This month my team and I are doing something called Unsung Heroes. This is where our ministry is to find new ministries, individuals, or churches who are doing work for Christ. The purpose is to honor, bless and connect them with Adventures in Missions in order to send future World Race teams to partner with them. At the beginning of the month we spent a few days in Managua, researching and most importantly praying for direction. We are solely Spirit led to where we go and how we map our route around Nicaragua. We were first led to Somoto which is in Northern Nicaragua. We had an idea of a ministry there but not much. We decided to go and see where the Lord would take us. As soon as we made that step we were contacted by someone who had a huge network of Kingdom minded pastors. He took us under his wing and directed us to many future contacts! But God also had big plans for us and the little town of Somoto.
Our first day in Somoto, we decided that we didn’t want to make our food again, so we started out in search for food. We stopped into one place but then decided not to stay. The second restaurant we walked by, there was a sunflower table cloth nicely laid out on the table. Jokingly, some of the girls said that it was a sign that we were supposed to eat there. Our team name is the Spanish name for sunflowers, so there is always a sqeal or excited shout when someone sees a girasole! We sat down, ordered and when we were waiting, the owner lady asked our teammate Sandra if we are Christians. She responded that we are and the woman, with a knowing smile on her face said that we were going to bless her and pray for her today because her mother had passed away 3 days before. We prayed for her as we thanked the Lord for the food. When we finished, we asked her if we could pray for her again and surrounded her with love and encouragement. She, Johanna then explained that she had been gone for 10 days and had not planned to open the restaurant that day. But she decided that she would open for a few hours. As she was rolling up the large garage door of the restaurant she asked God to encourage her and bring people to pray for her. She asked the Lord for it come from people who were not from the town; people who were outsiders. That is how she knew that we were Christians and that God had sent us to her. She shared that after being a devout Catholic for her entire life, her Mother told her a few days before she passed that Johanna no longer needed to worry about her or tell her about Jesus because she gave her life to Christ! Throughout the next few days while staying in Somoto we spent time with Johanna and her family and had the opportunity to speak into her brothers’ hard hearts. God went before us and clearly revealed his involvement around us! I love Jesus so much and am constantly blown away by Him. This is only the beginning of what He has been doing.
