A day in the life in Nicaragua!
Here’s a schedule of the day and then I will explain it:
On Wednesday and Fridays we had mandatory wake up at 5am for prayer and every other day was optional, so for the sake of this blog we are going to go with a 5am prayer day.
4:45am: wake up
5-6: prayer
6-7: quiet time/devotionals
7-7:30: get ready for the day
7:30: team breakfast
9-11: ministry
12: lunch
1:30-4: ministry
4-6: free time/be intentional time
6: dinner
7: usually worship, book study, or debate
Usually in bed by 8:30-9
While in Nicaragua the days may not seem that full, but they were long, by the end of the day I was always so full of a fulfilling and satisfying exhaustion. I learned that I seemed to have spiritually better days when I started with 5am prayer. Not because I was successful in getting my butt out of bed at 5am but because I started my day off right in the presence of the Lord. I love starting my days off by thanking Him instead of letting myself and my desires and needs get in the way of anything. Just a time where I can simply worship Him and thank Him for being such a good Dad to me. For breakfast we usually ate eggs, rice, beans, and fruit, or on the lucky days we would get pancakes! Yum! For morning ministry we always switched off daily in the mornings between farming and prayer walking and then we would do the opposite in the afternoon. So farming looked like staying on our compound, a farm with lime trees, lemon trees, plantain trees, maringa trees, tamarind trees, and lots of land. We would help with manual labor, usually uprooting plantain trees or harvesting tamarind. Prayer walking was an amazing experience of seeing how much power there is in prayer. Everyday we would go out into the neighborhood and knock on doors or just meet people in the street. The goal wasn’t to overwhelm them with what we believe. It was to simply let them know that we see them, that we love them, that God loves them, and pray for them. We just told them stories of our testimonies and we made them feel loved simply because we chose to sit with them and to tell them that they are not alone. These people were so inviting and even when they had nothing they made sure we were comfortable. The people of Nicaragua are the most generous people I have ever met. From 4-6 we had free time and I like to call it be intentional time. It was a great time to connect with people you have met so far and to build relationships with them. I will admit, I spent a lot of days resting during this time because I was not feeling good the whole time I was in Nicaragua, but the times I did go out, I got to experience so many beautiful sons and daughters. For lunch and dinner we usually had things like chicken, rice, beans, occasionally tortillas and pico de gallo. Let me tell you, no one ever went hungry on the farm. They were so amazing to us. Blessings. In the evenings we usually did worship (self explanatory), book study, or debate. For book study my ministry host Scott gave us all a copy of Spiritual Slavery to Sonship by Jack and Trisha Frost. We would read a chapter on our own and then come together and talk about it. That book wrecked me. I recommend reading it (just get the version that’s only written by Jack Frost). Debate didn’t actually mean debate, it meant a hot topic discussion where we could learn to share our opinions in a community that would give us grace and we could learn to speak in love and seeking to understand and not to be understood. I was intimidated by this so I didn’t do much talking but it was so cool hearing other opinions and really asking myself what my opinion was on said subject. It was a really great experience. The days were always so long that I couldn’t keep my eyes open past 8:30.
Nicaragua: Thank you for introducing me to the people I met. Everyone at Reap. Everyone in the village. I miss you. I love you. I thank God all the time that I got to meet you. Thank you for teaching me what it looks like to get really intentional really fast. Thank you for loving me well. I hope to see you again.
<3 Kae
