Nicaragua has quickly become one of my top 4 countries that we’ve served in on the World Race. I didn’t think it would be possible to be that high on my list after some of the places we’ve been this year, but I was wrong. Nicaragua is probably my favorite country in Central America. It’s absolutely beautiful here. The people are wonderful, the landscape is incredible, the food (though not much in quantity) is amazing, and our ministry has been great!
I wanted to give y’all a quick update on what we’ve been doing here in Nicaragua for ministry. As usual, ministry didn’t exactly end up being what it was first said it would probably be… Nothing out of the ordinary for the World Race though. You quickly learn that nothing usually goes as planned, which isn’t a bad thing necessarily, it just means the Lord has something else in mind.
It’s been a lot like our month in Honduras really. Everyday usually looks a little different as far as ministry goes, which is nice because it keeps things fresh and exciting!
This is what a typical week here in Jinotepe, Nicaragua looks like…
This past week was a little different, because we’re not the only team serving in Jinotepe this right now. There is also a church group from Maryland that’s here for a little over a week. Their main purpose is to set up clinics and give folks in the Barrios (the Spanish word for “Community”), free medical attention. So our job this past Monday, was to head into the Barrios letting all the families know that on Tuesday, from 8am- 4pm, there would be a free medical clinic. So much of our day was spent spreading word about that, which was cool because we always love visiting the Barrios.
We were up bright and early preparing for the clinic before the Barrios families began showing up. Before 10am there were already about 150 people lined up to be seen! It was crazy! It was a great opportunity though to not only help meet their physical health, but also spiritual health as well. Also, I was excited about the opportunity because one of my friends, Erin Wheeler, whom I served on a team with at World Changers in St. Louis, Missouri in 2009, just happened to be here this week! Haha, I really do know everybody! I hadn’t seen her since 2009, so it was great getting to catch up with her and share about the race. We played with the kids quite a bit on this day as well, especially playing “Chinese Jump rope!” A game that I’ve discovered is very popular overseas. The clinic finished up at 4pm and then the rest of the day was pretty chill.
This has become one of our team’s favorite days of the week! In the morning after breakfast, we have a time of preparation for the afternoon’s activities, and after lunch we take our hour long walk to began the activities… What kind of activities is it, you ask?! The nursing home ministry! Haha, I was a little hesitant at first, but after our first day there, I knew I loved these folks. They’re some of the sweetest people I’ve ever met! Normally an average day for us involves some arts and crafts, which this week was making a “god’s eye necklace”, singing some worship songs, having a time of prayer, and just spending quality time with the residence. We love going there! The remainder of the day was pretty chill, once again. We took our walk back, and then had evening church service.
It was our day here on the ministry property. This day involved a lot of machete work. A LOT! A couple of people spent time in the garden getting it ready to be planted, and at some point during the day, our team found ourselves on top of the 30ft water tower signing our names, haha… The water tower has become one of my most favorite places in Nicaragua. I go up there a lot to think and pray. It’s also a good place to watch the sunset and look at the stars. Johnny, one of the guys living here at the home, spend time up there chatting a lot of evenings. Johnny and I have become pretty close this month, and I’ve took it upon myself to mentor him as much as I can and just be there to let him open up to me. It’s been incredible.
This week, it was our day off. So our team, and Kat’s team who is located at another ministry just one village over, all loaded up in the van, and headed to the volcano lake! It was beautiful! Basically it’s this huge volcano that is now filled with water, which is called “Laguna De Apoya.” It was great because the water is SO WARM!!! Since we’re in a “ring of fire” here in Nicaragua, the water is warm because there are still so many active volcanoes. After swimming for a bit and enjoying some PB&J on the shore, we headed into the local town to let the girls do some shopping. After a long, fun filled day, we returned to the ministry house.
Today, we spent the majority of the morning in the Barrios inviting folks to the women’s and youth Bible study that takes place on Saturday evenings. Other than that, we’ll probably end up playing a few “Futbol” aka soccer games, with the local kids, and that’ll probably be it for today.
We have a couple of church services and just spend time with each other. We’re trying to do that as much as possible over the next few weeks, because believe it or not, our race is about to come to an end!
Anyways, that’s a look into what an average week looks like here in Nicaragua. It has been an incredible month, and I know that there is still so much more to come!
Love y’all!
