We are in month 2 in Granada, Nicaragua. Q squad has an all-squad month which means that all 4 of the teams are living together for the month and partnering together with the AIM base to do ministry. This also means that as a leadership team, we get to spend extra time together which is a huge blessing. Our squad mentor, Alissa, had the opportunity to step away from her usual work space in Gainesville, GA to be on the field with us this month as well. Essentially, this means we are all one big happy family and its a World Race community party. (Maybe that’s a huge blanket statement, but all squad month is my favorite and I’m having a blast!)
We are working with REAP, the AIM base in Nicaragua, to serve their local community in various ways. The teams rotate between manual labor, feeding programs at the local dump, prayer walks and house visits, and visiting people at the hospital and nursing home. One of the things I love about this month is the variety of ministry. We might be using a pick axe to uproot plantain trees in the morning and then praying for healing over people in their homes in the afternoon. The experience is one that allows the squad to explore so many areas of ministry and push themselves outside of their comfort zone.
In addition to scheduled ministry, the hosts here are incredibly intentional about helping to squad walk into deeper and more intentional relationship with the Lord. We are doing a book study on Spiritual Slavery to Sonship by Jack Frost (highly recommend for everyone), engaging in hard conversations that the church generally doesn’t engage in, and practicing the daily rhythms of prayer and quiet time. 3 times a week, the squad wakes up at 5 for an hour of personal prayer time. We pray and spend time with the Lord through the sunrise and start our day by giving the first fruits of our time to Him. It has been so impactful and regularly practicing this has led me personally to walk in a lot more peace.
The blog is called Ministry and Miracles, so to keep you from waiting *spolier alert* this is going to be the miracle part.
Last Saturday, two teams including the one I am with this month had the opportunity to partner with a local church to do a day of manual labor digging a ditch, clearing debris, and digging holes for foundational columns for an expansion they are adding onto their church. Their current church is slightly larger than an average living room and their congregation has grown enough that its time for the building to grow too. Typically, funds to build can be raised, but it is up to the church members to actually do the labor. That’s part of where we came in.
About an hour into shoveling demolished concrete into a wheelbarrow, I twisted the wrong way and my left knee dislocated. The first emotion I was able to form over the pain was fear. In junior high, I dislocated my right knee and was on crutches for several months followed by physical therapy. I’m in a third world country and not scheduled to be home until summer. I can’t do crutches and carry my life in a backpack. The team took me into the church building and brought ice from a nearby tienda to hopefully reduce swelling. One of the local pastors prayed over my knee in Spanish and throughout the day several members of the squad also prayed for it.
This happened toward the beginning of the day, and I found myself seated in a plastic chair under a shade tree watching the rest of the team dig ditches. I sat there feeling pretty useless for a hot minute. A lot of things came to mind. I wondered if the team thought I was being dramatic and making a bigger deal out of it than it was. I felt like there wasn’t a point to me being there if all I was doing was sitting in a chair watching. I started to get sucked into this black hole of lies and then I remembered the most impactful piece of feedback I got on my entire race. In month 1, I was struggling to understand what my purpose was on my team without a role because I felt like I didn’t know what I could offer. My teammate Prisca told me something that has genuinely changed my life. She said, “Your presence is enough.”
I reflected on that and asked myself how my presence was impacting the moment I was currently living. I didn’t need to be part of digging the ditch to be important or to prove my worth. The Lord knew what would happen with my knee and He still sent me there because He had something different for me. Not better or worse, but different. I had a really cool opportunity to pray over the church building and the pastors and then to encourage those who were digging.
Sunday-Tuesday were difficult. It was painful to walk but it was also painful and stiff if I didn’t move around enough. My knee felt really unstable even after using KT tape and walking around for ministry was a challenge. The Lord helped me to be intentional with my steps, both literally and figuratively.
Wednesday morning, we woke up at 5 for prayer. I sat and looked up at the stars while it was still dark. I asked God for a shooting star and He told me “actually, they aren’t your to have, but you can hope for one.” Almost immediately, my mind made the connection to miracles and how they are the same. I know they happen because I’ve seen them before, but I can’t control them and if I’m not watching, I’ll miss them altogether. I watched the sky intently for a while, hoping for a shooting star. None today, but that’s alright. The last 10 minutes of prayer, we circle up together and pray corporately. If anyone has prayer requests, we take turns and pray over each of them. I asked the squad to pray for my knee. While we were praying, my knee felt tingly and then went entirely numb. After prayer, as I walked away, my knee didn’t hurt. Like at all. I locked it, stood on just my left leg, bent it, squatted down. No pain. Honestly, I knew it could happen because I’ve experienced healing before, but I don’t think I was expecting it. As I stepped out of the pavilion I heard Papa say “there’s your shooting star.”
It caught me off guard in a way that kind of makes you feel like your breath got knocked out of you. I was just overwhelmed by the beauty of it all. His faithfulness. The way He loves me. The way He cares for me. He knew that I wanted a shooting star but He gave me something WAY better.
My entire experience with the Race has taught me to take God out of the box. He doesn’t fit and its actually insulting to ask Him to. His power is beyond our human comprehension, and when we submit to that and stop trying to understand how or why or when, He actually has the space in our lives to just move and work and do His thing. Where do you still have God in a box in your life?
