This past month I was living in Nicaragua. My team (and one other) worked with Vision Nicaragua, an organization who addresses the needs of the people in Nicaragua and aims to best serve them through multiple avenues of discipleship, including: building churches, training and equipping communities to meet medical needs, prayer ministry, evangelism, and much more. The people who we worked with were extremely loving and will be missed, especially Antonia and Estella who cooked every meal for us. Let’s be honest, I can’t cook, so their service probably prolonged my teammates lives or at the very least ensured their health.
At the beginning of the month, I felt my team was not doing much. And I was disappointed. We were working with the children of Bethel, loving and playing with them. Don’t get me wrong, I love these children and had a blast with them. However, in my mind I kept thinking “I did not just travel all the way to Nicaragua to play stickball with kids for three hours every day.” Let me take a moment to digress and describe stickball to you. Stickball is like baseball in the fact that you have an object to hit and an object to hit with as well as bases to run and people to get out. Instead of a bat you have a stick (thus, stick-ball). On the off chance the children don’t have a ball, you play with an empty deodorant stick. There are three bases, not four. And instead of saying “dos outs (two outs)” all of the kids will scream “DOE OUUUS” because, obviously, with the excitement of the game one cannot simply pronounce the endings of words. So, I had a great time. But I felt something was missing; God was missing. Here I was playing with kids, but what good was I doing? That was a question I asked myself a lot, especially when the kids renamed me Loca, or Crazy. (In my defense, we were quarreling over what color was better, red (rojo) or orange (anaranjado). Clearly, orange is the best answer.) I taught these kids the English word “crazy.” As you can tell I felt accomplished. But hanging out with the children of Bethel is what Vision Nicaragua had planned for us. God was calling us to love these kids. So why wasn’t I satisfied?
Towards the middle of the month I was feeling better. Our ministry picked up as we worked with a women’s Bible study group. The first time we worked with them, we went door to door, praying for the mothers and women of the households in a small village. The local village people welcomed us to their doorsteps and into their homes with open arms. The encouraged us to pray for them. At first I was skeptical about walking from door to door. I did not travel to Nicaragua to become a Jehovah’s Witness. I felt like I was going to intrude on their personal space and meddle with their lives that I knew nothing about. Turns out, it was quite the opposite. What astonished me the most wasn’t the realization that personal property is predominantly an American value, but rather the boldness of the women we were working alongside. These women walked with confidence into a yard and prayed with such love and compassion that villagers were moved to tears. These women are teenagers. Most of the ladies are between the ages of 15 and 20. They are incredibly young, but so filled with the Holy Spirit that they cannot help but proclaim God’s goodness.
We continued to work with this group of women hosting teen Bible studies. Our Bible studies included worship (I must thank Daughters of the Vineyard for being musically inclined), testimonies, games, and a message. I finally started to feel like the Lord was using me to bring others to Him. I finally felt I had a purpose because I was actively engaging with others on a physical, emotional, and spiritual level. One of my favorite activities we planned was held for the sick men. Many of the men around our area (Chinandega and Chichigulpa) and, really, all of Nicaragua are dying from kidney failure, possibly caused by the chemical Toxaphene. One researcher I talked to believed that the chemical, which was found in pesticides until the 1980’s – 1990’s, was used in the sugar cane fields and managed to infiltrate major water supplies after a mudslide caused by the massive rains brought by Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Men are dying from this exposure, leaving hundreds of families destitute. Working in the sugar cane fields brings a source of income to families who would otherwise go without because of the lack of available options. Men go to work knowing they might not have long to live. Men as young as twenty two are dying. My team aimed to bring them peace in the Lord and peace for their families. We wanted to remind them that the Lord has a plan. The Lord is working through their lives and their struggles to bring others closer to Him. Their lives are not over yet and they are still a blessing upon their families and friends. This was an extremely hard message to give to men who had already seen 25 of their close friends pass away. This particular group of men used to have 75 members and only around 20 were able to come. They were filled with gratitude in knowing that we chose to spend our time helping them and bringing them together. Our message and personal prayers with each of them had a major impact on them. The Lord was able to use us for His glory. It was an amazing experience.
The end of the month came sooner than expected. As I said, it was a slow beginning. By the end, we were racing to keep things in order. I was not the only person who enjoyed working with the children in Bethel but felt there should be something more. So, we decided with the three days we had left we were going to hold a Vacation Bible School for the children of Bethel, complete with a story, worship, verse memorization, games, and crafts. Sounds easy right? Here we were, 11 Americans with barely any Spanish speaking abilities holding a Spanish VBS. It was great. Completely chaotic, but great. The first day we meant to have a translator, but that didn’t work out. Therefore, like us world racers do, we winged it. We had 25 to 30 kids show up, and they had a blast. On the second day, Jaja, our wonderful friend and translator, helped us control the wild hooligans. She also took initiative in the classroom, which resulted in seven kids giving their lives to Christ. On the third day, and last day of our stay, over 50 children came to VBS. God’s light shined through us to bring these kids the love of our Savior.
At the beginning of the month, I wasn’t satisfied. I longed for more. I didn’t understand why God was having me wait around and waste my time. I wanted to be guided by him so I sat around and waited. While I had good intentions on wanting to make sure the Lord was directing me, I wasted time that God gave me. I did not realize He was gifting me with time to see how I would serve Him in my own way. I expected God to give me a ministry instead of acknowledging that He was giving me room to explore different ways to serve and worship Him. I learned that when you have options and choices in front of you, pray to God. Listen to what He has to say. However, if you aren’t hearing or you are still wavering, then go ahead and make a decision. Don’t sit around waiting for the right path to make itself clear. Sometimes you just need to start off in one direction. Even if later you decide it is the wrong direction, God is still there guiding you. He will be there with you throughout the journey, and He will guide you back to where He wants you to be. He will use each decision you make to strengthen you and others. Don’t sit around and wait for too long; take action. God is there, and He’s waiting on you.
