so we are almost done, the only ministry thing we have left is to go finish painting a train station weīve been hanging out at with a bunch of kids. so itīs not actually a train station, but thatīs what everyone calls it. anyways, weīve painted it to cover up all the bad pictures/words that were everywhere, it looks awesome. today we are going to have the kids put their handprints everywhere, and put up a bible verse or two on it. it should be totally awesome, and hopefully it lasts for a while and is able to make an impact. other than that we are debriefing before coming home. this last week was awesome, and itīs sad to see it go. i know we have been used by God on this trip, hopefully we didnīt miss any of His leads, but i truly pray this trip will make a difference that lasts in all our lives once we get back, and hopefully we can spread a little of the passion and the lessons we have learned with all of you when we get back. please donīt expect us to be the same when return home, we are not necesarrily the same people. encourage us to keep our walks strong, and let us also encourage to keep your walk strong and growing.
cant wait to see everyone. there are lots of stories to be told and pictures to be seen
It's so crazy that our time is already coming to a close! It has gone by so fast! This past week has been awesome though. We had that carnival on Monday and it turned out great! There were so many children there. I'm pretty sure at least a couple hundred. We did feet washing, hair washing, hair cutting, fingernail painting, balloon animals, prayer station, water station, soccer, crafts. Kids were runnin around, screaming, being crazy. It was definitely an awesome time. Most of the kids from all the ministry sites were able to come and be in one place. Nate played the guitar and we sang songs and told them about Jesus. Good stuff. Then on Tuesday I went to the dump which was very eye opening. We went and served food. Tons of people were there because on Tuesdays the new trash comes in. I've been praying that God would break my heart for what breaks His and He has been. My heart goes out to the people here. We were able to talk with people and pray for them. We ran out of plates and this little girl came over to us to give us her plate to use for other people and she said "May God bless you and give you more." Or something along those lines. It was so cute! Then I went to the nursing home for the last time and played the mandolin for some of the guys there that enjoy it. It was hard saying bye to them but they're definitely brothers in Christ so it's not a total goodbye forever. We went to the train station a couple times this week. It had graffiti all over it with skulls and gang things so we bought some paint and went and painted over it. I think we're going back this afternoon to finish up the painting and hopefully put Bible verses in Spanish on it. There's been a lot of "last times" this week and it's been sad but definitely still full of God's Joy. On a more personal level God keeps showing me His love He has for me and my worth found in Him alone. Last night we had a praise and prayer service with the church they have every friday. It was awesome! Especially singing in spanish and english at the same time and hearing both languages being lifted up to God. It's really sweet that we're praisin the same God only in different languages. I'm really going to miss it here. But there's still a couple days left so I'll just have to try and soak it all in as much as I can before we head back to the states. Once again I'm so thankful for all the prayers you have been lifting up for me and my team! The only prayer request I have is that our transition from leavin here and going back home would be full of joy and that we wouldn't dwell on the sorrow but dwell on how much God has blessed each and everyone of us and would be full of Thanksgiving because of this experience He has given us. Mmmm He is SO good!
Itīs been another great week in Nicaragua! Our big projects this week were a carnival type thing where we did many fun things with over 200 kids from the area. We had a station for haircuts, feetwashing, crafts, nail painting, face paintings, soccer and also a prayer station. It was a great opportunity to be with many people from Granada! We also have been at an old abandoned train station playing with kids there almost every day. The old train station has grafitti all over it, so we decided it would be cool to paint this thing. So we bought alot of paint and headed down there. We painted the pillars blue and the ceiling red. It turned out really awesome! We are going to finish it with the kids handprints and bible verses! It looks great now, but if you can imagine painting this thing with oil based paint that doesnīt come off with about 40 wild kids running around creating chaos, you can imagine how difficult this really was!
Today we are just hanging out in Granada, and having a barbecue for our hosts tonight. Tomorrow, for our last day, we are going to a town called Masaya and shopping there and going to the volcano there! It should be a good way to end our time here. I canīt believe how fast the time has gone and that I am going to have to leave all of my good friends that I have made here in only 2 short days. Kind of a sad day, but I guess it has to happen. Anyways, see you all soon!
so life is pretty amazing right now, we are definitely starting to make an impact here, and have formed some solid relationships with different people, theres a Ļtrain stationĻ in one of the barrios we go to a lot, itīs more just a slab of concrete and part of it is covered by a roof, but itīs an awesome place to hang out, and we have gotten to know a lot of the kids there, iīve played some street soccer with some of the older guys, itīs intense stuff. we are going to help them repaint the train station though, because right now there are profanities and skulls and stuff drawn all over it, the cool part though, is that the guys that wrote most of it are the ones who are going to help us paint over it! so i definitely feel like God is using us in that place, and we are making an impact, there are other really cool stories, but thatīs probably the one that sticks out the most to me right now
on monday, weīre going to be doing a huge block party sort of thing in a soccer field right by us, and weīre going to invite pretty much anyone, specifically all the people we have been doing ministries for and with, but weīre also going to invite the neighbor kids, and others too, it should be a fun day, but it should also be a really good chance to share Godīs love, and hopefully get to spread his message, and change some lives, turn some hearts toward God, if everyone could be in constant prayer for that, it would be much appreciated, and probably is needed, pray for the hearts of the people that are coming, pray for Godīs protection in that place, pray against any evil spirits that want to ruin it for us, and again, most importanlty, pray that we are always following Godīs will, and not our own, actually, these would be good prayers for the whole week, but specifically for this monday, it should be huge
canīt wait to get back and see you all, but i probably will miss it here once i leave, itīs a cool way of life, and an awesome culture
Hi everyone! I donīt have a lot of time to write on here today, and i have a ton of stuff to share.....anyways, this past week was awesome! Iīm looking forward to sharing everything in person with you all when i get back!
