Yesterday I was sitting with a couple young boys, listening to Moana (wow these kids love Moana). Noel, who could quite possibly be the sweetest and kindest 10 year old boy I’ve ever met, was sitting to my right. He swept my hair from my shoulder so he could lean closer and see my phone screen. My hair fell back. So I grabbed it and threw it to my other shoulder. Noel then lightly runs his fingers through my hair, brings it back, and says, in the sweetest voice, “Beautiful”.
Beautiful.
That’s what I’ve realized life here in Nicaragua is.
Beautiful.
That’s what these kids see me as.
Beautiful.
That’s how God views me.
Beautiful.
I’ll be the first to say that the first two weeks were really hard for me. I wanted to go home. I was tired of this culture and I wanted to go home.
But yesterday God showed me beautiful.
Hermosa. Beautiful.
After dinner I noticed the sun looked pretty. So I walked over to the Rancho to watch the sun set over the lake. Wow was this unreal!! Watching this really put me in my place.
I GET TO LIVE HERE FOR A WHOLE SUMMER. what. I get to live on an island in Nicaragua. For a whole two months. I get to love on some kids. I get to sweep mangos. I get to serve God here. Life is beautiful.
I sat there, in awe of God’s beauty, not sure how anything in the States could compare to this, and realizing that I didn’t want to immediately go home anymore. This was big.
After I lost sight of that last ray of light, I hopped down from the hammock and started to make my way to the house. To get to our house, you have to walk past the boys house. Like most nights, the boys were outside playing. Unlike most nights, I didn’t just say “¡Buenos noches amigos!” And head back to our house. That night, I decided that life here is beautiful and I wanted to soak it all up. So I sat with a couple of them and watched the older boys kick around a futbol. I’m still not very good at Spanish. But I sure understand when they want me to play Moana lol. This was when the above story about Noel occurred.
There are many memorable moments from the trip. But I don’t think I’ll ever forget God using a 10 year old who only said one audible word to me, to tell me I was beautiful and that life here in Nica is beautiful. Let’s all start to view our current circumstances as beautiful shall we?
