Wow! My deepest apologies to my dear readers and supporters! It’s been so long since I’ve posted a blog! I’ll do my best to catch you up. Leaving Nepal, we flew into India, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, and finally Managua, Nicaragua. In total, our travel day was 50 hours long (counting a 12 hour layover in Chicago where I got to see my friends, the bean, and eat Chick-Fil-A)! Team changes happened on my birthday and I got to celebrate with my new team! I became a treasurer, a person who takes care of the money for the team! Then, later that weekend came PVT (Parent Vision Trip!) which is the main focus of this blog today! Let’s dive right in!
The morning of the 11th, I could hardly sit still. I was going to see my parents for the first time in 7 months!! As their bus pulled up at 11 a.m. I was bouncing up and down like a kindergartner seeing mom and dad after the first day of school. Long hugs and tears were exchanged as the came over to me.
Over the course of the week, we did three different types of ministry. On Monday, we, along with other racers and parents, went on a prayer walk. At the start of the race, prayer walking was hard for me cause I almost never saw the fruit of what I prayed over, but my parents took it in stride and walked next to me into every home, praying healing and safety over families.
Two stories from our walk that impacted both of my parents in different ways. The first was walking into a small shack, tin walls, dirt floor, and a woman in a wheel chair. We asked what she needed prayer for and she said, “I don’t know what to tell you. I have everything I need.” And I saw my dad look around the shack and back to her, astounded by what she said and moved by the spirit.
The second was walking into the yard of a woman who made tortillas for a living. She was on her feet all day and had developed planar fasciitis in her feet, a condition shared by my mother and another mom named Tiffany. They prayed healing over her feet and I watched my mom get down on her knees, take the woman’s feet in her hands, and kiss them. She was so shaken by the spirit in that moment and allowed Him to work through her so that the next day we could do something incredible for her.
Tuesday was our morning off day since we were doing an afternoon VBS for our ministry! We got to go out and explore Grenada before preparing for the afternoon. We arrived at the center REAP (our host ministry) had built and, before starting went to the same woman with the foot condition. Both moms from the day before Gabe her things to help her feet. A pair of compression socks, a roller ball to stretch out the tendon of the foot, and a pair of new burkinstocks that would mold to her feet and give her better support. The rest of the afternoon was equally as awesome as we got to perform dances, a skit, and draw with the kids.
Wednesday was dad’s birthday and I don’t think a better day could have been planned for ministry. We built a traditional Nicaraguan aderondac chair! All of us got to participate in building a part of the chair and they will be used for a long time on the porch where the parents live. That afternoon we had free so we went zip lining! It was epic and both my parents had a blast!
Thursday, our final full day might have been one of the best days. We started out by going to an active volcano, then went to a crater lake and swam for hours! My parents and I jumped off a super tall dock into the water! It was awesome!! Then, that evening when we got back was the coolest thing to happen in the whole week. We washed each others feet and while washing my mom’s feet I prayed for her to be healed from her planar fasciitis in her feet. I had told my mom multiple ones before this that I believed she would be healed at PVT. After I finished praying I asked her to stand. She did, walked around, and stared at me in disbelief. “There’s no pain in my right foot!” She exclaimed, stomping it on the ground as if she was trying to find the pain. Although her left foot wasn’t fully healed, the right had been in pain basically since I was born. So amazing and astounding!
Friday, our last day together, was filled with packing, sorting stuff to give to them to send home, and hanging out with people around the hostel. Our goodbye this time wasn’t as teary since we knew we’d see each other way sooner than the first time we parted ways.
So! There’s my amazing experience at PVT and honestly, this blog could go on way longer but this is the overview for you! Thanks to the Esposito family for hosting us at their farm and providing ministry for us to do!
Guatemala is amazing and I have the pleasure of helping teach with an organization called Loving Arms! A blog will be posted next week about that and our experience with “Semana Santa”, Holy Week here in Antigua! Thanks for reading!
