(written March 14, 2014)
Hello from Nicaragua!
My team, Adelphoi, first arrived in Nicaragua doing ministry work in Palacaguina. After about a week we were told there was a ministry contact waiting for a team in Leon and Adelphoi was chosen to go down and serve them. My team was sad to leave the other teams we were working with, but excited to see what God has in store for us in our new site. We arrived and ended up staying one night in a Love Hotel before we found wonderful lodging in a hostel in downtown Leon. We were really blessed by this as we received cheap lodging and had cheap, wonderful food nearby. Two days ago, my team leader was informed by the hostel that there had been a mistake in reservations and so we had to move out the following morning. God has provided another hostel about a block down the street from our current place. This time, we get our own private rooms for the eight of us, Praise God! Four in a room (Madisson, our squad leader, is joining us this week at ministry). God is so awesome, that He answered my prayer from last month that this month our team would have beds to sleep in and free wi-fi so I can blog and be in contact with my family! As it is written, “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4).
Our new ministry is Pastors for the Kingdom and our contact’s name is Pablo. He has a large amount of land he is developing into a place for pastor retreats and a place for missionaries to stay at. The ten year vision includes a church, a pool, classrooms, a hotel, and a house for Pablo and his family. The walls around the land were recently constructed and the church is now starting to be built up complete with a kitchen.
We are currently working with local architects to help build the church. While they are building up the walls, our team is working on filling in the foundation with rocks and dirt. The land is at the base of a dormant volcano so all the rocks we gather from the nearby hills are volcanic (It’s all very pretty). We create a solid layer or rock at the base of the church’s walls and then dig dirt from nearby to cover the rocks and fill to where the floor of the church will be. It’s at least a couple feet high and we have to pound down the dirt so it will settle and firm up. Once we receive water, we will pour it on the dirt and pound some more to make the ground firm.
At first I found this ministry a little hard to love. To clarify, I am from the rainy part of Washington State who prefers to do indoor work and here I am, sweating 8 hours a day in 90 degree plus weather without shade, picking up rocks, digging dirt, pounding dirt, dust blowing in my eyes, and being the dirtiest I have ever been in my life!
However, as the days went by, God is teaching me a great lesson: to find joy in whatever I’m doing.
- I had the option to be grumpy, irritable, and whiny, but in reality would that help anything? No! In fact, it would make everything we’re doing worse and bring down the morale of my team. I also had the option to have fun, choose joy, and worship the Lord. I chose the latter. It’s a daily choice that is hard to make but worth every second of it.
- This was an opportunity to get to know my team better. This is the first month where it my team has been completely alone. The past couple months we have always been partnered up with other teams but now I can focus on building up our relationships and drawing closer together as a family.
- There are so many ways to have fun while doing construction work that do not take a lot of time. You just have to participate. This last week, for a few days, whenever we took water breaks, we would film scenes for my teammate Jessica’s video blog. It was fun and let us be creative and give us something to look forward to.
- When we first arrived, it was hard to see how the construction work we are doing, miles away from anyone, would bless anyone and expand the kingdom. But when we step back and look at the bigger picture, one can easily see how not only are we ministering to our contact, but to people we have never met in the future. For Pablo we are helping to get the church built faster and help save on expenses. For countless others, this will be a place to retreat to, to relax at, to refresh and renew spirits and to draw closer to God. We are laying the foundation, the corner stone, building His house on solid rock like Jesus said in Matthew 7:24-25, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.” God will use this place to bless those who come, serve at, and live around. Amazing things will happen and miracles will occur. Even though we might never meet these people here on Earth, we have already helped them just by pouring out our time, sweat, blood, prayers, and love into this place.
There is so much left to do here, we, by our own power, will not be able to finish it all, but I know God’s hand is on this place and he will get the work completed. While this month, for me, has not been the easiest, the Lord is still teaching me so much and growing me. I thank him for this wonderful opportunity to be a part of a much larger picture and for showing me the vision. This month reminds me of the song “Through Heaven’s Eyes” from the movie The Prince of Egypt.
“A single thread in a tapestry
Through its color brightly shine
Can never see its purpose
In the pattern of the grand design
And the stone that sits on the very top
Of the mountain’s mighty face
Does it think it’s more important
Than the stones that form the base?
So how can you see what your life is worth
Or where your value lies?
You can never see through the eyes of man
You must look at your life
Look at your life through heaven’s eyes
Lai-la-lai…
A lake of gold in the desert sand
Is less than a cool fresh spring
And to one lost sheep, a shepherd boy
Is greater than the richest king
If a man lose ev’rything he owns
Has he truly lost his worth?
Or is it the beginning
Of a new and brighter birth?
So how do you measure the worth of a man
In wealth or strength or size?
In how much he gained or how much he gave?
The answer will come
The answer will come to him who tries
To look at his life through heaven’s eyes
And that’s why we share all we have with you
Though there’s little to be found
When all you’ve got is nothing
There’s a lot to go around
No life can escape being blown about
By the winds of change and chance
And though you never know all the steps
You must learn to join the dance
You must learn to join the dance
Lai-la-lai…
So how do you judge what a man is worth
By what he builds or buys?
You can never see with your eyes on earth
Look through heaven’s eyes
Look at your life
Look at your life
Look at your life through heaven’s eyes!”
I may not see everything God has in plan for this site, how it will bless those who come in contact with it, or how just ministering here with Pablo and the fellow workers will change and prepare me for something greater God has in store for me, but, just as the song states, “And though you never know all the steps, you must learn to join the dance!”
Thank you for all your prayers and support these last few months. God has blessed me so much and I grown ever closer to him. I still have not my next fundraising deadline of $11,000 on April 1st and still need to raise $2,000 to meet this deadline. Please consider praying for me that the funds I need will come in so that I will be able to keep going on this mission’s trip.
Have a wonderful day and God bless!
