There are moments where I have to think to myself: I am on the World Race… 2 months into my journey… in Nicaragua… with my entire squad of 46 people… sitting in the back of a pick-up truck… on my way to be dropped off in a rural village… to share the Gospel… and pray over strangers.
PSA: I could probably write a blog post on each of these… but I don’t have wifi consistently this month so here ya go!
1. Ministry: Vision Nicaragua
This month, we are serving in Chinandega, Nicaragua at Vision Nicaragua. Vision Nicaragua’s mission statement is “To fulfill the Great Commission of Jesus Christ, proclaiming the Gospel, baptizing and teaching believers to obey God’s Word, and building bridges of love,” so this month we have been focusing on evangelism. Our days look like traveling to small rural villages to do door-to-door ministry (having conversations about Jesus & praying with people), playing soccer and games with kids on the street, helping with medical clinics, sharing testimonies of how Jesus’ love and grace has transformed our lives, leading worship, building relationships with kids and men with addictions, sharing the Gospel and inviting people to accept Jesus, and painting Vision Nicaragua’s facilities.
One thing I want to remember: HOSPITALITY.
I have been overwhelmed with the amount of hospitality I have experienced. We are literally walking into people’s homes—uninvited. They did not expect us to come, and yet, they grabbed as many chairs as they had to make sure we felt comfortable. They stopped whatever they were doing to talk with us for 20-45 minutes. We had conversations with people who had either never heard about Jesus, who were culturally Catholic (but didn’t have a personal relationship with Jesus), or who were strong Christians in their communities. We took time to answer any questions they had, we gave them words of encouragement, we told them Jesus loved them, we shared our personal testimonies, and we prayed with them. I have had a lot of people come to my door throughout the years—whether they are Mormon, Christians, or Jehovah Witnesses—when I go back to the states, I want to change the way I respond to them. If someone has the courage to come to my door, I want to bless them with extravagant love. I want to have a spirit of hospitality and welcome them with a love that will catch them off guard. I want to offer them food or tea and have conversations with them. I want to show them Jesus’ love.
If you’re looking for a book to inspire you to love in bigger ways, read the book Love Does by Bob Goff. It’s a game changer.
2. Change is my Good Friend!
We have a “schedule” on a calendar that tells us what we will be doing and where we will be serving for each day of the month– we call it the Wolfpack Weekly. One of the main things they tell you during Training Camp and Launch is to be flexible and be ready for anything. Change is our constant friend during the race, and this month has been no different! One day, we might be thinking we will be going to a rural village to do door-to-door evangelism ministry, and we’ll end up putting on a program where we worship, do a drama, share our testimonies, give a message, and invite people to accept Jesus.
One thing I want to remember: FLEXIBILITY
A constantly changing schedule has helped me relinquish the need to control things, and I have fully embraced change and a lifestyle of flexibility. It’s been a cool opportunity to adapt, and to troubleshoot whenever necessary. It’s kept me on my toes, and has me going into the day with a “I wonder what God is going to have us do today” mentality. I know I can’t rely on the things of this world to give me stability or peace, but I know time and time again I can depend on God for the peace I need to move forward with whatever He has planned.
3. Morning Jesus Time
Month 1, I woke up every day around 5:30am to spend time with the Lord before going into ministry at 7:30am. This month, I have been waking up every morning around 6am before we eat breakfast as a squad at 8am. Day after day, it seems like 2 hours isn’t enough time to spend with the Lord!
Something the Lord has been teaching me is to be still with Him. I usually love starting my day with a devotional or being in the Word, but I’m learning how to not have an agenda with Him. I’m learning how to just be with Him. I’m learning how to rest and letting Him fill me up with His love for me. I’m learning what it means to be His daughter.
One thing I want to remember: ART IS WORSHIP
I like art. I consider myself a creative person. However, I have never created art as a form of worship. One of my Squad Leaders, Hannah, taught us a session on art as a form of worship one night. She encouraged us to draw whatever we were feeling as a way to express it to God. If God gave us a picture, we could draw it and let Him lead us with more images. There was a week where I was feeling mentally exhausted and couldn’t express or pinpoint what exactly was exhausting me. So one morning, I decided to wake up at 6am and draw an image the Lord gave me… thinking it was super random but I’d give it a shot. As I kept drawing, trusting, and expanding on the image, I realized I created a picture of EXACTLY what I was experiencing and feeling. The Lord met me where I was at and provided so much clarity. I praised Him and thanked Him for His creativity, His leading, and His clarity.
4. Free Time Galore!
We go to ministry from 9am-11:30am and 2pm-5pm most days, so we have random hours during the mornings, afternoons, and evenings to do whatever we want. A lot of us take naps, shower, organize our spaces, and Facetime our friends and family back home. This month, I felt like the Lord was leading me into newness. There are things I want to do to improve myself, so I’ve been focusing on self-improvement during my free times.
