Week 7- Nicaragua!

This week was fully ministry, Monday through Friday! During our prayer walks this week, we met a mom and her 15 year old son who ended up having a very similar story to one guy on my squad, Thomas. It was really cool to see how Thomas’ testimony was a way of relating to this boy and how he could inspire him and encourage Him to lean into what the Lord really has in store for him. We also met Nester who is a 12 year old boy with cerebral palsy who is also deaf and cannot speak, so he has no form of communication. While we were at his house, my group talked with his abuela who cared for him, and I sat with Nester and got to see his big smile:) This was the first experience so far that has really hit me in the heart, and I’m not saying everything else I have seen isn’t sad or impactful. This in particular broke my heart though because I sat there, holding his hand, knowing he truly had no communication and all I could do was pray over him and hope he got to know the love of Jesus. On another prayer walk, we walked up the mountain which had a beautiful view and got the opportunity to talk to/pray over people that lived on the mountain.

At the hospital this week, we met a mom and her daughter who had Dengue Fever, but got to hear her story and give her encouragement, and simply just someone to talk to. The mom knew some English so it was fun to teach her English and for her to teach us Spanish. She had been living with her daughters at her parent’s house because she had ran from an abusive husband, and was currently one week sober from cocaine. She shared all this with us and then her daughter was giving my friend Jill flowers and we started to just laugh and create a light mood. It was a sweet moment, and then we got to share some verses and words of encouragement for her as a reminder that God loves her so big and is proud of her, then we prayed over her:)

We had some squad bonding time this week where we did speed-dating which ended up being a lot of fun, and got to know each other more. The devotionals with Scott (our ministry host) have been so so good. I saw fireflies for the first time while in Nicaragua. Apparently it’s crazy that I have only seen them in Princess in the Frog and not real life haha. Also there’s a pet monkey at one of the houses, so we pass it on prayer walks and the monkey’s name is Shakira haha.

There was a conference at the farm this weekend that was for the staff, and a group of Americans from North Carolina stayed here and led it. During the conference (Saturday and Sunday), our squad was on childcare which was a lot haha, but I personally thought it was so fun. I played soccer with the kids for a good hour (one kid told me to call him “Lamine Ronaldo” haha), we taught them how to make bracelets, carried them on our shoulders, played some duck duck goose (pato pato gonso), let them take pictures on our phones, and ate lunch with them. Definitely have improved my spanish because of all these kids haha.

For our adventure day this week, we had a free day where people could go into town if they wanted. In the morning, I went with Maisey and Thomas to the tienda where we got some snacks and drinks, then went to this guy’s house that Thomas met like two weeks ago. I swear this isn’t as creepy as it sounds. This guy owns a very nice AirBnB and we met him and his son, and they gave us all these cool places to see while we are in Nicaragua, then invited us back any time and showed us where the key to the house was haha. But they were both really cool and kind and it was fun talking to them. In the afternoon, I went into town with a couple of people and we sat at a cafe for a bit to be on wifi and call people, then went to the ATM, then explored. Carley and I tried to thrift, but it was closed, but we walked in the marketplace area and got snacks at the store. We also prayed over, had google translate conversations with, and bought food and drink for, a crossing guard, a guy with a busted lip, and a guy who had been homeless for four years, but we told the last guy about our church and wrote down the address and he seemed very excited to go on saturday!