Hey y’all, sorry about the late updates on my second ministry in Nicaragua! My team jokes that time moves at a different pace here; it’s both faster and slower and I lost track of when my last update on what ministry is like was!
As I mentioned in my last blog, a lot of our time with 516 NOW was spent working with a Christian school that partners with 516. Each week I spent 3 or 4 days there and I spent time in the same classroom with the same kids. In general I really love consistency (example: I always had to shower in the third shower at our house), but having this level of consistency in ministry was so good for me. I got to build relationships with these kids, learn their names (which was a huge win when there’s 26 of them and over half of them don’t have an English equivalent), play their favorite games and sing their favorite songs, and build trust with them. And it’s amazing to me how you don’t need to speak the same language as them to have this happen and to show them the love of Christ.
One of my favorite examples of this is with a sweet girl who I’ll call Maria (but in reality her name was not that easy for me to learn). She’s behind her classmates in most things; while most of the kids can write their names, trace letters, and write numbers, she can’t do that. Back when I first came to Palacaguina, the Lord told me to be attentive and aware of what’s often overlooked and so I tried to keep that mindset in everything. My second day in my class, I noticed Maria, working much slower than the other kids and not really interacting with them. I felt the Holy Spirit telling me to really be intentional with her but in the most simple ways. So, I sat by her for 10 minutes while she slowly glued foam pieces onto a paper. I’d offer to hold her hand while we walked to the cafeteria. I smiled at her every time she looked my way. And after that day, I built a trust with her that I didn’t think could happen in such a short amount of time and without using any words. The following day when I was sitting in the class, she came up to me and just kinda snuggled into my arm. It was so out of the blue, but I knew she needed to know she was loved and safe. So I pulled her in close, whispered “Te amo,” and we sat like that for a while. Another time while eating, she laid her head down on my lap and started eating her refried beans with her finger. After she had dipped her finger in her beans and licked them clean, she held up her finger with more beans on it, smiled, and offered me some. I politely declined due to the fact that these kids are full of germs and I’ve been battling a cold for 2 1/2 weeks from said kids, but her smile in that moment was the biggest I’ve ever seen on her. Thinking back on this almost 3 weeks later, it fills me with so much love and joy. The stress of fundraising, packing, and leaving home for 3 months suddenly became so worth it. And I’ve had so many of those little moments that are so precious to me and are some of my favorite memories thus far. It really challenges me to think what would happen if I lived with that type of intentionality everyday, no matter where I am; would life become more precious and meaningful?
The days we didn’t work at the school were usually spent doing construction. For 2 days, we helped move building materials for a church expansion. Let’s just say that that was a time where my team and I had to really learn what it means to get your strength from the Lord…
For another project, we started building a garage at our host’s house for the ministry van. My job in this included digging a hole and chopping roots. A fun plus side of this though was that our host’s wife makes incredible coffee and there’s a watermelon stand like 50 yards from his house. Let’s just say that not all of our time there was spent working.
The last project we helped with was to build a house for a single mom with 3 kids and one on the way. Her house is made of tin and tarps, so our ministry’s current big project is building this house. Our share in this was digging up dirt that would be made into mud bricks that would make up the house. Since we’ve left, they’ve been able to start making these bricks and that’s SO exciting!
The last component of our ministry there was helping at the church, particularly with the youth ministry. On Sundays we would help in the Sunday school classes and on Saturday nights we would go help with the youth group, mainly playing soccer and volleyball, listening to the message, and just being present with the kids.
Here are some other fun not-necessarily ministry related things we did in Palacagüina:
There isn’t a lot to do in the town and we had most of our afternoons off, so we would walk 20 minutes into town and get ice cream WAY more than we should have. But my goodness, their ice cream is amazing. They have a flavor called Sundae that has chocolate and peanut butter swirled into it and it’s so so good.
A big thing in the town on weekends is volleyball and I love it. Our friend Brianna and her boyfriend would play, so we’d go into town on Friday and Sunday nights to watch theirs and other’s games. Part of the enjoyment with this is getting to do something outside of the house, but also do be more present and in the midst of what it’s actually like to live there. Downside of this though is that they play really good dancing music between sets and games, but there if you’re a Christian girl, you don’t dance in public ESPECIALLY to non-Christian music. So it destroyed us a little to have to sit there and want to dance but know that we can’t.
Every time we wanted to get WiFi, we had to walk through a coffee roasters, stepping over literal coffee beans that are roasting in the sun to get to a hotel/café. I don’t have much more to say about that.
Plastic/foam cups are expensive, but plastic bags aren’t. So you buy a 3 liter bottle of pop, hand out plastic bags, fill them up and tie the top. Then to drink out of it you bite the bottom corner and drink your pop out of the bag. Street vendors do this with “milkshakes” or other drinks too.
Thank you for all your prayers and encouragement. I’ve loved being here so much and I can’t wait to see what else the Lord has in store for me and my team.
Soli Deo Gloria
Bailey
