If you look at a map of Nicaragua, you will see a big lake with an island that has two volcanoes in the middle of it. This island – Ometepe – is where CICRIN is located. It’s all squad month which means all three C-squad teams are serving at the same location all month. With only 20 of us plus 2 squad leaders, everyone gets time to hang out with everyone. We have 3 tasks this month – helping in the school, kitchen duty/yard work, & prayer. Since we’re here 3 weeks each team is spending one week at each task. Also, the first week we were here, there was also a team from Maine here as well.
The first week my team (Flames to Fire, F2F) was assigned to the school. We showed up last Monday to find that no one had been expecting us. We were asked to rake, sweep, and mop. When we finished that, the next task was weeding the garden. Not quite what any of us were expecting, but we rolled with it. As the week progressed, we spent more and more time in the classrooms and playing games during recess. In the afternoon, two of us would do random tasks around the school – sweep, make decorations, play with the principal’s daughter, wash mops – while the other 4 helped with the daily program which consists of singing, a Bible lesson, craft, and snack. The team from Maine had most of that planned so we assisted them.
This second week my team had prayer. I enjoy praying and was super excited that our ministry for an entire week was to pray and wage spiritual warfare. On the first day, we set up a battle plan by asking each other what we wanted to walk away from the week with, how we were feeling going into the week, and what battles we wanted to focus on throughout the week. This list helped us focus our prayers and know how to pray for each other more specifically. We also decided to memorize Ephesians 6:13-18 together and that became the first thing we did as a team each morning. Our schedule during prayer week:
8-9: Personal preparation for warfare
9-12ish: team
12-1:30ish: lunch break
1:30-3:30ish: team
Each member of F2F took a turn leading the team times so we all got to share some of our battle strategies with each other. I think this week was probably the hardest and best week as a team so far.
This next week our job will be to help in the kitchen by washing dishes, wiping tables, sweeping, etc. We will also help out around the entire CICRIN area by sweeping, mopping, raking leaves, gathering brush, etc.
