Hey everybody!
It’s been a while, so I thought I’d give you a little update of my last month of life.
The beginning of April was spent in Ciudad Darío, Nicaragua. Our team, STEVE, was paired with another team and placed at Light & Salt Ministries. The sweet ministry was started by our host, Tara (she’s Canadian!!), and focuses on bringing a reform to the country of Nicaragua through raising their boys to be men of God who stand with and for their families – it’s amazing! Our teams spent most of our time there teaching English, Bible lessons, playing soccer, and eating with the boys!
I, however, was a little less lucky. On day two of our time in Nicaragua, I hit my head and got a minor concussion – rough times. I spent the rest of the week sleeping, avoiding harsh light, and cleaning our host’s house (the only thing I could contribute). Since I didn’t personally get to experience the ministry very much, you can read it about it here from my friend and teammate Caitlin’s perspective!
While the week was filled with lots of rest on my end, it also with filled with daily hospital visits, but not for me, but for my teammate. Steffy found herself incredibly sick with an intestinal infection and couldn’t keep anything down. As per world race norms, we took her to the hospital most nights, who would then send us back home with an IV in her arm and nothing to hold it up – but don’t worry, we world racers are incredibly resourceful. We set her up on the couch, hung the IV from a ladder beside it, and draped a bug net over her – good as new!!
With that being said, Steffy actually wasn’t good as new just quite yet, and after a night of throwing up to the point of blood coming from her nose, the two of us had to quickly leave Ciudad Darío to head to Grenada, where the AIM base is, so Steffy could get better treatment and be more comfortable. We were up by 6am, packed by 6:30, and in the car on our way to Grenada by 7am. We honestly left so suddenly we didn’t get to say goodbye to our team – talk about sad times!
But, don’t fret, God is SO good and things went up from there. Once we got to the AIM base in Grenada we were greeted by Gap S – a group of 18-20 year olds on missions with AIM as well (it’s basically a 9 month world race)! Those kind sisters and brothers prayed for healing for Steffy the moment we got there and from that point on STEFFY WAS LITERALLY BETTER – Jesus is real, kids!! And He’s still healing today!
Steffy and I spent the next 9 days hanging out, recovering (mostly me recovering), and hanging out with S squad before our squad finally came to meet us! Once again we were finally reunited with our team and friends and life was GREAT again!
At the AIM base we got to do a variety of things, but my favourite were prayer walks and hospital visits. We got to walk around the community, stop at a house, yell to see if they were inside, and they would graciously invite us in and share their lives with us for anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours. Before leaving we always made sure to pray for them. It was a beautiful time of simply living as individuals connected only by love and the desire to know one another.
My other favourite was hospital visits. We would get to go to the local hospital and ask patients if they’d like prayer. While we were there, three of us were allowed into emergency – a part of the hospital that’s always been closed off to us. While there, six kids about my age showed up bloody and bruised. Apparently their truck had flipped and two of them had been ejected from the car. It was insane. Immediately my host and I started to pray for them. One of the guys we prayed for immediately sat up and said tiredly thanked us. His name is José and he’s 22. He told us he couldn’t remember what happened exactly, but he was already feeling better. It was a cool moment of being faced with the fragility of life and seeing God meet our brother in his hospital bed.
To end off the month, we got one of the best blessings … OUR PARENTS CAME! I got to spend three sweet days hanging out with my parents as they joined us for prayer walks and going to the local dump to hang out with the workers there, pray for them, and share a meal with them. It was a special time of getting to watch my parents step out and pray for others, and of them getting to see what we actually do on the world race! While our time was short together, I was so thankful that they even got to come. THANKS GOD!
After our parents left, we packed up our own bags and headed to Costa Rica. Pretty wild, but there’s more to come and I’m very excited about it. God’s good, and I still wake up most mornings and think “I’m in Nicaragua? I’m on the World Race??!!!” God has got the BIGGEST adventures for each of us, and I’m so thankful this is one that He has for me.
