It’s a little late this month, I’ve now been in El Salvador for a couple of days already, but here it is….
The Top 11 Memorable Moments of Nicaragua
11. Bug in my Ear
Yes, that’s right. There was a bug IN MY EAR. This makes the
list not as a favourite moment, but as a memorable one because it was one of
the most terrifying experiences of my life. I could FEEL and HEAR a bug
crawling around in my ear canal, but even with head lamps nobody else could see
it, it was that far in. Both teams and our contacts were gathered around me
trying to figure out what to do to get it out. The conclusion was that I was
going to have to go to the emergency room – that would have been a fun
conversation! A Nicaraguan emergency room at 10pm on Good Friday explaining
that there was a bug in my ear! Thankfully, though, as my teammates were being
so awesome and gathering up my passport and other stuff for me (I was too busy
freaking out), Rosa on Team Rooted found her rubbing alcohol and had the idea
to rinse my ear like they do for swimmer’s ear. And it worked! And we were able
to stomp on the little bug that came out of my ear!
10. Granada
Teams Rooted and Wreckonciled spent three days in Granada, a
Spanish colonial town about 4 hours away from Chinandega, where we were living.
While there we went ziplining (see number 10), went on a horsedrawn carriage
ride, found several great restaurants, swam in the hostel’s pool, and relished
in the opportunity to relax for a couple of days.
9. Bathroom Adventures
Praise the Lord! This month we had nice bathrooms! Four
toilets and two showers for nine girls. Not bad. Until the water ran out….
Now most people when you hear that there is no water, the immediate association
is no showers. That is true – but we got around that using baby wipes, lots of
deodorant, and occasionally going to the village to bathe at the houses of our friends.
And we usually brush our teeth with bottled water anyway, so that was fine. The
issue comes when you have no water to flush toilets!
Now those four toilets for nine girls that only got bucket
flushed once in the morning and once in the evening are not quite as nice as
they were in the beginning. Very quickly our rooms started smelling like
outhouses, and you needed to hold your breath if you were even just walking by.
It was horrible!!! But, God always provides, and that only lasted a couple of
days before He gave us water again.
8. Dancing for Jesus
Psalm 150: 4 says “Praise Him with tambourine and dancing”,
and this month we definitely dancedfor Jesus! The youth group in the town of
Bethel has a dance group that performs in worship services and we were invited
to take part in two of their dances. After a LOT of practices, we were able to
dance in 2 services. It was a great experience, a lot of fun, and amazing to
experience worship in a new way.
7. The children
As with most places I’ve been so far this year, Bethel has
an amazing group of children and young adults. I can’t even describe the feeling
you get when your trucks pulls into a village and children run from all
directions cheering and shouting your name. They are all so precious, and more
than one of them were in danger of being packed in our backpacks when we left!
6. Prayer Walking
This month our ministry was very much ATL – Ask the Lord. We
did not have a set schedule very often. Most afternoons we were dropped off in
Bethel with the only instructions of be back at the meeting point in 4 hours,
and it was up to us to figure out what to do. For me, this turned out to mean a
lot of prayer walking. I really felt called this month to become more of a
prayer warrior than I ever have before (more about that later). Along with a
couple of others, I just wanted to COVER that town in prayer. We prayed over
the sugar cane fields, over houses, over people…whatever God told us to pray
over, wherever we were, we prayed. And prayed. And prayed.
5. Connie’s Mafia
Connie is a very special lady. She invited all of the 9
women into her home at the very beginning, and all
month we knew that this was
one house where we were ALWAYS welcome. She called us her “Nicaraguan Mafia”
and we visited almost every day. We played with her pet birds, ate mangoes,
watched movies, and just hung out. Between her knowing a little English, and my
limited Spanish, we were able to have a couple of conversations! One night all
9 of us spent the night at her house for a fruit feast/movie night. Also, when
the water was out at our place, we went to her house to shower. She would
barely accept our thanks afterwards, simply repeating that “mi casa es su casa”
(my house is your house).
4. Birthdays
Two of my teammates, Tiffany and Joel, had their birthdays
on the 25th, so we had a joint birthday party all day. We started
off by heading to a local swimming hole for Tiffany’s re-baptism, which was
absolutely beautiful. Afterwards we went to a restaurant for a great meal,
piñatas, questionable cupcakes, and lots of laughter. (To read more about the
day, check out my teammate’s blog at tiffanyprater.theworldrace.org).
3. Burning the Sugar Cane Fields
Again, not necessarily a great moment, but a memorable one.
Bethel is surrounded by sugar cane fields and just before harvest the fields
are always burned. This removes the green growth to make it easier to harvest,
and begins to crystallize the sugar, which makes it easy to process. So it’s a
good thing, right? Well, I would definitely argue that no, it sucks. First of
all, the birds and animals that live there don’t have a chance to escape.
Secondly, the ash and smoke covers the village, and the ash gets stirred up
constantlyfor a long time afterwards, so it is contributing to health problems
in the village. Usually the fields are burned at night, but for some reason
they were burned during the day while we were there, so 
we had the opportunity
to watch first had. And man, I have never in my life felt the heat of a fire
like I did from that one. Or seen smoke rising like that. The picture is before
the worst of the flames started, but I videoed the worst of it, and of course
the video won’t load. But this gives you an idea of the magnitude of these
flames. It was so intense!
2. Ziplining
As many of you know I have had my bucket list written out
for years. While we were in Granada I got to cross one more item off that list
when we went on a canopy tour on the side of a volcano. It was so exhilarating and
I loved it so much!!!
1. Prayer for Anthony
This might take a little more explanation. In fact it should
probably be its own blog, but I’m still processing much of what happened over
those three days and can’t write a complete blog yet.
Anthony is a teenage kid from a nearby community, one where
another World Race team was staying. In visiting this other team we had met
Anthony a couple of times. One evening, the Tuesday before Easter, we received word
that Anthony had been at the beach that morning, had been caught in a current
and pulled out to sea. We started to pray. Over the next couple of days God was
present and moving in a way that I can’t describe yet. Words and visions that
were confirming each other’s words and visions, overwhelming hope and peace,
and constant prayer for three days. Included in that was two overnight prayer
vigils, one of which was combined with a Bible reading marathon. 18 people each
took a couple of the books of the New Testament and within 12 hours the entire
New Testament was read. I’m hoping to still write a blog about this whole
experience, but right now all I can put into words right now is that over those
three days God spoke more clearly to me than He ever has, and the peace, hope
and joy that came over our teams is indescribable. God is so Good!
