After our 46-person, 30-hour scenic road trip through Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, my team finally made it to our first hostel of the month in Managua, Nicaragua (the capital city of Nicaragua.) It was a nice place to rest up for our crazy month of traveling Nicaragua, although it probably spoiled us even more than we already are from the nice place our squad stayed at last month.
Free Yoga class with a couple people who were staying in
the same hostel as us in Menagua, Nicaragua.
The first day we took to recover from our travel and do a little research and planning for this month. This is our “Unsung Heroes” month which means instead of having a set ministry to work with for the month, we are instead looking for ministries in Nicaragua which Adventures in Missions can partner with for future World Races.
That night we played cards by the pool when Roberto, a front desk employee at the hostel, joined us and wanted to share a word with us. He gave us a great teaching on how we should ask for God to give us not only joy but also brokenness. It shifted our mood completely and we went in our dorm and played worship music. Roberto is an inspiration for me to be bold about obeying God’s voice when it comes to sharing a word.
The next day we decided to do some ministry on our own in the areas around our hostel. We fasted lunch and made 32 PB&J’s and apples to hand out to whomever we felt led to give them to. In the main street there were several kids (6- to 20-year-olds) who work in the middle of the busy road by washing windshields and entertaining cars at red lights with juggling routines.
As we made our way, one of the window washers stood out to me and I felt we should go talk to her, but she was in the middle of the traffic and it would be difficult to cross over to her. We passed by a group of the young workers and tried our best to talk in Spanish with them and gave them some of the lunches we prepared. The 20-year-old girl I had seen before came over to us and we had a good conversation. We were able to pray for her and I had the opportunity to try praying in Spanish. She was very concerned about us (being gringos) walking in the area and warned us not to stay out past 5 which was sweet. I don’t know entirely why God wanted us to talk to her, but I was thankful that I was given another chance to talk to her.
We continued giving our sandwiches away and praying for folks for a couple more hours. On our way back a young man asked for my water bottle. I have never been asked that. He didn’t know we were giving away food, but I gave him the water and we gave him a lunch. I have been asked for money or for a meal before by a stranger, but never a 3-quarters empty water bottle. That was saddening.
Hostel number two was in another city, Granada. We stayed in a tree fort with tons of monkies… How awesome does that sound? It was beautiful… but not exactly what we expected as far as atmosphere (not very quiet.) Here are some photos from the hostel:
We have just arrived at hostel number three still here in Granada and tomorrow we will leave to another city to hopefully meet up with some contacts.
P.S.
In order to stay out on the field on the World Race, I need to reach financial deadlines to cover the cost of food, lodging, visa fees, supplies and transportation. I am currently about $2,300 away from the December 1st deadline. If you feel led to give, click “Support Me!” on the left panel on this page. You can also mail a check and avoid processing fees. For that option be sure to write “For Stephanie Ransom” in the memo line and make the check payable to:
Adventures in Missions
PO Box 534470
Atlanta, GA 30353-4470
Thank you all so much!
