Welcome to 2017 Mission Trip Blog

Welcome to our blog. On this site, you will find reflections from our youth mission trip to the villages of Diria and Tepeyac (outside the city of Granada) in Nicaragua. We can't guarantee what Internet connection we'll have, but we'll do our best to post as frequently as possible and even provide pictures on our flickr page if we have enough bandwidth.

In the meantime, please keep our missionary group in your prayers as we prepare for this exciting opportunity!

Megan D.

This post was written on June 15.

Dear family and friends,

 It is Wednesday, and it was the third day of working at our sites. I have made friends with people from other schools, one of which is my roommate- Andrea from UA. The food, luckily, has not been strictly rice and beansJ. This whole trip, so far, has been extremely eye opening and influential. The first few days we went out into the community and got to know the community members and their families. Some of these people have come out and helped us work at the sites, which is very helpful.

 On the first day of work, I was complaining to myself about how my hands hurt from cutting wire, how my back was sore from sifting gravel and digging, and how when I was on the see-saw with the children, it was basically leg day because I weighed more than them. But I looked down at the gravel and saw all the little particles and how they are all different, and I realized that what we do at this school for the teachers and children doesn’t do much for the world, but it means the world to them.  So this gave me the motivation to keep going and push through the temporary pain of what we were doing.

 Lastly, I received all the letters from all of you, and could not hold back my tears.  They were full of love and support, I just wanted to thank you all.  I miss all of you and look forward to seeing y’all soon.

 

 

Elizabeth R.

This post was written on June 16.

Hello to everyone reading back home! I hope you all are well. This trip has truly been amazing. I’ve seen so many new things, and met so many new people. I did end up at Tepeyac, and I have helped conduct a census and start the foundation for a kindergarten classroom they’re building, so I’ve talked to many members of the community. It’s been a lot of hard work, and a lot of walking, but I always come back feeling satisfied with what I’ve done that day. The people here are unbelievable. They’re so nice and so willing to give what little they have to you. We’ve been given so many mangoes and avocadoes from them. The little kids at the school are so sweet. I’ve played with so many of them, and even helped teach them some English. We got these cross necklaces, and at the end of the trip, we will have the opportunity to give it to someone who we feel we have formed a special relationship with. I think I’m going to give mine to one of the little girls I’ve met at the school. Contrary to what we were told, we have actually had other things to eat besides rice and beans, like pancakes or eggs, so that’s been nice. I’ve made a lot of new friends, and I hope to continue these friendships far beyond this trip. I’ve grown in so many ways that I never expected to. It’s hard to believe we only have three days left before we go home. But until then, I will cherish every moment that I will experience.

Update from Deacon

Please let the parents know that the entire group is at Diria. We will be here for two nights and then going to the hotel in Managua for our departure on Sunday morning.

We arrived in Diria around 6:30, dinner at 7:00, circle at 7:45 after washing the dishes, 9:15 practice our skits, lights out at 10:15. Tomorrow evening after their work day the group will be preforming scripture stories at the parish to the Youth group. I feel it will be another late night and blogging may not be possible.

The next opportunity for blogging looks like Saturday morning after the nature walk up the mountain and before leaving for Managua.

We will try but I hope everyone will understand. It truly is going well and they will have many stories when they return to their families.

Blessings to everyone back in Dallas.

Deacon Charlie Stump

Lunch Time (Tepeyac)

This is where the Tepeyac group eats lunch everyday which is cooked by different ladies in the community each day.

Pictures from Tepeyac

Lake Nicaragua

Brandon Z. (Tepeyac)

Today is day 6 and the hard work is just beginning. It was our second day at our work site, Juan Diego School. Our main job is to build a new class room for the Kindergarteners which consists of digging trenches for foundation and sifting through dirt to get finer dirt for cement. The hot sun is definitely taking a toll on the missionaries, myself included. As we started the manual labor part of the mission it makes me miss the walks around the country side where we were often welcomed into the houses of the locals instead of sweating like a pig in the sun. We started off our trip doing census work where I somewhat acted as a translator with my broken Spanish. As the time has gone on, the Spanish is getting easier and easier. A note about Nicaragua is that it get bright here about 5 in the morning which completely throws me off. It will be 10 in the morning and it feels like it’s about 4 in the afternoon. While I’ve been here I received some sad news back home and my fellow missionaries and chaperones have made the load easier to bear. I have people that I did not know a week ago and I can tell them things that I wouldn’t tell me friends back home. This attests to the type of people that we are and our values. I couldn’t imagine being here with any other group of people, they are all truly amazing!

