The final analysis

3:17 pm Central Time

We are sitting in the airport of San Salvador, El Salvador. We had a 45 minute flight from Managua to here. After a time of lunch, we are meeting in the waiting area of gate 14 analysing the mission trip and mission trips in general. Do they do good? Are they worth the sheer cost of getting down to our destinations? Is there a long term impact? The concensus seems to be that yes, they are worth while. Without these trips, not enough eyes and hearts would be open to the issues that affect the Central America and other developing nations in the world.

Dan, during his time of testimony, of telling his story, read "The Final Aanalysis" to us. This was particularly meaningful to me in my work of the last couple of days and now as we come home. I hope you enjoy it.

The Final Analysis (Do it anyway!) - By Mother Teresa

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

-Mother Teresa

Written by Mark Hofstee

Today is the last full day on Nicaraguan soil. We spent the day at the Barcelo Montelimar Resort on the Pacific Ocean. This is a 1.5 hour trip, travelling up and down a mountain, hitting 860 metres above sea level. We stopped for a photo opportunity near the top of the mountain. The resort is an all inclusive resort and so we had a big buffet breakfast and a big lunch. Supper, for those had it, was from the pool bar. We spent the day walking the beach, looking for wildlife, using boogie boards in the surf, and swimming in the pool. The beach portion of our day was ended with a time of praise and worship on the beach watching the sun set before heading home. Our evening devotions were led by David Wrathall.

This will be the last post from Nicaragua. Tomorrow we leave, arriving home at 10:20pm. Please pray for protection for us in our travels. Thanks for all your prayers and for following our blog.

Sunday and Monday

Hi everyone,

We have had a busy couple of days. Sunday morning was spent at the barrio church. Pastor Elvis preached a great sermon on Mark 11--having the faith to move mountains. Amazing how God works as that has been the focus of our prayer time this week. After church we served some 400 hotdogs and 75 hamburgers.

In the afternoon we went to Granada on lake Nicaragua for a boat tour around the islands. On island was a bunch of Monkeys. We went out for supper and had a "Canadian" type meal of steak and rice and potatoes. Made me miss home... The evening was spent listening to a testimony given by Brian.

Yesterday the team split into 2 until 2pm. The 1st time guys and Jim went to the barrio in the morning and dug holes for soccer nets. We decided as a team to use some of our continingency funds to make proper goals for them. So they dug the holes and we put concrete "sleeves" in them into which the goal posts can be set. We need to do this in order to remove the nets when not in use or the steel will be stolen for scrap. The barrio is known as a rough one and everything that is done here has to take into consideration what could possibly happen by less reputatble people. We are concerned that the sleeves are going to be filled with gravel or mud or garbarge from sheer maliciosness, but we move forward anyways in the hope that they won't. Anyways, the first timers dug the holes and went to a feeding centre. The other guys went to the work site and put up some more sideing and gathered up the concrete materials and went to the site and make the concrete and set in the sleeves and painted the posts. After that work was done, the sports ministry set up the field using the hockey nets and the championship game was played. That was great fun.

We said good bye to all the people of the barrio and came home late for supper. The evening was spent listening to the testimony of Rick Schnurr.

Today we are off to de-compress at the beach and tomorrow we go home. Look for the final post from Nicaragua tomorrow morning.

A Letter from Josseling to Mark

Dear Marcos

Thank you for being with me in a most difficult time of my life because my Mom went to Costa Rica and I miss her. And I love you as a Dad that I never had and a good friend. I thought that I would never see you again but thatnks to God that you came back and I got to see you. I send you many kisses.

Josseling

Open the Eyes of My Heart

Saturday November 22 2008 -- by Mark Hofstee


Saturday morning was spent at the site and the afternoon at a Managua market (Huembe) The evening after supper was spent at the coffee shop and we finished the night with a stirring devotion by Doug Gray and went to bed some time after 11:30. We were up again at 3 for our prayer time. I continue to be amazed that these 12 men would get up in the middle of the night to offer up prayers for my healing, for a miracle. I am amazed and so thankful that people all over the world are reading the blog and are praying with us and for us.


