Hello everyone, from Karl Cober!

It is Friday evening nearing the end of the first week in Nicaragua. So far the trip has been an ongoing series of interesting and exciting experiences, busy-ness, warm temperatures and good fellowship. There are many highpoints, too many to share in a brief blog. I will let Roy point out to you later some of the finer differences of driving experiences in Nicaragua vis a vis Ontario that we have observed.

Today the guys spent another day at the San Antonio Sur worksite, preparing the site (with picks, shovels, wheel barrows etc.) for the development of a multi-purpose conference center for the Nicaraguan Brethren In Christ Church (NBICC). It rained kind of hard today for about 5 minutes but about 5 minutes later the ground was again dry.

The executive director of the NBICC, Edgar Cordoba, surprised us with a visit to the worksite this afternoon and explained to us how this was a very important project for the NBICC which they have been planning for and implementing for more than five years. It was very inspirational to hear him tell of some of the challenges they have overcome in advancing the project to its current state and their plans for the project in the coming years. Later Friday evening the type of building that they are planning to build on the site was pointed out to us during our travels.

The hospitality of our Nicaraguan brothers and sisters in Christ has also been amazing and one of the highlights of the first week. Through this hospitality we have been developing more personal relationships with them. This evening Fadha who has been one of two ladies preparing lunch for the Westheights team, the local worker Kervin and NBICC leaders who are with the team, also prepared dinner for the team at the open air BBQ she operates as a business at their family property. Fadha is the Pastor of the church at San Antonio Sur.

At this dinner we enjoyed genuine local cuisine and I had the pleasure to get to know Cirilo who is a pastor, high school math and physics teacher and a member of the NBICC leadership committee. Cirilo is currently managing the San Antonio Sur project on behalf of the NBICC leadership committee and in April has been nominated to be the treasurer for the NBICC. I think we could pray for this brother as he is busy and is carrying a large responsibility for the NBICC.

It has been a very rewarding trip. It is very warm and I so far have only one blister.

All the best,
Karl