Well this is it, I have entered Costa Rica for my 11th month and I’m on my way to finishing the Race! God has been blowing my mind left and right. One story I want to share in this blog is about my first day of ministry last month in Nicaragua.
Last month, I was with Team Seis Amigas and I was doing Unsung Heroes as ministry, where we travel the country and look for new ministries and contacts for the World Race. Unsung Heroes are the missionaries that live and already work within the country and their song hasn’t been heard yet; they need support and hands to help them in their work. We spent the month praying and seeking those people out in order for them to connect with Adventures in Missions and be able to send teams to them in the future.
This is actually my 3rd time doing Unsung Heroes over the World Race just because I’ve switched teams from Squad Leading. It might seem some days that my Race experience got “jipped” because during these months I haven’t been working alongside specific ministries. However, I’ve seen Unsung Heroes as a beautiful thing. You show up to a country with nowhere to go and no place to stay. But every time that I’ve done UH, I’ve seen God show up in CRAZY ways since we usually have no other choice except to wait for the Lord to show up.
My first day of UH in Nicaragua, God showed up for sure.
In the morning, the team had a meeting to talk about what we wanted our day to look like. It was our first day and we were staying in Granada, Nicaragua in a little hostel for $5 a night. During the meeting, we prayed to see if God wanted to say anything. During our prayer, I felt like God wanted me to pray for more of His presence for the team and myself. After prayer, one of my teammates, Molly, said she felt led to go to the grocery store for some reason. My first reaction was I’m down to go to the grocery store— but more so because I was hungry and wanted food.
So Molly, Acacia, Emily and I all agreed to prayer walk to the grocery store and then see what God was up to. On the way out the door, I started craving orange juice for some reason. I asked the girls if it was ok if I stopped at a local convenient store to grab a box of OJ. We found one on the way and I got my local orange juice that I desired. I was content as I walked down the street headed to get some food for my empty belly.
Out of nowhere, as I was drinking my OJ, my throat started burning. I put my hand up to my throat, confused and worried. “I’m not allergic to orange juice, AM I?,” I said to myself. Within seconds, my lower stomach area started hurting really badly, simultaneously with my throat. I was FREAKED. What is happening to me? I kept walking around the corner and over a bridge. I finally spoke to Emily who was walking beside me and told her how odd the pain was in my throat and stomach area. The MOMENT the words left my mouth, the pain disappeared.
I freaked even more. “Okay, this is just too odd,” I said. So I grabbed the other girls and told them what was happening. Acacia then spoke into it and said that the Spirit sometimes allows her to feel other people’s pain when she walks by them and that’s how she knows to pray.
I then glanced behind me at the bridge that we had just walked over, where there happened to be a group of people sitting. I turned back around with a timid face and then Molly gets pumped and says “LET’S GO PRAY!” with a huge arm swing to show her excitement. I, however, had a slightly different response and turned my body slowly back around like a turtle in hesitation. But then I remember the prayer that I had just prayed for at our meeting that morning— to have more of God’s presence.
We walked back to the bridge and there sitting on it was a mother with a bunch of little girls sitting beneath her. Off to the side was a teenage boy sitting on a bicycle and a backwards hat. I was intimidated but I still somehow blurted out a Spanish introduction. “Lynda, just suck it up and be bold,” I told myself. I finally managed to think of the word for “throat” in Spanish and I asked the mom if there was anyone around that had a pain in their throat. She looked at me and kind of shocked, said yes… her daughter sitting beside her. I was dumbfounded. All I could do was laugh. So, I asked if there was anyone around that had a pain in their lower stomach area. She said yes again.. This time it was her mother back at home.
My mouth fell open. Wow God. So, I asked if I could pray for the family and I knelt down and prayed over them. We were all laughing and I had no idea what God was up to but I just prayed He would bless that family, heal them and provide for them in whatever way they needed.
I left leaving it in Jesus’ hands but I also knew that God is ALWAYS working and will work when and where He wants to. I had the intentions of going to the grocery store for food and walking back. However, God loves to interrupt plans, especially when we ask for more of His presence. He loves to blow our minds and He loves to use us for His glory as long as we keep open eyes that He is always with us, even on a walk to a grocery store.
This is just one day where God showed up for me last month. As I am sitting on a Ranch in Costa Rica, waiting for 30 high school kids to show up, I am confident that God is already working, ready to do His miracles and show me how He loves.
