This year, I went to Nicaragua on the Ultimate Workout. I helped 26 other people build a church from the ground up. It was two
of the most awesome weeks of my life. Here's pictures!!

Eight girls from my town went on Ultimate Workout 10. That's pretty much all of my youth group. The man on the left is our youth leader, and my uncle. He has kind of made a career out of going on mission trips. He goes on at least two a year. He's a mason, and is usually the head mason on whatever site he is on. I haven't actually ever been on the same site as him though.

This is the entire group that went from Minnesota, except me. There were twelve in all, including me. The guy that is second from the right isn't part of our Minnesota group, but he was going on the trip too. My best friend, the one on the far right, is the only one that isn't wearing a t-shirt. We should all laugh at her. In this picture we are waiting for our flight in Houston.

We spent three nights at the Adventist Academy outside of Managua, and there wasn't much to do while the staff was in meetings. We hung out on this porch a lot. That was was Chelsy's FAVORITE wall of all time. I think she still misses it.

There were really great Banyon trees all over the campus of the academy, and we spent many happy hours in this one. It was about two stories high, and deffinately the size of my house. :-) You have no idea how much fun it is to climb a tree the size of your house until you have tried it.

I took this picture from up in the tree. These are three of my friends from home. The one in the top left corner and the one on the right are sisters, the other one isn't related to them.

This is home sweet home for two weeks. The second tent up on the right side is the one that i stayed in with my tent mate. it stayed pretty dry most of the time, except when the covering on the top blew off. that was bad. Right behind my tent is a big hole that was going to be used for a septic system. A rat lived in it. The Shack on the left side of the picture was the village's old church. We used it for a dining room, and a sick bay when everyone was sick. In the very back of the picture is a shack that was used for a kitchen.. and on the right is a small shack that they built for some of the staff to stay in. The ground was really dusty until it rained, then it became a quagmire which we built boardwalks over. I'm taking the picture from the church, so as you can see, the whole thing was very cramped, unlike in Honduras, where we had a lot of space, and we had to walk quite a ways to the actual building site.

We built a ten-dollar church, which is a project that you can help support by donating just $10 a month. You can find out more if you visit Maranatha Volunteers International. My youth group here at home has been collecting money for the ten-dollar church. By simply giving our pocket change, we have collected at least the $10

This is what the church looked like the day we got there. We had no regular roof because the truck got in an accident, so they put up black plastic over part of it.

When children began to show up on Friday night, we found out that the church held meetings for all of the neighborhood children every week. I love the children, and though I wasn't as good with them as Stephanie (the girl in the top left of the picture), I still enjoyed them.

This is the first Sabbath that we were there. It is such a culture shock to see the ways that they worship. The people there are so enthusiastic, and they love God so much, even though they have almost nothing material. They told us time and time again that we were an answer to prayer, that they had been praying for a church, and there we were. What an amazing experience.

I did actually lay block! isn't that impressive?! and i laid more than this one too. Honest! :-)

I also did dishes! had help though. craaaazy people i work with!

This is the church inside after we were done. we didn't quite finish the baptismal wall, but we got as done as God wanted us to.

This is the head elder of the church, and his wonderful family. They were such a huge help. I love them and miss them like crazy.

The most exciting thing in the whole trip happened on the last night we were there. I was rebaptized by Butch Morgan. God is so great.

I found this on the Maranatha site. This is what the church looks like now. There have been so many things happening to the people in Ciudadela, it's just incredible to hear about how God has worked there. And i keep hearing more!