One last note I want to say hi to mom, dad, and Andrew! The food here has actually been pretty good but I still want my Whataburger when I get home! Love you all and will see you soon!

Joseph B. (Diría)

 It is hard to believe that we have already passed the halfway point of the trip. It has flown by so quickly. Last night, a violent storm hit where our group stays, and I heard the loudest claps of thunder ever! But everything turned out just fine, and we were all safe. Today, my group went out into the rural community and spread the word about Mass at the central

chapel place. While our guide spread the message about the Masses, he also tried to fix a widow’s television. The doctor in our group also assisted the people in any way she could, particularly by looking at many children’s sore throats. I am constantly surprised by all the animals and different plants that the locals have at their homes. I have never seen anything like it. Once we returned to the chapel, or main meeting place of the rural community, we had yet another delicious, fresh meal. Then we prepared for Mass and had a great turn out. It made my heart melt when a drunken man we visited earlier in the week showed up to Mass. Not only that, but a “grumpy old man” that my group visited the first day showed up as well. It was such a great feeling to see our work pay off. Following the Mass, I gave our tour guide from the first day, Uriel, a sixteen year old boy, my missionary cross and a few medals and rosaries that I brought from home. The connection I have made with him is so special, and I look forward to what our last few days have in store!

Jessica T. (Diría)

                I can’t believe that today is the 7^th day we have been in Nicaragua; we are already half way through the trip!  We thought we would be helping build or start the process of building a chapel, but things have changed and now we have been called to build an emotional connection with the community instead.  Today we went on a 3 hour walk into the community, hiking more than 4 miles.  We went to many homes today preaching the word of God and telling everyone about when mass would be held.  We also assisted the families in any way possible, whether it was the nurse helping the sick or Francisco helping fix a mans TV.  It warms my heart that all the Nicaraguans have been so friendly and loving towards us.  The kids are the cutest, and each day communicating gets easier and easier.  I’m extremely blessed and thankful for this opportunity to serve others and preach the word of God and I am sad the trip is coming to an end.  I’ve met so many great new people, who I know I will stay close friends with in the years to come. 

P.S. Hi Mom, Dad, Heidi and everyone back home, I am thinking and praying for you all.  I miss everyone so much and can’t wait to tell you all about my trip.  The food has been AMAZING; I’ve never eaten so many mangos before.  I love you all, stay safe and see you soon. xoxo 

Brady T. (Tepeyac)

NOTE: This entry should have been posted on the morning of June 13. I am sorry for the error. - KB

Today started great, as we had pancakes for breakfast. Afterwards, we spent the next couple of hours hiking in the rain to the top of a mountain, where we saw a beautiful view of Granada. Initially we couldn’t see the city because it was covered up by the rain clouds, but after a couple minutes the rain died down and we could see for miles. After the hike we came back for lunch and headed out to mass. The chapel where mass was held had a roof made of straw held up by four pieces of wood. There were no walls to enclose the building. Many kids showed up for the mass, and we had a great time playing games with them afterwards such as Duck, Duck, Goose and soccer. Everybody was laughing and having a great time, and it was the highlight of my day. Eventually we had to stop playing, though, because the local parish had planned a show for us. The show included many Nicaraguan dances and acts. A lady in her 70’s or 80’s even danced for us, and she was pretty good, too. We gave her a standing ovation at the end. She was so happy that she was smiling from ear to ear, and I think she even cried a little. After the performance ended, we went back to camp and had dinner. We ended the day with Circle Time, which was great as we reflected on our day.

