This post by: Austin Thiel is a native from Marshall, Missouri and is majoring in Plant Science at the University of Missouri. He is involved with Alpha Gamma Rho Fraternity and Agronomy Club. Outside of school, Austin enjoys working on his family´s farm near Marshall and golfing.

Today, we went to a local church in Chinandega where the pastor had been president of the Lutheran Church for six years.  When we first arrived the group conceded that this has been the nicest church that we have served at thus far.  The children there were once again in love with us when we first walked in. It is always such a blessing to know that the children are so welcoming of us to their church and community.




Before we started playing baseball with the kids, we decided that we were sore and needed to do some actual stretching since we are starting to get very sore from playing all day.  We started out tossing the ball around with the kids to get loosened up.  I had a small five year old, that I later figured out is the pastors son, so I helped him work on his catching and throwing along with how to properly field a ground ball.  I am still unable to grasp the fact that I was able to help him do these things without being able to actually speak to him through the same language.  After about 20 minutes of playing catch, Aaron called the group together and we got a game together that was actually mixed between Americans and Nicaragua. The kids today were mostly young, so the game was not as competitive as it has been in the past few days. Fred volunteered to be full time catcher which was greatly appreciated.  One of the groups favorite moments of the day was when two kids were pitching and hitting against each other. Nobody ever found out their age, but they both looked to be 4.  It was one of the most precious moments that has happened thus far on our trip. 


For lunch we went out to a buffet that one of our interpreters, Jose, eats at when he takes his family out.  It had all sorts of different types of food available and expressed what this culture typically eats.  We stood out in the restaurant not only because we were white but because we piled food on our plate unlike the Nicaraguans.  To our surprise a full plate there was only five dollars per person.  

After lunch we went back to the church to perform our usual bead skit and unfortunately most of the kids we played with today did not come back to watch our skit.  However, the ones that did stay were the young ones. They paid attention very well today and were into our skit a lot.  Our group later decided that it was the best skit performance we have had.  When leaving the pastor and an elderly lady said they really liked our skit and took a lot away from it. 

Will convinced Kevin to take us to beach again, so we ended our day at the beach. We rode waves and some of us, Tammy and Kaitlyn, collected sea shells to possibly take back home and make something with them.


I also did the nightly devotion tonight for our team. It was over comfort and finding comfort in each other, in family, and in God. It was based out of 2 Corinthians 1:3-5: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion, and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.