This month in Nicaragua my team and I did not have a host set up for us. The World Race calls this Ask The Lord (ATL) month. The idea is that we go into the country with no set plans, but seek the Lord to see where he leads us. Although it was not easy, God accomplished so much in and through us.
Team 217, aka my family for the past four months. We got closer than ever this month.
My team and I started praying about where God might want us to go while we were still in Costa Rica. We all felt at peace about starting the month in a city called Granada. We had heard about a ministry that we might be able to partner with, but the leader was not responding to our messages. So, we entered the month in Nicaragua with no connections or clues about what we might do. However, God quickly opened doors for us. We met some American missionaries, who got us connected with a local pastor that does ministry in the city dump and surrounding neighborhoods.
We got to go with him out to the landfill where many people rummaged through the garbage for plastics to recycle for a small amount of money. Many of them were providing for their family with less than two dollars a day. We had the privilege of joining their bi-weekly church services and helping serve a free lunch for them. It was a powerful time to see the joy and passion that these people worshipped with. I felt oddly comfortable sitting with them. In the midst of such a dirty and desperate place, I felt a God-given peace shared among the congregation. It was an honor to worship with them. I got to help lead a few worship songs with my guitar too.
Additionally, we went with the same pastor to do house-to-house evangelism in a local neighborhood. We got to pray with so many families and share the hope of Jesus with them. We were also able to invite them to the house church and Bible study that the pastor has started in that community. It was invigorating to see the vibrant communities of faith, led by local believers, that are bringing hope to some of the most impoverished people in the western hemisphere.
Serving lunch at the Granada dump
Additionally, throughout our time in Granada we had tons of opportunities to minister to people right outside our door. We stayed in a hostel right on the central plaza in downtown Granada.
In this area of the city, there was a lot of need, a lot of homeless people, and people trying to make a living selling different items on the streets. Every time we ventured out, even if it was not for a specific ministry outing, God would send people in our path to minister to. It was awesome to see how God was using me to love people on the streets as I kept my eyes open to what he was doing.
One day was specifically powerful. Because so many people were constantly asking for money or food, my team and I decided to make sandwiches to pass out as we walked around the city. Right when we walked out of the hostel, a local man met us, who I had talked to several times before. I told him what we were up to. He was pleasantly surprised. He even offered to guide us around the city to those people he knew really needed help. He took us over to a corner of the plaza where a few people seemed to be living on the street.
The first man we stopped to talk to was named Wilfredo. He was a heartbreaking sight, covered in his own filth seemingly drunk beyond coherence. Looking at him, I got the perception that alcohol might be the only thing keeping him alive at this point. I began conversing with him, but I struggled to make sense of his words. With our local friend’s help, we were able to understand that he was around 50 years old. We were all shocked by that. He appeared to be closer to 70, but the alcohol and hard life on the streets had aged him rapidly. I do not know if I have ever interacted with someone in a darker situation. What do you even say or do to someone like him?
I was asking God how to minister to him, and I felt led to just sit down on the ground beside him and look him in the eye.
Even though I could not understand him, I knew it was making a difference to be present with him and give him my attention. Eventually, I asked if I could pray for him and the Spirit led me to hold his hand while I prayed. I prayed for God’s blessing and hope in his life, for a miracle and a turning point for him. We gave him a sandwich and turned away to move on. As we walked off, the local man who was guiding said, “Wow, you have done a great thing. No one is willing to touch this man.” I felt like God used me in that moment to shine light into Wilfredo’s life, to treat him with dignity where people usually try to avoid him. Who knows what will change in his life because of that encounter.
Just a few feet down the street form Wilfredo, I encountered a woman named Maria. She was clearly suffering in many ways as well. One thing she conveyed to me several times was that her knee was hurting. I offered to pray for her and she obliged. I prayed with faith that God would heal her, and when I finished I asked how her knee was. She started moving it back and forth and said it was not hurting anymore! She started smiling and laughing. I shared with her that this was God showing his love for her. I wanted to continue talking with her, but at that point our ministry had begun to draw a crowd. A group of other beggars were surrounding my team, and my teammates were needing help translating and controlling the situation. I had to shift my attention to them, so I was not able to finish talking with Maria.
