As I’m sure those of you who have been keeping up with my blogs have noticed, I have officially gone two months without posting a blog. For this, I apologize. These new experiences take time to process and sometimes the idea of sifting through all of my feelings, questions, and the culture shock and then taking the time to type out a well-written blog can seem overwhelming. Thank you for your grace and patience as I grow to be more disciplined in this area. In order to honor those of you who have so generously invested in my trip, I’m going to do my best to play “ketchup” on the past few months. (Sorry for the click bait. I had to get a little “saucy” with the title to get your attention.)
MONTH 3: Granada, Nicaragua
We served a ministry called REAP Granada doing everything from praying in homes to painting nails with kids in the community center to using machetes to “mow the lawn” on the property. One of my favorite parts of this month was getting to feed and minister to the people who collect items from the dump to try and resell it. This is their living and means of providing for their families. I covered some of my feelings and perspective shifts from Nicaragua in detail in my last two blog posts, so I won’t take time to recap that here. We stayed in dorms on a large property where we had toilets, showers, and bunk beds. While rice and beans were the base of most meals, we were well fed and well cared for by the wonderful men and women serving us. During this month, we took a free weekend and went swimming in an inverted volcano lake. Then, two weekends later we took the time to travel a few hours away to go volcano boarding! All of us girls who went volcano boarding, for some reason, decided that cornrows would be a good idea. We didn’t anticipate how they would look with our orange jumpsuits needed for the ride down. While these adventure days were a BLAST, the days of evangelism and regular interactions with the local kiddos were my favorite parts of our time in Granada.
MONTH 4: Santa Rosa De Copan, Honduras
This month’s ministry was serving Legacy of Hope; an organization dedicated to providing temporary housing and care to the abused, abandoned, and neglected children of Honduras. Our team worked on a new Crisis Care building that would allow more children to be taken in. The manual labor was not always easy, but to see the fruits of our labor, a nearly finished building, as we left was incredibly rewarding. We had beds, toilets, showers, and good food here, as well. This was also the first month home-sickness was very real and I was missing being a part of my siblings’ lives. The Lord, through that though, impressed upon me the importance of prayer and how that will be one of the most important roles I’ll play in their lives. While in Honduras, I also visited the Mayan Ruins (WOW) and I FINALLY watched all six hours of BBC’s Pride & Prejudice. Two completely different things, however, they were equally as satisfying to cross off of my “Things I Want To Do Before I Die” list.
MONTH 5: Lilongwe, Malawi & Zomba, Malawi
Two big things happened this last month: My birthday was on the 12th, so I’m now 22 (WOO WOO!) AND I was asked to be one of three Squad Leaders for our squad. My role now, as a Squad Leader, even more so than before, is to lead from behind and serve my squad well. This month was one of training and preparation as it was our last month having our former leaders on the field with us. They flew back to the States on the 2nd and I’m relying on training and Holy Spirit as the three of us new leaders take the reigns. Part of this training was spending a week with a new team. The team and I had opportunities to preach and experience more rural church settings. After church one day, I got to witness a baby seeing white people for the first time. The mother thought it was funny and handed him to me. My response was similar to his. To celebrate Christmas, kids from the neighborhood joined us for a dance party and we made a makeshift “feast” of varying dishes for ourselves. During this time, a few of the team members had the pleasure of enjoying the company of lice. Of course, this meant we all had to take precautions such as covering our heads with mayonnaise and going to bed wearing shower caps. Despite some rough circumstances, we all kept a good attitude and enjoyed our time together.
Before heading off to Month 6, we celebrated New Years as a squad and enjoyed karaoke, laughs, and sparkling grape juice! Now, I’m with a new team at a YWAM (Youth With A Mission) base and we’ll be doing a little bit of everything; preaching, evangelizing, manual labor, and children’s ministry. Our accommodations are clean and the land we’re on is spacious. I again have a bed, toilets, and showers this month. The ministry also has its own van meaning no more taxis for a while! I’m very thankful for these past months and excited for what’s to come!
Again, THANK YOU to everyone for being patient with my blog posting.
Be expecting another post within the next week! 🙂
