Week one in Nicaragua!!!

Hola amigos!!

Coming to you all the way from….. drum roll please…. Nicaragua!!!

Guys, I am absolutely loving it here. First of all, this is probably one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been. And the culture itself? I’m already in love with it. The people here are so welcoming and sweet, even though we’re outsiders and don’t speak the same language- like at all. We’re all trying and practicing our Spanish, but it doesn’t always go too smoothly haha. Most of our communications in casual conversations is by using hand motions or body language in some way, it’s kinda funny. But when we’re doing ministry we have translators who are so awesome and so patient with us- I’ll also explain what ministry looks like a little more in a minute. 

Sitting down to write a blog, it’s hard to think of exactly what to talk about. Because I want to tell you guys everyyything, but we all know I could write forever and nobody wants to read forever. So I think I’ll just go over a little overview of what our day-day schedules look like, what kind of ministries we do, and how I’m feeling about it. Sound good to you? Great 😉

Each day looks pretty different, though we will have some consistent days from week to week. If that makes sense. I’ll break down our schedule time wise:

4:45 am wake up

5:00 am personal prayer time (favorite time of day surprisingly)

6:00 am group devotional

7:30 am breakfast

8:30-10:00 am typically will start to head out to first ministry

12:00 pm lunch

1:30-3:00 pm head out to second ministry

3:00-5:00 pm arrive back from ministry

5:30 pm dinner 

6:30 pm team time 

Then I usually try to be in bed by 8:30 ish 9 at the latest

It sounds like a loaded schedule, but it’s really not bad at all. There’s a lot of little times to rest throughout the day like between meals and around ministry time. 

Ministry, like I said, can differ a lot between days, times, and teams. This week, we did a lot of prayer walking, which looks like us literally walking from house to house and asking if we can speak to them, and then we literally just get the chance to speak truth into their lives and talk about their walks with the Lord. It is so sweet, because the people of this community are SO receptive and welcoming. A lot of the time, they’ll say that they believe in God, but they just don’t follow. Or often they are catholic which is good but we can talk to them more about that and speak life into it, because a common theme around here is that they are very legalistic, meaning they focus more on their good works and base their relationship with God on the “good things” they do, rather than their communicative relationship with the Father. And other times they are already following believers and just want some encouragements and those are very sweet conversations too. Another really cool thing about this community, is that everyones doors are always open and they literally have a stack of chairs next to their door and anytime we or their neighbors come over they just pull out their chairs and we all get to sit and chat for however long. Even sometimes, they’ll offer us some juice!! 

Another ministry we do often is children’s programs!!! I loooove children’s ministry. It looks different depending on the program but this week we babysat during a woman’s study at the farm (oh yeah- we live on a 70 acre farm called REAP that is a ministry in itself), and it was such a joy to just hangout and play with some kids. I got beat in basketball by a 10 year old…. Then another day we were helping a kids church that was at noon- right after they got out of school. There was like 40 ish kids at least and they all met at this little pavilion and it’s hosted by a couple of adults who lead the worship portion and serve the kids lunch. We meet at noon, right when they get out of school, and just get to hangout with them for awhile doing whatever they want to do, and then one or a couple of us will give a message and/or a craft with them that shares the gospel with them a little bit! It’s so cute. 

One ministry that each team does at least once a week is called “the dump”. We go to the actual dump and minister to the people that live there, it’s really sweet actually. It’s kind of hard to see that families live inside piles of trash, however, it creates a different perspective. I’ll go into that more in a second. But at the dump, usually there’ll be 50-70 people and one person in our group will prepare a message that we will share and then after we serve each person a meal. It’s really neat. 

There are a couple other projects or ministries that our groups will work on like construction jobs, praying for the sick at hospitals, or other things like that, and it’s really neat to see the way the Lord has been working in the lives of people here. Also, it’s a good reminder because God is working here in this community long before we ever came, and He will continue to be present here long after we have left. Just reminded that it’s not about us, we aren’t the ones to save anybody, God is just gracious enough to share His ministry with us. An analogy I was talking about with Emily this morning: It’s like when a young child is helping their father fix the sink, he doesn’t really need their help, but he wants to spend time with the kid and teach them so he invites them to help. Even if it’s just to hand them the wrench. 

So that perspective- 

Something I’ve thought about a bit this week was perspective. When it comes to being invited and welcomed into this community, we have to put on the gracious lens of the Lord. I think when we come from a first world country as great as the US, it’s easy to feel bad for the families here and their living situations- when we come from so much and seeing how little some people have. But we have to be SO careful when we begin to feel pity. The truth is, they don’t know any different. Therefore, it wouldn’t be loving for us to walk into a families home and feel bad for how they live….. when they don’t see anything wrong about it. It’d be like someone walking into your home and saying they wish you didn’t have to live that way…. Girl what?? They honestly are proud of the home they do have, because it’s not about the structure of the house for them. Sure it would be nice to have more solid walls when the storms come, but they live with their families, they hangout with their neighbors daily, the kids are out playing in the streets having the time of their life. What’s wrong with that? What’s beautiful here, is the appreciation the people have for everything they have. Not meaning just materialistic things, but also their health and loved ones, because that’s what really matters. 

Wellllll other than that, I’m doing really good. I just love it here so much, and I am so excited to see more about how God is working here. We saw like two healings this week and it was just more proof of the living God- its crazy, I love it. 

I love you all so so so much and miss y’all tons!!!!!

Also I’m only really getting wifi for like a couple hours in a weekend so I apologize I haven’t been able to reach out much. Love y’all 

love,

Lilli <3