Being in Nicaragua has been incredible. The beautiful scenery, the welcoming people, traveling the country; all in all it has been an amazing experience. One of the main things God is showing me is how desperately this world needs the hope that Christ brings. Don’t get me wrong, I knew we were going to see some hard things. The extreme poverty, the living conditions, children without parents, parents who lost their children; I thought I was prepared for it. But it is one thing to know the statistics and see the pictures from afar, and a completely different thing to see it face to face.
The children at the orphanage are taken care of better than the kids we have met in the slums. For example, they all have shoes here. They are clean and get decent meals every day. Not to mention that the staff that is taking care of them love the Lord. It’s really a great place. But they weren’t always living like this. These children were abandoned, abused, molested, etc. When we spend time with them, I start thinking about these things and get so confused. How could anyone abandon them? They are some of the most amazing kids I’ve ever met in my life. Why weren’t they loved how they should have been loved?
The other day we made an unexpected visit to a prison (we literally had no idea we were going to a prison until we hopped off the bus). So very unprepared as to what I was about to see, I walked with a group heading towards the women’s cell. The smell was awful. We were told to leave all of our belongings outside and keep our hands at our sides. So there we were, facing a cell that had women shoved in it as if they were cattle. It was unbelievably inhumane. We asked them if they had children. Every single one of them raised their hands. Many of them were crying. We told them about the hope that we all have in Christ, and the love He has for them. I saw a kind of pain in their eyes like nothing I had ever seen before. We prayed with them, literally crying out to God until we were forced to leave.
So what is there to say after seeing something like that? I don’t know. All I do know is that God’s promises never fail. Through all this evil in the world we must cling to them. The world needs hope, a light in the darkness. Jesus is just that.
“I will lead the blind by a way they did not know; I will guide them on paths they have not known. I will turn darkness to light in front of them, and rough places into level ground. This is what I will do for them, and I will not forsake them.” Isaiah 42:16
