It’s been just over a year since we took a group of families to Nicaragua to lead a summer camp for disadvantaged youth living in the Managua city dump. It was our first attempt at family missions, and was hugely successful. As I wrote after we returned:

“We were tested, stretched, molded, and generally made uncomfortable by various elements of the trip. But that was different for everyone. Some were most affected by the bugs and heat. For others it was the food and unsafe water. Or, just witnessing the poverty. And for some… it was the fear of the unknown. But everyone was taken outside his/her comfort zone and asked to rely on God’s provision. It’s impossible not to grow from that. And when you serve as a family, you also grow closer with each other.”

I’m so excited to now be planning our second family mission trip to Nicaragua. Our goal is to take 4-5 families to meet with and serve 4-6 Nicaraguan families at Campo Alegria. Whereas the previous trip saw us hanging out with kids for three days, this time around we will spend three days with whole families. We will invite them to “vacation” with us at the camp. While they are there, we will feed them, clothe them, listen to them, fellowship with them, entertain them, serve them, and love them. Somewhere along the way, we hope to share about our faith.

When will this happen? As this will be our third trip to Nicaragua, we wanted to stretch ourselves a bit more. Being at Campo Alegria is like a little oasis in the desert. It has running water, electricity, doors, windows, beds, tables, couches, internet access, and even a washer and dryer. And, it’s situated on a beautiful lake with wonderful swimming. (Yes, there are drawbacks – namely the bugs and heat – but overall it’s a far cry from what most missionaries encounter in developing countries.) In any case, we decided to select a certain time of year for the trip that would take us a bit more out of our comfort zones.

So… we are planning to be in Nicaragua over Christmas. In fact, we will hold our “vacation” for the Nicaraguan families December 24 – 26, 2010. While millions of kids will be tearing open present after present on Christmas Day back in the U.S., we will be serving breakfast to disadvantaged families in a developing country. How better to teach our kids about service?

My oldest daughter asked if we’d have a Christmas tree. Maybe we could decorate a palm tree? Who knows. We’ll get creative.

Plenty of people have expressed shock at us leaving our families over Christmas. But we see our families all the time – why do we have to share a meal together on Christmas? The holiday is Jesus’ birthday, after all, and He certainly taught us a lot about sacrifice. Here He was, all comfy and cozy up in Heaven as God, but He stepped outside of His comfort zone to come down to our “developing country” and hang out with us regular folk… Then, He went and died for us all.

We know this trip isn’t for everyone, but we are praying there might be a few families who would like to join us. We can’t promise you’ll have lots of “presents” under the palm tree, but we can promise your family will feel Christ’s “presence” as you serve others together. You might even grow and strengthen in ways that wouldn’t otherwise be possible if you were home following your normal Christmas routine.

We plan to hold an informal informational meeting at our home in late August. If you’re at all interested in joining us, please let us know. And even if you can’t join us, would you pray for our trip? Gracias!

Nicaragua is often mentioned in negative tones. A majority of the population lives on less than $2 per day. Education and health needs are always in a critical state of failure. Our current government has aligned itself with Hugo Chavez and others who are opposed to freedom and liberty. Our roads are full of potholes, fuel prices are high, running a simple errand can be exhausting and one’s car takes a beating here. Personal safety and protection is a major concern when you visit some neighborhoods. All of Managua’s trash is dumped into the lake of it’s own namesake. All of these concerns can lead one to ask, is there any hope? What about the things of God? What of the future? Is there something we can’t see in all of this?

Contrasting the obvious woes of this country with the good things of the United States is an easy task. North American roads are wonderful, well planned and clearly marked. You never see an armed guard stationed outside of a pharmacy or grocery store. Even though the U.S. is in a recession, restaurants are full, football games are sold out and the average salary is really good compared to here. Most lawns are manicured, each home has running water and indoor plumbing, lots of food in the pantry, the freezer is full and the electrical grid is stable. The average family has two cars. In general, everything is very organized. Leading one to think, these people have the kingdom of God! But, is there something lacking in all of these good things?

This leads to a concluding question, which country is more spiritually free? Nicaragua has voted consistently to keep abortion illegal – it is considered murder here. Each September, the Day of the Bible is celebrated. There are many parades and public readings of the Holy Scriptures – Genesis through Revelation. Easter is our most cherished holiday! Businesses and schools are prayed over for God’s blessings. If you took a poll on the street asking the question, “Who is Lord?” The overwhelming reply would be Jesus Christ.