Today weīre going to swim in a dormant volcano! Should be pretty awesome!
Nicaragua has been amazing. I'm finally having genuwine relationships with these kids who live in the barrios that we try to visit 5 days a week. There's Maria and her brother Bryan. She's 10 and he's 7. They both are super sweet. He loves Spanish and she loves Science. She wants to be a doctor for kids who live in poverty when she grows up. She even drew me a picture in my notebook labeling things in spanish to help me out. Then there's Genesi. She's also 7. She 4 sisters and 6 brothers i think. HUGE family. She's a sweetheart though. She loves math. Our translator Mario said he'll help me get their addresses or help them set up an email account so I can keep in contact with them. I would love love LOVE to keep in contact with these beautiful kids.
Speaking of Mario, the staff at El Puente is AMAZING. I have never seen Mario do anything but serve. He is a true man of God. So selfless.... Then there's Carlos the musician. I admire him for his incredible talent, discipline, & passion. He's the type of person that everyone loves. THen there's Carlos the translator, Natalia the translator, our cooks, and the Kays, the family who owns El Puente. They're all amazing and I can't wait to talk more about them.
As for me personally, I'm actually sick. Not like virus sick, but just from the air. My lungs have always been sensitive and I've had to stop running in the mornings because it gets too hard to breathe. So I ask for prayers to open my lungs up so I can start running again. Instead now I do pilates in the morning and try to find some rock or log to lift. It's nothing serious, please do not worry.
I can't get over what a BEAUTIFUL team we have. We get along so well, that it's really uncommon. With all the challenges of mission trip, people usually give in to negative tendancies but the whole group has been constantly forgiving, understanding, perservering and wise. We have had so much fun and it's gonna stick at the end. I wish we were here for another month.
Last Saturday we all went swimming in a VOLCANO!!! HECK YEA! Dude, it was fantabulous. LOVED it.
As for serving the ministries... I just don't know what to say. So much to do and so much good come from all of it. ... I don't even know where to start right now.
Well I gotta go. Can't wait to see you all when I get back. Thanks for all your love, support and prayers!
God is good. Don't pay attention to the blog title. It's an inside joke with the team. If you want to know just ask when I get home. *smiley face* I didn't know what else to call it. Sooo...I don't even know where to start. Another week has come and gone here in Nicaragua! I guess I want to start off by thanking you guys for all the comments. It's so encouraging to her from friends and family from back home! I miss you all! But I'm so thankful for all the prayers you're lifting up for me and my time! God definitely hears them! Ahhh, deep sigh, now what? Ummm this week has been pretty busy again. I'm horrible at keeping a journal at what all we do everyday but I'll try my best to remember. It's pretty much the same thing as my last post only the relationships keep growing stronger with the people here of Nicaragua. When walking down the streets the kids scream out all our names and come running to us which is pretty cool. We pretty much have 10ish days left which is CRAZY! It may not seem like a long time but a lot of stuff can still happen especially with God being the director of it! One of the biggest things coming up is an even that God placed on our leader Brittany's heart. Kind of like a fair or carnival type event where all the kids and people we've been working with at ministry sites all come together. Possibly have music going and games and booths for prayer, booths for facepainting, it'll be a fiesta praising Jesus! We're still kind of unclear about it. Either tonight or tomorrow we're going to pray more about it and brainstorm more things to do for it. This will be happening Monday at like 2 pm. So if you could pray for the event in general that would be AWESOME! Also for wisdom of what kind of things to do there that God wants us to do whether it's a type of game or songs to sing or anything. So we're all pretty stoked about that! Here in a while of couple of us will be playin soccer with the 'Young life' kids. Actually I needa start wrapping it up. Sorry this note wasn't much but I wanted to get something up before the last week! Please keep us in your prayers! Much Love!
