This month in Granada, Nicaragua has been CRAZY busy! I have had a really hard time picking one thing to focus on to write about for my blog post! & have been struggling with the fact that I literally drew a blank when I would try to come up with anything. It seemed to come so easily last month and now just four weeks later I can’t even come up with a topic.
I have been really enjoying my month here in Nicaragua. One of the things that makes it so great is the Esposito family. Scott, Jenn and their daughter Journey have completely opened up there home and not only made it comfortable but I feel as though I am at home. You should really go check out the REAP GRANADA (reapgranada.com) website to learn more about there story.
REAP GRANADA is involved in a whole lot of different ministries which include: Jail, nursing home, boxing, discipleship classes, home bible studies, Saturday sports, soccer league, and so many more programs that I cannot even begin to list them all. They are VERY active missionaries within the field!
At the beginning of the month, actually the morning after I had only slept in this house one night and I am still at the point of struggling with the contacts names. I came down with a fever. My team was going out in the community to see what some of the ministries looked like and I ended up staying in bed. Well… one day led to another and eventually I had been in the bed with a fever, body aches, cough and sinus infection thing for 5 days. I am talking about don’t feel like sitting in a chair for two hours because I would then get exhausted and go to sleep for the rest of the night. The Esposito took care of me just like I was their child. They made me feel comfortable which is sometimes hard to do on the race when in this case we are living with 17 people under one roof. But… during that time I was able to really dive in with my quite time and have time with God that I usually don’t have which with that many people in one house before this experience sounds impossible but… I promise it was doable.
BUT… one of the main ways that I think I have been shocked by their ministry this month is to US, as worldracers. They have challenged us to have quite time daily, learn how to pray for healing over others, and really encourage each other to grow outside of our comfort zone (which as a worldracer sounds like giving feedback). They are okay with the fact that you are only here for a little while and take advantage of every moment. They encourage feedback upon themselves along with feeling comfortable giving it to us. They have asked me the hard questions and challenged me to grow in areas that I might not have ever perused before. They have allowed us to lead certain things within the ministry and be okay with watching us succeed or sometimes fail because we are just learning how to do things on the mission field.
I didn’t realize until just yesterday when I was asked by a teammate: what was your ministry this month? I sat there and sat there and couldn’t come up with an answer. I was honestly disappointed in myself cause I should be here for a ministry each month
Well… through conversation he allowed to talk to me about how it looked like, I was my ministry this month.
Normally at first I would have never even considered that as an option or been really frustrated or upset with the fact that someone else thinks I have come on a mission trip to minister to myself (have they lost there minds?) because we are here to minister to others however, I realized that the main thing I was able to grow with my relationship with my heavenly father and learn what He wants my life to be like not my own. The fact is that it was true! I did grow a lot on an individual level this month! I had gone through some things that have now challenged me to be a better person.
God has changed me! I am talking about BIG change, I am talking about life changing experiences were my overall standards and goals/ desires in life are beginning to change. I am talking about a heart change!
God is teaching me that getting rid of the darkness in my life allows the devil to no longer have a foothold but more importantly LIVE IN THE LIGHT! You can pull up the roots that are not from Christ and leave the devil shaking in his boots! I have had the opportunity to pull up a ROOT in my own life that I had been trimming the branches on for way to long.
Now that the root is pulled up God has placed a seed in the place of the old poisoned plant and allowed for a strong healthy plant to start sprouting its roots in the old plants place. Allowing peace to settle on a wound I didn’t even know I had made for myself just because I was trimming the branches and hiding the true problem that was underneath.
By not pulling up the root, it allowed the Devil to have a foothold in the past sin. God is teaching me to no longer let my identity be darkened by the devil. Let God fill the spaces that used to be dark!
IF YOU ASK GOD FOR FORGIVENESS OF YOUR SINS, THEY ARE FORGIVEN! Jeremiah 31: 34
One of the biggest challenges through that would have to be learning to Trust every situation and really begin to dive into the awesome people that have been able to be a part of this journey with me! Yes, I am getting to live with a team of 7 other individuals that I have now only even known for three months. I am getting to travel on 24 hour bus rides with them (your true colors come out, promise mine did), do ministry with them and really learn to be transparent about how things make me feel while learning to be vulnerable in telling parts of my story. Learning to be transparent in both my strengths and weakness and learning to dive into them is absolutely amazing and challenging all at the same time.
Trust, people say is so simple! However, it wasn’t for me, it was my root problem! THE DEVIL HAS LIVED WITH ME and MY PERSONAL ISSUE ON THIS TOPIC FOR SOME TIME NOW! Yes, he will continue to attack me but God instantly showed up when I was vulnerable and had completely surrendered to Him!
God has challenged me to SURRENDER ALL! This is comical because our team name is The surrendered! I am trying to surrender everything to my heavenly father. For along time I have been a Christian that did the bare minimum, living a life of sinful ways and hiding them because I didn’t want to talk about it. Sitting on the sidelines only going to church on Sunday and Wednesday but not really sharing or diving in to grow in my relationship with my heavenly father & overall share the love of my heavenly father.
Well… I am learning there is SO SO SO SO much more! Waiting on The Lord to control our paths is one of the hardest yet most rewarding things I could ever do!
Ending this month, I had a wonderfully awesome and rewarding ministry to work with on a daily basis but… at the end of the day I was my ministry! Setting the foundation can be the most important part. In some ways I think this is a blessing that God has allowed my month 2 to go through this rewarding process and I cannot wait to see where it will allow me to go in the future days, months and years to come.
I am surrendering to my heavenly father and cannot wait to see where this journey will take me!
COME SURRENDER ALL TO HIM WITH ME, I PROMISE IT IS WORTH IT!
MUCH LOVE<3
COURTNEY