In North America the Bible has been taken out of schools and special permits are needed to even talk about God in schools and in the workplace. Abortion is America’s holocaust and is the slaughter of the innocents. Christians have been forced to keep their religion private. If you went to a local mall and asked the question, “Who is Lord?” I would imagine for every ten questions you would get ten different answers.

Maybe part of the answer to this dichotomy could be that even though North America seems to have the physical aspects of the kingdom of God, they have forgotten their King! Nicaragua, a nation battered, bruised and classified as a third-world country, but she still remembers her King. In this there is much hope for this nation. The future belongs to the people of God.

- The Buzbee Family

The culture in the US is so antibacterial that we have unknowingly set ourselves up for failure in certain mission situations. You might think that sounds a bit harsh, but keep reading. For our family mission trip, we traveled to Campo Alegria in southern Nicaragua. We then bussed about thirty kids from the Managua City dump to Campo Alegria, where they were given three days of summer camp fun. Many of the kids had lice. One boy had the worst case of scabies any of us had ever seen (he was subsequently sent home to be treated). Because of this, our team members were presented with a concept that seems totally foreign to most Americans. Can you love a stranger, even if that puts you at risk of contracting something like scabies or lice?

Jesus hung out with people who were considered to be highly contagious. Mark 14:3 places Jesus “reclining” the home of Simon the leper. Aren’t the purpose of mission trips to show the love of Christ to others? Certainly lice and scabies are nothing like leprosy, but they are nevertheless contagious. At home, we do whatever is necessary to avoid contracting those annoying bugs. So shouldn’t we do the same while traveling to another country with our family?

This has been a tough one to digest. One afternoon at Campo, I sat on the floor helping a group of boys complete a foam world map. One 7-year-old sat particularly close to me, so he could be the first to get the puzzle pieces out of my hand. He was completely engulfed in the map puzzle, excited to see how it would all come together. At one point he reached his arm around my neck, and I caught a glimpse of something out of the ordinary along the back of his short, jet-black hair. My initial reaction was to pull away, but I had to intentionally stop myself. Instead I smiled at the boy and continued helping with the puzzle (all the while wondering in my head how close I had gotten to his hair ).

This situation (coupled with similar situations from others on our team) left me seriously considering my commitment to the mission. In the grand scheme of things, catching lice or scabies (both of which are quite easily treated in the US, albeit annoying to deal with) is so very minor when compared with what many missionaries deal with on a regular basis. But for some of our team, these were big issues. I think it was a huge growth experience. We learned to set aside our fear of “catching something” and really love those children. After all, what kind of love would we be showing them if we were too afraid to sit next to them, to share a meal with them, or to hug them?

Now that we’re back in the US, I hope I continue to live this lesson. There are tons of folks around us – in our neighborhoods, schools, and offices – who might be “unclean” but still need the love of Christ. My prayer is that we are able to continue the loving spirit of missions we learned in Nicaragua, here at home, regardless of what we might “catch”

17 months ago, we made our first family trip to Nicaragua. It was mostly a scouting trip, to see how we might structure a group trip at a later time. Wyeth and I both had a strong desire to lead family mission trips to the area, but after returning to the states and doing some research, we quickly found that the general concept of “family missions” is pretty rare. Many many churches take youth groups on mission trips. Some also take adult-only trips. But very few take younger children.

The reasons many people avoid taking children on mission trips are plentiful… Is it safe? What can 7-11 year old kids really do on the mission field? What dangers will they be exposed to?

But we decided to pray for God to answer all those questions. A year ago, it was just a dream. But then, in the fall of 2008, we decided to send an email out to friends and family, seeking anyone interested in joining us for a summer 2009 family mission trip to Nicaragua. At first, the response was minimal. Eventually, we had a group of 27 people willing to travel to Campo Alegria, about 2 hours south of Managua, Nicaragua. The youngest was 7, and the oldest was 47.

Campo Alegria is uniquely suited for family missions because it IS safe (Nicaragua is safer than Philadelphia or Baltimore for the most part), and because mission teams lead summer camps for poor children. There is little (if any) manual labor. Our kids can participate in the camp right along side the Nicaraguan children, or help run activities like Arts & Crafts or Geography.

