Arrived!!!

Members of our team have arrived in Managua, Nicaragua with a warm welcome from our friends.  We have a busy day planned for tomorrow as we begin electrical renovation and general maintenance.  We will also be working with the local officials to finalize a needed permit.  Good night and thank you for your support.

Construction Trip

Several members of our ‘Leadership Team’ will be traveling to Nicaragua in the coming week.  The purpose of this trip is renovation and construction.  We will be rewiring the electrical framework in order to provide better and more reliable electricity throughout the facility.  We will also be building out cabinets for storage, plumbing, and other general maintenance.  Please pray for safe travels and may God bless you and your family.

January's Success

After deep thought, lengthy conversations, and many prayers, we have established the Susie Syke Leadership Team.  The purpose of this Board is to show and spread the love of Christ and to empower and serve the people of El Crucero, Nicaragua.

The trip in January was a glowing success.  There was much groundwork that was achieved and many strategic relationships established.  Soon the clinic in El Crucero will be operational on a consistent basis.  There will be a general practitioner, dentist, and ophthalmologist in the clinic regularly.  Additionally, pharmacy services will be carried out.  We are very excited that soon, the clinic will be carrying out the healthcare needs for the community.   We have great aspirations for the clinic to be a focal point in El Crucero and this success will help us serve and empower the people in the community. 

Kicking off 2009!

This upcoming week, members of our group will be traveling to El Crucero to locate and hire an administrator for the Susie Syke Clinic. Additionally, the team members will be meeting with local doctors to establish a formal schedule of health services at the clinic and will be meeting with local pastors to develop a service partnership to aid in the daily operation of the clinic. Please pray for the safe and successful journey.

God Bless,
Team Nica

Thank You

Thank you friends and family for all of your prayers.  Our travels went smoothly and we are all safely home.  We look forward to sharing our experiences with you.

In God's Blessings, 

Team Nica

Until Next Time

With God's blessings, your prayers, and our warriors on the ground, Randy and Sean, we were blessed with the release of our medical bags yesterday morning (Friday).  With this success, we were able to provide our ophthalmology outreach.  In four short hours, we were able to provide eyeglasses to over 70 community members - with hundreds more recipients in waiting.

Later in the afternoon, the team members were able to go out into the town and pass out 10 meal baskets to families designated by the local pastor, Pastor Luis.  This was truly a rewarding and memorable experience, providing us with special moments of interaction, prayer, laughter, and tears.

As we were leaving the clinic, there was a vibrant rainbow overhead - what a beautiful way for God to punctuate a special week for both our team, and our friends in El Crucero.  

Dios de Bendiga (God Bless You),

Team Nica 

Of course today was another great day, especially because it was Patty’s 29^th birthday….AGAIN.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY PATTY! 

We spent the day at La Chureca. (The Dump)  Although visiting the dump was mentally draining it was also equally rewarding.  La Chureca is a community of approximately 750 people who live in the confines of the city dump in Managua.  These people live solely on the provisions that they find in the dump.  Health care is a major concern in La Chureca and our team spent a good portion of the day shampooing the hair of those that have been infested with lice.  We did lice treatment on approximately 15 people, both kids and adults. The team members that participated in the lice treatments had to also treat their own hair with lice shampoo to protect from potential infestation.

While some of the team did lice treatments the rest of the team repainted two swing sets and put on new swing seats.   The painting provided a great opportunity for the kids to serve and they were quite excited to be able to choose the paint design for the swing sets.

We were also given the opportunity to tour La Chureca and experience a small glimpse of how these people live.  It was an extremely hot day mixed with rain and a great deal of humidity making the smell of the dump much more exaggerated. Because of the amount of trash and bugs we were required wear long pants making it even hotter for everyone.  The entire team did a wonderful job of staying focused on the purpose of our visit and sharing God’s love with many.  Our visit to La Chureca proved to be both an eye opening experience as well spiritually rewarding journey.

After a trip to the local McDonald’s for a late lunch we spent the afternoon at the hotel resting and recuperating.  We celebrated Patty’s birthday at a Mexican food restaurant and returned to the hotel for cake.

The day spanned the entire spectrum of emotions……we celebrated, we laughed, we cried, some of us nearly lost our stomachs, we did things outside of our comfort zone and we reflected on the reality of how many people in the world live like this and how fortunate we are.

Grace and Peace,

Team Nica