Team Armentrout Goes to NICA

Que pasa amigos! We hope that you and your family are doing great as we break out of Winter and see the sun again! Our family is ready for Spring & Summer activities for sure. We’re looking forward to a heavy dose of Track, Swimming and King’s Island as the weather gets warmer. Lily is in her final couple months of her freshman year of high school, Liam has one more year of middle school left, Olive is in 4th grade and Jacob is preparing for Kindergarten in the Fall. Needless to say there’s always a lot going on. 

We have had our share of challenges over the past few months and are looking ahead to brighter days. One of those things being a family trip to NICARAGUA!! Sarah and I have always dreamed of going with the kids since our first trip with Amigos for Christ in 2009. The two of us are headed down June 14th-22nd with Lily and Liam. We are excited to share our heart and passion with them for all that Amigos is doing to better rural Nicaraguan communities through investment and partnership. Amigos is an impressive organization with over 25 years on the ground in Chinandega, Nicaragua. They have gone all in on building strong community relationships to provide sustainable clean water, healthcare, education, farming and small business opportunities for over 50 rural Nicaraguan villages, impacting tens of thousands of lives. The foundation of that work is supported by 1000s of people from all over the US working shoulder to shoulder with people in the community. While there we’ll be digging trenches with shovels and pickaxes for clean water projects, working on rural farms that provide income to the communities and helping with their world class Academic Academy providing education for hundreds of rural Nicaraguan children who would otherwise not have access to education. The transformation that’s happening is unbelievable and Sarah and I have gotten to see the progress over the past 16 years. This will be Jake’s 8th trip and Sarah’s 4th. Beyond all that, we’re most excited to experience this together with Lily and Liam. We’re excited to see the transformation and growth that happens in all of us as we set aside our comforts and dig in the hard dirt at 100 degrees while speaking broken Spanglish and making connections thousands of miles from home. 

We’d like to invite you to invest in this trip on our behalf in one of two ways. The first is to pray for connection and breakthroughs for each of us individually and as a family. Pray for safety, friendships, impact and adventure on the ground! The second way to partner with us is to invest financially in the trip. It’ll cost a total of ~$4,500 for the four of us. The majority of that is flight cost. We stay on the Amigos property in dorm style bunkbeds and for the week including meals it’s $350/person which is incredibly cheap. Amigos charges their cost of staffing and food to keep it as cheap as possible and encourage in person trips to Nicaragua. Amigos makes no money off these trips, they are net zero. They are great stewards of their resources and are consistently ranked high in non-profit efficiency. I can’t say enough good things about the Amigos organization and over 300 staff (the vast majority who are Nicaraguans). We’d be very grateful if you helped us get there this summer. To do so you can donate at on this page which accounts for the $350/person directly to Amigos or you can Venmo me directly at JArmentrout82 which is what is helping offset our flight costs. Please reach out if you have any questions and we will talk your ear off about why Nicaragua is one of our favorite places in the world.

Muchas Gracias! (we’re going heavy on Duolingo the next three months!)