One thing we have really discovered is that no matter how successful someone looks on the outside, no matter how confident look one may look, you cannot judge the book by the cover. Everyone has overcome some sort of struggle or many struggles. We have also learned in our devotion times that often our views of ourselves is different, very different from how others view us. We continue to be thankful for God walking with us or carrying us in these times of struggles and are greatful that he uses these times to make us stronger...


One of the things I really have enjoyed while down here is photographing the Nicaraguans. I particulary love capturing people's eyes as I think the eyes are the best windows to the contentment of people's hearts. So enjoy these photos.

the hospital and the barrio

Written by Ken Phillips

This morning would represent a very interesting experience for all of us. The team would have the opportunity to visit the La Mascota Children’s Hospital in Managua dedicated to treating various types of cancer for all children in Nicaragua. The hospital does not have CT scan capabilities, does not have an MRI unit, and may not even have sufficient medicines to support the treatment of cancer at any given time. Against these odds, the La Mascota Children’s Hospital continues to provide medicinal treatment to over 1200 children per year.

Five of the men had previously visited La Mascota in 2006 but seven of us were completely unprepared for what we were about to see. PAN started a painting ministry in the hospital several years ago and this morning each member of the team would engage in painting one-on-one with one child suffering from cancer. This was an emotional experience for each one of us but also very rewarding. We would sit on a child’s bedside and help them paint a picture making every attempt to communicate out of love. We also had the opportunity to pray with the child and the family if they were willing.

Each child was left with a portrait created by one of the men and a Teddy bear. It was truly amazing to see the smile of a child who is going through a very painful and traumatic experience. God guided us through a very difficult experience and rewarded us with an outpouring of love from these children.

The day continued to get better when we went back to the barrio for our final day of Sports Ministry. Most of us have now become very much attached to the children after five consecutive days. These children continue to pour out their love to us every time we come and certainly look up to us as father figures.

The Men’s BBQ at the church in the barrio became the highlight of our day. We had between 25-30 men come to the church for the BBQ to experience a time of praise and worship with the team. Doug, Charlie, and Dan had the opportunity to share their testimonies with this group of men. We served these men by providing them with a hot meal and an outpouring of God’s love.

The evening was amazing and Pastor Elvis even closed the evening with an altar call. We had the opportunity to pray for five men who made their way to the front of the church. At the end of the service, two men from the barrio wanted to speak and they communicated their appreciation to the team for their work in providing them with a sports field. We will do this all over again for the families of the barrio on Sunday afternoon.

Talk about one amazing day! God was with us and blessed us in every way today!

Written by Brian Watson
Being down in Nicaragua with a group of 13 men is a unique, amazing, life changing experience. As I was thinking about what I would put in my blog entry, I thought about the number of things that happen in a day. I thought I would take the approach of a point by point list of things that happen down here. Hope you like details. So ... a day in Nicaragua is about:

· wake up anywhere between 6 and 7
· shower if you didn't shower after you got back yesterday afternoon
· wander to the eating patio for a coffee
· check e-mail or chat
· after grace, eat a great breakfast of options like egg omelettes, eggs and ham, pancakes, French toast
· always gallo pinto (beans and rice)
· sometimes pineapple and watermelon
· 3 of us make 3 loaves of sandwiches for lunch
· brush teeth
· check e-mail
· prepare for the day - work clothes, load up with water, hat, sun screen
· chat with another team member while waiting for the van
· load the van
· pack into the van - sometimes there are as many as 15 in the van that holds 13. 3 of those 13 have seat belts on. When you're packed in like that you don't need seatbelts :)
· stop at On The Run. No Tim's down here but On The Run helps us Canadians get over that. Stock up with Gatorade, specialty coffee, chocolate (yes even on a men's team), snacks for later on in the day
· drive through the streets of Managua. There's a topic for a book, not one line in a blog. Victor and Chepe do a great job of getting us wherever we need to go, and always looking out for our well being.
· conversation in the van, singing such greats off the radio as Rhinestone Cowboy, American pie, etc.
· arrive at the work site; figure out the plan for the day with Rolando, the work site foreman. Samuel, our translator does an awesome job and is an awesome guy to have as a part of the team.
· go to work possibly doing something you have never done before. Placing clad panels so they can be secured, working on the end of an impact drill driving in self tapping bolts, digging a septic hole, no I wasn't really welding 20 feet in the air.
· lunch time - sandwiches, drink, Pringles chips, cookies, fruit, yogurt
· load into the van to travel to the barrio (neighbourhood) where Pastor Elvis's church is located. This is the barrio that some us worked in 2 years ago.
· arrive at the playing field - God used us to transform that field from an overgrown, dangerous garbage area to a useable playing field.
· greet the kids as they start to gather. Those two white vans signal that something exciting is going to happen.
· get out a soccer ball, baseball and glove and offer to play with the kids. What starts with one or two kids soon becomes a gathering of many.
· look for other ways to interact with the kids. Watch Rick's (Pied piper) instant gathering of children begin their first activity for the afternoon.

· As the sports ministry people figure out the plan, join in and help or continue with the kids that aren't involved in the current game.
· show pictures of family
· pass out stickers and get mobbed at the same time
· try to talk in Spanish
· greet any men that come by
· invite those that are standing, watching, wondering what is going on
· visit homes in the barrio to tell of God's love
· see needs and wonder how we can help in some way
· pack into the van for the ride back home
· optional shower time - we usually stink pretty good by that time
· dinner - again great food
· sometimes evening activity such as folklore festival, girl's orphanage, etc.
· always devotions and patio time (my favourite time)
· time to sing
· time to get into God's word
· time to hear one of our team mates story of where they have come from in their journey
· time to be challenged
· time to be blown away
· time to pray
· time to encourage
· time to support
· time to cry
· time to wonder
· head off to bed with earplugs because of the sounds of dogs, roosters, birds, snorers, etc.
· at 3am we get up to pray for our brother Mark and the healing of his right eye
· pour our hearts out before God
· learn how to pray better
· learn how to listen for His leading and guiding
· bring our requests before God
· back to bed
· sometimes wonder if we will get back to sleep
· sleep until wake up time and begin the next day

Whew ... hope you got through all that. Some aspects are the same from day to day but there is no question that each day will be unique in some or many ways. Each day we all experience something we have never experienced before.

Thank you for your prayers, your support, your love. We love you all and desire to do what God wants us to be doing down here.

Special love to hwtebw,glw,mlw,tdw

The team in photos

Brian Watson

Charlie Bridges

Dan MatweyDave Wrathall

Don Vickers


Doug Gray

Joel Pink

Ken Phillips

Mark Hofstee

Rick Schnurr (The Pied Piper)

Steve Light

Wally Ferkranus

Brian Watson :-)

Tuesday's day...November 18th, 2008

Tuesday Nov 18th...contributed by Dan Matwey

We’re trying hard not to lament the fact we’ve been deprived of sub zero temperatures back home, but once again it was a hot beautiful day here in Nicaragua, so we’ll just have to try and live with it. Today was essentially a continuation of the projects that have now been underway for a few days. Mind you, no routine is ordinary in this environment and as a newcomer to this group; I can now understand what was meant when we were told that.

The construction site was a hub of activity in the morning, as we continued working on the warehouse, which is progressing well ahead of schedule. More so than our first day, we also got to work alongside our counterparts from Nicaragua today, which was really quite a treat. It became evident that language isn’t a complete barrier to communication as well, judging by their laughter at the antics of the KPC goofballs they were working with (these guys really do keep me entertained). With a delay in getting a supply of more panelling, we found out quite literally what it’s like to work in the trenches today. Not that there was one there when we arrived, but upon leaving a 50’ trench several feet deep was ready to accept the piping from the warehouse to the septic tank. A pretty messy job all and all with virtually nobody recognizable by the time we were done (Jim’s somewhere under that layer of dirt).