However, out of the corner of my eye, I saw her walking away. I waved at her and said God bless you, and she waved back with a big smile.
Although my encounters with her and Wilfredo were quick, I know that they were not in vain, and I pray that God uses those encounters to plant seeds of his love in their lives.
A typical scene from this month. Walking the streets, seeking to love people like Jesus would, volcanoes looming in the distance.
Not only did we get to minister to people out on the streets, but in our hostel too. It was crazy how we would finish our ministry at the dump or on the streets with homeless people, walk into the hostel and immediately get the chance to witness to the staff or other tourists inside. I tried to invest in relationships with the hostel staff while we were there, just simple things, like getting to know their names and asking them how they were doing any time I walked by. This made a big impact on them because they are not used to tourists caring about them as people, or making the effort to speak to them in their own language.
I connected quickly with one of the staff members named Kevin. He was a couple years younger than me and had just recently started working there. I had made a lot of small talk with him, but had not gone deep until one day when I walked in after our evangelism ministry in one of the poorer areas of Granada.
When I entered, Kevin asked me what I had been doing so I told him about our house visits and serving people at the dump. He was shocked that I was spending my time in that manner because most foreigners come to Nicaragua only to party or sightsee. I told him that I just wanted to share the love of Jesus with people. This prompted him to ask me a handful of philosophical questions about God’s judgement, free will, and why people have to suffer. I could tell that he had doubts about God and was searching for answers. I did my best to answer his questions and ask the Spirit to give me the words to say to him. I got to share some powerful truths about God’s pursuit of us and how Jesus suffered just like we do sometimes. I noticed that Kevin was listening intently to my answers and mulling things over in his head. After this conversation, I continued to hang out with Kevin any time I got the chance. By the end of the week, he even asked if he could join us for dump ministry and offered to help be our translator. While it never worked out with his schedule, it was amazing that he even asked to come with us. I believe that God used us to make an impact on him, and maybe he moved a step closer to fully saying yes to Jesus.
Leading an interactive Gospel presentation with the children at the dump
Each day in Granada was filled with moments like these. We could feel the atmosphere shifting in the city, even after a week of us being there. Word was spreading that there were missionaries in the city, and we started meeting strangers who already knew who we were and how we had been serving people. All we had been doing was stopping for people on the streets, praying for them and offering a sandwich now and then. But apparently, that type of behavior was not normal in Granada.
People were taking notice of the love and compassion we carried. It felt like we were right in the middle of God’s Kingdom coming to earth.
Yet with our budget to stay in the hostel running out, we needed to move on to a different area with cheaper lodging. As our team prayed together, we all felt the Lord leading us to Isla Ometepe, a stunning volcanic island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua.
Eventually, we got connected with a children’s home on Ometepe and got to join them for their Christmas celebration.
So, we set out for the island. We had zero connections ahead of time, and were a bit nervous about this lack of structure. Yet, we went with eyes open to see doors that God would open. God taught us so much about obedience to his voice in the moment and enjoying the spontaneity of his guidance. Almost immediately, he showed us how he would provide everything we needed if our hearts were set on serving him.
First, I met a man on the ferry to the island, who worked his small, family farm. I told him that we were looking for ways to serve the people of Ometepe, and he invited us to come work with him. He did not have a cell phone, so we set a date. He gave me verbal directions about how to get to his house. Once we arrived on the island, I began sharing with our hostel owner that we were looking for opportunities to minister to people. She got me connected with one of her employees that attended a local evangelical church. She invited us to join their prayer meeting later that evening. Within an hour of arriving on the island we had two ministry connections! Spontaneous connections and ministry became the theme of our stay in Ometepe. Plus, we rented motorcycles and ATVs for the week as our transportation, so it was that much more fun zipping around to wherever God led us.
