Week one on the field!
We spent Friday night on the airport floor watching movies, calling family, and I edited a million photos from training camp. During our time on the airport floor, people watching, a lady approached us asking if we had anything to keep her warm that night. We gave up some blankets and towels and then I asked if she be willing to share her story with us so we could pray for her. She agreed and we got to hear her rich testimony and pray over her! We had some left over squad money and decided to give her that too! It’s so cool to see that the Lord is using us to have a “Jesus encounter” even before we enter the field.
At 5am we took off, first Miami, then Nicaragua! We landed around 3pm than headed towards customs. We had been preparing for this moment for a while, “sneaking” into the country! Because of the government, a lot of missionary groups are not allowed to enter the country. We were advised not to say that we were missionaries and had to trust God that we would get into the country safely. We were waiting in line for some time then just as a few of us made it to the counters, they started to question where we were headed. They stopped us all. We prayed and prayed that the Lord would provide a way in. They were able to call out ministry host and he was able to talk with the customs officers and, praise the Lord, we were let in!
Our first full day was a Sunday, which happens to be our “fun days” each week. We spent the morning at a beautiful chapel and lead worship while our ministry host shared a message. Then the rest of the day was spent at a lovely resort. I got to surf in Nicaragua! This country is so beautiful, tropical and flourishing! The weather is super warm typically around 85 and the humidity feels like its 100%. We have some rain storms that come by too.
Let’s talk ministry! Mondays through Fridays are our ministry days. We wake up at 5am and until 7am, we spend time alone with God. There is a lot of significance in the Bible about the time from 3am to 6am, so we fit some of our time with God in that period. Then we have an hour to get ready before breakfast. Let me tell you, the cooks here are incredible! They work so hard and make us the most delicious food! I’ll definitely post some on my instagram just to show it off! After breakfast, our ministry host will give us a message, they have been eye opening! Then, we split into our two teams and start ministry. One team will spend the morning working on the farm which includes, praying over the farm and ministry, helping in the kitchen, gardening, and various other chores. The other team will spend the morning doing prayer walks which is, going into homes and praying for people or family as well as sharing something from the Bible or our testimony. After lunch the teams switch, one works on the farm but the other team will go to the hospital and pray for people. We swap back and fourth so that each team has equal time doing prayer walks and visiting the hospital. After ministry have our book study together, dinner time, then team time where we debrief, give feedback, and right now we are sharing testimonies.
I have so many stories from ministry but I will only share one just to keep the blog “short”. On Tuesday it was the first day my team did prayer walks. Seeing the homes these people live in was really hard at first. Most live in concrete walls with tin roofs that are pieced together and have very little. It’s one thing to hear about poverty but it’s a whole other thing to see it. The last women my group visited told us she wanted prayer, she had really bad knees that caused her not to be able to attend church. She also has various other health problems she was dealing with. We spoke with her and were able to give her some encouragement. Then, I prayed for her and it was translated so she could understand. I prayed mostly for healing and that she would be giving the strength to get to church. On Wednesday nights my group will go, after our dinner, to micro churches. These are the best way for the church community to grow here and is something the ministry here focuses on. At the micro church, guess who was there! The women I prayed for! She said that the Lord made it easy to get to church and she didn’t have that much pain getting there! HELLO! God performed a miracle. The woman was so grateful to be there and it warmed my heart.
One thing that has been really hard and also humbling for me is the poverty. These people have nothing, just the means to survive. I asked the Lord to break my heart for what breaks his, and he did. I pray and pray and pray for these people. Especially those in the hospital. Seeing the state of the hospital broke me. The only thing people wanted was healing. I wanted to see a miracle and was trusting to Lord to show me one and in doing that he revealed to me that he IS doing miracles, right now, just not how I expected. Though these people have nothing I’ve seen them be grateful for all that they have and pray for others that don’t have as much as they were blessed with. This was so humbling. These people have taught me more than I expected and I am so grateful to meet so many of them and hear their stories as I share mine and share from the Bible.
One night we had a huge rainstorm and the town dealt with a lot of flooding. We decided to skip the plan that day and head out into town with all the tools we had and help people whose homes had flooded. I started off my morning flattening and prepping this small area of land for a single mom with three kids to move her tin home that had flooded. They were so happy to have us help, even though it didn’t feel like we did much. We prayed for them and went to go help the other teams. There is a lot of trash on the streets, like a LOT. During the storm, a ton of it was swept away and taken into streams that flow around the town. Because of this, there was trash everywhere, causing blockages and not allowing the streams to flow properly, which lead to more flooding. We cleared as much trash as we could from the streams. We also helped dig a better path for water to flow during the storms, to prevent flooding.
Saturdays we celebrate Sabbath! Best day of the week, let’s be for real! On Saturdays we don’t leave the farm and we spend our day with God and relaxing. A full and honest Sabbath is the best thing ever, this will be a discipline I will try and take home with me. We also had squad church Saturday night. This was the best church service ever. It was so awesome, our hospitality leaders put together a church service just like the ones we have at home. I was greeted at the “door” and sat down at my seat. We had announcements then did some really fun worship where we jumped around and laughed so much! We heard an amazing message from one of our own, Teague, about loving god and being desperate. I wish you guys could’ve heard it!
This week has been so so good! There has been some hard times and trials but God has worked through them. He has also shown me miracles in so many ways. I have grown so closer with him and have become so confident in my faith. The stories of how God is working here are honestly endless and each person on my squad has so many different ones. Thanking God for revealing himself to us in every way.
Prayer requests: Healing (people in the communities, squad member who are sick), strengthened faith (to speak his words not mine), and safety (spiritually, mentally, physically).
Keep closer in touch by following on instagram @maddyxwr and @osquad24
I am fully fundraised! Praise God! Im still trying to fundraise back the money that I put into this trip to get me started and also for a flight back home so if you feel lead, anything would be so grateful!
Sending hugs and so much love from Nicaragua, Maddy!
