Team Member - Joe Triplett

Joe Triplett, forty-two years of age, is a member of Wesley United Methodist Church in Bloomington.

Joe works for State Farm Insurance as a manager, where he has worked for more than twelve years.

Joe and his Michelle wife are parents of four girls in Bloomington.

This is Joe's third mission trip, all in Nicaragua.  Joe says that "its been all about fence"! He came in 2009 and worked on the security fence around the boys home. He helped begin the orphanage compound fence last year, and has continued work on the fence around the orphange's twenty-two acres this year.

This year Joe has worked as a welder, cutting and bending pipes, running the tractor and hauling, working the chain saw, measuring, repairing one of the teens bikes, general jobs, and drinking a lot of pop! He is a a skilled worker in many aspects.

Joe says that "I think the team this year gelled really good. No one got ruffled. It flowed really nice. We ran into a couple of snafus, but we worked through them, kept going and did it. We had a good positive energy on our team, despite of some of the setbacks".

In prior year Joe says the work has been basically the same, but Joe said, "The more we are here, the more it becomes a part of you. You see familiar faces, and yet the teens and children grow. You see a positive energy here in what would be considered a dismal surrounding back home".

As for Nicaragua, Joe sees a loving aura or response from the people of Nicargua. Joe says that where he would expect to see people complaining about some things here, the people seem "easy going, happy, and just going with the flow. I know that back home a lot more people would be complaining, compared to what they do down here."

"I see in the ways the workers work here, with whatever tools they have, that they just go with the flow, get things going, work with what they have, and get things done" Joe observes.

"Just seeing the kids has had a spiritual impact on me. I'd love to adopt them all. But at the same time I know they are loved and cared for. This orphanage is nice, compared to other parts of Nicaragua" Joe states.

"My first year I came largely out of curiousity. But now I am totally sold on what is happening here. It feels good to do for others" Joe muses.

"All the words, the pictures, the videos about this place, the story about it, doesn't hit home unless you experience it yourself first hand. It only takes once to know that you are doing something right. It is easy to walk across the street and do it back home where it might be financially easy on people to do things ... and there are a lot of things to do back home ... but there are not a lot of people who can come to these types of places and help these people. I'd like to see other parts of the world, but I know there is work to finish here, and I'd like to be a part of that" Joe says, in an emotional manner.

"For those who haven't done things like this before, it helps you in a way that you can't put into words. I know that this experience is always going to be different to every one, but for me it has gotten me closer to God, and it has helped me as well as others" Joe concluded.