Jumping into ministry

Hello from the beautiful Granada, Nicaragua! The team is doing very well – everyone is safe and healthy (and drinking lots of clean water!). The food is delicious, we are getting plenty of sun, and the bugs have stayed away from us so far. To our friends and families: we love you and miss you, and are praying for you just as you pray for us. Thank you!

Here is a day-by-day rundown of what we have been doing so far, and a few plans for the future.

MONDAY – We arrived in Managua, Nicaragua around 2:00 PM. Our travels were safe and smooth (except for one delayed flight, but that allowed us to take badly needed naps so we didn´t mind too much), thank you for your prayers! After an hour drive to El Puente, the AIM missions base here in Granada, we settled in and ate some dinner, then fell asleep out of sheer exhaustion.

TUESDAY – We visited the dump here in Granada and helped serve lunch to the people who work all day picking through the trash to find anything worth recycling or reusing. Our ride to the dump turned out to be a pickup truck, so we piled all of us into the bed and drove most of the way. The road was muddy but the truck only got stuck or broke down three times. 🙂 Seeing the conditions of the people working there brought a variety of reactions and emotions, but we kept taking them back to God and He has used this to increase our compassion for the people we will be ministering to in Granada for the next few weeks.
Then in the afternoon we took time to walk around Granada. We stopped to talk to a few people, but mostly we just prayed that God would open our eyes to the ministry opportunities around us… and He did.
As a team of all ladies, we have a unique opportunity to reach local women and to encourage them. One thing that God showed our team was that there are many ministries set up for children and teens, but nothing to encourage growth and show love to the women in the community. We want to bless and refresh them while we are here, so we´re going to do that the best way we know how: by being feminine. Next Friday, we plan to host a womens´ fair at El Puente: As the women come, we can watch their children for a while. We hope to have different stations throughout the grounds for washing feet, painting nails, doing hair, giving massages, etc. and along the way be pointing them toward Christ by showing His love in a physical form. It´s great to see everyone on the team excited about this!

WEDNESDAY – After breakfast we headed out to a local barrio (neighborhood) called Fortin, expecting to prepare food for a feeding program, serve the kids, and support one of the local churches in their ministry. When we got there, however, the food was already prepared and we discovered that those who normally ran the kids´ program afterwards would not be there that day. So the team decided to just hang out and play with the kids as they came for their food. Who knew that "red light, green light" would be one of their favorite games? We also learned that laughter is the same no matter what language you speak, and that hugs are an acceptable alternative to words. Above all, we learned the number one lesson in ministry – STAY FLEXIBLE!

PRAYER REQUESTS:
     1. For continued health and energy to continue in our ministries here, and good attitudes as we learn.
     2. For details to be worked out for the Womens´ Fair next Friday (July 2nd), and that we would be able to serve humbly, pointing the ladies to Christ and connecting them with a local church.
     3. That we would be a blessing to our host missionaries, Charles and Sarah Kaye.