Thursday morning and early afternoon, the Woodcreek team continued their work projects at House of Hope. Nathan, who is the construction mastermind, designed and saw to completion the rooftop structure for the trash area. Meanwhile, (and there are no pictures of this), some guys were mixing cement by hand, while the girls had to carry it over to where it was being used. Needless to say, the girls had sore backs after such a job. Since Sami, one of the team members, is pregnant and shouldn’t be lifting and carrying concrete as such, Julie stole her away and they went to the store and then put together 300 gifts for the kids for Saturday.

For lunch, we again got to hear a testimony, but this time it was the testimony of Oscar, who is April’s right-hand man at House of Hope. He is the only Nicaraguan man that many of these ladies who are coming out of prostitution trust, but he doesn’t have a history that he is proud of. His past is full of hatred, violence, drugs, abuse, and other horrible things. It all started when he was a young boy and he and his mother were forced to watch as his brother was brutally “executed” for trying to leave the war.  What a powerful testimony he has of the healing and redemption found through the blood of Christ.

After finishing up the work projects, the team headed over to Huembes, one of the local markets, to buy some souvenirs. Later that night, they spent some time with their old friends, the Russells, playing a fun game of Catch Phrase and also hearing about some of the ways the team members have been impacted by their time in Nicaragua. It was another great time of fellowship, and the Russells were so encouraged by this team, their visit, and their desire to be a part of ministry in Nicaragua!