Update about Where I’m at 2/3

Update about Where I’m at 2/3: 

Okay! Next! Where am i??? 

Alrighty so I figured its about time I really update you guys on what I’m doing, sooo settle in because I’m excited about this. 

Currently, my team and myself (team Eden), are in Palacaguina, Nicaragua. I. Am. Obsessed. I genuinely have fallen in love with this place. Also, I feel as though my last post was kinda really heavy so I want to share, in this post, about the real joy that I’ve experienced on the trip so far. Not everything is so dense all the time 😉 

Palacaguina- small town on the Western boarder of Nicaragua, neighboring Honduras. It’s kind of tucked up in the mountains, it’s cute. We got here on the 30th of November, after spending 6 weeks in Granada, and we leave to go back to Granada on the 23rd. 

I’ve really enjoyed our time here so far! We are staying in a mission house owned by the pastor of a local church, and there’s like 3 rooms for 9 of us! This is such a nice breathe of air after spending so long sharing a singular room with 16 girls previously. Though, I’m not complaining, I’m grateful for a room at all. However, it is really nice to have a little more of a quiet place to rest in. My roommate is Ronny 🙂 So, the mission house is actually in the back yard of the pastor and his wife’s house, but the downstairs has been renovated into an AWESOME coffee shop. The family that owns the coffee shop are the worship pastors, the mom and dad are Mecky and Sergio, and they have two sons, Ronnie and Ryan. Oh, and the pastor’s name is Leon and his wife is Ana, and they have two kids, Leo and Estrella (Star). Actually, something that is so cool, all four kids started a band together! They’ve been friends their whole lives and are all passionate about music, so they’re in a band and I think it’s the sweetest ever. There’s actually a fifth member, his name is Joel and he’s Estrella’s boyfriend, but he’s away studying medicine at college right now. Anywho, these people are genuinely some of the kindest, servant-hearted souls I have ever met. They have poured into us so much and we have all actually become good friends. We teach them English and they teach us Spanish. Well, Leo and Estrella both speak a little (a lot) of English, but we have a lot to learn. 

Next, we have Brianna. She is our ministry host and we LOVE her. I forget that she’s not really part of the team. I realize I have been going into too much detail about these people, sorry, I just love them so much and want you guys to know them, too. Anyway, in a nutshell, Brianna is 25 and lives here full-time. She’s actually married to a local here named Celvine (idk how to spell his name), but they’re so sweet. Brianna has been coming here since she was 15, her best friend’s dad planted the church here so she’d come with to help build it. It would be like week-long trips at a time. Then she started to feel really called to live here along with some other reasons, and after graduating from Liberty University, she moved here full time. 

The vision and the mission here for the ministry is really still in developing stages. As I’ve mentioned before, Nicaragua is a mainly Catholic heavy country, which isn’t necessarily a problem. Except, it’s very legalistic and works-based faith in these communities, and people here don’t really have a personal relationship with the Lord. Our/their goal here isn’t necessarily to convert people or force them to convert or leave their church, but to spread the Word of grace and love to all the people. Many people that I’ve spoken to have told me that they didn’t feel they were able to be close to God because they’ve made a mistake, or they didn’t think they could accept Jesus into their life because they weren’t good enough for it. So my point, the focus here for this ministry is to break the bondages to the mindset of legalism, and show people that Jesus is a forgiver, and He wants a personal relationship with every person. And while not forcing people to leave their churches, still inviting them to visit our church anytime, even if it’s just once. Also a focus for this ministry, is to begin discipling those that have accepted Jesus as the savior of their life. As a relationship with Christ is a process, and we’re meant to grow and disciple one another. Oh, and the concept of discipleship was only brought up last year, so the program is very young. The few church leaders they have went through a training process on how to disciple someone, and began with just each person teaching one person, and then growing from there. So while they’re growing, they’re very small and young so it just takes time.
BUT on that note !!!!! The kingdom is growwwinggggg !!!!!! Just this last week, while out evangelizing, I personally witnessed 3 people give their life to Christ, while in total since we’ve been here there has been like 5-10!!!! (I don’t remember the exact number, I’m so tired haha) But isn’t that incredible news!!!! We had approached a group of youngish boys playing soccer and asked if we could speak to them. It’s hard when talking to young boys when they’re all hanging out because you never really know what you’re gonna get. I don’t know about y’all, but from my experience, they don’t often take stuff too seriously and they surely don’t want to do anything that would embarrass themselves in front of their friends. Well, we had spoken to the boys for a good 10-15 minutes when Brianna had asked all of them if anyone was interested in accepted Jesus as the savior of their life- and behold- this 8 year old boy jumped right up and stood with us in front of his group, and said he did! It was so precious. We were so in awe of the courage that this little boy had. The others that had accepted Jesus that week were a 20 ish year old woman and another woman who was maybe in her 50’s or 60’s!! It was just so sweet. (I wasn’t there for the other salvations but each story is incredible) 

Other than that, there’s been so many incredible stuff going on. The food is incredible, its prepared by Sergio and his family and its just delicious. There’s another local cafe that serves a MEAN Oreo frappe. I could eat that anyway. Then there’s another shop that sells lovely smoothies and the best donuts. Well, best I’ve had in Nica. Some nights we go to the park, to the big local pavilion and play volleyball or soccer with many locals!!! We walk almost everywhere. The bananas here are the best I’ve ever had. We don’t have to wake up til like 7 or 8 here! Me and Ronny went to get ice cream with Ronnie and Ryan for our birthday and I got this cinnamon roll flavor and it was INCREDIBLE. (We needed guides to get us there haha). Just overall it has been beyond sweet here. Oh and Ive been getting into the BEMA podcasts (we have as a group but I also listen separately) as ways to dig deeper into the Bible and theologies, and it has been so good and so sweet. Ive learned so much. Lets so what else…

OH

MY BIRTHDAY! I touched on it last week but there was so much more!! When we were back in Granada, before the teams split, the ministry host and everyone threw me a surprise party!!! It was so precious. I had no idea. They got me a cake, wrote me letters, then we did karaoke and watched Bedtime Stories- the one with Adam Sandler. It was incredible. Then on our actual birthday (December 6th), The kids here (the band) threw us ANOTHER party!!!! We also did karaoke then. It was so sweet, they got us piñatas with out faces on them!!! It was such a great time. I said in the last blog that I really felt loved and I meant it. 

Okay so this is getting really long, sorry I’m just excited. Okie dokie I can just end it here. I love you guys so much. It’s hard not being home for the holidays but its okay. This is good. 

Blessings,

Lilli <3