The day to day in Nicaragua 🙌🏼🙌🏼

Hola everyone!

Yesterday I had such a fun day filled with so much adventure and excitement, and I wanted to simply share my whole day so you can get a view of what my days look like here in Nicaragua, and here the joys and gifts that yesterday brought me 🙂

And it all started at 6 am! We do morning prayer time every day from 5am to 7am, to spend with the Lord which has been special to wake up slow with Him. However, my mindset has been a little shaky and I’ve come to these morning times with some fear for a while: fear of how I’m doing my prayer time compared to others, fear of the Lord in a way that I’m afraid of how He’s accepting / loving me, and fear of being alone because when I get too in my thoughts I feel it hard to hear what the Lord has to say. Half way through my morning time I felt like I wanted to go help the ladies in the kitchen! It was a super random feeling and so I decided to go ask if they needed help, and they did! I got to fry so many plantains and chop veggies and chat with the kitchen ladies and help however they needed for an hour!! And then to my surprise I got to serve the workers who come in earlier for breakfast. So still in my pjs, I was a little scrambled and surprised, but got to serve breakfast to the workers which, if you know me, made me so happy do to. ☺️ 

This taught me yesterday that everyone can have different morning devo times and it can look different every day!! It doesn’t have to be the only two hours I get with God, but they’re saturated hours with no distractions with Him. And while I’m not perfect at it, and I’m also learning that’s not the goal; I am trying to simply stare at my savior who does all things for my good… I don’t know why I overcomplicate it.

I got ready for the day and got to sit and relax a little bit before breakfast, and then had a breakkie date with my leader, Mary Grace!! At first I thought to myself that I don’t have much to chat about in the moment, and then as we started talking over the blessed daily rice, eggs, & beans, we started to chat about my mind, and I’m learning… I overthink! Yes I know, this isn’t a shocker, but not only do I overthink but I overprocess. In my mind, to process is a good thing, and it is, but I do it so much that I’m living in this foggy mindset all the time, thinking myself in circles & staying in moments that were already moved on. My chat with Mary Grace was helpful… live in the simple, peaceful mindset to actually have peace! Haha – but it’s going to be a process to obtain but it starts with catching myself when over processing and letting myself relax and think about nothing sometimes. However, more often than not it feels impossible. 

After a healing breakfast date, we jumped into ministry!!!!! WOOP WOOP!!! I live for it. And yesterday’s ministry was awesome. I had some friends in my team that I never get to work with, and my favorite guide, Saúl, and translator, Kevin. And we hopped in the bed of a truck and drove to a neighborhood on a big hill called poisin teppe which I’ve been wanting to go to for SOOO LONG (3 1/2 weeks to be in fact) so thanks God for making a way for me to go! The houses were beautiful on poisin teppe, and the views from their houses were beautiful as well. I could totally make do with the houses there! They were so humble yet livable and you could feel the joy in the walls. Memories and laughter from the past jumped off of them and it was a blessing to be apart of. And the people we met just brought such a smile to my face and I loved being able to be an observer of the daily life here, just sitting and listening to all the families conversing all around me in Spanish and going about their daily routines. And, they are SO HOSPITABLE. They give us the only chairs they own in their whole property (how many chairs in your house don’t get used on any given day) for us to sit in while THEY sit on the ground since there isn’t enough chairs for all of us. I’ve offered to sit on the ground, and they just won’t let me. But there’s something so beautiful with watching an 80 year old man sit on the ground in a place of pride of his house & the ground he owns. The hike up this little hill was so so beautiful and when we got to our final house before lunch we were asked to lead a Bible study! No one was there to deliver it, so us gringas (translated: silly white girls) got to lead! My friend and I put together a 5 min devo for this family in 2 minutes and thanks to the Lord for giving me confidence in that moment and the words to say, because people came up to me and said it was what they needed to hear. We talked about Ephesians 4:14-16, all about unity as a body in Christ! 

We then started our decent down poisin teppe for lunch and I got to do another date for lunch, this time with Scott, the owner of the ministry we’re staying at here in Nicaragua! (It’s called REAP Grañada if you want to look it up!) We talked all about serving, and how it’s soooo simple and it’s us who overcomplicate it: we just need to love others and tell them about Jesus. And since being here, there’s a lot of talented people walking in their gifts. They’re loving people well and telling others about Jesus well too, and I think that in that I’m missing out on the attention and glorification I used to get from it, since we all are doing it so well. Phew… so this has entered another scene of comparison in the ways that I am functioning in my walk in loving others compared to my peers. And my squad and team all know it’s not about us, it’s about the Lord, so no reason to glorify each other. But in that I’ve lost the fulfillment of that part of my heart that would get filled in this way, and it’s revealing a place of surrendering myself to Jesus daily; instead of doing this for me, doing things for Him… which is why I’m on this trip!! Anyways this was a bit of a big pill to swallow, because I know that the hard part isn’t over, but I’m walking through it day by day.🙃

After lunch, MORE MINISTRY YAYYY!! I had a fun new group with mostly my leaders by chance, and we started walking around to random houses! And in that, one of the houses we stopped was a lady with a crazy story! She was homeless and the Lord provided her a house, and while she and her family were homeless she found a Bible on the ground randomly! And she’s been following the Lord and constantly grateful. And I really got to connect with her daughter, who’s 18, and she asked us if she could do our hair! And so Mary Grace got cute bubble braids and I got boxer braids, and it was so amazing to love on her by letting her love on us. It was a sweet girls-day-feel and I was grateful for the joy of the Lord in that house, even though you could also feel the tension and hardship. We then got to search the streets for another house Mary Grace and I have gone to before and we got to see some of our old friends, two crazy old sisters, and laugh with them again. It was a super sweet prayer walk with so many laughs!! I got back to the base and spent some time journaling the days events and talking with Tea (an amazing, adventurer, shy, wise girl on my team!), right before the best chicken kabobs around. And after dinner, we had our first visit with our micro church! One of the workers, Alvaro, has a small church in his house that we’ll be attending weekly and it was sweet. It felt like I imagined: getting to sit in a house with a bunch of people, studying the Bible together. It’s cool to see what Gods already done in this house, and I’m excited that I get to be apart of it. And the truck ride there and back is always a blast 😉

Got to chill with some friends and eat some snacks before bed, and texted with my parents as well about their lives that day. I went to sleep soo heavy and woke up this morning feeling like I was in a deep, beautiful sleep; either because of the rain, my mind simplifying, or chatting with my parents and feeling like I was in their comfort.

Thanks for reading!! Will continue to send more updates on my life! We’re about half way into my time here and I couldn’t be more grateful for the weeks I’ve already had here. While I’m working through and learning a lot of hard (and cried so much today even) I am absolutely in love with the people here of Nicaragua. I cannot wait for more relation with them as we continue to be here and I’m so grateful for their support; I feel so loved by them without them trying. Also! Prayer request, like I mentioned a lot above… I’m in my head a lot. I would love prayers for clarity and a clear mind! I think I can miss out on what the Lord is saying sometimes when I’m so focused on me and how I feel… but I feel so strongly!! So not sure where I fit at the moment :’) Alrighty yall, text me anytime!! Love you.

Gracias por todo y por leer mis mensajes de ayer. Los extraño mucho y hablen conmigo cuando quieran.