Kate C. (Tepeyac)

Welcome to the Tepeyac blog! It is the fifth day and today we have begun our work. The Tepeyac group is separated between two work sites, the road, or “Roadies” as we proudly call ourselves, and those working at the classroom. For some reason, I had a feeling I would be placed in the road group, and though I was disappointed at first, as soon as we began to cheerily sing on our way to the work site, I began to trust my small group of Roadies, and I right to do so. We had a blast today digging up rocks from the road and throwing them to the side or lifting 130 pound bricks and carrying them up this hill that seemed to get steeper every time we had to bring a new one up. The true highlight of my day came after lunch though, when we resumed working. I hadn’t really gotten back into the groove of working again yet, but before I could pick up a shovel I hear my name being called. One of the chaperones, knowing my like for arts and crafts and playing with children, called Andrea and me over and gave us the tip that there were little girls at the house across the road wanting to make bracelets. We happily obliged, grabbing a huge pack of pipe cleaners and beads. For the next two hours or so, we sat on the ground surrounded by these girls and some other kids that had heard of our bracelets and had come to join us. Ben and Payton soon joined us in helping to crank out more product, and we soon ran out of both pipe cleaners and beads. I ended up playing tag with the kids for a bit just before we had to leave the work site as well and they seemed to be having a lot of fun as was I. Though my Spanish is very broken, I was able to connect with these kids through just playing around like a goofball, which is much easier and natural to me than learning another language. Today has been an awesome day with my Roadies and the Nicaraguans I’ve met, and I’m so excited for what tomorrow will bring.

Seghen K. (Tepeyac)

Bienvenidas a Tepeyac, Nicaragua! It is day 5 and we’ve had a blast so far. This morning we woke up at 6:15 to attend Mass in the chapel celebrated by Father Joseph. After Mass, we went down to the lunchroom and ate amazing food. We had rice & beans, eggs, bread with jam & or peanut butter, tamarind juice, and lots of fruits including cantaloupe & watermelon. Bishop Dunne and Bishop Lynch (go friars!) washed dishes and we split into our work site groups. The first group site consisted of 10 students that rebuilt a road (Ben, Derrian, Kate, Andrea, Payton, Brady, Julia, Anne, Kyle, & Marissa) while the rest were in the second group (Seghen, Keegan, Caitlin, Holden, Brandon, Marlie, Meagan, Elizabeth, Zoe, Connor, Andrew, John, Haley, Mckenna, & Louisa) is making a kindergarten classroom. We walked to the work sites and played with the school children. Then we went to lunch and ate delicious spaghetti, rice & beans, and cachapa (a fertilized corn drink). We went back to our work groups until 4:30. We went back to the retreat center and had our free time where we caught up on our laundry, wrote in our journals, played games on the roof, and enjoyed the sunset. We ended our day with circle time where we talked about our day and where we saw Christ.

We all are doing fine but really miss you guys. Thank you for the thoughts and prayers.

This journey has been a journey of a lifetime.

Pictures from Tepeyac

Xavier P. (Diría)

                As someone who loves keeping things routine, I was very nervous when I began preparing for this trip. I would be going to a foreign land, with foreign food that I wasn’t sure I was going to like, a foreign language that I didn’t know well, and with foreign people that I wasn’t sure I was going to get along with. When I first arrived at the airport on Thursday morning (Wow! Was it really just last week?) , I was feeling a little queasy at the thought of losing my precious routine. However, when we arrived at Diría, the first thing we h

