I had a lot of time to think on the 10-hour bus ride from Honduras to Nicaragua. While staring out of the window at the country where I had spent the last month, I started to process my time in Honduras. I thought about Tony and Nidia, the boys they took in, the kids we met in Los Pinos and the people we worked with at the church. Although the month didn’t go exactly as planned, it was a month where we all learned about building relationships and living in community.
“Ok, God, if last month was about relationships and community what is in store for me this month?” As I prayed, I kept getting the vision of water rushing downstream and breaking through a wall. Not knowing exactly what to make of it, I kept praying and received the word “cleansing.”
The past two months I have been asking God what He is going to give me? What gifts does He have for me? What is my purpose in all of this? It wasn’t until I started talking to two of my teammates that I realized I had been asking the wrong questions. Instead of “What is God going to give me?” it should be “What am I going to give God? What am I willing to lie at His feet in order to have our relationship grow? Am I willing to let Him cleanse me?”
So far this month has been just that, a cleansing. As soon as we arrived at Cicrin (the orphanage where we have spent the month), I knew that the Lord put our two teams there for a reason. A twenty-minute drive from the closest town, we are away from all distractions and free to focus on God. At any point during the day you can find at least one of us lying on a hammock, overlooking Lake Nicaragua, just talking it out with our Creator.
In a place so beautiful and peaceful it's hard not to let God work within you. This month God is taking me back to the basics, back to creation and how he originally intended for us to live. Every morning I walk out into the garden and realize that everything we need to be able to eat and drink is right in front of me. Goats, chickens, eggs, papayas, watermelon, oranges, beans, corn, the list goes on and on. It's no longer about trips to the grocery store or going out to eat at nice restaurants. It's about being able to use the land that God has provided to plant seeds and literally see the fruit from my labor. It's about Mickey, Thomas and Ryan waking up at 5:30 am to kill 20 chickens for Christmas dinner and this morning walking up on one of the men skinning a goat for Christmas Eve. It's hard work, it's dirty, but it's so refreshing.
The garden shed at Cicrin
Enjoing some fruit after working in the garden
God is cleansing my mind and spirit. He's working through past issues that I didn't even know I had. He's giving me time to rest in the knowledge that He, the Creator of the universe, has me in His hands. This is a month where it's not about the rights and expectations that I've grown up with, but about surrendering to what God has for me right here, right now.
My squadmate, Brian, showing that he has received the ultimate cleansing by getting baptized in Lake Nicaragua on the one year anniversary from when he accepted Christ!
