Next stop Nicaragua-

As the eve of my trip approaches…my mind races with all the last minute to do’s. Are they all done? Did I pack my…? I am a bit twitchy with some nervous energy and my tummy is a little knotted. I know I have everything under control but I will be gone a long time and far away.

I stare at my two huge suitcases and my backpack and think…My goodness!

Inside one suitcase is 70lbs of backpacks for 24 new friends awaiting my arrival, thanks to all of my old friends in the USA. I recall each person that contributed be it monetarily or with items and a smile forms then a nod.  There’s the guests that have slipped cash in my hand…There’s the beautiful letter with an incredibly generous check. Followed by, the phones calls and, visit with a box filled with office supplies. Then of course, there are, the numerous back to school sale runs Gary & I made. I think back to the piles of school supplies that grew on my bedroom floor over that past few months. It started off as dream… My girlfriend who home schools her children stuffed backpacks and snuck them onto my back porch. Then the children from Miss Roy’s third grade class at Vassalboro Community School who spent an afternoon stuffing the backpacks, with their beautiful “dear amigo” letters each child wrote.  That is when my dream was realized.Then came the bibles my dear, dear friend put in my hands to put them in the Nicaraguan children’s. The night we bowed our heads and prayed together…I cried all the way home. The blueberry scented soaps that bound my belief in women helping other women…The struggle over what to do when my bag was so over weight and I thought none of this would happen. The day my mother and father said they wanted to pay for the luggage fee because they believed in what I was doing. The moment I stuffed the last backpack into the suitcase and zipped it shut. I knelt there on the floor in my bedroom, laying my chest over the bag, crying and thanking God for this amazing opportunity and asking him to continue to guide me.

Inside the other suitcase ALL a girl needs for a month in the Nicaragua and likely a bit more! Safely tucked inside are a few special items; the envelope with special instructions I am under strict orders to follow, a beautiful owl who will keep and ‘eye’ on my while I am away, my prayer sack, my camera, all the batteries I can carry, my arsenal of meds to keep me well, my special notebook, pen, and ALL of your prayers and well wishes.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart each and every one of you for every kind word, generous gift, prayer, smile, hug and pat on the back. Thank you for coming to visit me, asking me how many days, teasing me about my accent, embracing Spanish and Central America and the willingness to think about something larger than yourself...

My buddies, my friends, my family, my Lucy, my love; YOU are what provides me with the courage and strength to make a trek like this.

Next stop Nicaragua!