Prayer requests:
- I’m currently strong and healthy but 4-5 of my teammates are sick with the stomach bug, migraines and dehydration as well… Pray for their health and for God to be at work in our lives as well as those we encounter. Hostels are great places to meet people who are searching for something more.
Thank you for the power of prayer.
This last week we got the privilege to go and stay in a tree house hostel! We have been bouncing around hostel to hostel as we find new ministry contacts for adventure in missions (AIM). We researched this hostel online and found it was only 5$ a night or 7$ in a hammock and thought what a great opportunity… And it was just that. We took a ten minute ride in the back of a truck and hiked up a mountain to discover every boys dream, a huge tree fort! I instantly became… giddy and my boyhood was instantly revived with excitement. In the tree house, Nicaragua and its beautiful landscape, was spread out as far as I could see. We were buried deep in the jungle with the famous red-eyed tree frogs and a dense jungle growth mixed with banana, coffee, and papaya trees. We were facing west and the sunset went from a beautiful clear orange to bright red. As if that was not enough there were (Congo) howler monkeys in the trees right in front of us sometimes making leaps greater than 10ft from tree to tree. I’ve described this scene because it has given me a good glimpse of God’s glory.It’s a small glimpse, but I’m continually seeing more and more of Him. I can’t imagine what Moses and Elijah must have seen when God displayed Himself to them in Exodus 33 and 1 Kings 19. Although God’s splendor can be revealed in his creation, many fail to see it.
After this beautiful display of God’s glory, mans depravity set in. I can’t completely explain just how depraved it was but it sickened me greatly. Once night fall hit it just got a little crazy at the tree fort especially when the owner brought back $300 worth of cocaine to the already high and drunk residents. What sickened me the most was not the drugs but the lack of morals and over abundance of self-centeredness. It was as if they had reverted back not to adolescents but to a preoperational stage when children can only think egocentrically. If I could describe depravity in one sentence it would be “the complete focus on one’s self.” There is no reasoning with people in such a depraved mind set and the Holy Spirit has to do the work in them before God can use me for reasoning. It’s a helpless feeling seeing people so lost and confused and not being able to help them. All I could do was show them my happiness and contentment with the life God has given me and chip in a properly timed word of God’s glory or grace. I wonder how Jesus would have ministered to them? What would he have said or done differently? I wish this story ended well; with the sunrise displaying God’s glory to everyone, but it didn’t. It ended in a continual progression of a depraved mind, confused and hopefully longing for something more.
Psalms 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”I ask God that someday my tree house friends will open their eyes and see His glory.
As time goes on I am continually seeing more and more of God’s glory and sadly at the same time more and more of mans depravity and confusion. The tree fort was a great place to stay and I was able to leave with a better glimpse into God’s glory and man’s depravity. I can see more clearly now that spreading God’s word is futile without the Holy Spirit at work.
For the worriers out there we only stayed there one night and moved on to a more tranquil hostel. We also refused the drugs offered. We are currently residing in Leon at a good hostel.
