Doug and Julie Effinger in Nicaragua

It was February of 2000 when our plane touched down in Managua, Nicaragua. We were a small group of 7. When we got off the plane we were greeted by 95 degree heat and 95% relative humidity. There was no jetway at the airport in those days. We walked down the portable stairs and were guided into an old, dank, light blue painted building with no air conditioning by two rows of military police all carrying AK-47 military rifles. It was somewhat intimidating. After passing through immigration and customs, we were picked up by two old pick up trucks driven by orphanage staff. Off we went on the 30 kilometer trip to our destination. I remember as we passed through the customs area, there was a wall of glass where families would pick up their loved ones. Faces would be pressed against the glass as literally a hundred or so people were squishing in trying to find their family member as they exited the customs agent. It was quite the first impression. While riding in the back of a pickup truc...

That weekend in Mexico at the orphanage never left my thoughts for very long. When I met Julie I had been sponsoring a little girl in Peru through World Vision. I had never met her and only had a small picture of her and a story. I always wondered what her life was like. Shortly after Julie and I married, my sponsored girl dropped out of the program and I chose not to continue with World Vision. Going to Mexico gave me a glimpse of what it might have been like for her. As my time in the Air Force was coming to an end, the Vineyard was starting a discipleship school at a ranch in the mountains of California about an hour away from our church. It was to be a communal living experience where we would spend time maintaining the ranch while studying and practicing the lessons of the bible. It was April 1984 when the school started and I was scheduled to be discharged from the USAF in June of '84. But as fate would have it (God's timing?), when I tacked my unused leave (vacation) t...