My heart is heavy as I write my final blog post. Tonight is my last night in Nicaragua, as we leave at 3:00am for the Managua airport. Leaving CICRIN was a tough time for all of us today. It is hard not to weep when you have loved the kids and staff as your family. The little girls started the tears, and consequently we couldn't hold ours back. After we finished lunch they sang Cambiare mis Tristezas to us and prayed for us. They wanted our sadness to be turned to joy. With 19 girls and kids crying, I think we could've filled up a bathtub with our tears. Our bus ride down the...

Balgue. A tiny place with a lot of heart. Half of our team had the privilege to live and serve in that town for a week, and it grabbed hold of each of our hearts in a unique way.  The people. You will never meet a group of more loving individuals. And this love is not out of their own doing, but rather a pure overflow from their love of the Lord. There was never a time that I did not feel taken care of, appreciated, loved, and honored. These people love their God, and that is so evident even with the strongest of language barriers.  The children. For whatever reason, the children...

If there is anything that the Lord is teaching me during my time here, it is that He is the only one who can change me. Let me explain.  Upon arriving to Ometepe, you could say that I experienced a bit of culture shock. Satan was definitely doing everything in his power to make me not want to be here. But God called me here. And He was going to fight for me and the calling He placed on my life.  So, I began to try to change my heart and mind. I did everything in my power to find joy in my circumstances and to make myself believe that this is where I wanted to be. But each day, I...

So, I could go into details about a lot of things. The gnats that attacked us. How precious the children are. How beautiful the view is. But I just want to write about how faithful our Lord is. At training, we went into our last night of worship. To put it simply, I was just burdened. I felt attacked and as if the devil was wanting me to experience all the hardships that have happened recently in one night. I was in tears and not in the mood to worship. I went off to the side and just sat on the floor of the chapel. I tried worshipping, but I could barely get words out. I just felt so heavy...

As my title suggests, I arrived back from my summer in Nicaragua exactly one month ago today. Little did I know, the minute I stepped into KC off the plane my relationships with the ones I loved most would forever change. Because I had changed. I had changed because of Jesus. Jesus Christ, the Savior of my life, took ahold of every piece of me- even the things I had been holding onto for so long that I wasn’t willing to give up. I have been reading my journals recently and here were a few highlights and life changes the Lord showed me I needed to adjust in obedience to Him. 1....

As I walked down the gateway into the Atlanta airport, I felt bewildered as I looked down the long corridor of glass windows and out at the countless shining cars racing up and down the twisted highways, zipping away toward the skyscrapers.  A thin sheet of glass was all that stood between me and what was supposed to be my “reality”.  But I knew this wasn’t so.  This was not where I belonged.  Yet when I said adiós to all my little brothers and sisters, my friends and my “family” in Nicaragua, I was ready to go...