The past Friday evening, we went to the house of a family from the church we’ve been staying at in Nicaragua. The grandmother used to walk at least 45 minutes to go to church every Sunday. She recently got sick, however, and stopped coming. In this area, it’s expected that when a member gets too sick to come to church, it is the responsibility of the pastors and congregation to meet with them. So we went over to their house with our contact, Pastor Jaime, along with Pastor Hipolito. The grandmother lives with her daughters and their children. We worshipped with the family, shared testimonies, and gave a message. One of the women who lived in the house had two children, but was not married to the father. One of my teammates shared about how she used to look for love through men until she found Jesus and was able to find her love and worth in him. The other shared about coming out of an unbiblical relationship and how that brought a lot of healing in both her and her family. It wasn’t until after we had left that Jaime told us that one of the women who lived at the house wanted to come to Christ but was struggling with a bad relationship with the father of her children. She wanted them to get married or she was ready to leave him. It was awesome to see that God had the two people share that really could speak into her situation.
We also met another girl who had recently been kidnapped by two women who were planning on killing her and selling her organs on the black market. She escaped and wouldn’t stop crying. Although her family was not Christian, they called Pastor Jaime to pray over her and she was able to stop crying and fall asleep for the first time. She had been coming to church and the youth group we’ve been helping out with but finally made the decision to accept Christ this past Sunday.
We also got the chance to share about the Race and Jesus on a local Christan radio show that broadcasts throughout Nicaragua, some places in the United States, and Spain!
I’ve also learned more about how important short-term mission work is. It’s been really cool to see how much of an impact that we’ve been able to have on the lives of the people here in Palacaguina. The church members get really excited when missionaries come and it really helps to lift their spirits. There were times that we did of manual labor like moving dirt and cleaning up outside where you might get a little frustrated because you’re not working one on one with people, but our contact emphasized how important doing that kind of work is because it saves the church a ton of money, as well as gives relief to the people in the area. For example, we did yard work and cleaned up outside of the only hospital in Palacaguina- The clinic is so poor that it can’t even afford to hire a janitor.
I’m so thankful for the people that I’ve gotten to meet in Nicaragua. It is truly a wonderful country with beautiful, servant hearted people. Neighborhood women would frequently bring our group coffee while we were working, and one family from the church cooked all of our meals for the month.
This next month, our team will be traveling around Costa Rica with a program called Unsung Heroes. We will not have a set contact but instead will be searching for new ministries wherever God leads. Please keep my team in your prayers during this time!!
