Hello from Nicaragua. After 3 very long travel days, we finally arrived in Ometepe, Nicaragua. Before I go any further, I need to express to you the experience of the travel here.
We were told, I’m not sure by who, that if we left Guatemala at 6 a.m. we would arrive in Nicaragua by 10 p.m. the same day. Little did we know that we were in for an adventure. We loaded up at 6 a.m. on Wednesday the 8th. Shortly after starting, we hit a road block. We were stopped on a random highway for 2 ½ hours during the hottest part of the day. So, what did we do? We had a bible study and worship session on the side of the road. Many of the Guatemalans stopped and stared and some even busted out their phones to take videos. I guess it’s not every day they see a group of girls jamming out on the side of a mountain road. Once we got going again, the El Salvador border crossing came and went with ease. Hours later we were watching the sunset over the most beautiful countryside, wondering when we’d reach Nicaragua. Suddenly our drivers pulled over and said that we could go no further because it wasn’t safe to cross the borders that late at night. So, we stayed the night in a hotel in El Salvador where I blew up my mattress pad and slept on the floor. (We had limited bed space.) The next morning, we were on the road again, certain that we’d reach Ometepe that day. We crossed into Honduras with minimal waiting and again we were on our way. It wasn’t until we reached the border into Nicaragua that we hit a bump in the road. It took us over 3 hours to get through immigration. Our logistics person was interrogated by 5 people while we waited. Though one bonus was that the immigration place had air conditioning and Wi-Fi. So, it wasn’t too bad. However, after that delay, we knew we’d have to stay the night once more before arriving at our final destination. We stayed in a local church on the mainland, right by ferry that would take us to the island in the morning. I slept in a hammock and it was one of the best night’s sleep I’ve had. Finally, on the third day, we loaded up onto the ferry to head to Ometepe. What started as a day trip on Wednesday took us until around 11 a.m. on Friday to complete. We are staying at what was once an orphanage, but is now a school and short term placement program called CICRIN. It was quite the journey to get here but it was totally worth it. Twenty women in a bus for 3 days with minimal food, because we thought we only needed enough food for one day, could have been rough. Luckily, we had mostly positive attitudes along the way. It was as pleasant as a road trip that was 2 days longer than expected with no air conditioning in Central America could be.
Upon our arrival at CICRIN, we had a couple of days to recoup from our travel. With this month being all-squad month, all three teams are here. We are living in a dorm with loads of bunk beds. We have also found out that a twin mattress can fit inside most two person tents. Why do we need to know this information? Well, in the place we are living, there are tons of spiders. Mostly smaller ones but there are tarantulas here that like to climb on beds. Also, there are poisonous snakes, scorpions, and rats too. So, what’s a girl to do? We put our mattresses inside our tents and used Para cord to string up the rest of the tents so we are fully enclosed as we sleep. Ingenious? I think so! It truly is a game changer for the rest of the race!
On Monday, we started our ministry here. One team is working in the school here, while another is helping in the kitchen. The ministry for my team was to prayer walk. If I’m being honest, when I found out that this was our ministry I was frustrated. I felt like they just didn’t have enough work for us to do and we got the short end of the stick. Boy, was I wrong! From the start of the first day of ministry our team came under attack. We have had to battle so hard, not only for the school, but for our team as well. Today we decided to do a Bible study out loud during our ministry time to just speak the word of God over this campus. We prayed about where God wanted us to study and for some reason I felt drawn to 1 Samuel 17. The story of David and Goliath. We realized that our job this week was to fight giants, and what better place to gather some inspiration. As we dug in, I found myself trying to gain something new from this text. Something that I’d not realized before. I knew what it looked like on David’s side of the story, so I started to look at Goliath’s side. Goliath had no idea that he was fighting a giant. David not only knew Goliath was a giant but he also knew that he was going to be underestimated. Goliath had killed armies, but David had killed lions and bears. What is a mere man compared to those beasts? Goliath was prideful, boasting of all his accomplishments, but David didn’t. David gave all glory to God for what he had done. Therein lies the difference between David and Goliath. The difference between the two is that David had God. Which got me thinking, I could very easily take this opportunity on the race and turn into Goliath with it. I could underestimate my enemy. I could let my pride get in the way. I could think that I’m too good for the task I’ve been given. That I could underestimate the true need this place has for prayer. I could ignore the spiritual warfare that is happening in this place. I could try and battle in my own strength, but if I do that I am bound to fall. My enemy knows that I can often underestimate him. I refuse to allow myself to be Goliath.
At training camp, one of the speakers spoke over our squad that we would be like David. Out of all the amazing women in the Bible, David was who was chosen to represent what we were capable of becoming. As a squad of all women, this seemed odd at the time. Today we remembered that word and chose to take the steps necessary to start walking in that. Today we chose to start fighting giants together. Today we once again said yes to the World Race. Today we chose to fight again. We chose to fight for each other, for CICRIN, for this community, and for these children. So, in case you were wondering what I’m doing here in Nicaragua, I’m fighting giants, and I’m loving it.
