When I came back to Granada from Non PVT week in Masatepe we only had a couple of days until the first team arrived. We had three teams almost back to back of short term mission teams! It was so cool to be 7 months into our race to then have people coming onto the field for a week who we could pour into.
The first team that was with us we barely saw. Never really had proper introductions plus, we were so busy with our ministries and they were so busy with their ministries, so we didn’t hang out much. Scott & Jen were given feedback as that team left to mesh the teams better so, gears changed for the next. Scott made a huge emphasis on intentionally getting to know these guys and spend time with them.
// QUICK SIDE NOTE //
I didn’t mention this in my last blog but while we were in Masatepe Jen actually had to go the States to take care of her dying father. Its been so hard on Scott doing everything on his own, especially with so many teams. Please be praying for him because she will be staying in the States for long periods of time and it will continue to be stressful for him.
The first night this team shows up we have worship. I remember standing there, laughing to myself because they had no idea what was coming. You see, we don’t worship like everyone else. We stand apart and worship our God undignified. Dancing, shouting, clapping, crying. Complete submission of our bodies to Christ.
As we started worship all of us scattered to get into our own space with God but they all just stayed in their same spot, not moving. It actually was so good for me to experience fear of man in those moments. Not in our little bubble of comfortability made me submit to God even more, focus on Him and remember who it all was for. Not letting Satan tell me lies that they were judging me or that what I was doing was weird, no, I do this because I am the daughter of the Highest King. Because I can’t not dance with the Holy Spirit’s energy running through my veins. So, instead of not worshipping God because we had new comers I decided to worship even harder. I was all in that night & I think everyone else was too. Quickly I forgot they were even there but when I did open my eyes I saw they were all still statues not knowing what to do. I’m sure so overwhelmed and consumed by fear, they looked a lot like I did my first couple of sessions at training camp. Experiencing things I had never experienced but too afraid to stand out in anyway possible. It was one of the most Holy Spirit worship sessions we had had on the race. Thank you God for working in each of us that night and starting the process of moving mountains in those high schoolers.
Our worship just kept going and merged into an epic dance party and praying session. I have an Instagram post from that night captioned, “straight up Holy Spirit”. Because it was. One of the guys from the group actually started crying while we prayed over him which was so cool to witness because that is how God moved in my heart at training camp. Leader after leader prayed over and by being a vessel to God breaking my chains. God had the same plan with this guy. HOW COOL!
After that night they requested worship to be very frequent while they were with us which was really encouraging because they all looked like deer in headlights after that night!
God told me to become their friends and to share with them everything they wanted to know. I believe the second night they were here we had been gone all day long on our adventure day and when we got back we hung out with them on the porch and answered questions for a couple of hours. We got to here why they had all decided to come on this trip. It was an interesting dynamic because it was two schools merged on this trip. One, a Christian school and the other a public school. The guy who was in charge of the trip was a teacher at the Christian school and his daughter went to the public school. The teacher picked people from his school but I don’t know how the kids from the public school were picked. Pretty much each of them had similar responses on why they had come, a chance to serve and a missions experience. A couple had a relationship with God but majority were the average high school students.
Them being at REAP was a God thing in its own because they were actually supposed to go to Haiti but because of civil unrest they got re-routed last second and came to Nicaragua instead, right when our squad was in Nicaragua ready to pour into them.
Their team was mostly on manual labor but half got to come prayer walking with us a couple of times which was really fun!
One of the women on their team brought tons and tons of art supplies so we got to do a super fun art afternoon with tons of kiddos from the community. It was incredible chaos but everyone did such a good job just loving these kids.
God had one of the guys, Phill on my heart the whole week. I would wake up praying for him most nights and whenever we would worship I found myself praying for each of them, especially Phill.
One night in particular God told me to walk over and pray over him. My heart dropped. I knew I had to do it but I was so nervous. I came over to pray over him and instead sat down near him and started praying for peace, boldness and to be a vessel for Him. I noticed Phill didn’t worship or sing he just sat and watched. My first reaction is, he is judging us, you won’t want to receive what God wants me to tell him…. Finally I went up to him and asked if I could pray for him. I prayed and God totally took over and it. You know when it’s so in the moment and the Holy Spirit is speaking so you don’t really remember? That was what happened here. I said amen and he gave me the biggest hug and I was so taken back that it took me a second to react. And then there’s that feeling after you’ve been obedient to the Lord, rejoicing and feeling charged by the Holy Spirit.
