Throughout the race, I have met SO MANY incredible people, as well as had such beautiful interactions with people. I was thinking back on the blogs I’ve written in the past and realized I haven’t really talked about my personal experiences I’ve had with people! Well, let me tell ya!
- Starting back in the States, when my squad went to Kentucky to partner with Samaritans Purse, I met this older couple who were there as “Chaplins” for the program. (Meaning there were there as kind of just spiritual counselors). Anyway the cool part of the story was how I met the woman- I was sitting at a table thinking about my birthday, and how I was kind of sad that it was my first birthday without my dad here, when all of the sudden she came walking up behind me and sat down and said “it’s just so cool how the Lord works, I just got off the phone with one of my lifelong friends, her momma just passed away a couple months ago and today was her birthday and she was pretty upset, I didn’t even realize today was her birthday when I decided to call her”. How wild, right?? Mind you- I hadn’t ever spoken to her before. So, I responded saying that God just keeps getting cooler, because that was exactly what I was thinking about before she walked up. She was astonished because she realized she didn’t even know why she was sitting there, her husband was on the other side of the cafeteria and she didn’t know me. LOL. Well, anyway it was just really sweet, we ended up talking for hourssssss that night and she spoke to me and a few other people about inner healings. It was all really cool.
- Now into my time in Nicaragua, we worked with the children’s ministry on Wednesday, and the first time we went was a little messy to start. We showed up, realized all the kids were in school for another hour, and I went to go set up a coloring station, then I turned back around and majority of my team was walking away (to go evangelize- but I didn’t know that), so me and the other girl that was with me just stayed back in case any kids came. Well this group of like 4 little kids came and it ended up being the sweetest time ever. The littler one sat on my lap and dresweetest time ever. The littler one sat on my lap as I colored pictures for her, while the others continued to try and speak to me in quick spanish, and I didn’t know a LICK of spanish at the time. I just remember sitting and trying to talk to them through facial expressions and hand movements and we would all just bust up giggling about it. It really taught me to appreciate the in-between moments. And showed me how the Love we get from God is unconditional- even through language barriers.
- Still in Nicaragua, i met another incredible friend, her name is Isa. She works and hangs around the farm that we were staying at, and she would always come to ministry with us. She’s a funny one, that’s for sure. As well as always making sure to laugh at us and all our attempts at spanish… and making sure we knew we were saying it wrong, lol. But once you got through the layer of jokes, she’s a very kind soul and been through a lot. after a few weeks, I learned that she had just lost her mom a few years back, so we were able to talk (again through broken spanish), about the struggles we’ve had since losing our parent and how much we miss them. I miss Isa a lot 🙂
- Haha this one is funny, I’m sure as it can be expected, but between the States and Nicaragua, there are plenty of differences in what we eat and drink regularly. Every Thursday we went to this one families house, and they always offered us wonderful conversation as well as beverages or cookies. Well this one specific Thursday, they brought us out a drink… a wonderfully chunky drink. Me and Kaleya looked down in the cup and saw a lot of little floaties, while we were naturally curious, we asked what was in it. She said cinnamon, cacao, and ground up corn in water. She was the sweetest old lady but we really couldn’t hold back a giggle. We just weren’t expected that response at all!!! At the time it was so foreign to us to have corn in your drink! But we found out it is actually a very common favorite drink to locals! And truth be told- it didn’t taste that bad all, the chunks just kinda threw us off. But it was pretty good-ish!!
- Now in the Dominican, we’ve had plenty of beautiful moments. One that comes to mind first was one of first days doing house visits evangelizing, and we went to the backyard of a home, and there was a mother and her 3 grown-up children doing laundry. First of all, it was beautiful seeing all of them work together helping their momma. Then, we started talking to her, asking her was her relationship with Christ looked like and she started SPEWING WISDOM!!!! She was sooo wise, and poured into us so well. She spoke on the power that prayer has over spiritual warfare and in our lives in general. It was just so cool. She told really cool testimonies of how the Lord has healed her and her family from prayer, and how she had visions of her family being sick but He healed them all and it all came to be true. She was really just an incredible woman.
- While teaching in Haitian schools, we were like jungle gyms to a lot of these little kids. And though my hair was pulled, i was peed on by a baby, my arm hairs were pulled, my tattoos were slapped… I still wouldn’t trade that time for the world. It was so sweet to be able to hangout with them, similarly to the kids in Nicaragua, and to see how simply just loving one another makes genuine differences in relationships. Again, not speaking the same language, having different mannerisms, coming from different cultures, but simply just sitting there and letting them do whatever was a way that I could just love them unconditionally. You could even relate it back to our relationship with God, we don’t always do things the same way, we don’t always understand Him, we pick on Him and surely hurt His feelings sometimes, but He still continues to love us so well and no matter what. It’s so sweet.
So obviously, i’ve been on this trip for about 6 months now, i have plenty more stories to tell, but it all just goes to show the love and the glory of the Lord. I thank God every day for the experiences He’s blessed me with. I just wanted to let y’all in on some of the sweet little moments i’ve had. Thanks for reading!!
love,
Lilli <3
