"No one can believe how powerful prayer is and what it can effect, except those who have learned it by experience."- Martin Luther
I’ve been loving it in Nicaragua. It feels like visiting an old friend because I’ve been here once before. At the end of this month, we’re going to the Philippines, and we have 2 layovers scheduled. The first is in Los Angeles which I’m really excited for because the layover is scheduled for like 5 hours, and my friends Ashley and Josh are going to come visit me!*!*And then our next layover is in Hong Kong. Which is an answered prayer to me because I was praying to be able to go to China, and I was pretty disappointed when I couldn’t find a route on the World Race that went to China. And I remember praying randomly like a few weeks ago that we could somehow still go there, and guess what? We’re having a layover there! For only like 2 hours though haha. But still.
Speaking of answered prayer…I feel that God has answered a lot of prayers favorably to me a lot this week- maybe more than any time that I can remember. We started praying extra for a half hour every morning before breakfast, and I feel God has really rewarded us through that. I was praying for my sister to get a job, and she got one through some unique circumstances. We also were praying for finances a lot this week in particular because we had a deadline coming up, and just this week one of my friends messaged me saying that she wanted to support me in how much left I had, and it was a big amount. We had a day of fasting and prayer for finances for our teammates for the deadline, and we just had some really cool stories like someone saying that they felt God wanted him to give money to our teammate and that person didn’t know about us asking for that. We’ve also been praying for one of our teammates that was struggling, and just this week she said that for the first time she finally feels like herself again and that God has healed a lot of the things that she was struggling with. She actually got baptized in the ocean yesterday! I was also praying that God would help me to forgive a situation in which I was feeling some bitterness, and just yesterday one of my squad leaders described this situation that was so similar to mine and it brought some clarity and healing to my situation. And there was even some more things! Man!
Last Sunday, we got to go to a church service that was held in the beautiful outdoors of Nicaragua, and then we broke up the youth into 3 groups, and I got to teach my group about suffering and about how we have hope in Christ. It was really cool to teach and to later connect with the people there. We talked about a couple verses including Romans 5:3-5 “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”
We’ve been going to an orphanage that has a farm and garden that is used to fund the orphanage. We helped to plant fruit trees one day and did some digging and weeding. It down-poured like the whole day one day though, so we didn’t do much work that day. We also got to play with the kids there. They were so sweet.
We had a day where we went out to meet with people and pray for them and share Jesus with them if they wanted to hear. It was really cool, and I got to use Soularium which is basically a bunch of photos and people choose certain photos to describe their thoughts and to start conversations. It was fun!
We also saw some major injustice last week, and I felt really scared and helpless. It’s hard to know what to do after you see something like that. But I know that God will have the final judgment and that He works all things for His glory.
I’ve been able to do some fun things like one of my teammates has been teaching me some chords on the guitar, and also I’m going to start discipline/mentoring one of my teammates. I got to go to the capital city of Nicaragua on Friday to pick up a prescription with a teammate, and that was an adventure going there.
1. Praise God for providing all my finances for me!
2. Pray for health for my teammates as some have been pretty sick almost the whole time in Nicaragua
3. Pray for my team to have discernment on what the best way to do ministry is and to have unity amongst our team
4. Pray for the people in this area that have a common chronic kidney disease due to working at a sugar plantation that doesn't regulate the chemicals used
Planting fruit trees to help fund an orphanage
Talking in front of a church in Guatemala…I know this is from Guatemala, but I just got the pic, so thought I'd send. 🙂
