This last month WIFI was scarce, and I didn’t keep up with my blogs. So I’m going to give you guys a little picture visual of my time in Nicaragua.
First I want to give you all a run down on what ministry looked like last month. Sadly I don’t really have many pictures of ministry because I didn’t want to lose my phone or it get damaged. And I wanted to fully present and not distracted. Our first week of ministry we were asked to prayer walk, sing aloud, and read the Bible aloud on the property because they deal with spiritual warfare. My favorite part of that week was when my teammate Rebecca and I went out and walked over the whole property praying through the Psalms. It is as if the scriptures were talking specifically about what CICRIN asked us to pray for. Our second week of ministry was kitchen and grounds duty. We washed all the dishes every day after all the meals, mopped floors, picked up trash, swept and raked leaves, and picked up limbs. The third week we worked at the school. The kids were only there for two days because school ended for the year. We Got to play with them and give them our undivided attention for those two days and it was so fun! Some of the girls loved playing with hair and then arranging flowers in your hair. After school ended we cleaned the school grounds. And the last week of ministry we worked mainly on the grounds of CICRIN, picking up limbs and branches and helping set up a graduation. My first picture is Helen and I, She runs CICRIN. Hearing her testimony grew my faith even more. Constantly the Lord is meeting CICRINs needs. If they start to run low on funds or supplies the Lord always supplies it or multiplies what they have. Her passion to do what the Lord has called her to do is contagious. Especially because when God called her to it she wanted nothing to do with it, and battled with the Lord about it. So seeing the passion and joy in her now is such a lesson that following God’s plans even if they aren’t what we had intended brings us joy once we accept what He has for us. The Lord is making a big difference in the community through CICRIN. When we would take a bus into town people would ask us if we worked at CICRIN and say their kid goes to school there with a huge smile on their face. So it was really cool to see the impact that CICRIN is making on the island of Ometepe.
I’m going to start the pictures with our transportation to Nicaragua. This is our second day of travel in this bus. All the seats were up against each other with no center isle. We each had a back pack and personal bag item, like a lunch bag. My backpack went in between my legs and my food bag I put on my lap. I never felt so confined in my life. But the cool thing, I was able to stay positive through the two days of travel like this. With only a few stops to stretch our legs and empty our bladders. The Lord was good to us. Oh yeah there was also roaches that hitch hiked in our bus, being lazy with their migration. I prayed Lord please do not let these huge roaches get on me and if one does don’t let me see it or feel it because there’s no way to get away from it. The Lord was so good to me and answered this prayer. And I was able to stay relatively calm when hearing someone squealing because of another huge roach crawling on them. yuck!
Fun thing we saw while traveling. Truckers napping in hammocks under their trucks. Pretty cool!
This was our view the day after we arrived at a church close to the island of Ometepe. It was a church that kindly had mattresses laying out on the floor ready for us. And they made us a delicious meal. And it was after 10pm when we arrived they were so kind! We had to stay there until the morning ferry ran.
I seriously had the best night sleep I’ve ever had!
Then we took a ferry to the island of Ometepe!
We arrived on a weekend so we were able to have a couple days to rest before ministry started. And this is where we spent a lot of our first couple days. This is what they call the rancho.
This was the house we stayed in. Very nice place. One thing that made me slightly nervous was no screens. I thought to myself, bugs, terror! And then they tell us make sure to pull your bunks away from the wall so that you don’t wake up with a tarantula in your bed….I thought to myself more terror! And decided to put my tent up on my bottom bunk. I took extra measure! And was able to sleep in peace. The mattress even fit in my tent! Where there’s a will there’s a way!
Something that was a bit challenging for me was two minute showers. The water is precious and expensive so they asked us to keep our showers at two minutes. But thankfully we had showers!
This door…
Led to this hallway. I have a story to tell about this hallway. One night about midnight I woke up and needed to go to the bathroom. This hallway led to the bathroom. Well huge poisonous frogs like to come in through that door above and hang out in this hallway or the bathroom at night. I mean frogs the size of my hand. So I get out of my safe tent bed and head towards the bathroom, down this hallway, in the dark, and I see this huge dark thing that moved, it’s a poison giant frog! I’m like what do I do??! And as I’m deciding whether I should wet my pants or chance getting attacked by Frank the giant frog. I decide to woman up and get past Frank. I get a little closer and he jumps from one side to the other! My heart almost stops and I’m thinking, I’m toast, that guy can easily jump from one side to the other, I’m toast! So what’s a girl to do? I decide to sprint by Frank. I don’t have enough clothes to wet my pants. I take off, I’m sprinting faster then I have ever sprinted before but I feel like I’m going in slow motion. I get to the bathroom stall relieved to get there in time. And realize I have got to get back by Frank! I’m like there’s no way I’ll make it by him twice. So I decide to grab that black trash can for a shield. And as I’m walking past Frank slowly with my trashcan shield keeping my eye on him, he jumps and hisses at me! I take off sprinting again and slightly squeal trying not to wake up the house! But I was safely past Frank. then I think to myself, what about my friends, I need to get Frank out of here. So I get a broom and go to get Frank out. But Frank was gone! I think he took my example and sprinted right out that door!
These were steps that went into the lake, perfect place to reflect and watch the sun set. These waters have gators and bull sharks so not ideal for swimming, this is the closest I got to swimming in it.
Speaking of sunsets, the island of Ometepe knows how to show them off!
This is how we washed our clothes. In the middle basin is water for rinsing. It is pumped up from the lake.
We helped with this craft during the after school program. The kids were very proud of their snowmen! It was so cute!
This little girl and I share the same name. We were introduced the day before we started ministry at the school. The day we started ministry at the school she walked up to me and pointed to herself and said Naomi, then pointed at me with a huge smile and said Naomi. We were bonded from then on out. She was so adorable and very passionate about hairdos with flowers in them.
These are the tree branches we gathered.
I decided to sled down this volcano with the squad.
It was all fun and games until I bit the volcano, literally. I only reached 49kilometers per hour before crashing. but it felt like I was on a roller coaster, but not safely buckled in.
Hand stands on a volcano with friends. Why not!
Meet Jerry, the sheep goat!
He loves the ladies!
He got so comfortable with us that he welcomed himself into our home!
This is Jerry’s heard. Two new babies were born during our stay.
Cats!
So many cats! I was so excited!
God is so good to me! I love cats and specifically asked God if He would place cats along my race! Well He’s gone above and beyond and there has been cats everywhere we stay. Even on adventure days and travel day. It has made my heart so happy! I’m petting a cat as I write this blog actually. It’s the little things!
Guess what??! It was all squad month in Nicaragua, so I got to be with my best friend, Kasie for the month!!
That’s all the highlights and stories from Nicaragua that I can think of for now. Until next time!
God Bless!!
