Over the first two weeks of being in Nicaragua, my Father was constantly throwing out words to me like: cleanse, purify, rinse, wash, washed, clean and depth. The shades of blue of all sorts were hitting my vision: dark, royal, and sea. On my very first day staying back from ministry, I started to pray and SLAM went the door.
“But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen.” Matthew 6:6
God was shutting the outside noise and the distractions away to set the environment of intimacy with Him. He has been earnestly seeking this time with me for so long and He wasn’t going to let anything take me from Him.
I figured out that there is so much more to the Father than I ever could of imagine. I’ll never fully comprehend my Father, because no human man can, but I have discovered that there is so much information for me to become familiar with to enable me to draw deeper with Him. Spiritual gifts, prophetic visions, healing, understanding the spiritual realm, grieving, recognizing my chains that were put on by Satan, and recognizing that I HAD chains that I needed to break in order to be able to go deeper.
After two weeks of pouring in and listening to my Father, I feel like I’m ready to walk into a brand new season of life. I may not be fully cleansed yet, but it’s something that I have come to recognize and now I am equipped to face whatever comes my way. I learned that I DO hear from my Father and He gives me visions from my vivid imagination He created. I may not have heard His audible voice, but I certainly can’t deny that I FEEL His presence. He’s very much alive and strong and working in my life. He even called me to my very first fast for 24 hours. Throughout the day when I would feel hungry he gave me these words to say: “I’m not hungry because I am spiritually fed.”
Coming back into ministry was great! I already knew I was walking into a new, amazing ministry to be a part of. My team worked with Sara, who is a 31 year old pastor who started the Christian Center of San Jorge. She pastors a group of about 20 adults and children in a makeshift church outside a member’s house. She has purchased a patch of land to someday build an actual church with an attached Christian center.
Our weeks looked like this: on Monday and Tuesdays: we went into two different neighborhoods, shared a devotion, played games with the kids and prayed. On Wednesdays: we went into a local school, sang bible songs and colored pictures with them. On Thursdays, we generally went to the beach with the youth group and played games. Fridays were labeled “fun days” with the youth, which either entailed: going to the beach, playing soccer, baseball or hanging out, and having dance parties. The weekends were ours to explore and rejuvenate for the next week.
Coming into Central America three months ago, my Spanish was very rusty from not having to use it in about six years and three years of average Spanish grades. I am now leaving Central America with a good concept of Spanish vocabulary, where my new friends compliment me on how my Spanish is improving communicating; and with a hunger and desire to learn more and become fluent in the Spanish language. I already have an idea that I would love to come back to Central America for a summer and study Spanish.