We were back to the Barrio for the afternoon and it’s really quite amazing how quickly the new sports field fills with children within moments of us arriving. Again we were there for a few hours engaging them in a variety of games and there were a few hundred kids there by the time we left. The smiles (see the pictures) on these children and the simple joy they experience by having a group of men come to spend time with them astounds me, but they don’t get half as much out of it as we do. Tomorrow, a couple of us will begin touring the Barrio with a translator and sharing our stories with some of the adults, so a comfort zone that’s already stretched beyond what any thought it might be, will be pushed a little further. We’re all going to try and do a bit of that before we leave.

As always, the fellowship and chance for us to get to know one another continues to be one of the real blessings of this endeavour and I think it’s fair to say we’re bonding into a pretty close knit group and drawing strength from one another and drawing a little closer to God in the process.

Monday's day...

Monday November 17-2008 --written by Rick Schnurr...
Monday was another beautiful day in Nicaragua. We all awoke refreshed and anxious to start work on the PAN warehouse. After a quick breakfast, we loaded up our tools and headed to the work site. The site is approximately 5 acres and is located northeast of Managua. The steel frame of the 40’ x 40’ structure was nearly complete when we arrived. Our team’s first priority is to cover the outside of the warehouse with a steel siding that looks much like the siding that is used to build warehouses and sheds in Southern Ontario.
We were pleased to make significant progress in laying the siding and were able to complete 2+ sides of the warehouse by 1:00. The attached picture provides a general idea of the size of the structure and shows members of the team laying the first few pieces of siding.
After a bag lunch at the worksite we loaded into the vans and returned to the barrio where on Saturday we had cleared an area for sports ministry. We spent some time raking the area once again, which is something we anticipate doing several times before we leave as each pass over the land unearths new pieces of glass, barbed wire and other treasures.
While we were raking, the area quickly filled with dozens of kids from the barrio who pitched in as we cleaned up the mess. Soon the hockey nets that the mission team brought down two years ago appeared and were used as soccer nets for a series of games that we had the pleasure of participating in with the kids. Many of the guys who came down on the previous trip were touched to see what great care the kids had taken of the nets. They clearly appreciated and valued the gift from two years ago. The joy the children’s faces on Monday afternoon was only surpassed by our own as we played soccer, baseball and shared pictures and stickers from Canada. Joel worked the same magic he does each Sunday at Kortright with the kids from the barrio and a fantastic time was had by all.
In the evening Wally led us in prayer late into the night. “Porch time” is quickly becoming a special time for both new and repeat members of the team.
We have been blessed to have Pastor Melvin from El Salvador staying with us while we are here. Pastor Melvin visited Guelph in the summer and spent time with the mission team at one of our preparation meetings as well as spending an evening at the church. Pastor Melvin’s journey includes many stories of medical miracles that have been brought about through prayer. Pastor Melvin has found that focussed prayer between the hours of 3:00 and 3:30 am have been a key to bring about unimaginable healing. Mark was touched by Pastor Melvin’s incredible stories of healing in the summer and has once again been touched by Pastor Melvin on this trip. 19.5 years ago Mark was struck by a baseball on his right eye that left him with blurred vision and limited use of his eye. For two consecutive nights now, the men’s team has been joined by Pastor Melvin at 3:00 am and prayed that the damage to Mark’s eye be reversed. The team has committed to continuing this prayer time through the rest of our stay in Nicaragua. We invite you to join us in prayer each morning during this time as we call upon God to provide healing for Mark. Nicaragua is one hour behind Guelph so it will be 4:00 in Guelph when we start our prayer each morning. If you feel so moved please pray silently or together from 4:00 to 4:30 (Eastern) for healing for Mark asking God to reverse the damage caused by that baseball so many years ago.Please continue to pray for our spouses, without whom none of us could be here stretching ourselves and our relationships with God.