Nicaragua Part 1

 

 

We’re already in the middle of our second month on the race!  If I could describe what it’s been like, I would be a word genius. I feel like the Lord is taking a chisel to my character, skillfully refining me. This year is about serving in whatever way He has for each day, allowing the teams to minister to me, and ministering to the teams. It’s about learning to love God’s children the way I love the lost, embracing challenges and letting them change me. 

 

Several days ago my squad crossed from Costa Rica into Nicaragua by bus. In Granada we had our first debrief, which occurs at the end of the first month, and then at the end of every second month. Our squad coaches, mentor, and logistics guy came from the states to join us for that time. I was so excited when Joel, my squad leader, asked me and Gabe to lead worship one night! My soul leapt because I so strongly sensed that the Spirit was about to move mightily. And He did! As we sang, the room filled with unique songs from each heart as they expressed their yearnings to God. And then God did another beautiful thing: one by one, each of us began to stand up and tell everyone in the room secrets from our past. That was crazy!!  But hey, when Jesus saw a man with a withered hand in the temple, He told him to stand up in front of everyone and stretch out his hand, and that is when he was healed. As these secrets came out into the light of God’s Love, Father God faithfully healed some deep wounds.

 

 

On the first day in Granada, a teen named Miguel was selling flowers in the street. Melissa, when she met him, felt to bring him to a restaurant for dinner. So he ate with us and she told him that Jesus loves him. Then we ran into him the next day, as we were evangelizing in the streets! His mom and two sisters we with him, and we told them all about Jesus. They did not know Him, and the mother said that she wanted to give her life to Him! So she and Miguel and the two daughters stood in a circle as we prayed for salvation. We asked Miguel if he loved Jesus, and his answer was, “Yes, because it’s a beautiful thing to believe in Jesus!”

A few days later, Trevor and I were trying to find the same woman in order to give her a Spanish New Testament.  I was discouraged that we couldn’t find her and we were about to leave the city.  Then I heard Malerie call my name.  She was standing with a few boys at a street vendor, and said, “They’e hungry so I’m buying them lunch.” What a sweet-heart! Then when I looked at the boys, I noticed that the oldest one was Miguel’s brother! Excitedly I handed him the Bible and explained that it was for his mother. God’s timing or coincidence? Love it!

 

 

All fifty-four of us are together in Palacaguina this month, camping in tents in an open-air sanctuary.  This is a pleasant little town.  We eat lots of beans and rice and plantains, and you learn to smile about it.  So far we have done a lot of construction for churches (some of the girls and I moved 2,200 bricks by hand yesterday!)  I thoroughly enjoyed singing worship songs together while we worked!

 

God is near and I’m discovering joy in the hardships of this trip.  The World Race is more than an outreach to “the least of these”; it’s an outreach to my own heart.  It’s about allowing the Lord to make me more like Him each day, embracing the pain to make room for His growth.