Hey guys! Once again I’m sorry for the lack of blog posts. It’s harder than it looks to sit down and write about your life. I figured I’d give you all a quick update of what God is allowing my team and I to do in Nicaragua!
Our ministry hosts’ name is Sara. She is amazing. She’s the pastor of a beautiful church all the while handling being a single mother of two teenagers, Scarleth (13) and Anderson (19). Her services are full of life and truly embrace the energy the Holy Spirit brings. Next year she plans to go to school to learn English so she can better serve the future missionaries that will stay with her and her family. How cool is that!? We all love Sara so much. So much so that we have all officially friended her on Facebook to keep up with her and the church.
Our ministry is pretty awesome too. From 9-11 we do odd jobs around the church/field/apartment. Whether that be yard work, sorting rice packets, or just planning out what we’ll do with the kids. At 11:00 kids from the surrounding community come to hang out and eat lunch. Once lunch is over most of them go back to school while the rest (those who only go to school in the morning or just don’t go to school at all) stay. From 11:00-2:00 is the time we get to thoroughly invest in the remaining children. Pouring into these kids has been so great. We get to show them the love of Jesus that they normally don’t get and we can already see it paying off. It’s for sure not as physically tasking as last month but it’s definitely just as rewarding. From 2:00-10:00 is our free time. We use this time to do laundry, go on prayer walks, go to town for wifi, or just hang out. Thursday’s and Friday’s there’s church services at night and they are way too fun. The excitement this community has for Christ is unbelievable.
The weekends are free for us so we’ve designated them as our rest/adventure days. Our first weekend here we took a ferry to a neighboring island, Ometepe. Home of the worlds only dual volcanoes, one of which is the second most active volcano in the world. We tried to hike one of them and let me tell you it was the most physically challenging thing I have ever done in my life. We barely got half way up. Our next adventure day we went to San Juan del Sur, the surfing capital of the world. We went to a beach and got pizza, it was a good day. Next weekend we’re hoping to go to Managua to visit a friend we worked with in Costa Rica.
This country is truly amazing and so far my favorite. Everyone is so full of joy and appreciates every bit of life they’ve been given. The country itself is so beautiful too. Here’s a picture of what my team and I get to wake up to everyday:
it saddens me that we only have about a week left with our ministries before our first debrief.
Here’s a little update on what’s going on with next month. We were originally supposed to be placed all over the country of Ethiopia but with all that is happening in the country they decided to put an all squad month into effect. That basically means they picked the safest place in the country and all 42 of us are staying at the same ministry site. Since the political uproar and terrorism is still going on, this plan isn’t even definite. We very well could have a route change. Please be praying for the Adventures in Missions risk management team as they are diligently working to provide the best solution for everyone. I will most definitely be keeping all of you updated as I receive new information.
Thank you all for reading my sporadic blog posts and following this journey with me. Even though it’s only month two I can already feel a difference in my persona. I feel happier and more positive. I’m learning to give my problems to God and trust in Him. To rely on Him and not my own understanding.
If you’d like to help me get to Asia consider donating above! I still have roughly $5,000 left to raise before being fully funded! If I do not reach this goal I will be sent home from the race early! Any amount helps and is greatly appreciated.
What you can pray for:
Ethiopia
Hard goodbyes that are happening soon
Funding
Love and miss you all.
Peace out Brussels Sprouts,
Maddy 🙂
