Nicaragua was not on our original route but our squad was blessed with the opportunity to serve in Granada, Nicaragua for close to three weeks at a ministry site called REAP Granada also know as “The Farm.”
I lost interest in being a “farm girl” around the age of thirteen. After falling down countless times in the cow lot in what one can only hope was mud, my brother throwing dead pigeons at me, and walking head first into an electric fence it became clear that I needed to find any other activity I could to get out of having more farm experience. While getting out of chores was a goal of this former farm girl, there are so many great things about The Farm in Nicaragua. But let’s see how it compares to a farm in Minnesota…
Working in the fields:
Minnesota – Soybean and corn fields with tractors
Nicaragua – Plantain trees with machetes
“Up North”:
Minnesota – Going to a lake anywhere in the state of MN that is farther north than where I lived.
Nicaragua- used to describe where we went for ministry when in fact we had no idea where we really were.
Ditches:
Minnesota – A place to pick asparagus in the summer
Nicaragua – A day of ministry spent digging in dirt to help build the foundation of an expanding church in Granada.
Rides in the back of a Pickup:
Minnesota – Illegal but happens anyway when making a quick trip
Nicaragua – often 8 to 10 people would ride in the back of a truck to go out into the community to evangelize and pray for locals
5:00 am Alarm Clocks:
Minnesota – Pick sweet corn and sell it in town for the day
Nicaragua – Spend an hour in prayer, an hour in quite time, and watch the sunrise.
Spreading Manure:
Minnesota- includes a skid loader, tractor, and manure spreader.
Nicaragua- includes a horse, gloves, and a bucket. (See picture below)
Farmer’s Tan:
Some things are universal.
Whether the farm is in Nicaragua or Minnesota, God can teach us a lot of different things. Ecclesiastes 11:4-6 says “One who watches the wind will not sow, and the one who looks at the clouds will not reap. Just as you don’t know the path of the wind, or how bones develop in the womb of a pregnant woman, so also you don’t know the work of God who makes everything. In the morning sow your seed, and at evening do not let your hand rest, because you don’t know which will succeed, whether one or the other, or if both of them will be equally good.”
At The Farm in Nicaragua, we may never see the people we build relationships with again but we invest anyway. We may never see someone come to know Christ but we share His love anyway. We will never fully understand the works of God but we trust Him anyway. We may never be able to harvest the fruits of the ministry we did but we plant anyway. Maybe I like being a “farm girl” after all.
