We are now in our final ministry location of The World Race in a place called Jinotepe, Nicaragua. We travel by truck to our work site everyday which is in Diriamba, about 15 minutes away. La Quinta is a church property that sits in the middle of one of the barrios of Diriamba. There is a church, a medical clinic, a children’s home, and TONS of mango trees. Every day we head over there to do construction, play with the kids, and visit the barrio. We are currently preparing for a carnival in a different barrio that will be on July 13th. I think I signed up to be a mime, so we’ll see how that goes (I guess I won’t be helping translate that day). All and all it’s been a lot of hard work, mainly on my back. Seth and I have been putting this sidewalk on the side of the church building. Each stone block weighs roughly 115 lbs, so needless to say, it’s strenuous work.
When we’re not working construction, we are out playing futbol with the kids. By far, they are the best soccer players we’ve seen in the world. So….Latin America represents! I totally ate it when we were playing one day, so I just decided to lay down for a while, ya know, play it off like I was cool or something.
So we’re at this point in The Race where it’s getting harder and harder to NOT think about the next step. What’s gonna happen when we get home? How do we maintain our focus here when there are things that we feel like we MUST take care of at home? All of my team is going through this, and I’m sure every previous racer has gone through it at some point or another. So what do we do about it?
As we’ve been doing our team devotions, God has reminded me of a couple things. One, He has been telling me not to view going back to the US as going home….it’s not. Of course I call it home, but the reality of it is that I view it as the “next” country. There are still ministry contacts there, there are still hurting and broken people there, so God is calling me to be there for a season. But it is not my home. Two, He has been telling me to “remember”. Remember all of the times that I’ve been in his presence this year. All of the times that I’ve seen him work. It’s no wonder he was constantly reminding the Israelites to remember. They always seemed to forget and slip back into old ways or even sin.
It’s important for us as we’re coming off this Race to remember. The race doesn’t end here in Nicaragua, it keeps going. That should propel us onward. It’s exciting to me to know that this doesn’t end here! We are never going to be the same. What we’ve seen, what we’ve experienced, it has altered my global perspective.
I’m trying my hardest to be fully present out here, but it’s hard when you at least have a plan for the next step when you get back. I feel like it comes down to just remembering who we are. We are ambassadors. We represent Christ in whatever country/location/city/neighborhood we’re in. That doesn’t change, only the location does. So as we are finishing up here, please be praying that we remember who we are in Him, what he has done in us, through us, and for us this year. It’s getting harder and harder. We’re tired, exhausted, and homesick. But this isn’t supposed to be easy, is it?
