The tiny town of San Jose de Cusmapa sticks its head out of the clouds, proudly sitting at the highest altitude in all of Nicaragua. As the rainy season has come upon us, sun has become a rare commodity but we can thank God for the blessing of rain that so many areas of this world are without.

The past few weeks have been very busy, but very life-enriching for many of the kids here at the same time. We had the opportunity to bring many of the kids down to Managua to see and listen to the South Florida Youth Symphony, and for many of them that come from some of the surrounding communities of Cusmapa it was their first time out of the small pueblo where they have grown up. Eyes widened at the sight of many cars, big buildings, the large Lake Managua, and not to mention so many people. Bringing a new, unknown life to these kids, showing them the possiblities in front of them, gave them a new hope for the future, even if it may be small.

May 30th is El Dia de la Madre here, or Mother's Day. On this day we held a concert at the oratorio, sending out special invitations to all the mother's in the community. This was not only a concert for the mother's though. May 30th also completed 40 days since the passing of one of our own, Manuelito, and was the first time we have performed since he joined Christ in heaven. We sang this concert in his name, and I know he was right there singing with us.

This past weekend we had the oppourtunity to take the middle-school choir and some of the girls involved in dance to present at a celebration for Mother's Day, Father's Day, and Children's Day. In total there were 55 of us, and at 7:30 in the morning we packed into two trucks in the pouring rain to travel roughly 2 hours to take part in the celebration. Luckily the rain stopped after about an hour. These kids set out to perform for the first time in their lives outside of Cusmapa, and were very well received when all was said and done.

UNTIL NEXT TIME...