I would venture to say that our team has seen the majority of the western side of Nicaragua this month. On the world race we travel to each country with a squad of about 50-60 people. In that squad we have about 8 teams of 7 that split up throughout the country and work alongside various ministries doing whatever they need help with. This month our team was entrusted with the noble task of finding unsung heroes. Unsung heroes are people who are helping those in need, who have minimum, but give everything they have to those less fortunate. They spend their lives literally being the hands and feet of Jesus. These unsung heroes are meeting local needs, staying Kingdom focused, and need help with their ministry. Our goal is to find said unsung heroes and talk and network with them so that we can send future teams there to further the Kingdom together. Since they aren’t all in one place, we’ve had the opportunity to travel this beautiful country looking for people.
By the time the month is over, we will have stayed in 10 beds and been to 5 cities/towns, along with several other communities. We’ve had several challenges with sickness and accidents, but it’s cool to see how the Lord is using all the circumstances that we face to grow us closer together. We still have a little over a week left here in Nicaragua, but I’ve decided to post my top 5 things from this country, and I’ll add to it next week:
5. Sushi- We went to a sushi restaurant while in Granada on debrief and it was some of the best sushi I’ve had (granted usually my sushi in the States comes from Kroger). Usually eating sushi in Central America is something people would probably be leery of, but the picture on the map at the hostel looked legit, so we tried it, and there were no regrets!
4. Blessings from potential contacts- We’ve been so blessed this month by the people we’ve met. We’ve been given meals (typical Nicaraguan dishes, amazing coffee, peanut butter, and US sandwich meat), places to stay, and transportation, without them expecting anything in return. The Lord has placed people in our lives this month that have made us feel so special, and it’s been awesome and humbling letting them love us.
3. Staying at missionary’s house- One of the women we met this month is a woman from the US living in Managua with her husband. They went to the beach one weekend and let us stay at their house! We had a place to do laundry (they had a washer AND dryer), hot showers, beds, an oven, couches, and a TV where we had a day of rest and watched movies as a team. It came just at the right time too, because a majority of our team was sick. It was nice to have a weekend of relaxation in such a nice house.
2. León- León is the 2nd largest city in Nicaragua behind Managua. It’s a beautiful old city with Spanish colonial architecture and a lot of history. It’s also only about 30 minutes away from the beach. If you ever go to Nicaragua, go visit León. You can even go volcano boarding (like snowboarding, except down a volcano) if you want.
1. Birthday- I have amazing teammates who really made my birthday special. On my birthday, they made a huge breakfast (including French toast and bacon), lunch, and dinner (we love food!). I had been wanting to be baptized again (which is another blog altogether), so we went to the Lake and Natalie, our team leader, baptized me. Our day ended with Tres Leches, pretty much the best cake ever made. It was one of the best birthdays I have had in a while.
