Before I came on this trip I was kind of a skeptic towards short-term missions. I wasn’t really sure if there were any long term benefits from it, and I didn’t really think that you could make too much of an impact in such a short time. To me it was more of a, you go in speed up a building project, hold some orphans, sing in the churches and just see how other people in the world live. Not that I thought any of those were bad but I just thought that if you’re going to go then go, and I understand that God has not called everyone to long term missions but still I just had this mindset.
This last month in Nicaragua God really showed me just how much impact a team can have in only 3 weeks. My whole squad stayed in the town of Palacuagina and we broke off and worked with 4 different Pastors in the area. My team plus Intentional Vagabond team got to work with Pastor Louisa, and we did a lot of construction. We helped them to move piles of dirt, bricks and rocks, we made a level floor in the building we were working on, we also started an adobe brick house for a young mother and her daughter to live in. But more than that we built relationships, we played worship, and preformed skits that just so happened to also be broadcasted on their television network. We worked everyday with joy that overflowed to the guys we worked with, we played and showed love to the children at our worksite. And as a whole squad we united these pastors and encouraged them to continue God’s work in there community. We all became a family, and there goodbye dinner for us made that very evident. They were so thankful for everything we had done and they gave goodbye speeches that were so encouraging to me, and that really allowed me to see what God had done through us while we were there and it was good.
I see now the benefits of going in and bringing joy, love and encouragement to our ministry contacts and empowering them to keep on going and to be inspired by the commitment that they have in serving God and building His kingdom.
