Open Hearts International Children's Relief Mission
Easter week in Nicaragua is vacation for all the schools to celebrate “Semana Santa”…Holy Week. The youth group from Christ Journey Church, our home church in Miami, came down during their Spring Break to spend the week with our kids at Club Cristiana La Esperanza. We had such an awesome time together!
Since the Club was empty for vacation we got to use the entire facility to hang out with the kids for the week. You really can’t replace having a place to chill, and that was the best part of the week. We did bible studies, and games, arts and crafts and music…played lots of soccer. But when you get to spend time together, finding out about each others lives, praying for each others needs, that makes for a great week!
Every day in the afternoon we put our hands to the shovel and built a sidewalk out in front of Club Esperanza. What used to be a run down entrance that was pretty sad is now a smooth sidewalk, with a grass border, flowers and two permanent potters with trees in them! The front of the Club looks beautiful now thanks to these kids hard work!
On our last day together we went out to Ruby Ranch and had an incredibly fun finale. The hardest part was saying good bye for sure. I watched our kids break down with tears. Then later when I talked to the teachers who rode home with the kids, they said the story was the same…not a dry eye on the bus. The beautiful thing is that the Lord’s presence was in the middle of these friendships as they formed and the influence will be an impact on the future. Every day that I have gone to club since they left, the kids are always asking about their friends in Miami. Praise God for that!
God gave us a great Easter week! Amen.