Nicaragua Spring Break

As college students board planes at the beginning of spring break to go on vacations, they might look around and notice some familiar faces not going to the beach. They are instead headed to Nicaragua on a mission trip.
A group of 16 college students from Journey Church decided to spend their break participating in a religious mission trip. They arrived in San Rafael, Nicaragua on Sun., March 14.
Sam Rafael is located on the western coast of Nicaragua along the Pacific Ocean. The team had a full schedule of events planned for them once they got there.
“We helped build the beginning foundations for a church, spent a lot of time playing with local kids, and prayer walked through the city,” junior Addison Durrett said.
During the prayer walk, the team stopped and prayed for different things the town was suffering from. When they came across homeless, they would pray that they would come into a job. When they came across sad children, they would pray that they would make a new friend. When they came across suffering families, they prayed that their troubles would cease.
They helped start the building process of a church in San Rafael. Oklahoma Alumni Shaun Heath came up with most of the design for the new church building.
The church is not complete yet, but the foundation has been completed.
During the trip, the students stayed with the pastor of the church’s family and had to sleep on the tile floor in sleeping bags. The room was crowded and hot with 16 students trying to fit into the same room.
“The sleeping arrangement wasn’t unbearable, in fact it made the mission trip feel more like I was going out of my comfort zone,” freshman Annabelle Irvin said.
Not only did the team have a different kind of sleeping arrangement, they also had to bathe in a different kind of bath tub. The river that runs through the town was the teams only option for bathing.
“We had such tiring days that bathing in the river actually felt refreshing,” freshman Randi Nicholson.
After baths, every night the students would gather around together and worship God by singing praises and hearing the word taught by the church’s pastor, but there were a few things different about this kind of worship compared to the worship back home.
“I loved the free spirit of worship and how here in Nicaragua we could all get away from our troubles and just let the word of the Lord touch our hearts and sing and praise him without any worries," senior Brent Potter said.
The last day of the trip, the team got to go down to the beach in Pochomil and play with children. They flew kites, built sand castles and played in the water. They had a picnic on the beach and bonded with each other after a long week of hard work.
When the day was over, the drive to get back to the house was two hours. They all loaded up in the back of a pickup truck and endured the ride together.
“We got about 50 people and all of our tables, chairs, supplies, coolers and more all on one truck!” junior Mary Winter said.
The next day, after they said their goodbyes to their new friends, they headed for the airport and returned to Norman on Sun., March 21.
"It was an amazing experience and definitely rewarding," Durrett said.
The team has had this mission trip planned since before Thanksgiving break, and
to go on this trip the team had to raise $1500. They raised the money by sending out support letters to friends and family asking for donations. Also, as a team they sold t-shirts and had a babysitting night on Valentines Day weekend at the church.
To prepare for the trip the team had bonding nights. They went to concerts and bowling together. They also had training seminars on how to relate to children and adults from the Nicaraguan culture.
The team had two interpreters during the week, Peter and Alex Salcidio. They were members of the church and brothers.
Brent Potter and Jessica Cox were the two leaders in charge of organizing and overseeing the mission trip. They both plan on going back to Nicaragua and other developing countries on mission trips.
Journey Church meets regularly on Sundays, and the college program meets on Tuesday nights at 9pm.