This month, we all have decided that the 3 Spanish speakers will not translate at all. The other half of our team is learning Spanish now. The rest of us help when really needed, but mostly not.
Here’s why that is a challenge: It’s ask the Lord month. We don’t have a ministry contact. We go places as led by the Holy Spirit and minister in the same manner.
Our first city: Granada.
We got into Managua on the first. We were picked up at the bus station by the contacts for Rayos. They then took us to the equivalent of a Nicaraguan Costco.
There was a guy there who was practicing his English and asked us where we were from. We ended up having a nice conversation with him, and when it turned spiritual, he told us about his involvement with YWAM, which was cool. Then, one of the contacts was from North Durham and knows where I live.
AIM had set up a hostel for us in Granada, so they dropped us off there. There were some parrots. One wolf whistled at me, and I sort of taught them the Hunger Games whistle. They also had a pond with water sliders and snapping turtles.
Highlights of Granada:
Praying with Lady
When we went to get our SIM cards, we came back to the center of the park square to find Katrina and Leah praying for a little elderly lady. They stayed and talked with her for a long time, even though they could only understand a little bit of what she was saying.
Church and Coconuts
Then I felt like I should go over to this kiosk with paintings on it, where we talked to a guy who told us about the church that sells coconuts. Well Leah loves coconut water. So we went over to the church by the coconuts, but no one was selling them. So then we went into the church for a bit. Mass was just ending. We got into a conversation and someone asked what our worst fear-like situation would be on the race. So we shared some things with each other that we hadn’t known before, and spoke life into each other. We felt the Holy Spirit’s presence there.
Coffee Shop Americans
We had found this awesome coffee shop that sold this decadent-looking cake. So we went in later and shared some. This random girl came up to us and asked us in English where we were from. That led to a bit of a conversation, with recognition when Allison found out that they were from the same state. Ryan invited her to sit down with us, but she had to leave because her friends were doing something. Then after a while, she came back and said that her friends were being slow. So she sat down with us. She asked us why we were here and we shared our purpose. She told us she was a video editor and coming down here to visit her friend. We talked for a bit, and it was fun. Soon, her 3 friends came in – all siblings. They wanted to know everything she had told us, so we spoke with them and shared stories on some of the same places we had been.
But still, Granada was difficult. We all felt tired, attacked, and irritable. We all had to show each other grace and have some good conversations.
Then, we kept getting signs and confirmations that we should go to San Juan del Sur. So, we went, even though it was the day after Good Friday, Holy Week is nuts in Central America, and because of that we didn’t even have a hostel yet.
And then the trouble began even more . . .
