from Steve

There is no way to slowly acclimate to the Nicaragua experience.  We landed in Managua and then proceeded through customs and immigration on our way to the small charter plane that would take us to Puerto Cabezas.  As we climbed into the small plane I wondered what we would find when it landed and I got off official government airport property.  Upon landing, I climbed down the airplanes stairs and was immediately assaulted with all five of my senses going into hyper drive.  The sights, smells, sounds, and oppressive heat are overwhelming.  We piled into a very tired school bus and belching noxious fumes we headed through town to the mission compound.  Nothing about living here is simple.  The power is inconsistent, dependant on the whims of local government officials.  The water needs to be filtered.  The shower has one temperature; whatever comes out the head is the temperature, as there is no hot or cold mixing valve. It rains with a vengeance that would make Noah nervous and yet Jesus is here.  The same Jesus we worship in our comfortable, padded seats, in our beautiful sanctuary is found here in the midst of intense third world poverty in a country that is the poster child for the term “banana republic.”  I see Him in the women that fix our food, in the pastor that leads his simple church, in the children that wiggle, squirm, and sing with gusto in both Spanish and a Miskito dialect.  Jesus is here and He wants to attack the very preconceptions I have developed in America about what a faith community looks like.  I look forward to the journey God has for me, as He uses the people of God to change my world.

Steve Catts