Hello!
It’s been 50 days since I left home, which means I’ve been on the race for 50 days! Life has been so sweet and so much has happened. Training camp ended about a month ago and I am now in Granada, Nicaragua. I’m going to give a bit of a recap about training camp, domestic ministry, and debrief to catch you up on all the ways the Lord has been working in and through me! (So this is gonna be a long blog lol)
TRAINING CAMP:
I arrived back on Gainesville, Georgia soil on August 31st. I said goodbye to my family and started my journey for the next nine months by attending welcome weekend at the Adventures In Missions base. It was hard for me to leave my family once again, but also so exciting to meet my new world race family. My best friend, Emi, is also doing a program with the World Race called Semesters, so it was like bringing a piece of home with me by having her there. I was able to spend some of parent welcome weekend with her and her parents which was so sweet. I can still feel the excitement I had when meeting everyone and seeing their beautiful faces. It was like catching up with old friends because we had spent months talking over Whats-app to now finally meeting in person.
Training camp eventually kicked into full swing and you knew that when they decided to give us a scenario (a pretend situation meant to give us practice for the field) where they made us pack op camp and all of our belongings on the fourth day. Some people were given their belongings back that night, but I didn’t, so I had to sleep in another girls tent. There were many more scenarios like the market place scenario, spending a night at a ministry host’s house, not using silverware to eat, not using our left hand for anything (I’m left handed so you can imagine how that went for me), and so on. All of them were stressful in the moment, but now they’re fun memories that I look back on and laugh about.
Training camp also consisted of many sessions where we were taught different things. I loved these sessions because I was truly able to learn more about the Lord and His desire for His children. Many of the sessions would end in spontaneous worship or prayer and during a few of these times, the Lord spoke to me directly or through other people praying over me.
Overall, training camp was awesome and I loved getting to know my team and squad!
DOMESTIC MINISTRY WEEK:
Following the three weeks of training camp, we had domestic ministry at Sharptop Cove Young Life Camp! We spent a week there doing manual labor such as pulling weeds, blowing and raking leaves, moving rocks, cleaning out sheds, getting rid of cob webs, etc. At first, this didn’t seem too exciting to me, but then the Lord gave me a new heart posture about it. The work we were doing was impacting the environment the campers would come to know Jesus in and they would always remember the beautiful place they accepted Christ into their hearts. That week was also the week of hurricane Helene, so it rained most of the time. I was also sick that week and found out I had pneumonia so I then rested a lot. That week was such a blessing though. It was full of worship, time spent with each other, and time building new relationships with the staff at Sharptop.
DEBRIEF WEEK:
After domestic ministry was done, we headed back to base in Gainesville to spend a week debriefing the last month. I was able to rest a lot and catch up on things back home. Not much else happened this week besides preparing to launch to the field and packing up! At that point I was more than ready to leave Georgia and head to Nicaragua!
THE LAST TWO WEEKS:
The last two weeks have been so sweet and refreshing. We arrived in Nicaragua on Monday, October 7th and I was reunited with my best friend, Emi. I got to spend the week with her catching up, watching movies, having sleep overs, and lots of laughs. It was so special and sweet to have that extra time with her. We started ministry on Wednesday, October 9th. Our everyday ministry looks like:
-prayer walking- going to houses and getting to know the families there while also encouraging them and sharing the love of God through His word or praying.
-farm work- working on the farm doing manual labor, helping in the kitchen, or praying over the farm for three hours.
-hospital ministry- going to the hospital and praying over the patients and getting to know them.
-dump ministry- going to the dump and playing with kids, giving a sermon ( I got to give a sermon this Friday when I went!) and serving food!
Ministry here in Nicaragua is so sweet and I have absolutely fallen in love with this place.
Our daily schedule looks like:
-prayer from 5am to 7am
-get ready 7 am to 8 am
– breakfast 8 am to 8:30am
-devos with Scott 8:30 am to 9:30 am
– ministry 9:30 am- 12:00 am
-lunch 12:00 pm- 1:00 pm
-ministry- 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
-team time- 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm
– dinner 5:00 pm
– free time or squad events the rest of the night!
I am so grateful and blessed to be able to be here and am continually thankful for the Lord’s provision. He is so good to us.
Thank you for reading my blog!
-Emma