ad for dinner was rice and beans as well as some crackers and a juice made out of a variety of tropical fruits. Everything tasted amazing and I was surprised at how many of the local foods I had already tried before. Our hosts have even prepared some classics such as spaghetti and meat sauce that tastes like it was made in Italy and fried chicken that rivals KFC. The next morning we headed out to our worksite. The first thing we did was split up into groups and collect census data for the local parish. I was scared because although I have taken two years of Spanish, I was not prepared for the speed at which the locals talked and I had not been able to understand much of the conversations in Spanish that I had heard up to that point. Therefore, I was understandably nervous about having to actually carry on a conversation in Spanish. Luckily, I was in a group with native Spanish speakers from our group who helped increase my vocabulary.  By asking them questions I was able to slowly but surely increase my knowledge of Spanish so that by the end I was able to lead the conversation without much help. Thanks to the help of the Spanish speakers in my group I have felt so much more confident during my conversations with the Nicaraguans. After we finished the census work and ate the delicious lunch prepared for us by our hosts, we met some of the local kids. While at first I was a little shy and unsure about talking to them, I began to open up more when we started playing with a soccer ball that we had brought. Kicking the soccer ball around and giving the children piggy-back rides erased the shell that was supposed to “protect” me from anything unfamiliar. Hearing the huge grins and screams of laughter from the niños, brought a huge smile to my face and let me realize what the main purpose of our mission trip to Nicaragua: building a relationship between our two communities that would last for the years to come.

P.S.  Fr. Augustine came up to me while I was writing this blog post and asked for a shout out. Seeing that he does have a substantial amount of power over me, I decided that it would be wise for me to comply. In all seriousness though, the chaperones have done an excellent job planning the trip and making sure everyone is safe and I couldn’t be more thankful for the countless hours that they have put in to make this mission trip great.

Kate W. (Diría)

               

Students take a break to enjoy time on a playground at a local school.

We originally thought our call on this trip was going to be to help the community in a physical way. We expected to work, build, and have a tangible result at the end of our time here, but God had other plans. We found out today that our original plan, to construct a chapel, was put on hold. We were instead asked to use the rest of our time in Nicaragua to interact with the people in our community in an exchange of culture and of faith. I was lucky enough to be able to help the women who were preparing our lunch.  We peeled, cut, and juiced cantaloupes and oranges for a drink and learned their technique for making rice. During this time we not only got to learn cooking tips, but got to converse with these women and learn more about their lives as well. The rest of the day was dedicated to playing with the children. Let me tell you, I have never encountered a more joyful group of humans in my entire life. Their favorite game is to jump on someone’s back and have them race around like a horse. It can be tiring, but it is oh so rewarding. There was one little girl in particular who I built a special bond with. My favorite moment of the day with her was during mass where she spent the entire time with her arms around my neck, asking me to explain what was going on whenever Father Augustine spoke in English. I never thought I would feel so useful doing nothing but talking and playing all day, but spending time with these people, sharing experiences and sharing our faith has opened my eyes to the importance and the personal growth that can come from building relationships with people all around the world.

Scarlett M. (Diría)

Students and chaperones at Diría practice worship songs before Mass. 

First of all I want to start off by saying that I am extremely blessed that I got the privilege to come on this amazing trip. Yesterday at the work site we had Mass with the community, who has become a second family to me. After Mass 4 little girls had prepared a dance just for us. I sat in the front to video tape them. After they finished, I found myself in tears. Not just because how beautiful and graceful they were, but because it amazed me that they have found something like dance after all they have been through. As I wiped my tears, one of the little girls, Yara, who has definitely captured my heart, ran up to me and gave me the biggest hug ever. I have no idea how I’m going to leave these amazing people. Oh and Mom, you’re so right, I will most definitely be that girl from that airline commercial when I leave. I miss all my family. In a way, I wish you were all here with me for this amazing experience, especially you, Mommy ;).

 P.s. Mom, Dad and Alex, I am praying for all of you and love you all so mucchh. Please wish Kaylyn a Happy Birthday from me!

Day 3 - Haley O. (Tepeyac)

