So I wanted to write a blog trying to give a some what overview of the last year of my life as it were. I know what your probably thinking, can I actually do something like that!? Truth is no I really couldn’t begin to tell you the things I have seen and been a part of and walked through by myself and others.
I want to try and answer at best some of the questions you will probably ask me when I get home, like ‘how was it?’ Or my ‘favourite country and why?’ Which are great questions but the answer depend if you want to hear me talk for 10 minutes or hours cause honestly I could do both. So here are a few things from my experience and what the Lord taught me each step of the way.
I will write about all the countries but will probably split it up into 3 blogs so for now here are all the countries in Central America.
Month 1 – Guatemala
To even think back to this place is crazy cause I feel like a was so young and fresh faced then, ready to take on anything! Ha I still feel like that now but being thrown into a group of people and a country I didn’t know was kinda exhilarating back then.
This month had been where I felt exposed to all the Lord had to offer me. And so, pursuing Him in quiet times and asking a lot of questions about my identity and calling was eye opening, not cause I didn’t see him before but that actually the Lord want to breakthrough in and through me and use me as his mouth piece on earth and actually be His hands and feet to the nations. I wrote a blog about a specific moment the Lord met me and you can read it HERE!
Some of my favourite moments from Guatemala were, hand making doughnuts, going to the black sanded beach and the macadamia nut farm. Our evening meals always had some form of entertainment and speaking Spanish with the locals was always interesting.
Public transport is always fun, in Guatemala they are called chicken buses and literally we are squashed into the bus like chickens hence the name!
Other cool things, Mexican food! Lupitas was unbelievable, we did a scavenger hunt round Antigua – what a good time and the introduction of GNO aka girls night out.
Many movies were watched as part of team times, our favourites though were the twilight saga!
Month 2 – Nicaragua
This was the first time we travelled together in country. We took a bus from Guatemala through El Salvador and Honduras to get to Nicaragua. It was a long journey we stopped overnight at a hostel and spend 3 hours at the Nicaraguan boarder. When we eventually got to Nicaragua we spent the night at a church and then took a ferry across to Ometepe the island, where we would be doing ministry.
This was also the first that we were all together as a squad so many a fun time together.
This is the month I can clearly remember us all stepping into building healthy genuine community. Being intentional with one another and really wanting to get to know and love people really well.
In my team this is where we all shared our testimonies as a way getting to know one another. For me I was super nervous because it is very personal and you never know how people will react.
It’s always been hard for me to share, I felt at that point responsible for a lot of things in my life good and not so much and for a while I couldn’t really understand why the Lord wanted me to share all these things. Cue the next thing the Lord taught me…..
I was in Him!
In Him I can do all things, when circumstances hadn’t gone my way, the Lord was always there; when I choose one way over another, God was still by my side. He had been protecting me since the day I was born and I needed to tell my story in order to receive that revelation, that my story is HIS story. Again I wrote a blog about all the things, click the link HERE!
Memorable moment included, eating plantain chips! One of my favs, look it up! The sheep/goat animals that are all peleguays – many a funny moment with them. Making thanksgiving dinner for 25 people with little known foods or resources, still one of the best meals on the race. Wifi in park, random but nice luxury. The rancho was one of the most beautiful places to watch the sunset, the 5am breaking of the sink – water everywhere, ojo de agua, also lots of water. The rooster who didn’t know when sunrise was and so crowed at 3am every night without fail.
We played many group games our favourites though were four on a couch, sock wrestling and scribble scrabble.
Month 3 – Panama
We travelled from Nicaragua through Costa Rica, we spent the night there and made our way to Panama. This is where I spent Christmas, it was really cool to have a different experience and be in different culture celebrating it. As with all things as you head towards the end of one calendar into another you like to think about resolutions and about the year gone.
For me my heart had become restless knowing I had a deep relationship with the Lord but felt he was calling me deeper and i was spending a lot of time trying figuring what that looked like. In the end my heart was tired and frustrated. I realised that I had to lay down old patterns and mindsets basically dying to my old self to make way for what the Lord had for me next.
He also gave me my word for this year which is restoration, here’s my blog all about it HERE!
I left here feeling hopeful and expectant of what God was going to do next but I had no idea of all the things he had planned.
Favourite moments included making Christmas dinner for our host and a few of their friends my first attempt at cooking a turkey and all the things, was fun. We stayed near the beach and it was so beautiful. We met this real sweet pastor and his team, they came and we had a New Years celebration with a full jazz band, was really cool. We went to Boquete which was a few hours from where we had been staying, some of the girls hiked the mountain there… I did not! But the town was cool lots of cool little places to eat and buy souvenirs. We taught English at a girls home and they were so sweet, also slept in a hammock most of the month. One of the absolute awesome things we did was watch a meteor shower in the back garden one night, it was beautiful!
Part 2 coming soon!
P.S – as you probably know i have a little bit of fundraising to do for squad leading. I have to raise $3,800 dollars which is £3000 pounds. I would like to raise $5000/£4000 in total as I have to come home in November for family reasons and have to pay for flights.
Would you pray and consider giving a donation towards my trip? Pray also that I can do this and still be travelling as I have little opportunity to host events in order to raise the money.
I have been so fortunate in this last year to have done all the things and now I get to come alongside others and encourage them in this adventure.
If you would like to donate, the bar at the top of the page that says donate, click there and you can do all the things OR if you want you can donate to me directly through PayPal or my bank account.
If you have any questions at all please don’t hesitate to ask – WOO!!!
