The life we live

Our first week in Nicaragua was incredible. We were blessed to stay in a beautiful hotel in Jinotepe called Casa Mateo, along with another team. We went to church services, visited a hospital to pray over the sick, played a softball game against a woman’s team from a hair salon nearby, and so much more. We found a great little diner with American food, a street market, basically everything we could want. It sounded like we’d be doing anything from more hospital ministry to visiting homes for disabled children. I just knew it was going to be an incredible month.

 

And then we moved into La Quinta Esperanza, and everything changed. We were no longer in the big city, our ministry
opportunities weren’t the same, and we went from staying in nice hotel
rooms to 7 of us sharing a little house that didn’t have water most
days. Looking at the options, I’m sure I would have chosen to stay in Jinotepe. But now that the month is over, I hardly remember that first week. It is the time we spent in La Quinta that stands out to me. It will be those memories from Nicaragua that I hold dear as we continue on in the Race.

 

 

La Quinta is a beautiful piece of property in Diriamba, Nicaragua. It is a home for youth coming from all kinds of different pasts. Some come from gangs, most have been abused, and pretty much all of them have been abandoned. They have housing for the youth, a church, a soccer field, a preschool, and just beautiful land with lots of trees. Our ministry was different every day, but we mostly just got to live life along side these teens. So, to give you an idea what life looked like, here’s a typical day in the life of Quiet Storm.

• 8 am Breakfast: The same chef that cooks for all of the kids at La Quinta also cooked for us. But, most days she would bless us with familiar foods. Breakfasts here was by far my favorite so far on the Race. We got French toast, some of the best pancakes I’ve ever had, eggs, fruit, coffee, etc. And only on rare occasions did we have rice for breakfast!
•  9 am-12 pm Construction: We helped with construction on what will eventually be a dining hall. Some of us laid cement in between the bricks to make the floor, others leveled out a room, we dug trenches to run water, and more. So great to know we helped with something that will be in their lives, and the lives of others for a long time to come.
• 12:30pm Lunch: Usually some combination of rice, beans, chicken, and maybe some veggies.
• 1-3 pm Free time: We usually had a few hours to ourselves, or to hang out on the property. Often used for naps and time to dig into the Word.
• 3 pm Church: The majority of days we had church or small groups in the afternoon. The youth were so involved in every aspect of church. They ran their own youth services, as well as children’s church, and were involved in the regular Sunday and Wednesday services as well. 
• 6:30 pm Dinner – Everything from hamburgers to rice and beans.
• 7 pm Team Time: Just get together, talk about anything going on, and spend time getting to know each other better
• 8 pm Free: We’d usually hang out with the kids until they’d go to bed, and then we’d head to bed shortly after (or not so shortly after, depending which of us you’re talking about)