The month of October my team was in Palacaguina, Nicaragua. Palacaguina is a small city in northern Nicaragua, about an hour from the Honduran border. It was just my team of seven working with our ministry for the month. We worked with a church run by Pastor David and his family. We slept in the church in our tents and hammocks to protect against bugs at night. This month was hard core World Race style – bucket showers, hand-washing laundry, and a squatty potty with cockroaches that was located down the hill from the church, 42 stairs down from where we slept. There was one internet cafe in the city. It was a big deal to find a Snickers bar at the end of the month at one of the convenience stores.
Our ministry for the month was working with Pastor David and his church. We went to schools and performed a Bible skit, did face painting, played with the children, and shared the gospel with the students there. We did construction work for the church and at the hospital in the city. We also preached three times a week – on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday when church services were held. We rotated through our team, one person sharing a testimony and one person giving a message. We had a translator, Iveth, who translated our messages into Spanish for the church.
The transition to a small Nicaraguan city was refreshing for me. I enjoyed living in a much smaller world race community than last month – 7 people versus 55 in Guatemala. The slower pace, limited internet access, and few distractions brought out good and unexpected things this month.
My team was extremely blessed to get to know Pastor David and his family. The family lived in a house right next to the church. His wife, who we called our mom, made all of our meals and is a fantastic cook! They have two sons living at home, Edwin and Daniel, and constantly had people from the church hanging out at their house. They welcomed us into their family with open arms and constantly told us how thankful they were to have us there. It was special to grow close to this family in a place where there were few distractions. They have amazing servant hearts and were hilarious. I can’t remember a time when we weren’t joking and laughing with them. Especially when I would try to communicate in spanglish with many hand motions. They immediately made us feel welcomed and loved. On the last day Pastor David carried my extremely heavy pack without any hesitation all the way to the down the street to where another team was staying, pretending to be a World Racer!
This month I saw God in new ways. One of them was healing – a team member, Benjamin, is extremely passionate about healing and healed many people in the church from back pains, injuries, etc. It was a brand new experience for me and eye opening to see how powerful our prayers can be.
Another new experience for me was seeing a demonic attack on our translator. It was the third Sunday we were in Palacaguina during a church service. Iveth had translated for our team at the beginning of the service and then went back into the house to rest. A member of my team was inside the house and heard her gasping for air in another room. When he went to her she had written on a piece of paper that Satan was telling her he was going to take her life today and he took away her voice. She collapsed outside and was then carried to the front of the church. I was standing in the back of the church when they carried her in. She was crying, distraught, and struggling to speak, but it was obvious she could not talk. She was surrounded by people praying for her and she was writing things on paper while people prayed over her. After about 10 minutes of people praying for her she took the microphone and explained what happened to the church. Later, she explained her story to us in English and said that this was not the first time something like this had happened when she translated for past mission teams.
The situation was like nothing I had ever seen or experienced before. It was surreal, especially having known Iveth and having spent time with her before and after the attack. During the church service, I was not scared when I saw her – God gave me peace and reassurance that God’s power was so much stronger than the enemy’s. Even when he does attack, he is no match to God. Without Iveth we would not have been able to share the gospel in the schools and preach in the church. One person on my team said he has seen translators attacked in past missions experience, because they are such a big part of our ministry. Please pray for future translators that God’s hand would be over them and protect them.
This month my team grew a lot and I experienced new things out of my comfort zone. Before this month, if you would have told me our living conditions would include a squatty potty and bucket showers I would be been concerned, but they turned out to not be so bad! Another experience outside of my comfort zone was preaching and sharing parts of my testimony through a translator, as well as seeing first hand attacks of the enemy. This past month will be one to remember and was filled with many new experiences.
Route Change:
Next month we will be going to Thailand instead of Vietnam – Christmas in Thailand! And the rest of Asia will be in this order Cambodia, Nepal, and tentatively India.
November – The Philippians!
For November my team will be in the city of Manila for the entire month. Our ministry is unsung heroes. Unsung heroes is where a team looks for new ministry contacts for Adventures in Missions to use for future World Race teams. We have been given little direction of where to start out and potential ministries to check into, but the majority of the time will be listening to where God leads us. We will be moving to different areas of the city every week and staying in hostels and with contacts we hope to find. If you know of any ministries or places to stay in Manila my team and I would love to check them out! Please contact me at my email address, [email protected].
The first day in Manila on our free day I was sitting in a Starbucks typing out this blog post and a Filipino man sitting next to me was doing a Bible study with college age students. After sitting there for a couple hours and over hearing his conversations about God with the students I struck up a conversation with him. He told me about the ministry work he does with high school and college age students in Manila. And gave me the contact information for his church and the name and phone number for the pastor. It was extremely encouraging to see God provide a lead the first day in Manila when I wasn't even looking for it. If I sat at a different table or went to another place to type my blog I would have missed the opportunity to meet this man. When you step out in faith and ask God to show up and provide he will! I cannot wait to share about more experiences like this that happen this month.
Please pray that God will direct us to where he wants us to be and give us wisdom and discernment. I am very excited to see how God will use my team and I through this opportunity! Thank you for your prayers!