Iīm still alive, and no major injuries yet, so thatīs cool. i did get a little beat up the one day playing soccer in the street with some guys, but it was cool, iīm good. God is working in awesome ways, some days are more obvious than others, but i know each day we are down here, we are doing His will. Please pray for myself to be constantly in prayer, and to always be seeking what it is God wants myself and our team to do, no matter what it is, whether itīs talking to some random dude on the street, picking up a certain piece of trash, just staying back and praying that day, or any other conceivable or inconceivable thing God wants us to do. So a constant reminder to be praying and an open mind and heart toward the Holy Spirit are what i need most right now, you can pray for our safety, but more importantly, please pray we are doing Godīs will. there are too many stories to tell, but we are getting to know the people better, and i hope in this coming week we can deepen those relationships and really make an impact in their lives. i miss you all, but days are busy here, and even in our down time, there are always things to be done, so thatīs good. today is our free day, so later weīre going to a lagoon, itīs gonna be tight. and last week, i had a monkey climb across my lap on our free day, loco! love you all, see you soon
So itīs been over a week since weīve been here! Itīs crazy how fast time goes by. So much has happend this past week Iīll try and shorten it. So Iīll just go through the week. On Sunday we went to the parade and did an ATL (Ask the Lord) and thatīs where we got in small groups and prayed and just asked the Spirit to direct us where to go and who to talk to. Some pretty sweet stuff went on there. On Monday some of my teammates and I went to the church Luz Del Mundo for this vbs type thing. I gave the message of David and Goliath and how just that even though their young God still wants to use them in setting an example for the older believers such as their parents, grandparents, and teachers. The point pretty much was that they are important to God. Then we played games and made balloon animals. Then we went to this place we call the train station...which is no longer a train station but is in the slums. We took music, played games, and did bubbles and the kids living around there came and played with us. On Tuesday I went to this place called Home of the Anvient (I think) itīs a nursing home type place and we cleaned and then I sat and played my mandolin for these two older men and kind of spoke with them. They were kind of teaching me spanish because of the men knew a little English. One of the men was blind but he was so sweet. Then I wen to prayer meetin gat Luz Del Mundo. The church holds it every tuesday and people just come together and pray and the Spirit really moves. Itīs so awesome seeing how God is already work down here and seeing residents here that are fervent in Spirit for Christ. Then on Wednesday I went to a feeding program back by the slums and we made lunch and went and played with the kids while people were serving. The kids would just on our backs and just have fun. Itīs getting more exciting because weīre starting to know these kids names and they remember ours so relationships are getting established. The kids would be like Ļcomo se dice ____ en Ingles.Ļ And they were simple words that I already knew in spanish so I was kind of teaching them english. Then we did a track pick up at a park. Thursday I went to an orphanage and helped out homework with a girl named Diana. We worked on her times tables but she was going super fast in spanish so Iīm not sure how much of a help I was haha. Then we worked on English so I could help with that! Then we drew pictures. That afternoon I went to this place called Corazon Contento which is a place for people with special needs and we made butterflies and hung out with them. That night they had Vida Joven (Young Life) and we sang worship songs in Spanish and they do skits and a lot of the local youth come to that so thatīs fun. Then yesterday we pulled weeds at the church weīre staying out for the walkway that leads to the House of Prayer. It looked so much nicer when we were done. But then it poured last night so hopefully they donīt come back too soon! Then yesterday afternoon some of us played soccer with local area kids. That was a lot of fun. Tomorrow night some teammates and I are leading some worship songs at the church service weīre going to. It should be exciting. Yesterday morning we all got up at 4 30 am to go to the lake and watch the sunrise. That was beautiful! Iīve been able to get running in also. Some of us run to the lake in the mornings so itīs only like 20 minute runs but God has blessed me by making available some time for training which is better than none. Praise Him! Heīs been doin sweet stuff here and Iīm exciting to keep seeing what He has in store for us for the rest of the trip. Thank you so much for all your prayers and please keep us in your prayers still. For STRENGTH, for courage, for His Love to be poured into us so that it may overflow out of us to everyone we come into contact with. Also, keep praying for divine encounters! Today is our off day but that even though itīs our hang out day that God would still work in us and move! I love you all and hope everything is going well back home in the States!
Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and forvevermore! From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the LORD is to be praised! The LORD is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens! Psalm 113:2-4
Hi Everyone! This past week was amazing! I talked with a 16 year old kid whose dad is dead because of a gang killing, his mom left him, he used to do drugs--crack, marajuana, whatever you can think of, and yet he wanted to change his life so 3 months ago he started coming to young life and has accepted christ!!! Iīve met 6-10 year old kids who live in extreme poverty, have to get lunch at a feeding program and yet are still the most joyful people I have ever seen. Iīve met a man who was living a life where he owned nothing, begged for money, and did drugs. Yet, because of a missionary he prayed to God that his life would become better. He prayed for a drivers license so he could get a job--less than 2 years later he has accepted Christ and has his drivers license. I have met a man named Mario who was born here in Nica, moved to LA when he was 7, was in jail from ages 13-21, got deported from the US because of his crimes, moved back to Nica, had a broken family, drank everyday, hated religion, and yet through El Puente came to know Christ 9 months ago, and now is one of the strongest christians I have ever met. GOD IS WORKING HERE!
It breaks my heart to see kids who are starving, old ladies who beg because they have no money to eat, old men who drink their lives away, young men who are on drugs, and the many bad things that are happening here. I pray that God is using us to make a difference here, and I believe that he is!
Today is our free day, so weīre going to go hang out at the lake here! Should be an awesome day!