I’ve learned how to play the ukulele, I’ve been trying to improve my posture, I’ve been working on some soccer skills (despite injuring my toe), I’ve been practicing and learning Spanish, I’ve been spending time reading (currently reading Scary Close by Donald Miller and The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind by Bill Johnson… SUCH good reads), I’ve been spending time in my hammock, I’ve been listening to podcasts (Bethel, Fellowship Monrovia, Embodied, and Breakaway are some personal favorites!), I’ve been spending time in community and being refined through deep conversations, I’ve been educating myself on essential oils, and I’ve been playing cards and learning new games to play.
One thing I want to remember: FREEDOM & TIME ARE GIFTS
I’m honestly not sure when I will have this much free time in the future and I want to take advantage of every moment possible. I recently listened to a podcast called “The Gift of Singleness.” As I laughed before, I realized how much of a gift it truly was. As a World Racer, we take a vow to singleness for the year—it’s a commitment to focus on God for the year. While I could be wishing to have a significant other in my life or comparing myself to all of my married friends on social media, I have realized what a GIFT it is to be single right now. I have all the time in the world right now to focus on God and to better myself—I have freedom and time. I don’t have to answer to anyone, and I’m not distracted by pleasing anyone other than God. I want to take advantage of this time, and press into growth and focus with Him.
5. Growing in Confidence & Boldness
Going into door-to-door evangelism, the enemy was speaking a lot of lies to me. One of my teammates, Sarah, always tells us, “If the enemy can’t steal your salvation, the enemy will try to steal your effectiveness.” The enemy WAS trying to steal our effectiveness by instilling fear in us and speaking lies to us such as, “you’re just trying to convert… stop shoving your religion down people’s throats.” Both of those are highly inaccurate, but dang—if I listened to that I wouldn’t have seen all of the goodness I have seen this month! Really, we are sharing Jesus’ love with these people—these precious lives. We are seeking to have conversations about where they’re at, and we want to encourage them that Jesus loves them just as they are. If anything, we are allowing these people to feel seen, known, loved, and cared for through sharing our testimonies and praying over them. It saddens me that people think they have to be enough for Christ—they think they have to wait till they are good enough to accept Jesus or they have to change their lifestyle. They think their sin is too big for Jesus. However, Jesus tells us to come as we are. Jesus wants us to come to Him with our mess, our shame, our joy, our guilt, our rebellion, our mistakes… and He offers us GRACE. He wants to be in relationship with us! Just like a good friend, He wants us to run to Him with the good things that are happening in our life, the hard moments, the messy moments… He wants friendship with us and He wants to embrace us… He wants all of us! There’s nothing more or less we can do to earn the love of God because God looks at us and sees His son—Christ lives within us. While our sin deserves death, Jesus sacrificed Himself and conquered death so that we could walk in freedom and be in relationship with God—who time and time again gives us grace because His love is steadfast and unconditional. Once we understand Jesus’ sacrifice and God’s grace, true transformation comes from a relationship with Him. Jesus is for everyone!
One thing I want to remember: CONFIDENCE IN HIS AUTHORITY
I’ve been growing a lot in boldness this month. I’m trusting that it is not I who live, but Christ who lives within me (Galatians 2:20). When I’m feeling weak or when I don’t know what I should say, it’s the perfect time to depend on Christ because I know the words won’t come from me.
I’m trusting the authority of the Holy Spirit within me, and I’m walking in the boldness and confidence He has given me because my identity is that I am a child of God.
I wrote a small part of my testimony the other day, and I am growing in the boldness to be able to share it. Truly, it’s not my story to tell—it’s how Christ has redeemed my life and has rescued me with His grace. It’s a story of His reckless pursuit and His never-ending love for me. That’s the story I am sharing with these people—that God is crazy about them.
If anything, this month has given me the ability to practice sharing the Gospel time and time again. I’m much more comfortable sharing it, and I believe God is using this time to bless whoever I meet in the future—on the race and when I return to the states. After all, “the enemy of the Gospel is the Christian who does anything but share it.”
6. No More Holding Back
I spend a lot of time with God, so it’s become easier for me to discern His voice over the years. Discernment comes from devotion (I recently heard that in a podcast from Breakaway Ministries).
Time and time again, I will get a word from the Lord and immediately question it. Even though I know it’s not my voice, I know it’s not the enemy’s voice, and it aligns with Scripture, my flesh convinces me to instantly doubt.
I adopted a no-holding-back-mentality recently, and it’s been blowing my mind. If the Lord gives me a word, instead of questioning it and ignoring it, I will speak it into existence. I figure if it’s a word of encouragement, why would I hold back what God wants to tell someone? Even if it’s generic or specific, I trust the Lord will work in their hearts to receive it.
