Something a little different if you don’t mind…
In June 2017, my family will have an opportunity to go on an international mission trip to Nicaragua. The trip is being coordinated through our church, New Community Church, in partnership with Agros International. This trip is the seventh team from our church to go into Nicaragua to build relationships that both support and encourage the people there who are working hard to move out of extreme poverty using loans provided by Agros International.
On this trip we will have the opportunity to visit 2 different villages that have benefited from Agros. The village of Tierra Nueva has a long-standing relationship with our church and is on verge of becoming self-sustaining. We will also assist with launching a new partnership with the people of La Bendicion, (meaning “The Blessing,”).
The goal of this trip is to show the love of Christ to villagers by coming alongside them as they move from extreme poverty to becoming home and landowners. We anticipate that part of our role will be to assist with the development of their church children’s program in La Bendicion. We expect that both of our boys will be actively involved in this process in their own special ways.
As you might imagine, this is not an easy trip to fund. The cost is approximately $1600/ person. With all four members of our family going, we will need over $6000. While that may seem like a lot of money, we believe God will provide the way if it His will that we go.
Please consider supporting us financially through an online donation, which you can make through YouCaring.com. However if you would like your gift to be tax deductible, please mail your donation (made payable to New Community Church) to New Community Church at 6200 Brooktree Road, Suite 300, Wexford, PA 15090 with the completed Mission Trip Donation Form linked here. Since the time for the trip is fast approaching, please mail it to the church by March 1, 2017.
We would also ask for your support through prayer. Please join us in praying for the safety of this mission trip and for the people of Nicaragua. Pray that lives are transformed and that people would see God’s love for them through our team and the work done there this June.
We are excited for this trip and we thank you for being a part of this adventure together with us.
Thank you and please visit our Facebook page for this event, and share it with your friends!
Samuel Blair and family (Tannis, Taylor and Spencer)
The Chaplain's Report 
If you don’t yet speak Spanish, or are a little rusty; you can learn it for free from DuoLingo.com where there is a community of language learners who can help you become more proficient. If you start now, you’ll be much better prepared to have discussions of all sorts on your trip.
Thanks for the tip. I was going to rely on my oldest son’s first year Spanish but I think I will try to learn a bit myself. Hopefully it won’t shapeshift into French as I’m speaking.
I once had the delight of going to Ecuador; but my three years of high school Spanish didn’t serve me well because I’d allowed my skills to get rusty. Now I speak Spanish way better and have made some interesting friends because of it.