Nicaragua 2014

(This post is picture heavy.  Too many good ones.)

This trip challenged me in ways I didn’t know I could be challenged.  I knew from the beginning that I had to physically show God that I put my life, Nate’s life, and Mollie’s life in His hands.  It was a HUGE obstacle for me.  It sounds silly, because God is the one that gave us life, but for me handing all my worries and fears over to Him, in this way, was something new… Mostly because we have Mollie now.

I thought I had learned that lesson last year, when Nate went over there without me.  But with Mollie it was a whole new ballgame.  I had every irrational fear you could have…. the one about us dying on a plane and leaving Mollie without parents topped the list.

It was all totally insane, but God showed me how to fully rely on Him.  I knew I needed to go on this trip to teach myself a lesson.  Children are a gift from God and to not fully give them back to Him is selfish.  God even sacrificed His one and only Son for me, so what in the world was I doing?  When my friend Hollie was going to Nicaragua the first time, she was having a hard time leaving her son.  I remember telling her that if God and Jesus were in the same situation as humans here on earth, I thought God would totally leave Jesus with his grandparents so He could go share the good news.  It’s a funny thought, but it helped me to get over myself.

Anyways, back to our trip.

 

 We had a great group.  It was too much fun traveling and working with these wonderful peeps.

Nate preached at the first church we went to.  He always does a great time and makes me oh so proud to be his wife.  We didn’t go a day without face timing with Mollie and Grandma and Papa.  Thank goodness for technology these days.

 

When we went to churches, everyone was always so happy to see us.  The kids wanted to hug us and stare at us and definitely take pictures.  We also got to go into several schools.  It was amazing.  The teachers would happily invite us in and we would tell them all about Jesus.  In this class, at the first school we went to, all of the kids accepted Christ into their hearts.  There is nothing like hearing thirty second and third graders repeat the sinners prayer after you.  It was also a great experience for me to see our group go through something like this for the first time.  I love watching people experience overseas missions for the first time. 

These pictures are from one of our first fiestas.  Again at a school.  We played games and put on a funny skit.  Hollie and I reprised our rolls as the drunks and we were trying to get Lauren, aka Sinbox Sally, out of her sin.  Then we again shared the gospel and I got to take my picture with some of the girls.

 

Hollie, Me, Lauren and Emily….. ……………  ….Nate, Garrett, Zack, David, Kevin and Jerry.

Nate liked holding babies this year.  You could tell he was missing his little girl, but not as much as me.  I was having a super hard time being so far away from her.  If we were out and working, my mind was fixed on that.  But as soon as we were on the bus or back at the team house, I was a wreck inside.  But we all made it, and Nate also had a little too much fun being the Strong Man in the skit.

(Top Left) Nate and I with some kids at another school.  (Top Right)  Us with some of our fabulous translators.  (Bottom Center)  Hollie, Brandi, and I at one of the schools.  This moment was probably my favorite one of the trip.  Leading a whole class to Christ with two of my best friends!

 

We got to visit the ocean again.  So beautiful.  And Javi translated for me when I gave my testimony.  It was a little different this year because I shared about my struggle with fear.

(Above) More face timing with my girl.  And a little girl that held my hand for close to 30 minutes while we were inviting everyone to the fiestas.  She was sweet and would just look at me with the biggest smile.  I told her she was muy bonita and that she was my new amigo.

(Below) On our free day, we went ziplining.  That was super fun… and I saw a monkey!  We also ate some steak and went to the market (where there is a dormant volcano that looks like a huge lake).

    

March 16-21, 2014

Nicaragua ~ March 17-24, 2012

Warning:  This post is super picture heavy!  And my camera was even stolen… imagine if I had all my pics ;)

What a week!  God blessed this trip from beginning to end and our whole team was/is extremely blessed.  It was the smoothest mission trip that I have ever been on, and that is a huge credit to Mike & Sherry Hulsey and Vickie Cline at Voice of Hope Ministries.

We left bright and early on Saturday, March 17 and took two flights before arriving in Managua, Nicaragua.  Vickie was there to meet us and we quickly left the airport, heading to Leon.  While a man was helping put our luggage on the top of our van a bird flew into him, so that was funny.  We stopped by Tip Top Chicken to have dinner and drove the rest of the way to the mission house.

On Sunday, we visited the Rose of Sharon Church and Nate got to preach.  I am always so proud of my handsome husband and in Nicaragua it was no different.  He did great!

We went to a different church that night and then the rest of the week was full of awesome ministry where we boldly said the name of Jesus Christ to a ton of people.

We went through the streets of different villages telling people to meet us for a fiesta.  After a few minutes people would start showing up and we would sing and play some games before we shared the gospel two times.  We would do the “sin box” skit for everyone before splitting up into boys, girls, and adults and sharing the gospel again.

While half of the group did the skit, the others went door to door witnessing to people along the way.  One of my favorite parts was working with our wonderful translators.  I got the opportunity to go with Juan a few times and he was an absolute joy and help to me.  I explained how encouraged I was by his boldness.  I told him that in the United States we never just go up to a stranger and ask if they are going to Heaven or hell, and that I so appreciated how he was able to do that with his fellow Nicaraguans.

Here are a few pics of the fiestas!  Hollie and I were very convincing and funny drunks…

 

 

And street evangelism…

 

On Thursday I got the opportunity to go help cook at one of the feeding centers.  It was a great morning with 4 other precious ladies.  Margaret and I didn’t end up cooking very much, but we sure did entertain about 40 kids without an interpreter for almost 2 hours. ha

We also got to go see the Pacific Ocean and it was beautiful.  I have never seen waves as big as they were there, and the sand was black.

On our fun day… we had the greatest time.  We went to a great restaurant and ate the best steaks we have ever had.  Then on to zipline through the Nicaraguan forest (didn’t see any monkeys).  Next we went to see an active volcano… which was a little stinky but skinkin awesome!  Then after some shopping and some pizza hut we were back at the mission house to pack and get ready to leave.

 

 

 

It was also great to see some old friends from Rogers.  Everyone is growing up and it was awesome to work side by side, sharing the love of Jesus.

And, it is always great to be around one of my favorite people in the world for a whole week.  We kept each other positive and she kept everything under control so I could just relax ;)

Lots of wonderful memories were made and I think we are all thinking about when the next time we can go will be.  Maybe next year?  Who knows?

By the way… this post is purely for the pictures. Look forward to others about what I learned throughout the week in Nicaragua.