Well, It's been a completely different month on the race.
There have been several game-changing factors that have come into play this month. First? Our team was solo! Team Rhizoo was separated from the rest of the squad. Second? We weren't assigned a "ministry" this month — instead we were assigned the task of finding "unsung heroes" — that means we search the country for contacts and missions that world racers can work with in the future. There's no agenda and no rules for this task. Third? Month three is when racers typically realize race life is real. We're not going home for a long time. Stability of what we've known is pretty much out the window. It's real. These three factors, among others, proved to make a recipe for a month of big time learning.
Because we were tasked with looking for ministries all over Nicaragua, our team got to travel a LOT! It was awesome. It was crazy. It was race life. We started out in Granada. After a week there, we moved on to Managua. After a week in the capital, we found ourselves in Leon for a week. We finished up the month in a mountain town close to the Honduran border, Ocotal. Right now I'm on a bus from Ocotal back to Managua so we can catch a casual flight to The Philippines on Monday. Something that was obvious to me in our travels? I love Nicaragua. It is my favorite Central American country by far — it's so beautiful & friendly & wonderful & I like it a whole lot.
I'll briefly go through what we did in each city and who we met. I know — it's long, it's texty, there aren't photos.. My laptop went kaput and I haven't been able to blog all month. AKA feel free to skim.
Week One: Granada. Our entire squad had a few days of "debrief" all together at the beginning of the month. This is time off when we get to unload, rest and recharge. It's lovely. Our team decided to stay the week after debrief in the same city.
We went to battle in prayer every morning together. At the community table in our hostel we got to come together and Ask The Lord (ATL) what he had for us that day. He was faithful to speak, which means we got to be faithful in obedience.
One of the girls on our team had a vision of Granada being like Jericho. She felt led to lead our team in walking around the city square of Granada seven times each day, symbolically breaking down walls in the hearts of this city greatly focused on greed and alcohol. So, that's what we did! Walk!
I was shocked at how many relationships we built by seeing the same people each day. The conversations we got to have were Spirit-led and filled. I loved meeting people in the square through praying for them. Later in the week, people caught on to what we were doing and started to walk with us. Neat. It was really neat.
After 7 days of 7 laps, we let out a yell just like Joshua and his crew did in Jericho. Man, it felt good. We ended the week blessed by what God showed us through our obedience, even if it seemed kinda unconventional. Good thing we don't have a conventional God — that would make for a boring walk with Him.
Week Two: Managua. Welcome to the capital of Nicaragua! This is the week we really hit the ground running on making connections with ministries. That means we got to meet a lot of Lord-loving, people-serving, mission-minded Managuans. We stayed with another team since they had room to spare in their contact's beautiful house.
The highlight of the week for me was working with Food for the Hungry. They took us on a vision trip to see the communities they work with. For two days we got to tour poor barrios around the small cities of Chinandega and Somatillo that we would have never seen otherwise. Hidden gems. We got to talk with community leaders to hear about the prominent physical and spiritual issues residing there. Speaking Spanish definitely has come in handy. We dreamed up possible solutions with them that would hopefully include future World Race groups. It was so dang cool. One of the highlights of my month.
When we got back from our little jaunt with FFH, things got weird. Four of the seven on our team had come down with a nasty virus. We had every malaria symptom – it was a great time. After an eventful night that included a seizure and flooding the house we were staying in, it was obvious that our team needed a change in location. Everyone is now safe and healthy, by the way!
God provided a haven for us to retreat to. A Young Life staffer opened up her house to us for the weekend while she was on vacation. I can't tell you the combined beauty of a bed, a couch and a Netflix account. Really. That weekend we rested, healed, and asked The Lord where he wanted us next.
His timing was funny on answering us. When I say that I mean that we walked out of Ann's house with our packs, not knowing where we were going or how we were going to get there. With half of our team still feeling down & out for the count, we walked down the highway and caught a taxi that ended up taking us an hour and a half away to Leon. Who knew taxis did that? We didn't!
Week Three: Leon. Our team leader and squad parents and Jesus decided our team needed uninterrupted rest for a week. The truth is we needed recovery in a lot of ways. We needed it physically, spiritually, and relationally. We stayed in a hostel, fasted media, sought The Lord, worked on our team, and healed.
It was good. It wasn't what we thought ministry would look like, but we were reminded that our first ministry is to each other — something we hadn't been prioritizing. We felt the weight of trying to love and serve one another out of our own strength. It's impossible. It's tiring and it always falls short. I think that by the end of the week our team collectively hit the reset button. We were ready to roll. Ready to work together. Ready to use better strength than our own. Ready to go to Ocotal.
Week Four: Ocotal. Welcome to my favorite week of the race. I'm going to write another blog just about our week here because it's worth it. So worth it. Last month in Honduras we worked with Pastor Alejandro, a fireball Nicaraguan from Ocotal. Our team got to work with him every day, and soon fell in love with this fun new uncle figure in our life. When we found out we'd have the opportunity to go serve with his meeneestree (he's learning English) and meet his family, we were stoked.
For the week, we were his adopted daughters. Darcie Martinez has a ring to it, right? We lived with his family in their sweet little concrete house and ate the awesome food that MamaChica, his mother-in-law, made us. We got to dive into the endearing community of Ocotal in many ways – from serving at schools to pulling weeds, visiting the elderly, praying for the sick, having coffee with anyone who'd have us in their home… it was all truly lovely.
The most encouraging thing was how their church community embraced us. Seriously, we felt so LOVED. I gave my first sermonette in Spanish at church one night which was welcomed with many an aaaahhhmen. They also loved it when we sang in front of the church, so that we did. Singing so much was a blast. We got to spend a lot of quality time with the members daily in their homes, which turned out to be so fruitful. God flexed.
By the end of the week, we didn't want to leave. Our team was functioning like we were created to function, we loved our ministry, MamaChica's coffee was so good and the Martinez family was simply too much fun. I have a hard time believing that I won't go back to Nicaragua in the future.
Overall, God's just faithful. He's good at knowing what I need and giving it to me at the perfect time. He's not only sufficient, but is the giver of double portions. I loved our unconventional month in Nicaragua. Now I need to brush up on my chopstick stills — we leave for Asia tomorrow!
I'll miss Central America in all its glory.
More stories to come.
Cheers to rice, beans, corn tortillas, and sweat,
Darcie
