After traveling by bus through Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, we arrived in Granada, Nicaragua four days ago. Tomorrow we leave for our ministry destination in Ocotal. During this four day stay we did a prayer walk around the city. Unidentifiable smells waft in and out while walking down the colonial calles (streets) as a feable horse passes by carrying a buggy filled with onlookers. This being the oldest, most consistently inhabited city in Central America has had its share of hardships. The U.S. funded Contra invasion against the Sandinista Revolution who were opposing its Nicaraguan dictator Somoza of the 80s, has brought destruction and a great need for restoration.
After ending our prayer walk on the steps of the cathedral here in the city’s downtown square, I felt pulled to be in more solitary prayer with the Lord. This pull brought me inside the cathedral to one of the pews all the way to the far back. The high ceilings and row after row of empty pews provided the seemingly perfect environment for solitude. A moment after finding a spot on a kneeler, I notice someone that had been hidden by one of the church’s inner pillars. I begin to pray, asking God to help me hear His voice more clearly. immediately after I decided it best to take out my journal to write.
-Put away your journal-
What? Doesn’t a good missionary journal? Isn’t journaling a good thing?
God made it clear that it was not time to be writing.
-At anytime you can write, go to her and pray-
With a conviction so heavy, I could not leave. So was this not an immediate answer to prayer? If I expect Him to respond, so does He expect the same out of me. I rose from my seat and asked the woman I had never met before, “Excuse me, in what way can I pray for you?” *in Spanish*
This sprung an hour long conversation with my new Nicaraguan amiga Ofelia. Ofelia is a private Nicaraguan girl of 27 years of age who lives with her family on the periphery of Granada. We talked about God, faith and life. She had been coming weekly to the same Cathedral Nuestra Senora for mass, but I still felt led to ask, “Do you have a Bible?” ‘No, could you get me one?’ With no hesitation – “Yes. Let’s meet on this same bench tomorrow at 9:30am.”
To be continued…
