From the time I started getting ready for this trip there has been a word in my head that I, especially now, feel explains our desire for Nicaragua. Rain. In Nicaragua right now it is their rainy season. I found this out as I was trying to figure out what kinds of clothes to pack for this trip. There is a song called “My Soul Longs for You” by Misty Edwards that has a line it in that says, “I believe You will come like the rain.” I love this song, so in the weeks before the trip I heard it a lot, and my prayer became, “Lord, I believe that You will come in Nicaragua just like their rain.” I knew that it was going to be raining a lot, and at first I was a little disappointed, but after that song clicked with me, I was so excited. I knew that God would not let rain interfere with His work here.
The crazy thing happened when we got to training camp. One of our activities was to paint a canvas of what we wanted our mission to look like for our team. My Nicaragua team was in a pavilion with the other teams going to Central America and a team going to New Zealand. One of the teams decided to have some worship as they asked God to reveal what His vision was for this summer. The song that caught my attention was “Let It Rain” by Jesus Culture. It says, “Let it rain. Let it rain. Open the flood gates of Heaven.” As they worshipped in the middle of the room, my team started to sing along. You could feel God in the room. One team went outside and sang it for about an hour, because they felt that was what God wanted for their mission-for it to rain His love. It was such affirmation for me that He was promising to come in Nicaragua. Oh and by the way, it started raining at camp.
When we first got here, it rained just a little bit in the afternoons and sometimes in the morning, but it was never a downpour. Ms. Bonnie told us that usually by this point it has started monsoon season. I started to think that maybe it wasn’t going to be such a rainy season after all. False. Last Friday it poured. We had plans on Saturday to go out to a fishing village at the beach and then spend the afternoon at the beach, but since the rain was so heavy, we had to change our plans. We walked into town at 9 am to meet the other team, and I’ll just say that our clothes didn’t dry until about 6:30pm when we got back to the house. It was so much fun!
It didn’t rain too much during the day this week, but last night it started raining again. We started playing soccer at about 3. I was on a team with all Nicaraguan guys that are pretty good, and since they play continuous tournament style where your team doesn’t go off the field until you lose, we played a lot. I was exhausted by 6:30 when it was dinner time. As we started putting up the goals, it started pouring. We couldn’t run, because we were carrying big goals, and so we got soaked. It felt amazing. We were disgusting from playing and the rain was washing us clean. We started dancing and singing in the rain. Elton came sprinting around the corner, screaming in the rain and jumped on me. I couldn’t have asked for a better ending to the day.
Elton 🙂
God is moving here. He’s bringing freedom, and He is raining His love on these people. Our team can feel His presence in the barrios, in the town, and with all these kids. Our God is HUGE, and powerful and just like we can’t stop the rain, Satan cannot stop God’s love and freedom from transforming this city!
I feel the rains of your love.
I feel the winds of your Spirit.
Now the heartbeat of Heaven, let us hear.
LET IT RAIN!
