Buenas tardes from Diriamba, Nicaragua!
Ministry has been pretty unstructured this month. We don’t have a set list of things that need to get done day by day, so it’s really been a month of letting go of our American need for a schedule and lean in to what the Lord has for us every day, every hour.
Here are a few stories of how God has used us in peculiar ways thus far in Nica.
We were walking back from town after dinner one night and bumped into one of our guards, Elis, who was on his way out. I was a little ahead of the group and when I recognized him I said hey and asked him how he was doing. To my surprise, he answered ‘malo’ (bad) so I asked why. He explained that his wife had lost their first child. She was 5 months pregnant and had a miscarriage. He was clearly very upset. I asked if I could pray for him, so we laid hands on him and prayed God’s comfort and peace over him. When we were done praying, he had tears streaming down his face. Wanting to do something more, we invited him back to the compound with us, where we proceeded to feed him ramen, tea, and cookies (#missionarymeal). He showed us pictures of his wife and niece on his phone and played Spanish worship music. Elis wasn’t our prescribed “ministry” for this month, but we were ready to minister when God called us to speak into the life of His child Elis.
There’s this wonderful old man, Don Benicio, who lives next to us in the compound. He’s 84 and helps out around the Quinta; cutting grass, fixing lights, I’ve even seen him up on the roof a time or two. While he is incredibly mobile, Don Benicio has some difficulty communicating clearly. His voice is very raspy and he doesn’t enunciate super well. Add that to my extremely beginner level of Spanish and I understand about 5% of the information he attempts to convey to me during every conversation. We make it work. Last night he was sitting outside on the porch waiting for his flashlight to charge, chatting with one of the guards Juan. Juan had a packet of instant coffee in his hand so I decided to go inside and put on some hot water for his coffee. I brought out hot water & more coffee and we sat outside on the porch, chatting about Lord knows what until the guard decided it was about time he started perusing the grounds again to make sure we didn’t have any intruders. Ministry can be listening to old men share their stories over a cup of joe. Count me in.
When there aren’t any earthquakes and when we’re not getting dumped on by hurricane rain spilled over from Mexico, there’s occasionally preschool held in one of the buildings on the compound. The first day of preschool, we showed up and the teacher pretty much put us at the front of the class and told us to sing and dance. Literally. We sang and danced to ‘head, shoulders, knees and toes’ and tried to teach them English numbers and colors. L.O.L. So the next day for preschool, we decided to be more prepared. This time they were dressed up for the “Day of Corn” and spent most of the day cooking typical Nicaraguan foods consisting mostly of: (you guessed it) corn. Today, however, was by far the most hilarious day. We were playing with the kids out on the playground before what we assumed would be class beginning. After a while, the teachers and moms started moving over to the “pool” followed by the kids. I put “pool” in quotation marks because what was a dry basin yesterday, was filled with last night’s rain about up to my knees. A greenish-brownish color, the kids started stripping out of their clothes and hopped into the “pool.” We were at a loss. We want to be engaged with the kids while they’re there, and we think that the teacher wants us to teach them how to swim. But there is no way I’m getting in that disgusting rain water. Welp, 20 minutes later, after God reminded me what He did for me, I’m knee deep in the “pool” teaching kids how to do the doggy paddle. You’re funny, God.
These are a few of the ways we’ve been creating ministry here in Diriamba. Jesus commands us, “Go and make disciples of all nations” but He doesn’t always specify how. We simply listen to the Lord’s prompting and love those He puts in our path.
Forever His,
Grace
