(Written March 9, 2014)
Nicaragua is beautiful, in a very dry sense. Guatemala was lush and in Honduras, I often felt like I was in central Washington near the mountains. Nicaragua is covered with volcanoes, some active and flowing with lava, others dormant. It is very dry here like Eastern Washington and if you’re not careful, you could have a very nasty burn. Anna and I both learned this and have been liberally applying sunscreen since.
This month, so far, has been very unexpected. Our first week my team travelled with three others to Palacaguina, Nicaragua. While Awakening, Petrichor, the Joy Bombs, and we were in the same town, all of us except for the joy Bombs and Adelphoi went to separate ministries. We later two stayed together in the Resurrection Baptist Church in our tents and had a great community. Four nights a week we had church and were able to tell our testimonies and sing praises to God. Another mission’s team from the states arrived for a week the same day and we were able to minister to the high school kids on it as well. During the days we worked at Jamie, one of our contacts house, doing construction. In the back of his house he is building a house for missionaries to come and stay in. We cleaned and painted support beams, bent rebar, and worked in a huge hole for the sceptic tank. It was really fun and we all switched out and tried each job we were doing. Once a week all four teams were able to work with each other.
This last Thursday, in the evening, Adelphoi was notified that there was a contact in Leon who was expecting a team of racers this month but none had arrived. We were informed that the squad leaders prayed about it and felt that our team should go and minister in Leon and leave at 9 am the next day, Friday morning. We spent our last night with the Joy Bombs having a movie night and packing. The next morning was a tearful separation but I was still excited. I wouldn’t have been able to explain why.
Jamie drove us all the way to Managua where our contact Pablo picked us up. He is Korean and while he doesn’t speak English, he speaks Spanish and Zachary on our team speaks Spanish so it’s a little funny how it all works out. Pablo drove us all the way to Leon where he had a hotel ready for us. When we got there, we found out it also rented rooms by the hour and two of the three rooms would have to clear out their stuff during the day so it could be rented out until night fall. As expected, our team talked with our squad leaders about the situation and spent one night there.
Yesterday we went outside the city to work on construction. Pablo is currently owns a large piece of land which he has great vision for and a 10-year construction plan. It will be a place for Pastors to gather and do workshops. There will be a Church, a house for Pablo and his family, a hotel, classrooms, a school, and a pool. Right now they are still building the church. Other than that only the wall have been built up around the land.
To build a house you have to gather a lot of rocks, lay them all over the ground, cover them with dirt, spray it with water, and pat it down to make it settle. You repeat the process until you get the desired height where you will put the floor. We just started the process yesterday of that and it is several feet high. We lava rocks from the hills on the property (the land is at the base of a volcano) and we are digging to cover the rocks. I have never been so dirty in my life. By the end of the day it looked like I was wearing black leggings. I had my sneakers on all day and when I took them off, the difference was shocking!
Last night we were able to stay with another team, Dependent by Faith, in Leon. They have been so gracious to us and have truly blessed us by providing their beds for us. Today, we will move to another location, hopefully, which will be our home for a month. It’s a little taxing to keep moving around every day so I ask that you will all keep us in prayers for strength and endurance. We know God has exciting things for us to do here in Leon and that he will bless us and our ministry greatly.
Have a wonderful day and God bless!
