Hola amigos! Mine and another team have been in Ciudad Dario, Nicaragua for a little over a week working with Salt and Light ministries. They have a boys center where they attend school, learn about the bible and experience love and brotherhood through the staff and teams, like ours. We get to be a part by teaching and encouraging them in their English and spending extra time with the boys like playing soccer and putting on skits to tell bible stories and doing some behind the scenes to help the director. Although for most this is what ministry has looked like, my time has looked a lot different 🙂
While we have gotten to work closely with the director and founder, Tara, she has expressed to us the struggle of tending to teams and running her ministry while having a kid and says that when Molly has an “Auntie” it makes a huge difference. So, for these two weeks I get to be “Auntie!”, giving her 9 year old baby girl that special one-on-one attention she needs. I live in their house and walk with Molly to her homework lessons after school, play outside, sometimes even cook her dinner and most times get her into bed. Molly is the sweetest soul I’ve met, probably ever. She likes waking up at 5 am to pray before school and on the weekends likes to sleep with her curtains open so that she can be woken up by the sun rise.
In the states, nannying is my jam. I’ve been babysitting for as long as I can remember and I would say I was easily around kids more than adults. Getting to serve Tara in this way has been so sweet for me. Her husband is out of town for work for the duration of our stay so on most days, if our team wasn’t here Tara would be in a bind trying to juggle all the things. She says knowing that Molly is being taken good care of takes off a load of stress. She is an amazing momma. When we take our girl to school, Molly asks for Tara and I to walk her to her classroom and wait until the teacher is there. One day while dropping her off at her classroom, Tara with a long list of things to do in the back of her mind, asked Moll’s if she was ready for her to go since we were just standing there. Molly quickly turned around and said “I want you to staaay.” And so we stayed. The love between a mom and her daughter is so tender for my heart to whiteness every day : ‘)
Side note
IN EIGHTEEN DAYS I GET TO SEE MY MOMMA AHH!! So excited
Anyways, what I love about this month is that sometimes “ministry” has looked like cleaning up around the house, cooking meals, playing tag, baking cookies, eating ice cream or playing Mario and Luigi. I mean, yesterday MOlLy and I laid in a hammock and shared stories. She’s a pretty good story teller let me tell ya. I told a story about a family of Hyaena’s that preferred being vegetarian and making friends with lady bugs and Molly told a spooky story about a ghost that turned out to be everyone’s friend that was hiding from them, surprise!!
What I’ve gotten to see directly so far this month is the body of Christ functioning as the Body of Christ. My friends Stella and Syd are good at video production. Stella does it as a job in the states and Syd enjoys it as a hobby that she’s growing in. They get to help Tara make a promo video.
Hannah on my team has found that, when it comes to painting, she genuinely enjoys the most tedious parts like the trim and all the edges. Through out the week she’s been painting Tara and her husband, Alexis’s guest room that will soon, once finished, host other teams.
Me getting to watch Molly, these are all things that Tara NEEDS done and couldn’t do herself, or she could but they would certainly take longer.
This is what the World Race is all about, this is what Jesus is all about. Coming along side and empowering one another in love and service so that they can do the thing that God has called them to do.
Romans 12:4-8 talks about the body of Christ a bunch.
SPEAKING of empowering the body 🙂 My friend, team mate and treasurer Caitlin Casey is $3,220 away from being fully funded!!! Sometimes I joking call Casey “mom” because she so naturally takes care of everyone around her. If you would like to support Casey, here is the link to her blog where you can read about her experiences on the race and donate 🙂 caitlincasey.theworldrace.org/
THaNk YoU fOr KeEpInG uP WiTh mE!! I aM SOoO ThAnKfUL fOR YoU ALL <3 Have an amazing day!! – Malysa
