MCCONNELL - "I can't think of a better way to spend 10 days!"
That's the comment one of the team members made to Pastor Dave Mann after they returned from a recent mission trip to work in Condega, Nicaragua.
On April 23, Mann led a group of five men from Grace Free Methodist Church in McConnell, down to the city of Condega in northern Nicaragua. The purpose of the trip was two fold; to aid in a building project at a growing church near the city of Condega and to refurbish a number of computers for a Christian university. This is the second time Grace has sent a team to Nicaragua. The first team went in June of 2006 to conduct Vacation Bible Schools in two communities near Condega.
For this trip, the main focus was to support a small church plant in one of the poorer neighborhoods of Condega. The building project involved work on the pastor's home. The church formed several years ago and built a basic house for their pastor that also served as the meeting place for the church services. The house has a living room of about 19 feet by 19 feet, one bedroom about 9 feet by 12 feet, and a kitchen the same size as the bedroom.
This house was functioning as both home for nine people, and church building for a congregation of 40. The church had plans in place to expand the pastor's home in order to give the family more space as well as to provide more area for the church to meet. Unfortunately they were hindered by several things, primarily limited resources, and a quickly approaching rainy season, during which construction becomes difficult.
The goal for the Grace FMC group was to provide additional labor and resources to speed up the building process. In doing so, they hoped to finish the project before the rain began to fall in May.
Work began in earnest the day after the team arrived. The team worked side by side with members of the Nicaraguan church, who also volunteered their time. The work was very labor intensive. According to Pastor Mann, "The majority of construction in Central America is done with concrete. Working with cement was a new experience for most of the team. Remember also that Nicaragua is the Third World. You can't just call for a cement truck. It must all be mixed by hand!" All the walls were constructed of cement blocks made by hand at the work site, along with all of the mortar and concrete as well. By the end of the week, two new rooms had been added, cement floors poured in all parts of the house, and a new roof was placed over the entire structure. There was even time for an additional project: digging a new latrine. This proved to be quite a task. The hole was dug by hand 12 feet down through solid rock.
Despite the difficult work, the project was successfully completed by the end of the week.
In addition to the construction, the team spent several afternoons and evenings working to upgrade and repair computers for the Condega branch of the Universidad Martin Lutero (Martin Luther University). The school has a computer lab which was in need of some help.
The computers needed various things, including new hard drives, memory upgrades, and new motherboards. They all needed new software installed. It was a change of pace from the hard manual labor done during the morning, but provided new challenges for the team members. Everyone learned a lot about how computers work and how to fix some common problems. Most importantly, all the computers were checked out, tuned up, and in good working order when they were finished. The team also left them with four extra machines to act as back ups in case of failures, which is not uncommon in the dusty and hot conditions in that location.
This mission trip provided a great opportunity to serve in another part of the world. Getting into a new culture can really open your eyes to how people live in other places, as well as to the needs that exist in the world. It is a challenging but extremely rewarding experience. There will be another very similar opportunity available in October 2009. The October team will be working mainly with children and youth in Managua, the capital.
The team will be sharing about their work, their experiences and their impressions from Nicaragua at 6 p.m. Sunday, June 7, at Grace Free Methodist Church in McConnell.
Everyone in the community is invited to come and to learn more about this trip, more about Nicaragua, and more about the next mission trip Grace is planning to Nicaragua in October.
That's the comment one of the team members made to Pastor Dave Mann after they returned from a recent mission trip to work in Condega, Nicaragua.
On April 23, Mann led a group of five men from Grace Free Methodist Church in McConnell, down to the city of Condega in northern Nicaragua. The purpose of the trip was two fold; to aid in a building project at a growing church near the city of Condega and to refurbish a number of computers for a Christian university. This is the second time Grace has sent a team to Nicaragua. The first team went in June of 2006 to conduct Vacation Bible Schools in two communities near Condega.
For this trip, the main focus was to support a small church plant in one of the poorer neighborhoods of Condega. The building project involved work on the pastor's home. The church formed several years ago and built a basic house for their pastor that also served as the meeting place for the church services. The house has a living room of about 19 feet by 19 feet, one bedroom about 9 feet by 12 feet, and a kitchen the same size as the bedroom.
This house was functioning as both home for nine people, and church building for a congregation of 40. The church had plans in place to expand the pastor's home in order to give the family more space as well as to provide more area for the church to meet. Unfortunately they were hindered by several things, primarily limited resources, and a quickly approaching rainy season, during which construction becomes difficult.
The goal for the Grace FMC group was to provide additional labor and resources to speed up the building process. In doing so, they hoped to finish the project before the rain began to fall in May.
Work began in earnest the day after the team arrived. The team worked side by side with members of the Nicaraguan church, who also volunteered their time. The work was very labor intensive. According to Pastor Mann, "The majority of construction in Central America is done with concrete. Working with cement was a new experience for most of the team. Remember also that Nicaragua is the Third World. You can't just call for a cement truck. It must all be mixed by hand!" All the walls were constructed of cement blocks made by hand at the work site, along with all of the mortar and concrete as well. By the end of the week, two new rooms had been added, cement floors poured in all parts of the house, and a new roof was placed over the entire structure. There was even time for an additional project: digging a new latrine. This proved to be quite a task. The hole was dug by hand 12 feet down through solid rock.
Despite the difficult work, the project was successfully completed by the end of the week.
In addition to the construction, the team spent several afternoons and evenings working to upgrade and repair computers for the Condega branch of the Universidad Martin Lutero (Martin Luther University). The school has a computer lab which was in need of some help.
The computers needed various things, including new hard drives, memory upgrades, and new motherboards. They all needed new software installed. It was a change of pace from the hard manual labor done during the morning, but provided new challenges for the team members. Everyone learned a lot about how computers work and how to fix some common problems. Most importantly, all the computers were checked out, tuned up, and in good working order when they were finished. The team also left them with four extra machines to act as back ups in case of failures, which is not uncommon in the dusty and hot conditions in that location.
This mission trip provided a great opportunity to serve in another part of the world. Getting into a new culture can really open your eyes to how people live in other places, as well as to the needs that exist in the world. It is a challenging but extremely rewarding experience. There will be another very similar opportunity available in October 2009. The October team will be working mainly with children and youth in Managua, the capital.
The team will be sharing about their work, their experiences and their impressions from Nicaragua at 6 p.m. Sunday, June 7, at Grace Free Methodist Church in McConnell.
Everyone in the community is invited to come and to learn more about this trip, more about Nicaragua, and more about the next mission trip Grace is planning to Nicaragua in October.
