¡Hola mis amigos!
How is everyone doing? My trip has been absolutely impeccable thus far. I almost feel as though God has blessed our trip and living conditions above and beyond what I feel we should have in a nation as poor as this, but before I get too far ahead of myself, I should probably start from leaving training camp.
So, on 05, June 2012, our Nicaragua team left training camp at 0900 Eastern Standard Time. We drove to the airport and waited for what seemed like days to board our flight for Nicaragua. The wheels of the plane lifted off of the ground and we were in the air and headed for our destination of Managua, Nicaragua. It took a total of four or so hours until we came into view of the city. Talk about an extraordinary sight! Not only was the town lit up like an evergreen tree at Christmas time, but the sky was also lighting up gradually as the lightning in the distance danced through the night sky. To say the least, it was very pretty. When we got into the airport, I could already feel a sticky sweat coming over me. I knew right then that this summer was going to be a sweaty one, but oh well, what can you do? We drove to a hotel for the night (with a few small bumps along the way). In the morning, we got up and went to a ferry that would bring us to Ometepe, Nicaragua (the small island that we’re staying on for the next two months. The view as we got closer to the island was breathtaking! The first thing that I saw was the big volcano on the island (there are two volcanoes in total on the island). The smoky clouds that encompassed the top of the volcano looked like a halo, and the foliage climbing up the side of the volcano made it look like a green emerald in the center of the world. The island is overall just a breathtaking place.
The first day on the island we were allotted a rest day. Then the next day we went around the town with door to door ministry. Thank goodness that we had a translator, because my Spanish definitely doesn’t do much for me here (in other words, I lack greatly in the Spanish department.) That night we went to the local church and did some worship and listened to a sermon. This is very hard when you don’t understand a thing anyone is saying, and by the end of worship your hands hurt so much from clapping! But I still had fun, and could feel the presence of the Lord in what we did. The next day we went to Se A La Vida, which is a boy’s home for those who need a little help. This was an inspirational time. All of the boys make these cute bracelets and sell them for 30 cordobas (a little more than a dollar). The smiles that light up their faces when you bought one was priceless. Since that day, we have continued with both door to door ministry and going to the boy’s home. Inspirational things are happening all around and I am so pumped for the things that I know are going to come!
Though there are many inspirational things, we still need constant prayers from everyone!
Things to pray for: patience with the language, understanding of the language, connections to occur, sweat to play less of a role in our everyday lives (but I'm not counting on that), for bugs to be less of a pest (again not counting on it), but overall for love to just show through in everything that we do here!
-Until later – Adios!
