Community has been something I have mentioned that I have been longing for before coming on this trip. I always imagined what it would be like to be surrounded by a number of people who daily pour into my life, and who I would view as being like family. I prayed for that so much in the past, and God came through and answered that prayer in abundance…. Because I now have a group of community of 17 other women who I spend almost every hour of the day with! One of my favorite things that we do here at CICRIN, in Nicaragua, is that every meal is spent together at one long wooden table. I grew up in a family where we ate almost every meal together at the table, and we would talk about our day and how life was going; and little did I know, I would soon get to do that again with my new group of community. I look forward to meals here because I know it’ll be a time spent laughing and talking with the girls, and also, rice and beans for every meal rocks… Amen? But really, I treasure that time, and even after the meal is over, we usually sit around the table a little longer and just chat! Plus, we usually have fresh fruit juice with every meal, so you know those pitchers are empty every time before we get up from the table! So mom, I need to ask you to get a juicer so that when I come home, I can continue making juice to have with every meal (I’ll skip on having rice and beans with every meal though.)
So I have a fun story I’d also like to share about this past week. On Friday morning, I got up in the “Prayer Walk” group as my ministry for the day! I was so excited because I had yet to be in that group since being here! Our group was encouraged to head towards the town, Sacramento, which is a little ways outside of CICRIN. So we head out, and pray for the Holy Spirit to lead us where He wants us to go. We go in the direction we thought was right, and we end up walking on a beautiful back “road” that followed closely along Lake Nicaragua! As we walk, we run into a guy who is on a bike herding cattle with a stick, so we stop and talk to him for a while… But then his cattle started to run away, so we kept on walking. We eventually run into the main road, and since we thought we’re quite a few miles away from CICRIN, we decide to start walking back. Turns out we weren’t as far as we thought we were, so we continue walking into the town, Los Angelas. We walk a little ways into town, then a girl in my group hears her name being called out, and when we turned to look who it was, it was the pastor’s wife, Ruth, from the church we attend, here in Nicaragua! She invites us into her house, and we chat for a while, until she asks us to help her prepare food for an event she was having that evening (that my team and I were also volunteering at, with her.) She was planning an event called Healing Hands, and she had invited the local women to come and get manicures (which we did later that evening.) So my prayer walk group and I spent the afternoon with Ruth making empanadas for the event! It was a sweet time spent with her; and I loved seeing how God lead us directly to her house, since we had no idea where she lived, because someone had to make those 70 empanadas! I’m thankful we got to bless her and those women who’s hands we touched that evening at the event, and I treasure those memories.
Overall, God is working in great ways here in Nicaragua and in the hearts of my teammates! I love each one of them, and as the days go on, I am coming to adore their hearts more and more. I can’t even imagine what life will be like when I go home and I don’t wake up to see their faces around that wooden table every morning, day, and night.
“If we believe in Jesus, it is not what we gain but what He pours through us that really counts.” Oswald Chambers
