NICARAGUA
Geography: Nicaragua is between Honduras and Costa Rica smack in the middle of Central America. It has an extensive coast with both the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, and it has the largest freshwater lake in Central America. The Atlantic Coast opens to rising mountains in the middle of the country and a more narrow Pacific Coast with lots of volcanoes.
Size and Climate: Nicaragua is slightly larger than Pennsylvania and slightly smaller than New York state. The Eastern edge has this thing called “The Mosquito Coast.” Look it up. While not entirely named for it’s swarms of mosquitoes, travel sites say bug spray is strongly recommended.
Per usual in Central America, it’s hot in the lowlands, cooler in the mountains. Because of my ever enduring love for volcanoes, I’m hoping we get placed in some little mountain village here. (Not at all because I’m afraid of the heat in July…)
Language and People: Spanish is spoken by 95% of the population (thankfully, maybe I’ll be back up to current levels by then!) Nearly 60% of the population is Roman Catholic while nearly 25% of the population is Protestant. Kinda neat how that shifts demographically from Honduras and Guatemala, huh?
Nearly 6 million people live here, which is about half of the population of New Jersey. Not a super densely populated place. Here’s their population pyramid:
So we see population boom and then population decline. We see a really young population, but still not nearly as harshly steep as Uganda or Rwanda. There’s a little bit more of a solid and steady growth rate. People aren’t dying at 30. A mother is 19 at her first birth and has 2 children on average. 5% of the child population is underweight, and 14% of children under 14 work to support their families. There is a lot of poverty here… something I’ll be no stranger to by this point, but I’m definitely expecting the Lord to wreck my heart for a lot of things. The average person makes $4,800 a year, with 42% making less than $1.25 a day. 42%. That breaks my heart.
Why I’m Excited: There’s an organization I’ve read about here called “Arms of Love” that works with abandoned and abused children. Right up my alley. It would break my heart, but it’s right along the lines of what I’m passionate about. There are other options for ministry in countries we serve in. They do an “Unsung Heroes” month where you go – uncharted – to find ministries that AIM could partner with that are advancing the Kingdom. Your team follows the Holy Spirit and searches for ministries to serve in, people to pray for, etc. We may be doing construction with churches, door to door evangelism, feeding the hungry on the streets, working in coffee shops owned by friends of Adventures in Missions and loving on the locals that frequent it. We could be helping farmers with their crops or doing block parties or playing music on the streets to draw people in. I’m sure ministry won’t look the same every month. I’m hoping ministry WON’T look the same every month! If the purpose is to love then love takes on all kinds of faces.
What I’m Expecting on the World Race: I’m expecting the race to be hard. I’m expecting the race to break me. I’m expecting the Lord to charge in and wreck my heart and give me a love for His world and His people like I never thought possible. I’m expecting to fall desperately in need and in love with Jesus. I’m expecting to deepen my dependency on the Holy Spirit – to hear and be sensitive to a whisper of his voice. I’m expecting my faith to grow. I’m expecting the Lord to do incredible things through me and use me to touch and change people’s lives. I’m expecting Him to make me more like Him and to have me come back wrecked for the ordinary and be even more sold out to His calling on my life. I would hope that while I’m gone I’ll work with an organization that touches my heart and inspires/focuses my future, but I think I’m too easily impassioned for that. I want the Lord to use me the way He wants to and to awaken a fire in my heart for His people. And I don’t doubt he will do that.
I’m afraid. I’m afraid of getting another parasite, of it being hot, of eating gross things, of being burned out, of not being enough, of missing home, family, friends, and everything I love. I’m afraid of wanting to quit. I’m afraid of getting there and realizing it wasn’t the grand adventure I was hoping it would be, but if I come back changed it’s all worth it. I also know that the One who called me is bigger than all the fear… and that He can overcome it.
Thank you for supporting me on this journey. I couldn’t do this without you.
His,
Meredith
