It’s been awhile, but I have no WiFi this month, which has been so nice to be present with my squad mates, and the Lord. I’m posting this on our adventure day.
It’s all squad month, and we have been in Granada, Nicaragua for a week now, doing ministry with Reap Granada at Campo de Cosecha. This ministry is about (R)estoring, (E)mpowering, (A)ctivating, and (P)erpetuating! It’s such a blessing to be here in the beginning of our race, because they are creating great spiritual, and physical habits for us. Monday, Wednesday and Friday we wake up at 5am to have prayer in the pavilion for an hour. I’m a morning person, so the hour of the day doesn’t bother me, but praying for an hour has been a struggle. The sun starts to rise around 5:25am, which is breath taking! I love seeing the colors radiate off of the clouds. And then every other day, including the days listed above we get up at 6am to spend time in the Word for an hour. That’s something I enjoy a lot, since I’m reading the whole Bible these 11 months, but I find that if I do the same routine during that hour, I receive nothing. You gotta mix it up; make it jazzy. So, I’ve been doing listening prayer during that time, or just journaling, and talking to my Abba! And then we have adventure day on Mondays, and sabbath on Tuesdays.
We have been thrown into ministry right away from being here. Reap is a farm, so we have been splitting up into teams doing different things. Last week we had the opportunity to do ministry at the dump, which they go to twice a week. I had the privilege to share a short message for them about Joy; for the joy of the Lord is their strength! I felt more like my Father speaking the Word. After that we served the people that work there some food. These people walk 5 miles from their home to dig for certain types of metal, and collect $40 a month, and that’s their only income. It’s sad to think that we couldn’t do more than just love on them that day, but I believe that’s one of the most effective types of ministry; is to show love! A couple days last week we also were uprooting plantain trees. They’re good for 4 generations, and then they no longer produce anymore fruit. I’ve never worked in a farm before, and I didn’t expect it to be easy, but I didn’t expect for it to be very hard either. I was sadly mistaken! The sun gets to 90 degrees here, as we’re closer to the equator now. Water has become my best friend, which is great, because I’ve always wanted to drink more water! Not only are they instilling great spiritual habits, but healthy ones too. My team and another one got to dig ditches at Pastor Jimmys church. They are expanding their church, because PRAISE THE LORD, their church is growing! I had the opportunity, along with 2 of my teammates to help build the foundation. How cool is that?! Our hand played a part in supporting the structure of the church. I’ve never been so physically dirty in my life, and I don’t hate it. I probably would at home, so that’s gotta be God, giving me the patience and strength I need. Yesterday we were instructed to plant 900 Moringa trees, aka “The Tree of Life”. A Moringa seed (pill size) has the calcium of 27 glasses of milk, 18 servings of spinach (iron) and has been shown to help diabetes to the point where you don’t have to take insulin anymore, and lowers blood pressure. It can grow 16ft in 10 months. We filled around 500 little black bags with soil, a seed, and placed half of those in the shade, and the other half in the sun. The remainder 400 bags we put horse manure in with the soil, and the seed; some in the shade, some in the sun. We planted 903 in 5 hours! Girl power goes a long way when you’re working for the kingdom of God! Their goal is to grind them down into capsules to sell, to help support the ministry. And, on Sundays we get to do sports ministry! 6 of us got to share a quick message before the softball, kickball, and soccer games!
Overall, this ministry has been such a blessing to me and the team; such great habits starting so early, to better our time on the race. Thank you all for the support you have been showing me, and your prayers! I’m so close to being fully funded! The Lord has been so faithful.
