Chosen to Embrace

It has been about 5 days here in Nicaragua and if I could explain to you how much my heart is bursting from all that I’ve seen! Most of you already know, but I have always had a love for the Spanish culture. Their food, music, language, and lifestyle. Not sure why but their culture has always been my favorite, which was one of the main reasons why I chose this route. 

We arrived here early Tuesday morning at 1:30am and got to our ministry host at about 3:30ish am. We arrived to bunk beds, running water, showers, and sinks. Praise the Lord! Not sure the rest of our trip will look like that but we’ll adapt as we go along. This place has been amazing so far. The people are kind, the food is wonderful, the scenery is wonderful, and the weather is perfect. I stand in awe everyday at the creator for all he has made. 

For our first day of ministry we had filled in the cracks on their soccer field with dirt. Tedious job but super helpful because on Sunday’s their farm is filled with hundreds of people playing soccer and baseball. We then got to go into town and do a pray walk. The thing I really enjoyed with this was that there was no established plan or step by step process of how we were going to approach this, we went in with familiar people from REAP(ministry), they already have a relationship established with the locals, the families shared their stories, and we prayed over them. It was so simple and made me realize how simple and intentional we could be back in the States. Taking into account the American culture of not being open to people coming up to your door, we can show hospitality another way. But back to Nicaragua; these people were so willing and vulnerable to share what had been going on in their life and the ways they had seen God work in their heart. It was humbling and encouraging to pray with them and in a sense walk alongside them as brothers/sisters in Christ! The next day was a similar process except we went to the hospital. I won’t lie, their hospital was rough, but this is their culture and it was again humbling to see and be apart of. 

One thing I’ve realized is that we sometimes tend to have this “Savior” mindset. We(Americans) see things on the news, do mission work, etc and think how can we save them from this life. Well reality check, we can’t, and I don’t think we are supposed to. For one Jesus already saved the world, yes from our sins, but he came to save and redeem. Our job? To walk alongside our brothers and sisters from every nation and show them the love of Christ. We shouldn’t come here and feel bad or guilty because we have more material things or want to spend all of our money on what we deem as “poor”, because in the end that will fade away. The focus should be planting seeds so that in eternity we are standing side by side with people of all nation’s. In this journey I realize I haven’t chosen to give up my comforts. Yes it seems I left behind my bed, hot water, bathroom, etc, but what I’ve chosen to do is obey the call of the Lord and leave one culture to embrace another. I think we can get in that mindset of doing a “good work”, and the reason should be the Lord called me here, how can I build relationships with the locals, and what ways can I serve them? 

Excited to see what else God has in store for my team and I while we are here serving alongside the people here in Nicaragua. 

Pictures will be posted later….slow internet.

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