Now, looking back on our trip, we can say that the trip was a huge success! During our debriefing, one middle-school girl commented, “I learned how lucky I am just to have a house… I knew I was lucky to have certain electronics, but I didn’t realize how lucky I was just to have a bed, or a house. I am changed because of that.” AMEN!

We were tested, stretched, molded, and generally made uncomfortable by various elements of the trip. But that was different for everyone. Some were most affected by the bugs and heat. For others it was the food and unsafe water. Or, just witnessing the poverty. And for some… it was the fear of the unknown. But everyone was taken outside his/her comfort zone and asked to rely on God’s provision. It’s impossible not to grow from that. And when you serve as a family, you also grow closer with each other.

Many of the team members are already talking about returning next year. We hope there will be many groups from Harford County and Maryland traveling on family mission trips. And for those who are not able to travel to Nicaragua, perhaps you could consider organizing a fundraiser for the project? In particular, we are praying God would provide the funds to build additional family housing ($100k), to purchase two school buses for campo ($50k), and to put new roofs on the cabins ($12k). We seek your prayers and support to make this happen. THANK YOU! Gloria a Dios.

VIEW PHOTOS from our trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/wwccwillard/FamilyMissionTripJune2009#

The lack of breeze left swarms of no-see-ums hovering over the water, and lots of fish jumping out of the water to eat the little bugs, but the kids didn’t mind at all! They swam and splashed and swam some more… pretty much right up until dinner time. After dinner, we played a few group games, then watched “Horton Hears a Who” on the projector. For the kids, the best part was the popcorn we served along with the movie!

After the movie, the kids were asking to go to sleep, so off to bed we all went! It was a tiring day, but one also filled with plenty of laughs (even if most of those laughs were from the campers, as they laughed at our attempts to speak Spanish).

Today (Saturday), went even more smoothly, as we had learned a few tricks on Friday and were able to tweak our schedule a bit to accomodate the needs of our specific group. For example, our campers are quite a bit younger than those of past camps (ours are 6-8). This means they get tired sooner, and lose interest in certain activities more quickly. Never fear! As Clark keeps reminding us, every “problem” is just an opportunity!

Some highlights so far… listening to the campers sing a song we taught them – on their free time, throwing them countless times in the waves (after the wind picked up this morning), watching them attempt to play a Chop Point favorite - Glow-timate Frisbee, trying fried cheese (wait, that was one of my lows, not highs ), and being so so proud of the youth of our team as they friend, lead, and care for the campers.

It’s time to get some much needed rest now. We will say good-bye to the campers tomorrow afternoon, and I will try to post again then. In the meantime, we appreciate your prayers that the wind would return, that we would be refreshed by this evening’s sleep, and that the campers would leave Campo Alegria feeling God’s love through us.

I think everyone felt much better upon waking up this morning. The sun rises early here (BEFORE 5am!) which means we do too… but then it sets by 6pm. (We are two hours behind our friends and family back home.) The chickens and rooster were gracious enough to wake us, lest we might have missed the beautiful sunrise .

A wonderful storm blew through last night, bringing us a bit cooler weather, and wind to blow away the bugs. They seem to have returned a bit tonight, as the wind has died back down. Everyone who lives here says they’ve never seen the wind this calm for this long. Hmmm… the only downside to that is this: the normal 40-50mph winds blow away the bugs. So, can you send up a few prayers for some wind at Campo Alegria? Thanks!

Our kids really enjoyed swimming, riding the horses here at Campo, swimming, and more swimming. Tonight for dinner, we enjoyed a wonderful Nicaraguan specialty – nakatamale. It’s essentially a tamale with chicken (bones and all), potato, rice, and some other delicious extras, all wrapped in a banana leaf. It was wonderful!

Now we will spend a little more time getting ready for the kids to arrive tomorrow morning. Until then…

After 2 airplane rides. and a long bus ride, we have arrived. We went up to a volcano crater on our way here to the camp. Very cool, but very hard to breathe!

We are all exhausted due to very little sleep. We had leave for the airport at 3 am. The teens were out at the movies, and many adults were up getting ready. Even the ones who did sleep only got a couple of hours.

