I have gone to several states in the US, and gone on two in country mission trips to Chicago, and St. Louis. I am about to go on my 3rd mission trip to the country of Nicaragua. I am leaving on the 23rd of this month and I am both scared out of my mind and so excited! (update! I went back to Nicaragua July 14-21, 2012)
{I know this post has been a long time coming. I have tried sitting down and writing this, but it's just been so hard to wrap up that week into a blog post. There is so much to describe, analyze, and share; I just don't know what all to tell and what not to tell. All the things I witnessed down in Nicaragua, are still so real to me. I saw God there so many different times, in so many different people, locals and non locals.
On the plane to Miami on July 23rd, I was terrified. I wanted nothing to do with the flight, trip, or anything about it. Once we landed, however, all my worries were gone. God is so good at supplying what I need at the right times. We landed in Managua around lunch time. We got to the compound(El Ayudante) around 2:00 that afternoon. The rest of the day was pretty relaxing. Bed time was at 10 every night.
On Sunday, we had church. Breakfast was at 7 every morning. We left for church at 9:30 that morning. We had lunch at 12 noon. There was a soccer game, Nicaraguans vs Americans. I believe we lost! I had a migraine after dinner.
On Monday, we actually got started and had a schedule! We went to VBS in the morning. We went to a special needs school, the kids there were so sweet! Then we came back for lunch, and we got ready for the second half of the day. I stayed back on the compound to help sand and stain doors and windows.
On Tuesday, we went to a second VBS. This school took an hour to get to, the kids there were so energetic! I went to the house the second part of the day. I became a brick mason! We got the rest of a wall done in 90 minutes! Later that night, Bead Amigas, came go El Ayudante. They sold homemade jewlery to us.
On Wednesday, I went to a third VBS. This school was much closer than the previous one. The kids there were considered middle class, the neighborhood was relatively nice. The second half of the day, I went to an adjoining neighborhood to help distribute food bags to previously picked out homes. The home I prayed over, I was just drawn to it, like a magnet. I knew that this was the house that I was going to pray over. The youngest child, a daughter, had a heart condition.
On Thursday, I went to the volcano, Cerro Negro. I had intense vertigo on the way up so I had a hard time coming up. I walked/slid down the volcano! It was so fun! The way down at least. We then went back and ate lunch, and had 2 hours of down time before we went to downtown Leon. We had dinner at Hotel Suyapa on the beach, it was beautiful!
On Friday, was our last day at El Ayudante. We left around 9 that morning. I cried on our way out of the neighborhood, it was so hard to leave there. It felt so final, like I was never going back there. I so hope that I will, I have a job down there that I need to finish. I left half of my heart down there and I have an intention of giving the rest of it away to the children there. Later that morning we went on a zip line that was terrifying. Then we went to the market to shop, it was really crowded and I had to be with a guy the whole time. Then we went to our hotel and ate dinner there.
On Saturday, we left the hotel around 10. We got to the airport shortly after, our flight got delayed three times! Instead of leaving at 12 that morning, we left at 2:15! We landed in Miami around 6, and it took us about an hour to get through immigration and customs. We got to our gate, which was wrong and had to move, then they changed it back to the previous gate! We took off around 10 that night, after they discovered a 'minor mechanical discrepancy'. We landed in Nashville around 12:06 Sunday morning. I got home at 1am.}
I will make a post later about how I feel about the whole trip, but I feel that this post is long enough! I will also add a picture post later
