So here we are settled into Month 3 of the Race!
We are in the tiny, dirty little town of Jinotepe, Nicaragua. About an hour outside of Managua. Our ministry for the month is at Casa Mateo 5:16 – based on
Mathew 5:16
"Let your good works shine and point to your Father in Heaven"
Casa Mateo is a ministry started by 2 Jews for Jesus from the DC Area who once visited Nicaragua and then just couldn't shake the idea that God wanted them to do more than just send money to help the loving people they met here.
So they started this ministry, the main campus of which is Casa Mateo Hotel in downtown Jinotepe- a Mission House. The Mission House houses missionaries when they come to serve in Nicaragua and it also is the home base of the Casa Mateo church, restaurant, and other activities. (It's also the only place we go that has internet- thus, where I am right now as I t post this blog!)
Then there's La Quinta in Diribamba (a small town outside Jinotepe), which is an orphanage for small children- also where 2 co-ed World Race teams from my Squad), and then there's Nueva Vida (New Life)- just outside of the Jinotepe city area- and this is like a boys home and community center. There are 3 teenage boys who live here and run the property. They 'graduated' from La Quinta, where they lived since they were little, and now they go to technical school and help take care of the property here. Bonnie runs the show here at Nueva Vida- she is another USA transplant from Pennsylvania who came down once on a mission trip and got hooked. She is Momma Bonnie to the boys here 😉
So what we do here at Nueva Vida is basically community out reach…so we do a little bit of everything!
We haven't even been here a week and already we've been a part of:
-The Women's Ministry
we are the majority of the women's group- it's a small town
-Visiting the 'barrios'
the surrounding neighborhoods- to invite people to church activities or just pray for them
-Church services both here at 'Nueva Vida' and also at Casa Mateo
where we make up more than half the audience in both locations. Like I said: small town!
–Helping out a few of the women at the church with their prospective businesses
we help bake bread on Tuesdays & Thursdays and on Monday & Wednesday we help sell clothes at the market!
-Visiting the local nursing home to hang out with the old people
-Visiting the local church to pray for sick people
-Helping out at the local preschool
they have 3-7 year olds all in the same room b/c there's only one teacher! So we help separate out the kids and do age appropriate activities
-Soccer games with the local kids
-Visiting a special needs orphanage
like last month, except this one is for teenagers!
…all that, and it's barely been one week!
So we are here with another girls team (again!) I guess God is trying to tell me I need more estrogen in my life! lol And we are all sleeping the same room in bunk beds. It's cozy 😉
What else can I tell you?
It's HOT.
Yes. This is the heat I was expecting from Central America. It was borderline chilly in Honduras & Guatemala, but Nicaragua – it's hot, sticky, and buggy. The flies just don't give up here. They are everywhere. All the time. Even in the hospital (not to gross you out), but because there is no air conditioning in the hospital, it's all left open to the elements for ventilation (kind of strange to see- looks like a high school or college campus more than a hospital) . And with open air ventilation comes flies. Gnarly. It was so flipping hot in that hospital that my teammate Brandi passed out! No joke, she scared me. She passed out and smacked her head on a metal bed on her way down to the floor. Luckily, all she's got is a big knot to show for it. That and a ridiculous story to tell 😉
The hospital is also strange in that all you are provided with when you are there is your bed. Aka: your family has to bring you your meals, bath supplies, etc. Evidently this is typical protocol in 3rd world public hospitals. It's socialized medicine, so it's free to the public- but like they say, 'ya get what you pay for.' Unfortunately most Nicaraguans, can't pay for much.
This is definitely the poorest place we've been yet. And the dirtiest. But, I'm suckin it up – cause I'm sure it's gonna get poorer & dirtier.
Keep me in your prayers that I'll stop comparing one place to the next. I've been strugglin the past few days as I've started to think, "Well, I've already seen all there is to see in this town …and tried out all the different types of ministries we do here…and it's only Day 5!" I literally had to look myself in the mirror and say "CHILL OUT!"
I'm just… well… I'm just so darn restless that I'm looking for new adventures, like, constantly.
And with this town being so small and the fact that we can't be out after dusk (cause it's dangerous) aaaaaand the fact that on our free day and most of my team was saying, "We just wanna sleep" and I was sayin, "Let's go see Nicaraguaaaaa! We only have 3 free days this month, let's APROVECHAR! (spanish for 'take advantage') The stir craziness paired with the heat and the flies…well, it's a makin a me a little a nuts 🙂
My team leader told me that I'm just getting USED to life on the field and it's just time for me to ask God to show me how to DIG DEEPER and figure out MORE of why I am here. I can dig it!
I say: Be gone spirit of comparison! So I'm workin on relinquishing expectations, embracing the fact that God has me here for a reason, and taking a LOT of COLD showers, with a lot of soap 😉
Tryin to chill out…
in more way than one….
Christina 🙂