Cows were about the only traffic we encountered on Isla Ometepe
One of the most memorable spontaneous moments came one afternoon when a local pastor invited us to come join a church service that he was leading in another town. We showed up at the location he had given us at 3:00, as he suggested. However, we arrived to nothing more than a small awning in front of a local’s house with a little hand-painted sign that read, “Iglesia de Dios.” The woman who lived there came outside, seemingly surprised and confused as to why we were there. Her name was Juana. I explained to her that the pastor had invited us. She responded that the service did not start until 5:00pm and that the pastor would probably not be there until 4:30pm.
So, there we were sitting awkwardly on her porch wondering how we would make conversation with her for the next hour and a half. Juana’s son and handicapped mother-in-law also joined us on the porch. We were doing our best to make the most of the situation and get to know them, when we heard a motorcycle rapidly approaching and a man shouting.
The screaming man (let’s call him Lester) zipped up to the side of the house, and Juana and her mother-in-law moved quickly to meet him.
I heard them shushing him and forcefully telling him that they had company. Next thing I knew, this man was on the porch with us yelling apologies and calling us “beautiful people” over and over again. We found out he was Juana’s brother-in-law, and he also loudly informed us that he had “problems,” pantomiming as if he was drinking alcohol and snorting cocaine.
A beautiful moment with Juana’s family
So there we were in one of the most awkward situations of my life, wondering if it was even safe to stay there with this volatile man around. He walked off for a moment, and we had a choice of how to respond. That was when my teammate Jose suggested that we start praying for Lester. We all agreed and began interceding for him and his family.
As we chose to bring things to God, He took a situation that felt awkward, frustrating, and even unsafe, and flipped it on its head. He showed us that this chaos we were witnessing was actually the reason He brought us there. We were there to comfort and encourage this family in the middle of their mess.
I opened my eyes and saw the mother-in-law crying with her head in her hands, clearly ashamed and frightened by her son’s behavior. Still looking, I saw my teammate Gwen walk over and began comforting her with prayer and hugs. When Lester walked back up, Jose and I sat with him, listening to his sporadic stories and songs. Substances were clearly ruling him.
Eventually, he took off, swerving around on his motorcycle, and we were left sitting with his family in the aftermath. It was a heartbreaking moment, but we were able to pray with them and comfort them. Juana’s father-in-law walked up later and joined us too. Bringing out his guitar, he and his wife began singing songs of worship.
I sat there, gazing up at this beautiful family and the stunning volcano rising up in the sky behind them, in awe of their faith and how God had met us all in that moment.
We left their house in order to get back home before dark, never joining the pastor or church service that we expected to have, but knowing that we had accomplished exactly what God desired in bringing us there.
Juana’s in-laws mesmerizing us with some traditional Latin worship music
Hopefully these stories give you a little glimpse into what God was doing in and through me this month in Nicaragua. I could share so many more, but they will have to wait until I see you in person. Through all of them, I got to be a part of God’s Kingdom taking root in Nicaragua. I cannot think of a greater privilege, and I pray that you get to experience the same wherever you are.
P.S.- 2 big changes to let you in on!
#1- Due to increased Covid restrictions in South America, our squad will be traveling to Eastern Europe instead! We are starting off in Albania this month, then moving on to Kosovo and Romania. While I am disappointed about not going to South America, I am excited for what God is going to do as we move into a totally different culture than Latin America. I know he is sending us there for a reason and will move in powerful ways.
#2- The leadership team of my squad asked me to step into a new role called, Squad Leader. This means that for the rest of my trip I will be in more of a pastoral role over the whole squad. Instead of staying with one team, I will hop from team to team, encouraging and equipping them to grow closer and closer to Jesus. From here on out, I will still have many opportunities to minister to locals, but my main priority will be caring for my squad-mates. I am excited to grow in the pastoral calling on my life through this role, but it definitely will be a big change, so I would appreciate your prayers as I transition into the position.