One thing I want to remember: BOLDNESS IN FAITH
The first time I put this mentality into practice was when we did door-to-door ministry for the second time. My team arrived at an impoverished house in a rural village and talked with a woman in her mid-50’s. Her arms were crossed and she didn’t seem stoked that we were there. She told us she wasn’t a Christian, but her husband was, and we talked about how Jesus wanted a personal relationship with her on an individual level. As we began talking with her, the Lord gave me the words “new eyes to see.” As I stepped forward to give her the word, she asked if we could pray for her husband who was partly blind. As Jenny translated what the woman had requested, I stood in awe. God gave me a word that was exactly what this woman needed to hear. I prayed for healing for her husband’s sight, and declared that when he is healed, she would be given new eyes to see the love of the Father through the new sight her husband would receive from God. She was encouraged by the word the Lord gave me to tell her. What’s better than that? She was seen by the Father!
7. Volcano Boarding
Contrary to my Facebook and Instagram posts, we only get 2 off days a week. One is a rest day, and one is an adventure day. Adventure and rest are good for our souls. If we’re going to serve our ministries well and pour into them, we need to fill ourselves up in order to pour out. We can’t pour out when we’re feeling dry and empty. I recently heard a podcast about Rest from Fellowship Monrovia… Albert Tate was saying how we should work from our rest, and not rest from our work. We way we rest should sustain and provide energy for our work.
One thing I want to remember: FAITH OVER FEAR
My squad and I decided we wanted to spend our adventure day volcano boarding! As we hiked up the volcano, and we conversed and anticipated what volcano boarding would feel like. We recently heard a horror story of what happened to a previous racer, so a lot of my squadmates were feeling fearful. However, the whole day, I was overcome with peace. In my personal faith walk, I recently realized I feared man more than I feared God, so I have been asking for God to give me perspective and faith to trust Him more. I was so surprised by the amount of peace I felt. A quote I always return back to is “Fear is not the boss of us. Love is the boss of us” (Glennon Doyle Melton). Since hearing that quote, I have had the courage to tell fear whose boss—the author of Love.
Right before we volcano boarded, I prayed over my squad and prayed that this would be another opportunity to trust God. It was one of those Spirit filled prayers and I didn’t realize the weight of the words the Spirit was providing. That prayer alone was a declaration to expose and rebuke fear, and to trust God’s sovereignty. Moments later, I found myself on a tiny piece of wood with lava rocks flying all over my face. I knew how to slow down, but everything in me wanted to go as fast as I possibly could. I had no fear within me, and wanted to embrace every second of depending and trusting God. As I glided down the mountain, I realized what it was like to truly relinquish control and to surrender to God. I got down the mountain with no scrapes or injuries, and couldn’t help but to praise the Lord for the grand adventure He let me experience.
So while a lot of people went volcano boarding, it was really a spiritual experience for me, and another test of faith in God.
8. Inner Healing
Half way through month 2, our squad leaders led our squad through an inner healing session. During inner healing, you get to identify the present emotion, ask the Lord to take you to your first memory of it, ask the Lord to identify the lie behind it, and ask the Lord to speak truth over the lie. For example, what do you want healing over and what emotions cause a reaction you have a hard time explaining? When did you first experience that emotion (possibly shame)? What was the lie you believed as a result of the behavior? What does the Lord’s truth have to say about it? Lies cannot grow when they’re in the light because they’re exposed for what they really are. On a personal level, I have 24 years of inner healing I need to take time with. I can choose to be comfortable and not address it, or I can gain awareness of the root issue and that will help build self-awareness and leaning on the Lord’s truth instead of listening to the enemy’s lies in the future. I went through an inner healing session, and met up with my friend, Cherish, to expose the lies, speak the truth, and ask for accountability. I’ll probably write a blog post on this soon (yay vulnerability!)
One thing I want to remember: WALK IN THE LIGHT, LIGHT UP THE DARK
True healing happens when we’re willing to get vulnerable and messy. In the moment, it sucks because you’re letting all of your walls down. But when people come alongside you to help you expose the lie and build you up in truth—accompanied by some me too’s, it’s truly a beautiful thing. While I am not 100% healed yet, I no longer carry those burdens. Any time I hear the lies pop up, I’m able to acknowledge them, call them out, rebuke them, and replace them with God’s truth. One thing God is revealing to me is that I don’t have to work for my worthiness. I’m walking in freedom and it feels good.
