by Scott Groth
In January, St. Paul’s Nicaragua mission team traveled to Nicaragua to work with El Porvenir on another clean water project. Our project this year was in the community of Mombachito in the Camoapa region. The area was mountainous, heavily forested and included a troop of howler monkeys who sang to us from the nearby trees while we worked every day.

Mombachito is a small community with an established well but it was lacking a place to do laundry and a place for the residents to bathe. Working side by side with members of the community, we spent the week building a lavandero with two laundry sinks and a small room for personal bathing. The work was hard but rewarding. Along the way, we got to know one another better, formed new friendships with the community, enjoyed playing with the children and found the love of Christ in new and unexpected places. The community still has work ahead of them and they are planning to work with El Porvenir to build additional latrines and to establish a tree nursery to protect their watershed. That said, we left with a sense of accomplishment knowing they were a step closer to their goals.

This year marked our ninth work trip with El Porvenir, a mission partner of St. Paul’s since 2011. Our hope is to continue this relationship in the years ahead. We have already established tentative dates for a trip in January, 2019. If you are interested in participating, please reach out to Scott Groth for more information.

2018 Nicaragua Team Members:
Suzie Dutton
Scott Groth
David Livingston
Cindy Moore
Terry Moore
Nancy Watson-Pistole
Tim Pistole
Don White