Year 5. No, really!

Well, the team is preparing for our -- can it be fifth! -- trip to Nicaragua. Team members this year are Ellen and Butch Bodenheimer, Sandy and Bruce Buckley, Mayo Dunn, Ron Fell Jr., Chris Freisheim, Deb Freisheim, Sue Rodgers, Lynn Rudolph, Nathan Rudolph, and Sue and Chuck Steege. We'll have our translators from last year, Eric and David, and of course Pastor Jose and the Donas (Nubia and Sonia) will be there.

Pastor Jose asked us to use Genesis for this year's theme, so we're doing lessons on the Creation, Adam and Eve, the Flood, and Abraham and Isaac. Maybe it isn't hard to come up with a craft for that last one! Deb, Ellen, and Lynn have been working really hard on all the VBS materials.

Since we have all been to Nicaragua at least once before, it's easy to become a bit too familiar with the trip and why we go. Chris has written an excellent reflection that I'm copying here:

Reflection:
For all of us, this is not the first visit we are making to Santa Maria. As we reflect back on the first time we went, I remind you of how we each were individually challenged to rely on Christ in one way or another. For some, it is the language barrier, for another, it’s the extreme poverty, yet another, being away from loved ones and loved things (air conditioning perhaps, or maybe a dry towel daily). Yet despite the ways we were challenged in the past, we, by God’s grace, overcame them, and return again, confident in our abilities.

Personally, I continue to challenge myself that, despite how much I may now feel in control, this trip is and needs to be in our Lord’s hands. I ask each of you to ponder this. How might you remind yourself? How might the Lord challenge you? Have you asked Him? Have you prayed on this?

I share this today as I prepare for my 9th visit to Nicaragua. The more used to it I become, the more difficult it is to remember we serve at His command, and under His authority, not our own. Pray for each other in this.

Please join us in prayer for this trip, for the people in Santa Maria, for the preparations, the travel, the food, the insects :-), and for the Lord's will to be done in all.