9. Still Moments
There have been so many small moments of Nicaragua I want to remember. From a witnessing a person we initially greeted with hardened heart and leaving them with a softened, expanding smile, to looking up at cotton candy sunsets, to feeling the wind rush through my air-dried hair during a truck ride, to blocking a soccer ball just recently kicked by a Nicaraguan child, to hearing the loud joyful singing voices of my squadmates as 58 of us crammed into the back of a truck, to feeling the Holy Spirit fill my words during conversations with squadmates, to tasting Nicaraguan hot sauce on every rice and beans meal (which is the best hot sauce I’ve ever tasted), to overlooking a stunning view atop a volcano after a breath-taking hike, to feeling ultimate freedom from captivity during the moment I exposed one of the deepest lies I falsely believed for years, to receiving a sincere hug from a local, to feeling the warmth and delightful golden streaks on my face during a truck ride during golden hour. There have been so many sweet moments I want to remember from month 2.
One thing I want to remember: STILLNESS
I’m notorious for going, going, going. I want to do all the things and please all the people. I’ve been learning about stillness for 24 years, but I’m finally experiencing what it looks like to savor and enjoy moments without feeling the need to do anything. I’m learning to sit back and soak in moments—not feeling a need to please anyone, but having those small, intimate moments with God where I thank Him and praise Him for the moments He has blessed me with.
10. Squad Living
Have you lived with 46 people at the same time? Have you been surrounded by constant community 24/7? Have you ever tried to be alone, but have always ended up hearing another voice in the background? Living in community is energizing, beautiful, and exhausting. I’ve learned that overcommunicating is necessary, and that stating your intention saves a lot of guesswork. I’ve learned to ask for rest, to put my people-pleasing tendencies to rest, and to take intentional time for God and I to sneak away and have intimate moments. I’ve learned to fight for intentionality, and I’ve learned to not feel like I have to work for my worthiness. I’ve learned that I’m thankful for headphones and for moments where I’m able to escape and listen to worship music. I’ve learned how to teach people to be active listeners, and demonstrate what it looks like to really listen to someone to make them feel heard. I’ve learned it’s okay to sit back and not always be the one that asks someone 1 million questions. I’ve learned to accept and pray about feedback, and I’ve learned how to ask people silly “would you rather” questions to pass time. I’ve learned that if I work hard, I need to play hard. I’ve learned to pray hard and constantly. Prayer does incredible things. From praying over picky eating tendencies to praying over health concerns, I have been able to put quick prayer into action.
One thing I want to remember: CELEBRATION
Most importantly, I’ve learned that celebrating is necessary. We need to take time to celebrate all that God has done and will continue to do. We can always talk about room for improvement and ways to grow, but we need to celebrate good moments. We need to celebrate one another and affirm one another for the goodness Christ has put within them. Encouragement brings lift and changes people’s mindsets. Celebration is one way we can transform and renew our minds—it brings perspective and it brings new energy and hope.
11. Rejoicing in Hard Times
Being away from America has been difficult at times. I missed the passing away of my grandmother, I wasn’t able to be with my family when my dog passed away, and I wasn’t able to be with my family in Arizona for Thanksgiving. The enemy has been trying to lie to me a lot lately… he’s trying to convince me that I’m not missed. It’s hard being out of sight, out of mind, in a lot of ways. I know my friends and family love me, and I don’t doubt that. It’s just hard going weeks at a time without anyone checking in. Also, community living is hard… as I mentioned above. There are definitely times I don’t want to be a team leader, and there are times I would rather retreat. But I KNOW the Lord has me here for so many reasons, and I keep reminding myself of His truth during it all.
One thing I want to remember: BOAST IN WEAKNESSES
I have been learning a lot about what it looks like to boast in my weaknesses (2 Cor 12: 9-10). When I am weak, He is strong. His power is made perfect in my weakness because I have admitted that I can do it alone. I can only depend on Him. Christ is my strength, and that is something I can ALWAYS rejoice in despite my circumstances. In this broken world, we’re going to go through tough times… this world has been corrupted by sin so that shouldn’t be a surprise. But God is our rock and the only being we can count on! He gives us plenty of grace during it all, and He is with us and for us. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He is reckless in His pursuit of us, and we can always depend on Him. I also know that He is glorified in all things, and His ways are always working for our good. So at the end of the day, I can sit back and trust that He’s gonna do what He’s gonna do because I trust Him. He’s a good good Father, and that’s something I can rejoice in.
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Thanks for reading! I hope you were encouraged by it! If you liked it, be sure to comment in the comments below.
P.S. I’ve fundraised $13,520 out of $16,561 of my total fundraising goal.
I have $3,041 left to fundraise!!! Please consider partnering with me to donate $25 (or whatever amount you feel led to donate) today.
Click this link to donate: https://www.adventures.org/give/donate.asp?giveto=worldrace&desc=Kelsey%20Nerland&appeal_id=NERLANDKELSEY
Peace & Grace,
Kels
