Day 1 blog from Nicaragua trip

Our first day of travel, May 11th, on the way to Matagalpa. We flew from GSP to Atlanta. The flight was good and Harry, Patrick, and I had a good time of fellowship both in the airports and on the flights themselves. In Atlanta our flight was delayed a bit so we had to wait a while to fly out. Some of the team members in Nicaragua had asked us to get Chick-fil-a sandwiches for them. Unfortunately, we forgot. I realized it about 30,000 feet in the air about an hour from landing in Managua. We felt absolutely terrible. Patrick was gracious enough to call one of the members to share our apologies.

We got in about 8:30 to Managua, which is 2 hours behind Greenville time. We were cordially welcomed by Fabricio, one of the members of the Christ for the City International team, who would be our guide and director during our time there. He took us to a favorite restaurant of the Nicaraguans, "Tip Top", which is kind of like KFC in the states. Honestly, I just wanted to get to bed, but we still had a nice time hanging out with him and the food was good too.

We finally arrived at Joe and Carolina Yoder's house around 10:00 Nicaraguan time and 12:00 Greenville time. The Yoder's also work with CFCI. They regularly host travelers like ourselves. They were extremely gracious, welcoming us and showing us to our beds.

I felt much like the character in Tolkien's, "the Hobbit", Bilbo Baggins. He was sitting at home in his comfortable house when he was suddenly caught up in an adventure far away from all he knew and all that was comfortable to him. Everything here feels so new and unknown to me. Then again, it is quite exciting and I am humbled by the kindness we have received here by the team members. I am humbled by my own inadequacy to effectively minister here, and humbled to think that God created these people just as he did those of us in the USA. Many of the people here are poor and live in bad conditions. Yet still, I am reminded they are made in the image of God and that Jesus loves them.

So Day 1 ended with me tired, thinking about my wife, and kids who will tomorrow celebrate Mother's day without me. Part of me keeps asking, "What am I doing here?" But I tried to remember that God has blessed me with much and I cannot spend my life just holding on to what he has given me.

Benediciones, Travis