We are in Nicaragua!!! Our travel day was pretty long, we slept in the airport overnight, but I’m pretty sure the max amount of sleep any of us got was three hours haha. Then we had an 8am flight to our layover in Miami, then a 2ish hour flight into Nicaragua! It was a long day but we landed and were so excited! Nicaragua is BEAUTIFUL. The terrain has everything, there’s the ocean, lakes, mountains, jungle, lagoons, and volcanoes. And you do a 360 turn and see all of those things.

Our first full day was a rest day, so we all just hungout and explored. We are staying on a farm in real beds with real bathrooms (praise God haha) and the meals are amazing! We eat lots of rice and beans haha. There are fruit trees on the farm that we are allowed to pick from and eat, these trees are starfruit, guava, and lime-ish fruits.

The ministry! We did three days of ministry this week, Wednesday through Friday. We rotate between doing three different things through the week, each of our teams is assigned something in the morning and something else in the afternoon. One part is doing farm work/maintenance which ranges from pulling weeds, cooking in the kitchen, raking grass, picking up sticks, cleaning up the farm, or cutting off rotten fruit on trees (I had a significant amount of rotten guava juice all over my arm the other day haha). Another piece is prayer walking! We go in teams, walking the streets and entering people’s homes or talking to people on the streets. We don’t leave a conversation without praying for someone. The last piece of ministry is hospital visits, we ride in the bed of a truck to the hospital 30 minutes away and have the opportunity to share the love of Jesus. We go to different wings in the hospital and talk with them and pray over them.

For me, the first time we did prayer walking, I was so scared haha. But it has been really cool to meet the people that we have, and hear their stories and also seeing how hospitable they are. They always invite us to walk in, offer us seats (including the one they were just sitting in), and say yes to prayer. We have gotten to share Bible verses and pieces of encouragement to them, and also seen so much strength in people’s stories. It is also so heartwarming that they will ask for prayer for their family and community before anything for themselves, despite the circumstances. We met one man the other day who had been stabbed and was about to smoke a joint before we walked up, and there was a present heaviness you could feel as he shared his story with us. But it was so cool to hear how he had forgiven the person that stabbed him, he seeks goodness for his community, he has faith in God, and he was thankful to know people were sharing the gospel. Another testimony we heard was this family that was filled with so much joy and light, you could feel the presence of God in their home. Yet the abuela had been through nine surgeries, been in two comas, and had an issue with something in her brain. And the abuelo had joined us after WALKING an HOUR to the hospital for his KNEE. But you would have no idea if they hadn’t told us that, because they so joyfully greeted us and we were able to mutually be in awe of God’s glory and the blessings He has provided.

For the hospital visits, my team was in the maternity and surgery section for the majority of our time. We got to pray over multiple people and be a comfort in such difficult times. The rooms were very heavy and grieving, and hearing some of the patient’s stories was a lot. They had been through so much and had even more going on at home. It was a gift that we were able to pray over them and sit with them and provide encouragement.

Another part of the ministry is going to be “dump” ministry and micro-church, but we start that next week! We also have devotional and team time while we are here, the devotionals are with the owner of the ministry/farm here in Nicaragua. We are doing a series he likes to call “Jesus 101” which has been SO SO GOOD. I love it. We talk about the basics and the simple truths of Jesus and our faith. It has been amazing and we have had so many good and in depth conversations because of it. Another thing while we are here is that Monday through Friday, we have personal devotional time from 5am-7am each morning. It is definitely early in comparison to the usual day to day for me haha, but I honestly love it. It is so nice to have that space to spend with the Lord, and God has revealed so much to me recently in that time. And we get to watch the sunrise every morning because of it!

Random side notes: There are lots of bugs, oh my, I’m being eaten alive, but it’s okay. Definitely took the no bugs thing in Colorado for granted. Aubrey and I played soccer with a bunch of local boys, ages 10-20, for about an hour the other day which was so fun. I have had to use my very limited Spanish vocabulary, but learning and practicing it has been fun. Our squad has a range of Spanish speakers hahah, a girl on my team is fully fluent and then one of the boys asked me what “Buenos Días” meant three times in like an hour. But we are all definitely learning haha.

Saturdays are Sabbath, so this week I read a LOT which is new haha. I have been reading 1 Corinthians in my Bible, the book “Crazy Love” that our squad coaches gave us, “From Slavery to Sonship” from the owner of the Nicaraguan ministry (we are reading it for our devos), and started the book “Rose Code” that I brought (shoutout Ms. Amy haha). For the devos book, I did a read aloud for a couple people in my squad hahahah. There is also a Spanish church service that our ministry hosts have every Saturday at 3pm with worship and a sermon. Then O-squad hosted a church service for all of us which was so sweet.

Sundays are adventure days!! This week we went to the beach with O-squad (from World Race) who was here this past week with us. We got to go to a resort two hours away for the day. We went to church in a beautiful chapel to start the day, then went in the ocean, pool, had some yummy food, and all just hungout.

It was such a good first week in Nicaragua and I’m so grateful this place gets to be home for the next two months!