Hello everyone! We are having so much fun, and everyone has already made several new friends. The past two days were spent performing a census where we all got to practice our rockin’ Español. The homes in Tepeyac are much different than back home, and even with so little, they offered us so much. Every time we walk in a home, the people there rush inside to bring chairs even though we are going to be there for only 2 minutes. This really gave us the opportunity to connect with the people in the community on a deeper level since we actually got to see their lifestyle and experience their positive outlook on life. It has rained everyday so far in our site but, honestly, it has given us an even better chance to bond and have fun together. Specifically today, we were walking up a large hill after mass and many of us would jump in the puddles to splash each other, and we got to play football in the pouring rain. Also today, the group from Diriá came, and we all celebrated mass together with the community. During the “peace be with you’s” I turned around to this elderly woman and she had her arms out to hug me. I was so shocked considering some people don’t even shake hands in Dallas. It was a beautiful thing to me that their community embraces everyone and is so accepting of us and grateful that we are here. Fortunately, we have down time before dinner and sometimes after and it’s one of my favorite parts of the day. We play cards and games and make bracelets to give to the kids we meet. It has really given us the opportunity to form friendships that I see myself keeping for years. Meeting the people in this community and making many new friends is so refreshing, and I feel beyond blessed to be on this mission trip.

Day 3 - Conner M. (Tepeyac)

Hey! Today we finished up on our census work for the people surrounding the mission house here in Tepeyac. The people here are very welcoming to us. It’s good to see smiles on their faces as we approach their homes. It took a few tries to get my Spanish right while making conversation but it has gotten much easier as the days have gone on. It rains very often in the afternoons which makes the outside temperature a little more enjoyable. The friendships that we are forming are getting stronger each day. We usually get time before dinner to play games, journal, etc. For example, today a group of about 6 of us threw the football around in the rain which was a surprisingly good way to cool off. The monkeys and chickens sometimes make it hard to sleep with all the noise they make so most of us wear earplugs to drown out the noise. Overall, I am having a good time making new friends and visiting with the locals here; it is good to see people that have so little be so happy all the time.

Update from Deacon Charlie

This is Mr. Braun, writing and posting from Dallas. Over the phone tonight, Deacon Charlie asked me to post the following information as well as the 5 new posts you see below. If you have any questions about the blog feel free to contact me at kbraun@bdcs.org. 

The Diria and Tepeyac group came together tonight for a Spanish language Mass in the mountains today led by Fr. Augustin. At this point, Tepeyac has limited Internet access, and Diria has none. There are plans to buy a new hotspot in an attempt to post from Diria as soon as possible, but please patient as the group works through the challenges posted by traveling to an unfamiliar environment.

The students are doing great and in high spirits. Hopefully we can update the blog more frequently in the next few days, but unfortunately there are no guarantees with technology during the mission trip. In that case, there will be even more stories for the students to share on June 19 at DFW!

Day Two - Ann P. (Tepeyac)

 As day two began, I went into it the same way we’ve been going into every day- clueless. By saying clueless I don’t mean that it was disorganized and chaotic, but more so everything came as a surprise so we were forced to live in the present and embrace each moment. Though I prefer to be in control and enjoy organizing everything on my own, it was an oddly peaceful experience.

Throughout today and the previous day, we made a trek around the community to meet the families and take a census for Sister Liz who would later use the information to orchestrate local activities. We encountered many kind souls and several insects too. Although this was exciting, my favorite part of today was definitely celebrating Mass with our friends from Didya and the local Tepeyac community.

I knew it was going to be a Spanish Mass, but I didn’t realize how much Spanish I could actually comprehend. I must admit that I could not translate each individual word, yet I knew exactly what was happening at each part. My parents know how much I love talking about the Eucharist and the Catholic social teaching of solidarity (considering I did draft an entire college essay on it), but just when I thought I couldn’t love it any more, Jesus proved me wrong (as he often does). It was truly a beautiful experience to witness people all across the globe celebrating Mass in the same order as us and consuming the same body of Christ as us. By being forced to focus only on the present, I was able to see the Universal Church fully present in that Mass. I remember always learning that catholic means universal, but I never really understood it until this moment.

As I eventually come home, I want to take this experience with me by being more open and joyful towards our family trips to India. In previous years when we visited relatives in India, I was always closed off to Mass because it bored me since I had no clue what they were saying, nor did I put in effort to participate. Each day here has reaffirmed me that when we take the slightest moment to be still in the presence of God, He rewards us tenfold.

For these unpredictable days and relaxing instances of being wrapped in the Lord’s sweet love, I am ever grateful.

P.S. Mom, Dad, Breigh, and Casie- I’m praying for y’all and miss and love you!