Throughout the week we continued to reach out to this group. We had different worship each time, this time we sang hymns around a campfire and said something we were thankful for. Halfway through I realized I was nervous because when I was in high school this is about when I checked out but then, I looked up and this one guy, total jock personality was off laying in the ground worshipping the Father. WOW. Praise the Heavenly Father for breaking chains in that guy. Showing him there is MORE and there is no need to be afraid of what people around you think.
After worship we opened the floor for the team to ask us questions and it was so cool to watch my squad mates jump to the opportunity to share. God filled answers that were not formed by them but by God. I remember thinking, “yep, oh yeah, yep, yep that’s actually what I’m thinking”. Giving advice to these high schoolers, a lot of my squadmates come from backgrounds of addictions, drugs, partying, everything. Know they are free in Christ and a couple got to share it with this group. It was such a cool feeling to sit there and watch these high schoolers receive the advice I never got. To sit there and think back to my junior year, the worst year of my life full of all of everything high schoolers do. To think if all that had to happen just so I could tell these sophomores and juniors in high school everything I had walked through and how Jesus rescued me from the water I was drowning in. Then, it was worth it. All of it. I believe God changed lives that night.
The week goes on and I continue to press into this group, still praying for Phill specifically.
Then, one night at dinner one of their leaders announced that Phill was getting BAPTIZED & HE GAVE HIS LIFE TO CHRIST!!!!!!!!!!! I literally jumped out of my seat when I heard the news, ran straight for Phill and gave him a huge hug. I started explaining everything, how God had put him on my heart literally all week and how God had been fighting for him. I told him my whole story and his leader was right next to me and said I was radiating Jesus. And I was, I was celebrating with Jesus that his son had come home!
That night I got to watch Phill get baptized and fully give his life to Christ. It was such a special moment because it was really the first time since discovering my gift of intercession that God used me and I got to see the fruit. I got to see God’s work in completion and the start of new life!!
The night before they left we had worship. That night I remember being so lost in the spirit, sobbing to my God. I have these moments I don’t really know how to describe it but pretty much it hits me, full force that God loves me. Wow. Sit on that for a moment. God loves me, God loves you. It’s so overwhelming beautiful and each time it hits me the Holy Spirit meets me with an abundance of tears. It’s so so powerful to my soul.
Right after I had my face on the cement In tears we had a time to pray over each of these people on Team Ohio. I was still so so so lost in the spirit that I don’t remember what I said but it was so much passion. Proclaiming truth and crying for these children of God. Shaking from the spirit, I had never felt the Holy Spirit so powerfully in my life that it made my body shake. Standing there, crying, shaking and praying for this precious child.
I remember opening my eyes after praying for this one guy and he was sobbing. It’s so powerful when we cry because we are letting God into these vulnerable parts of our heart that we’ve shut down to every single person in the world.
After we had finished worship I remember having so much to do, we were leaving around 5 in the morning for our adventure day to the beach and I had done nothing! It was pure God timing that I was up as late as it was. I was walking to the dining area to sign all the goodbye cards of the Ohio Team and they were all debriefing their week. About 10 minutes after being there they all got up and announced Christian was getting baptized!!!!!! WHATTTT!!!!!!!!!! Again, I jumped up in joy because this week two of my brothers came home, HOW INCREDIBLE! He was the guy that was crying the first night of worship and was crying after I prayed for him earlier that night. Rejoicing in the Lord for breaking down his walls and bringing him into a life of so much fulfillment and freedom! It gets me pumped just writing about it!! What a party in heaven there was this past week with Team Ohio here. I bet the heavens were roaring and rejoicing. 🙂
I miss that team. They left the next day and I felt it. God has massive plans for each of those individuals and I’m so excited to see where they go & do for the Kingdom of Heaven!
A little more depth of the week was, it was difficult. I had a moment where I broke down to one of my squad leaders because it is so hard to be Jesus’ light. To stand apart and say the hard things. To not laugh off inappropriate jokes and vulgar language but to stand firm. To say, “hey actually words are very powerful and as followers of Jesus each and every word that comes out of our mouth should praise Jesus”. In the end God gave me the word preparation. He sent this team to prepare me for home and the transition that will be. To experience what it is like to stand firm in my faith while I’m still in my community with amazing squad leaders I can process with. He knew I needed that and he was getting me ready. Thank you God for this and knowing me better than I know myself.
Thank you for reading! :))
