This month, our team has been serving in a couple different parts of Nicaragua. For the first couple of weeks we were serving at an orphanage on an island in the middle of a lake, the island is called Ometepe. At this orphanage we were helping with various tasks. Some of us were helping work in their plantain fields; in these fields they grew thousands of plantains and that was a large source of income for the orphanage. Other people in our group served by helping in the school and by doing maintenance around the orphanage. We then moved to a small village in northern Nicaragua called Palacaguina, here we are helping with the construction of a church. This month has been great! I really love doing construction work, which came as a major surprise to me. I think a big reason is because I get to see, first hand, exactly what my work is doing. This church is going to serve a huge purpose in the community here in Palacaguina, and I am so happy to be a part of that work.
Onto what I was planning on writing about. So, every week we get a day off, we get a day to go and experience some adventure in the places that we live. One weekend we decided to go to San Juan del Sur, which is a super famous beach town on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua. This town is known for having beautiful beaches and incredible surfing, both of which were things I wanted to take part in. During this weekend, I learned that my skin is not as immune to the sun as I thought that it was. For the first time in my life, I got sunburn!! I literally have never, ever, ever, ever, been sunburned. I was pissed! But realistically, this blog is not about me learning that my skin is the same as everybody else’s. This blog is about exactly what the title says, there is a first time for everything, even sunburn, unfortunately.
The weekend before flying to Nicaragua, we had a thing called ‘Awakening.’ This event occurs when there are multiple World Race squads in a similar part of the world. These squads will meet up for a couple days to push and empower each other. During part of this weekend we had little breakouts, one of them was about evangelism. Evangelism is a topic that I am very comfortable with, I don’t have an issue talking to people about Jesus, praying for healing, or expressing words of knowledge. Evangelism comes really naturally to me. During this breakout we were assigned into small groups. Before my group set out we decided to talk about something we would like to try to make ourselves uncomfortable, thus normalizing whatever that may be. We went around and said things we were willing to try today, when it was my turn my mind drew a blank. Like I said, I’m not really uncomfortable with any parts of evangelism, so I didn’t really give an answer.
Our team was out an about, looking for people to tell of the good news of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We walk up to a campsite and there is a group of people there, some guys fishing, one lady cooking, a baby running around, just your typical family on a camping trip; they were the perfect target. We walked towards their campsite in the most awkward way that we could, we tried talking and the group was pretty stand-offish, they didn’t seem very welcoming, so we decided to turn around and start walking off. Just as I turn to leave, this man walks up with tattoos all over his arms, and if you didn’t know, I too, have tattoos all over my arms, making it easy for me to start a conversation. I walk up, check out is sleeves, and we are hitting it off! I quickly brought Jesus into the conversation with him. He told me that he had actually just gotten back from church and how he had given his life to Jesus just over a year ago. It was at that same time that he had given up drug and alcohol abuse and this Sunday was 1 year and 6 weeks sober. I was so excited to hear that! This man pulled a full on 180 with his life! He then looked at me and with some sadness in his eyes said, “yea, but I feel like I have hit a wall, like I have nowhere else to go at this point. I have tried everything, I am reading my Bible, going to church, praying, but I feel like nothing more is happening.”
All of a sudden, I felt the Lord tap on my shoulder and whisper into my ear, “ask him if he’s been baptized.”
“So, hey, uhh, have you been baptized?”
“No, I haven’t really learned much about it, could you tell me a little bit?”
………. A conversation about the significance of baptism followed from there ………..
After talking about that, I felt another tap on my shoulder, God was ringing again… “you should ask to baptize him.”
With those words, the Lord exposed something that I am truly uncomfortable with. I have no clue why it made me uncomfortable, but it did, I did not want to do it, but the Lord kept pestering me while I was talking to him. So finally I asked, “would you want to get baptized today?”
Peter looked at me and said, “what?! Are you serious?!”
“Yea, let’s do it.”
“Yea, yea, yea, uhh, okay, umm, sure, okay, let’s go!”
Peter and I left the area to head to the pool that was nearby. Our first stop was his cabin so he could put on some proper baptism clothing, you know, shorts, t-shirt, the traditional garb. He came out of his cabin, looked at me with nervous eyes and said, “I am really really shy, I don’t want to go by the pool if anybody is over there, I want this between me and God, not between me and everybody else.”
“Do not worry, in Jesus name, there will be not a single soul at that pool besides you and I,” I replied while the 85 degree sun was hitting my face. Today was an ideal day to go for a swim, nice and sunny. There was little to no chance that there would be nobody at the pool at 1:30 in the afternoon.
“Okay, in Jesus name, I trust Him.” Peter said.
We walked over to the pool and not one person was anywhere to be seen. We walked in, Peter was baptized and with tears welling up in his eyes, hugged me, thanked me, and said, “well, there is a first time for everything.” With those words, Peter had learned how much more his life was because of the Lord. He had found the next step in his walk with the Lord, and I had found something that I was super duper uncomfortable with. The Lord put my in this position so that I could help push Peter but also so Peter could be there to push me, whether he knew it or not. Anywho, we left the pool, Peter was in the bestest mood, smiling big, ready to break down walls and move mountains. “You know, Miguel, today at church, some guy walked up to me and told me that I would meet an angel today. I didn’t know what that meant or what an encounter with an angel would look like, but when I met you, I knew that you were that angel.”
THAT FRICKEN WRECKED ME.
We are His angels! God puts us in places to be used for so many different reasons! He places us exactly where we need to be, just at the right time, to be used by Him, to do His work! I wouldn’t have learned that if I wasn’t willing to be uncomfortable and obedient and to trust the Lord with that. If there is anything that makes you uncomfortable in regards to sharing Christ with somebody, then you just need to go for it! Swing for the fences.. after all, there’s a first time for everything..
Much love,
Miguel
