Greetings Holcomb Family! We´ve just completed another powerful, challenging and life changing day. Two more days of ministry here. They have been so amazing. This afternoon we spent at the church in La Quinta participating in a worship service for the youth there. You can just feel the presence of Jesus in the people of the church. They are so in love with their Savior. This evening after our supper we had a great time of praise and worship together as a whole teamof 35. We have come to really treasure our morning and evening praise and worship sessions. We really love our worship leader, Erik, he is a nativeNicaraguan who is a youth pastor down here. He is awesome. Very fluent in English and alot of fun. We come together to pray, sing and share what we saw God do during the day. The first couple of days the members from the different parts of the country didn't really know each other so we didn't share much. However, now that we have all been ministering and working together in these unbelievable conditions we are getting to be a really close group. We are brothers and sisters together in Christ who are sharing in this mission as one body. It´s so much fun to see what gifts and abilities God has given to each person on the team and how that specific talent was needed for this particular trip here to Nicaragua. I was asking our kids today what their favorite part of the trip has been so far and several of them said that it´s been the worship times together as a team. They have been awesome and they are what gets us ready for what each day will bring and the work that we have before us. Tomorrow will be a long day. We have a VBS in the morning and then will serve lunch to the children and then we will do a childrens festival all afternoon. They are planning on 200 to 300 children so we will be busy. These children are adorable and so desperate for attention. I´m sure it will be a powerful day. Keep us in prayer. Andrew wants everyone to know that he feels really bad he is going to miss the annual Bergman sweet corn day and hopes you all have a good time putting all your corn up. Also, Moms, I will make sure everyone takes their malaria pills tomorrow. We are doing well, staying healthy and getting along great. I just can't say enough about what a great group of kids we have. These are amazing men and women of God. I'm so proud of them and humbled by their faith and walk with Jesus. I wish all of you could experience this and be able to see the spirit of God working in our young people. You would be in awe of what incredible kids we have and how their hearts desire is to fully serve their Lord Jesus. We hope all is well at home. Are we getting rain? Any more hail? Linc wants to know how the senior baseball team ended up doing? Logan is going through sports information withdrawls. We love you guys. Thanks for your prayers.

Indescribable.........

I can't really describe our morning. Words can't completely explain the experience. Pictures wont do it justice. But, it was absolutely incredible. We packed 21 people into a 15 passenger van - sorry, moms, we werent wearing our seat belts, but the roads are so bumpy and horrible we were going really slowly - plus we had 6.. 100 pound feed sacks full of rice and beans and several duffle bags full of toys for the children. We spent the morning with Pastor Manuel - pronounced man well - distributing food to the people of his so called congregation. His church meets outside on a big open dirt area. Its unbelievable the poverty of these people. They have nothing. Many of their homes are simply 4 sticks with a tarp wrapped around it. They usually have a fire pit in the middle of their house where they cook their food. They were very grateful for the food. we prayed with each family as we gave them the food. You would have been so amazed at the deep heartfelt prayers that our kids prayed over these families. You can just feel the love of Jesus pouring from our kids to the people of Nicaragua. Our team of kids are so amazing. They work so hard, give of themselves and totally love the Lord. They have remarkable servants' hearts. They are getting tired and worn down. The conditions are better than we had anticipated but still very primitive from what they are used to and yet I still havent heard a single complaint or grumble. We do miss ice, though. all of us are really looking forward to water that is not just lukewarm but that we can deal with. We have so much to share and I´m sure that our stories and pictures will not even begin to describe the experience of what is going on here. God is at work both in and through us. We especially love the children. They are so precious. We just finished up lunch and will spend the afternoon at a church service at LaQuinta. God bless each of you. Thank you for your continued prayers for strength and health. We love you guys!!!