My Nicaraguan Moments
We are now entering our last couple of days in Nicaragua and I have to say this month went by super fast!!The best way to end it month would be to share with you some of the many awesome moments that made Nicaragua soo special!
- After entering Rivas, Nicaragua we had a tough time finding our overnight spot. Since it was late we wouldn’t be able to ferry over to the Island of Ometepe. Our contact Sarah had space at her church’s grounds for us to spend the night. We went in circles through town searching for the church. Sarah had been expecting us for a day and a half now. She sent out two members of the church to help find us on motorcycles but we didn’t know about them. Our drivers weren’t sure what to think when they spotted two cycles following us at night.
Finally one of the cyclists went to get Sarah and the other kept following us. When he returned with Sarah, she got off and yelled out asking if anyone of us was Hannah!! Hannah was my teammate who had been communicating with her by phone. We were saved; they found us and brought us to their church. It was one of the best nights of sleep I had in a while. The sky was specked with vibrant stars and the air breezy with the smell of the Lake nearby. We rested for the night and in the morning they brought us to the ferry port.
- Our first week in ministry was at Circin’s School. The first couple of days we were helping out with odd tasks around the building like cleaning, weeding, and sweeping. Then they asked us to help out in the classrooms! I got to spend the majority of my week with the preschool to kindergarten grade. They began the day with recreational time, then we sang songs with motions, and their teacher asked me to make fun drawings for them to color.
I had sooo much fun with them and even learned a new song! But the coolest part is that their teacher’s name is Kenia just like my little sister, only my sister spells it with a “Y” instead of an “i”. Here are the lyrics to the song: (wish I had a clip but look it up SOOO FUN)
Si tuvieras Fe como un grano de mostaza,
Eso lo dice el Señor, (Bis)
Tu le dirías a esa montana,
Muévete, muévete, (Bis).
Esa montana se moverá,
Esa montana se moverá,
Esa montana se moverá,
Con su santo espíritu.
Si tuvieras Fe como un grano de mostaza,
Eso lo dice el Señor, (Bis)
Tu le dirías a esa montana,
Muévete, muévete, (Bis).
Esa montana se moverá,
Esa montana se moverá,
Esa montana se moverá,
Con su santo espíritu.
- Read an awesome book called “Scary Close” by Don Miller. This book was refreshingly eye opening and I appreciated learning important facts about healthy people and healthy relationships through his life narrative. Here some of my favorite quotes:
**Love is as much what happens to you as it is what you make happen. Healthy relationships are more in control of their love than it is in control of them.
**What if part of God’s gift to the world was you? The true you?
**If identity gets broken it effects our ability to connect.
**Safe people are people who speak truth in grace.
- With my team I got to learn more about prayer and spiritual warfare. We set goals for the week and divided each day by person to allow our teammates to share their experience and understanding of prayer. In one week I learned to pray through scripture, created my own psalm, tried different prayer postures, practiced thankfulness and learned new “Battle Songs”. What a week!!
- The second Sunday of our stay at Cicrin we got to fellowship with their associated church. It was beautiful to see the many students, teachers and staffs all meet at the church. The service was entirely in Spanish but several songs we knew in English. So while the congregation sang in Spanish we could also sing along in English. One of the teachers I served with at the school even played the guitar for the worship team. There was a mount for you to greet people in the church with a hug and then the Pastor gave a sermon. Also, my Spanish comprehension has improved some more so I could understand a lot of the service!
- In Cicrin they have a hybrid goat/sheep called pelague. These animals are a cross between a sheep and a goat. They use them so that the children would have meat but sparingly. They mostly serve chicken, eggs, and beans as their protein. During our stay, two females in the pack gave birth to babies and one female had given birth 1-2 weeks before we arrived. We spent our past time sneaking a pet or two and the squad ended up befriending one of the males. His official name is Jerry. He liked us so much that if we weren’t paying attention he would try to pop in for a visit right through the front door! He also showed affection via an occasional head butt if he was close to you.
- On the weekends at ministry we get days to go off and explore. The final weekend we went to Granada. The majority of the squad wanted to go boarding down a volcano. They came back with many fun stories to tell and awesome photos but exploring Granada was enough for me! While there we ran into another World Race Squad finishing up their 4th month. The coolest part about it was that it would have been my team had I been able to launch in August. SO many of the names were familiar especially Orilynn since I had a chance to meet up with her back in late June/July.
It was awesome getting to chat about our experiences and getting some hugs in with the fellow World Racers. It really made my day!!
- Also, I got to ride my first Tuk Tuk. Its a small little taxi that will fit 3 passengers. They go pretty fast for such a small ride! That day no chicken buses were coming and it was getting later so we decided to spit the fare for a ride.
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All I want for Christmas is to be fully funded!
Only $8090 away from the total.
