This month has been full of God, divine appointments, new friends who became family, and love. Regardless of our appointed free days, ministry days, or adventure days, God has always been showing up through different people.
After spending a few days in Granada, Nicaragua, doing Unsung Heroes training, we headed to Rivas. Rivas only has Adventures in Missions contact, so they were hoping we would be able to find any other potential contacts!
Before the end of the first few days in Rivas, we knew that this is where we were supposed to be.
A teammate and I found a smoothie place, where we were able to meet a new friend of ours, whom we continued building a relationship with throughout the month.
That same day a teammate and I stayed back to intercede, while the other four left, in two different groups. While they were gone, I got a vision. I saw people behind cages, locked up. People were begging and crying to have freedom, and to know an unconditional love.
God then showed me a metaphor of volcano boarding, which is a tourist attraction that allows you to hike up the volcano, then slide down. Although the hike up is hard, it compares to our journey with God. It can be frustrating, hopeless, but through the obedience, the perseverance you reach the end that is worth it. No words can describe the beauty when you actually reach the top and get to slide down.
Each group came back, and everyone was full of stories of how and where God lead them. Two teammates found a church, Maranatha, while the others met a few people, which then lead to a conversation about their church, IRR (Iglesia Roqa de Rivas – The Rock Church of Rivas). Our new friend at IRR invited us to church, so we headed to their church that night and met the Pastor about possibly volunteering in the future.
(Marantha Church)
The next day, we all continued prayer walking and just followed where God lead. A teammate and I met Martha. We were trying to decide if God was telling us to go left or right, and before I knew it, I was saying “hola” to the person straight ahead sitting outside of her house. Regardless of the language barrier, Martha became family within just a few minutes. I speak a small amount of Spanish, while she spoke a small amount of English – but we made it work! A five-minute stop, turned into two hours of love, laughs, prayer, and God.
The next day, we were more than ready for a day off – because of our busy, perfect week, but God had other plans! A teammate and I were heading to breakfast, when we found a Nazareth English School where we were able to talk to a worker, which gave us more follow up information in regards with contacting the director.
We continued walking, and found a Guardian Angel Hostel. While we were looking at the hostel, we started to hear, “Oceanos” by Eric Clark – which is the Spanish version of Oceans by Hillsong United! We started talked to the guy that had “Oceanos” playing, and he was involved at Lluvias de Gracia church. After we got the Pastor’s information, we continued our “free day”! While we had our eyes on finding a light, cool dress, we found another sticker of Lluvias de Gracia church, and we both knew that there was going to be more coming from that church, including the potential of serving in the future.
We ended our day at our favorite food cart, which has delicious $.37 hotdog and $1.30 hamburger with ham (perfection). The owner proceeded to talk about his church, which was encouraging to hear.
Within just a few days of being in Rivas, we have found potential future contacts, but most importantly – people seeking after God with their whole hearts who only want to better their community.
As the month continues, we have been busy meeting with these potential contacts, and other contacts. I have loved seeing how much God is using each place to glorify His kingdom. The ministries are involved with several different outreaches for the community including prison ministry, children’s ministry, feeding the poor, drama evangelism, women’s ministry, AA, and more.
