My thoughts from Nicaragua are pretty jumbled, but here goes….
One of the highlights of our time here with the youth at La Quinta was last Saturday night. We were cleaning the church, and it turned in to a giant water fight. We all left soaked!
Honestly one of the hardest things on the Race so far has been missing March Madness. Anyone who knows me knows I am a huge Jayhawk basketball fan. I haven’t been able to watch any of the tournament games so far, but luckily I’ve caught the scores within a day or so. The anticipation is almost too much for me to handle. Even though we weren’t able to have a watch party, I did honor my beloved Hawks during one of the games by sharing my love for KU with some of the little boys here at La Quinta. Hoping for a Hawk victory over Roy WIlliams and the Tarheels tomorrow!
We have less than two weeks left in Central America, and I for one am ready for a change of scenery, or at least a change of food. We eat A LOT of rice and beans here.
Exhibit A: Beans for the week. We’re talking three meals a day. Pad Thai here I come!
Ministry has been pretty low-key. Most of the time we work on the property, hold church services with the youth, or visit the surrounding barrios to pray for people. Yesterday we had the opportunity to visit The Mustard Seed, a special needs children’s home. Sometimes it’s easy to get frustrated thinking that we’re not doing enough to help, but God sends us little reminders He has right where he wants us.
Today, as we were walking through one of the nearby communities inviting people to church, Katie felt led to stop and talk to a group of young guys. She ended up preaching to them for almost 45 minutes, and at the end one of the boys, Daniel, accepted Christ into his life as his Lord and Savior. It’s moments like this that make the World Race so great! And then on the way home we got to watch Farmer Elmo milk his cows, so that’s always fun too.
Earlier this week I was extremely blessed to be able to go to Costa Rica for a few days. My teammate Zach had a friend staying in Playa Conchel, so we decided to hop on a bus to go see him. The ride was only supposed to be a few hours, but as usual on the World Race, it ended up being a nine-hour travel day on the way down and 12-hour travel day on the way back to Nicaragua. So worth it though!
We went to Costa Rica without hotel reservations, without an agenda, and without much money, but God provided for our every need and then some! Every time that we missed a bus, God sent a cab driver to offer us a decent price. When we missed our stop and the Tica Bus dropped us off in the middle of the highway, a local bus came along and took us back to town. When we realized the bus wasn’t stopping in Jinotepe, God sent a man who spoke English over to us, who somehow knew where we were headed, and he took care of us. Countless times over the course of our travel days, things could have gone very badly for us, but our God is a God who provides.
But by far the biggest blessing in our trip was the generosity of the Papuga family. They purchased wristbands for us to stay one night at their all-inclusive resort, right on the beach. We enjoyed World Race paradise: an all-you-can-eat buffet, air-conditioning, hot showers and a soft bed. Thank you Papugas!
My prayer request for ya’ll today is that three of my teammates are still in need of funds to reach the April 1 deadline. If they don’t have $11,000 in their account by next week, they will be sent home. Please pray for them, and if it’s possible, you can make a donation to them through their blogs. I love them all so much and can’t imagine any of them having to leave the World Race. Thanks!
tatumpomeroy.theworldrace.org
zachcobos.theworldrace.org
evanbates.theworldrace.org
