Last Day In Nicaragua
Wait, already?
Yes, folks. It is amazingly that time already. I look around the expanse of the church floor, littered with Marmots, North Faces and REI Half Domes, marveling at how quickly we've established ourselves only to be once again rooted up out of this place we've come to call home. Palacagüina as a whole knows that we are here and also that we are about to leave. It has been a major blessing to see the hearts and faces of the people here even for this short time. I didn't realize how short a month really was until being removed from nearly all that the month once held..
Our team Spice of Life has been working with a developing program from Adventures In Missions called “Unsung Heroes”. The vision of this project is to find and connect with various people around the world who have a heart for Jesus, are His hands and feet locally or regionally and are for the most part unknown. This has been a crazy month, truly. We have done half regular ministry and half Unsung Heroes ministry. We have road tripped around Nicaragua on several occasions in various jam-packed public buses, sitting six to a little five person Honda and in the bed of many old trucks. The Race has a way of breaking down physical space bubbles when you have to sit on top of your friends in the car for two hours.. heh :b
So we set up meetings between local pastors, visited their churches, saw the community projects they were working on and formed bonds with them all. It was a highly busy month, running from place to place, spending lots of time on the internet researching, making phone calls and hacking our way through Spanish. I have translated far, far more Spanish than I ever thought I would or could on this Race in large part of this project.
To top this all off, our team hosted a little party to celebrate the ministries and people we had come to know over this month. Alas, we had fought the good fight, accumulated over 24 hours of travel time for this project and now we would like to lift up and honor those whom we had met.
We gathered everyone together at Hipolito's church down the road from where we've been staying. Crackers and cookies were put out and displayed, fruit bowls were compliments of our lovely Bekah Perkins and the soda was already poured by the time we arrived. The pastors and community heads trickled in with their close family members, ultimately hosting about 40 people including our team of seven plus Tatiana, Angie, Vanessa and Stacy. Jessica Lindsey gave a wonderful introduction which I then translated for the group, followed by socializing with Scott playing guitar in the background. After most people had their taste buds tantalized, we opened the floor for our contacts to share the vision and testimonies with each other, because we knew them all, but they didn't all know each other.
We listened as best we could as each of the members shared their stories. We didn't catch everything they said, but their hearts were very clear. As the last member was speaking, Julio, the Lord revealed something profound to me. As I heard the words of the pastor flow out of his mouth, as I watched his posture and as I glanced about the room to see the faces of this greater community, the Lord gave me a piece of His heart. I saw this project no longer through the eyes of mere task accomplishment, but through His eyes, the eyes of love. I saw the sheer beauty of this community getting together to glorify God with their lives and their missions. I saw genuine fellowship, the unity between fellow believers. I saw so much more than what I had been seeing the entire time I did the project and it was absolutely magnificent. It was because of this whelming touch by the Spirit that I stand and speak just prior to Jessica's final thank yous and goodbyes. I address them in Spanish testifying to the beauty of this moment, of being gathered together with the Word on our lips and Christ in our hands and feet. I spoke of the movement of love they were bringing and the thanks we all had for them and for their ministries. Then Jessica spoke and thanked them again, finishing our time our in prayer for them; after which they prayed for us as well.
So, if I had one piece of advice to the following teams who will take part in this campaign I would say this, to let your motivation be love, for anything less will leave you emptied and pursuing the wrong end; because even if we accomplish the greatest of works, but have not love, we've done it for naught.
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I give up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” -1 Corinthians 13:1-3.
