2008 Mission Summary
Mar 26th, 2008 by Jon Posted in Bluefields 2008, Missions | 1 Comment
On March 7 - 16th, 2008, 18 people traveled to Bluefields, Nicaragua to help Verbo Ministries with their programs. The team consisted of 5 people from Three Hills, Alberta, and 13 people from the Toronto area in Ontario. The trip was put together by Samaritan’s Purse Canada and Cornerstone Christian Community Church in Markham.
This is Cornerstone’s 4th trip to Nicaragua in the past 5 years, and the 3rd consecutive mission to help Verbo in Bluefields.
The activities we were involved in this year were:
- Broke ground on a new building at Verbo school. The project is to become 6 new classrooms at the cost of roughly $60,000. During our time there, we helped dig the footings, made rebar skeletons for the posts, and poured concrete to begin the foundation.
- Taught lessons to the elementary grades at the Verbo school. We would sing, teach a bible lesson, do a craft, and maybe even perform a puppet show!
- Cross-cultural exchange between the teens from Canada and the teens in grade 11 at Verbo.
- Took the first graders seed planting in Marvin’s plantation at the Verbo school, and taught them a lesson about being good environmental stewards.
- Took a 2 hour boat trip to Tasbapauni to meet the locals and see the Verbo church being built there.
- Visited the class for the deaf and handicapped at the Vineyard school. We shared with them some background about ourselves and taught them how to make balloon animals.
- To relax, Pastor Ed took us on a trip to El Bluff… a fantastic stretch of beach along the Atlantic.
- Once again we visited La Esperanza. This time we made three trips there - once as a “drive-by”, another time to witness garbage trucks being searched, and the last trip to deliver food packs to families.
- Each year we visit the Rock Quarry and it remains the same each year: families toiling under the hot Nicaraguan sun earning little for their bone breaking labour. The only thing that does change each year is that the hill is getting smaller and smaller.
- For everyone on the team (except Vern), it was our first time visiting the hospital in Bluefields. We toured different wards and ended our stay by singing songs for children staying in the hospital, distributing toys, and making balloon animals.
- The team from Three Hills really blessed the kids at Verbo by lowering the basketball net to a more playable height, new metal soccer nets, and a brand new ping pong table (probably more for Pastor Ed than the kids!).
- A new septic tank was installed at the Verbo church thanks to the hard workers from the Three Hills team.
- While the work was physically and mentally draining, the team managed to find energy to play with children daily at the school and around the neighbourhood where we stayed. It was moments like this that helped punctuate our stay.
We did many other activities during our short 7 days stay in Bluefields and I hope to share many of those stories in the coming weeks through photos and accounts from team members on this year’s mission.
March 29th, 2008 at 2:22 am
It is so sad to see people picking through rubbish to survive. The worse part it, it has already been gone through before the trashmen get it and I suspect they also go through it before dumping it. Thanks for all you have been doing! The east coast is an important area needing help. Blessings!