Yep that happened.
After a mere 20 hour bus ride, and staying in a sketchy hostel in El Salvador for a night, we arrived here in Palaqaguina, Nicaragua. My team was the first to get dropped off of the bus. We turned around to wave at the rest of our squad as they drove around as we looked around to see that we were alone, and in the middle of nowhere, and in Nicaragua. Things just got real. We found our contact and drove the place we would be staying, a church called “La Resureccion.”
Nicaragua is a bit different than Guatemala. Palacaguina is very hot and a lot more rural than Quiche. There are no restaurants, only small gas station like stores called “tiendas.” But it’s so beautiful, it is so lush and green, with rolling houses all around and small houses interspersed. Oh and there are bugs, lots of bugs.. mostly mosquitoes but also tarantulas, giant beetles, and other strange scary things. There are also howling dogs and birds that are awake at all hours of the night.
This month we are doing a variety of things for ministry. We started off the month with manual laor again. Which was pretty draining considering it’s the majority of what we did last month. We helped to move dirt so that a children’s school could be built, as well as help to build an extension onto the church. But also cool to see something tangible that we’ve accomplished! We will be working a lot with kids here; including helping with special ed children, working and preaching for the youth group, teaching English, as well as visiting nursing homes for older folks. And you guessed it, we’ll be doing more manual labor! 🙂
I started off this month of ministry excited for what was ahead. Then our team leader, Jeff, started throwing up one night. Then the next day, 5 of the 7 of us were sick and unable to work. Then the final 2 went down. Being sick in Nicaragua is not fun. I was running to the bathroom at least once every hour, feeling nauseous and achy, sleeping in a pool of sweat because of the heat, meanwhile getting bit by bugs because the church doesn’t have windows and we haven’t bought mosquito nets yet. I didn’t think it would happen so soon but it really made me homesick. All I could think about was being home in bed, being able to eat food that wouldn’t make me sick (aka not rice and beans and weird cheese things). I found myself questioning God why I was even here. It was pretty hard but it drove me to God in prayer, a lot, which ultimately led me to God reassuring me of His goodness and His desire to give us good gifts and the desires of our hearts.
The night before the dreaded sickness overtook us, we climbed the hill behind the church we were staying at. It was truly an awesome experience, the sky was so clear that you could see a million stars and we were surrounded by a lightening storm that continued around us for hours. We felt led to pray and intercede for Nicaragua, and we also had a time of praying over and speaking into each other.
Pray that God’s light would invade Nicaragua! While a majority of the population would probably identify as either Christian or Catholic, a large majorty (our contact says about 70%) are trapped in a very works based belief system and are estranged from the freedom and life of knowing Christ personally. Nicaragua is also a very poor country, so pray for God’s provision!
Thanks for reading! Love ya’ll!
Bridget
