Today´s post by: Melanie Auinbauh is a senior and is in her first year of the University of Missouri´s Physical Therapy program. She grew up in St. Louis and Dallas before arriving at Mizzou. She is a past president of Lutheran Student Fellowship, tutors science, and teaches dance at Studio B Dance Center. She enjoys spending time with friends, traveling, and playing with her pet poodle, Jane.

Today it started to feel like we have a daily routine here. Everyday a different member of the team leads devotion. I led devotion this morning on the topic of friendship and referenced the verses Proverbs 17:17 and 27:6, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, John 15:5-17, Colossians 3:3, and 1 John 1:1-7. I thought friendship would be a good topic because each day we become closer friends with the other members of the team and we are also making new friends at our site each day. Even though the Bible encourages us to have earthly friends who will keep us close to the Father, we must remember that Jesus is always our best friend.


As we were leaving the mission center this morning, many locals were gathering to attend a celebration for a new building for one of the churches´ pastor´s birthday. Several of the teachers we met Monday through Wednesday were here and they were very excited to see us again.

We played with the children at the Lutheran church in Chinandega today, so we had a short van ride. The ball field today was very nice. It was flat and didn´t have tall weeds growing in it. Every other day up to today, I have been playing soccer and games and singing with the younger kids and girls who don´t like playing baseball. I was determined to play baseball at least once while we are here, so today was the day. I started out playing with the girls and even talked a little English to Najomi, Pastor Louis´s daughter, who has been teaching herself English from watching TV. After a little while, I decided that if I played baseball maybe more girls would want to play.

Most of the kids were younger today, between 6 and 11, which made playing baseball more interesting and also more fun. Sometimes the pitcher threw from the mound, sometimes he or she threw from 10 feet in front of the mound, and sometimes from the first base line. There were a ton of kids standing in line to bat, and a ton of kids standing out in the field. No one was playing any specific position, and everyone ran for the ball when it came close to them. We finished playing and Pastor Louis from the Chinandega church led everyone in prayer before we dispersed for lunch.

Kevin took us to lunch at a local cafeteria style restaurant. He described it as a place our drivers and interpreters would eat on an everyday basis. We went through a line and the servers behind the counter put whatever we wanted on our plates and they were all piled high. All of the food was local Nicaraguan style, and it was all excellent. Our interpreter Jose said that each plate costs approximately $5. What a deal. While we were eating, one of the children who was playing baseball with us showed up outside the restaurant. He was looking through the windows and the door at us while we were eating and kept asking us to let him in. We figured that he probably rode his bike over from the church after we left. He was a very talented baseball player; he had a great arm and was great at catching.






When we got back to the church after lunch, we put some bracelets together and handed them out to everyone there. The kids, the parents, our drivers and our interpreters all got bracelets today. We each did our bead presentations, Aaron got soaked as usual, and they just keep getting better everyday. If we get to do them tomorrow, I´m sure they´ll be the best yet just in time for us to leave.






We´ve all been so worn out from all the heat and the sports that Will thought it would be a good idea to have round 2 at the beach today. No one was opposed. After we said our goodbyes to our new friends from today, Jose drove us to the beach. The beach was practically empty today because it wasn´t the weekend, and the tide was out so we went much further into the ocean than we did on Sunday. The water felt amazing, and we had a great time as a team.






To close out the day, we had our last dinner at the mission house. We had good old spaghetti with a special mango salsa made by Will with the mangoes that Tammy bought at the market yesterday. Overall, we have had a really amazing week. I´m sure tomorrow, our last day on the mission field, will be just as great as all the previous days. We are so blessed to be serving God in this beautiful country with such good friends at our sides.