Tomorrow I am off to Nicaragua for five days with Compassion. I am looking forward to seeing some of what they are up to there. For almost 10 years now my wife and I have been sponsoring a few children in partnership with Compassion and are experience has been amazing. I have wanted to go on what they refer to as a “vision trip” for some time…

We’ll be staying in Managua which is the capital city of Nicaragua. March and April are traditionally the hottest months so I expect it to be nearly 100 degrees each day. I have been to Central America a number of times but never to Nicaragua. Have any of you ever been?

I am really looking forward to engaging with the people, serving in whatever way we end up serving, enjoying some good conversation, food and fun with my good friends Matt Wilks and Ben Rough — and just seeing another part of God’s earth. I fully expect to be deeply moved and challenged when I see some of the conditions that the children are living in — as well as their stations in life.

I am hoping to learn from the people of Managua as much as give. I used to think when I would go on short-term trips like this that I was somehow going to take the poor “out of their misery” just by showing up, smiling and saying “Jesus loves you” or “God bless you”. The truth is I will probably see Jesus resembled more in the faces of the poor children in the outskirts of Managua then I did in the faces of the people at church this morning…