We have 1 week left in Nicaragua!!!!!! And month 2 is complete! We are almost 20% done with the race!! Wow… And next up is the Philippians.
I feel like since we landed here in Leon, that the ministry we’re working with is so big and such a big thing for us to sink our teeth into that when I’ve written a blog about it it’s like trying to describe a gigantic iceberg or a mountain that I’ve only been able to barely skim over. Details are lost because I’m trying to first establish a landscape view of what my life looks like right now. My teammate, Megan, wrote a blog about what a day in our lives looks like if you’d like to scroll down on this page and click on her blog on the left. Gives a much more in depth view
So let me slow down and give you one full, complete story of what my life and ministry is looking like right now. Remember ministry is not what we, “do” and then get a break from, ministry is, “how” we interact with people once we know Christ.
Last weekend we had Saturday and Sunday off. So what did we do after a very full and exhausting week? We went to the beach!
Hannah Adkison’s photo
We took a taxi into the city, grabbed another shuttle ride 20 minutes outside of the city (going close to 70 miles an hour in the back of a pickup truck was our shuttle ride) and we pulled up in front of a high fence with a door and a guard. Not very appealing. But once inside the property we were absolutely gleeful. There was a pool table and a place to get food and a swimming pool and then of course the beach. We played all day long. Two of our girls even took surfing lessons and actually surfed! We were enjoying each other’s company and the rest.
Hannah Adkison’s photo
It was dusk. I was sitting on this wall overlooking the ocean and watching a beautiful peach colored sunset. A little ways down the wall on my right was an American named Tim who worked at the hostel. He and I were chatting when to my left I saw the most interesting human beings I have ever seen.
This tanned woman with long curly gray hair walked up the beach carrying a very threadbare brown towel. She laid the towel down and sat on it a little ways in front of us and I was intrigued. Here was this middle aged white woman at a youthful beach hostel in Nicaragua. What in the world was her story?
I asked Tim about her. “She works for food and bed,” he said. And my first thought was Food and Wine magazine and I thought he was saying she was writing a piece on the hostel. “What’s food and bed?” I asked. And he clarified that she worked there for 3 meals a day and a thin mattress to put on the floor of a back room and sleep on. No money. Just a living. I then heard the woman speak to someone and could tell she was an American. I was curious.
So I went and sat next to her.
What started as chit chat turned into an hour and a half conversation… She had just recently been sleeping in a Nicaraguan jail cell. With no money and no place to go. When they released her she was at the end of herself. Even though she doesn’t believe in God per say, and doesn’t know Jesus, she found herself wandering into a church and sitting on a back pew in Leon. There she said to God, “If you can hear me, I need a job, a place to sleep, food and clothes.” She prayed that from her heart, walked out the door of the church and straight into another English speaking person who offered her a job working at the hostel.
That had been 2 weeks ago and now I was sitting here with her on the beach at the hostel, talking about it. I told her that I had a personal relationship with Jesus and shared my story with her of how I came to be sitting there on the beach with her through being on the world race.
Finally I asked her if I could pray for her to my God. She said she would be honored. And I asked what I could pray for her about. She said, “I keep feeling like there’s something in me that I’m running from. I keep trying to find rest in alcohol and pot, or sleep, but I can’t. I want peace.” So I took her hands and prayed to the Prince of Peace to fill her with the only sustainable peace- His peace. Peace that comes from knowing Him.” When I opened my eyes again, she was crying. She hugged me tightly.
Here was a woman with nothing. Who was seeking. Seeking what? She didn’t know. She just launched herself into the world hoping to find what would fill her and stop the endless restlessness.
The next day she found me before we left. She kissed me on the cheek, hugged me and thanked me again. What was she thanking me for, I thought? I saw her. And I pray that the Lord will send more people that know Him to that hostel, or wherever she goes and that everywhere she goes she keeps seeing that Jesus is real and loves her.
That night on the beach when we had finished talking she said that it was quite a coincidence that first she had gone to the church and then now here I was talking to her, a Christian. And I remembered a quote I had heard a long time ago. I said, “I heard once that coincidences are God’s way of remaining anonymous. There are no coincidences, it’s God watching out for you. He heard you when you prayed. So talk to Him more often. He’s showing Himself to you.”
That was our “day off” which simply means ministry has the opportunity to look different. Ministry isn’t a job, it’s our lives.
I was looking through my notebook from launch and I found something I had written that I entitled, My Attitude Going Into the Race.” This is what I wrote.
“Lord, my heart is to follow you, step by step. I don’t want to look at the clock, or the schedule, I want to be present in the moment. Moment by moment with You. In my spirit I feel like there is so much good stuff ahead of me this year, that Your blessings will meet me and overwhelm me. Lord, this year I want whatever it is that You want for me. Help me to meet it and not miss it. Help me to stand, utilize and hunger for Your life-giving Word like I’ve never hungered before. Show me, lead me into an understanding of what you want me to do once this year is over- my calling. Continue to lead me and draw me closer and know and trust and see You better. You know every hair on my head and every place, every broken place in my heart and what has happened there. Please use everything you’ve walked me through to reach, touch, connect and affect someone else’s story and destiny for Your purpose and glory. Heal the areas in my heart and life where it is needed. Lord, show me the person in front of me. Let me have singleness of heart and action- super focused, engaged, really with the person I’m with.”
When I was on the beach walking with the Lord and looking out on the waves I was talking to Him about how to walk. I want to walk well. I knew that He had told me “step by step. One step at a time.” So I tried to, by my will, not look ahead. But just be in step with His spirit and His timing. And He showed me on the beach that taking this journey step by step isn’t about willing myself to not look ahead, it’s about being so enamored with the beauty of who He is that I’m not looking at my feet; I’m looking at Him. Because I’m walking with Him.
I still need about $3000 dollars to make my next deadline which is December 1st, a little over a month away… Thank you to everyone who is taking this journey with me! I love you!
With a Joyful Spirit,
Sarah
