Final Reflection

Dear Grace Lutheran
friends and family,

Thank you for your support of the 2016 Medical Mission Team to Nicaragua. The mission trip was fantastic! We started our time in Nicaragua with a visit with a very small Lutheran Church in a village called Bhatola Sur in Managua. We have seen many changes to this little church over the past several years. We started coming here when there was no roof and they only had a dirt floor. The church now has walls, a roof, and a tile floor! This is our fifth visit with this church over the last seven years, and it is awesome to see how far they have come! We enjoyed lunch in the home of one of the church members.

During our week, we were able to provide care to people in the Managua and Jinotega region. We spent two nights in the Los Cedros children's home in the Managua region. The rest of our stay we were based out of the children's home in the hills of Jinotega, about three hours from Managua. The children prefer that we do not call it an orphanage, but rather a “children’s home.”  

At our medical clinics there was always a long line, and we tried our best to provide care to as many people as possible. The Ministry of Health worked with on-the-ground missionary, Joy Pulsifer. She visited each community the week before we arrived.  Joy was a fantastic hostess to us at the children’s home in Jinotega. We were delighted to meet many new children and join them in games and art projects. They also sang some songs when one of our team members had a birthday. Our translators this year were especially helpful, and we enjoyed getting to know them. A large part of our ministry this year was handing out the prayer shawls. Thank you to the Knit Wits and other friends who made  prayer shawls! We were also able to take Bibles with us again this year. 

We thank you again Grace Lutheran Church for your outreach to the underserved, and your commitment to provide care and hope to others. Special thanks to Thrivent Financial for Lutherans and all who helped with and supported the spaghetti dinner. The proceeds allowed us to purchase the needed medications we distributed during the mission trip. If you wish to see pictures of the trip we invite you to visit the Grace Litheran web site.

On behalf of the 2016 Medical Mission Team, 

Celeste and Brian Newcomb
Team Leaders

“and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.”  - Isaiah 58:10