Well we are here, and Nicaragua is a Spanish speaking country. “Hola” is about the extent of my Spanish so I tend to use the word over 100 times a day. My life has quickly become a never-ending game of charades, and this charades life is a challenging life. Thinking before you speak is a necessity here. How important is this five minute skit I am about to put on to ask where I should dump the trash? Ministry is definitely about seeing what needs to be done and doing it with as little words as possible.   One of my favorite memories from this week happened the second full day...

This week I was assigned the glamorous task of working in the chicken coop. Chicken coop duty seems like it would be a pretty straightforward, low-stress, low-exertion task–you simply have to feed and water the chickens three times a day–but it has the reputation of being dreadful. After I was assigned to this job, I quickly found out that it not only lives up to its reputation–it is about a million times worse than I expected. I wasn’t quite sure exactly what to expect, but I soon discovered that chickens are my least favorite creatures on the entire planet. They are...

When you’re on a mission trip in Nicaragua, these are some of the little things that happen: You try to remember the last time you showered…and can’t.  Your water bottle smells terrible but you drink from it anyway.  If you haven’t worn it at least 5 times, it’s clean.  A deck of cards provides hours of entertainment.  When you wash your clothes they don’t become clean, they just become less dirty.  Getting dressed up means a t-shirt, maxi skirt, and chacos.  Your group can rock “How Great is Our God” because you...

My last few blogs were more on the serious side, but it hasn’t all been serious, I’ve had a lot of fun here too and have been able to have a lot of new experiences. So here’s a list of the highlights: (they’re in no particular order) 1. I drank coconut milk from one that was freshly hacked off with a machete.2. I’ve tried 3 fruits I never knew existed before, one of which I liked very much and reminded me of fruit leather. Also I’ve had oranges and mangos very not ripe-that’s how they like them here very tart and with some salt.3. I’ve eaten very...

Hello friends!    Let me just say, God, the God who created you and me – he created some crazy cool things in this universe! Below is a short video of the panoramic view my team and I had standing on top of Cerro Negro Volcano (Leon, Nicaragua). Apologies for the wind! I literally had to crawl/sit down at certain times because the wind got so strong! it was awesome! After we hiked up Cerro Negro with our “surf boards” we “surfed” down the volcano! Bucket list: …CHECK!   Enjoy! 🙂   Volcano ~ Cerro Negro from Rachel Schleier on Vimeo.

  I have been listening to a song lately by Bethel that says "this is what you do, you make me come alive". This week at Rivas I got to experience some awesome experiences. First, I will tell about my experience on the moto. I had he great luck of being able to ride on the motorcycle with our host Sarah to go to the post office to send a post card. It was so fun! I hadn't seen the center of town before, nor had I ridden in such crazy traffic. I made sure to hold on tight! When a bicycle taxi almost ran into us our host said "estas dormiendo? (Are you sleeping?) haha....