Well, I think it is safe to say that everyone is shock. With emotions running high, exhaustion set in, and the sweat pouring well need to settle in. It is the buggy season and the wind is not as strong as we expected. Our meal was yummy when we got here, but the bugs liked it too. Use your imagination!

But that’s how we grow. If things were going to be easy, then we wouldn’t learn as much. I (Erinn) think on every mission trip I have been on, I have doubted my fitness for the task. But, God knows more than me and I trust that. He has provided us with the necessary skills and we can do this!!

We just need to remind ourselves that God is in control and he will take care of us. “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.”

… Lord, remind us that you chose us to be here and when we are doing your will, only joy can result.

–Erinn

In fact, there was a flurry of activity at our house for several hours on Saturday as our mission team packing the first aid kits we’ll be handing out to campers in Nicaragua. We used an assembly line (of sorts) to place hygiene items (like toothpaste, soap, and washclothes) and medical supplies (like band-aids, antibacterial ointment, and other bandages) into 2-gallon plastic bags.

THANK YOU to everyone who graciously donated time, money, and/or supplies to our trip. We are well prepared with thousands of dollars worth of medical supplies to give out in Nicaragua. After receiving so many medical supplies, we turned our sights on something fun, and sought donations of baseball equipment. (We’re still looking for a set (or two) of bases, in case you happen to have those laying around ) How exciting to be given gloves, bats, balls, and even some catcher’s gear to take with us! We plan to have an all-camp baseball game at the end of our time with the children from Managua, thanks to your support.

I plan to update this blog as much as I am able while we are in Nicaragua. We covet your prayers throughout our trip!

Adam (the full-time staff member at Campo Alegria) writes, “News traveled via word of mouth and soon after the pilot program had ended, the government tracked me down to ask me to head up an intiative to train 3,000 children across Nicaragua on the same technology. Of course I said “Yes” and last week we held our first class for the 40 schools selected… We are in talks with Wavepoint about them coming back down to Nicaragua to work with us on training the schools in depth on specific software for computer programming, math, and writing.”

Check out this video that was created to highlight the Nicaraguan Wavepoint pilot program.

One of those projects is led by the Buzbee family. The husband, Mike, is a warm and genuine southerner. He took us to the Managua city dump where his family started a school for kids who live there (yes, they live inside the city dump).
> Learn more about the Buzbee’s project.

Another mission project we visited was set up by Wyeth’s father, Peter. Over the past 10 years, Peter and several donors have built some humble bunk houses, a dining hall, and most recently a 4-bedroom guest house, all on the shore of Lake Nicaragua (abotu 2 hours south of Managua). Peter named the project Campo Alegría, which means Camp of Good Cheer. The camp was original used to run week-long “summer camps” for children of the dump families. The tremendous support that the dump families are now receiving from other organizations has led Peter to transition the project to serve children living in some of the many poor villages that surround the camp.
> Learn more about Peter’s project.

While in Nicaragua, we splurged a little… visiting some of the nicer local restaurants and even spending a night at an all-inclusive resort on the Pacific Ocean. At the resort, we met a family who subtly bragged how they were slowly visiting resorts in every South and Central American country. They really felt they were doing their children a huge favor by “exposing them to different cultures,” but they never left any of the resorts!
> See where we stayed.

We returned to the U.S. exhausted and inspired. We are now ready to return and would love to have other families join us. Perhaps you’d be interested? We have tentatively scheduled our first family trip from Baltimore to Nicaragua for June 24 – July 1, 2009. (If all goes well, we hope to run another trip the following summer, in 2010.)

For planning purposes, you can expect the trip to cost approximately $900-1000 per person (ages 2+). This includes your airfare, ground transportation in Nicaragua, all meals, accommodations, 2 nights at the all-inclusive hotel mentioned previously , as well as a portion of the cost to operate a 3-day camp for 40 Nicaraguan children.

Note: Many of you helped us in the spring by sending school supplies to pass out in Nicaragua. This year we will be collecting medical & hygiene supplies (band-aids, antibiotic ointment, tweezers, toothbrushes, etc.).

We will have a planning meeting this winter, so please let us know if you would like to be involved. And if you can’t travel with us, we certain welcome your prayers!

P.S. You can see pictures and videos from our spring 2008 trip to Nicaragua in our Picasa album.