We were blessed with two wonderful
short-term teams during August, The Quest team from Ohio and the Living Water
team from Boone, NC. I loved having the opportunity to minister, worship &
pray, and just hang out with these teams. They brought so much life to the
mission and really poured out their lives for the children and youth here! They did incredible work here and we were so blessed to work with them. Plus
it was great having such amazing community here for a few weeks! I also got a lot of practice as a translator which is really pushing my Spanish skills to grow (unless of course I am translating for Andrew and then the only word I get to say is "tuani" over and over again). Oh, and an
added bonus... traveling around with the Living Water team helped me to discover
that hammocks in the back of trucks are my absolute favorite mode of
transportation!! (Unless of course the hammock breaks mid-trip which has
actually happened to me twice this month).
The end of July and August we
celebrated so many birthdays! I really think at least half of our youth were
born in July and August. Of course all of these birthdays meant tons of
dancing, giant cake fights which always led to Rosita tackling me to the ground
and smearing cake EVERYWHERE, and taking kids out for pizza dinners to
celebrate. I love getting to make them feel extra special and loved on their
birthdays!!
Also this month, Ashley
Willingham, returned for a short visit. It was such a gift to have her back
here with us for a little while. It made my heart happy to catch up with her
over morning coffee dates, to pray together for each other and for the mission,
and to minister alongside of her again. Ashley has such a sweet spirit and
loves the Lord and the youth here so deeply. I'm so thankful for her!!
We were able to make a trip to the
neighboring village, Santa Matilda, for a huge outreach there. I loved getting
to spend time with the children and families in Santa Matilda. It's amazing how
different each village feels even within the same country. There is so much work still to be done in Santa Matilda. It is spiritually one of the darkest villages in this area. The focus of our work in Candelaria is discipleship and teaching people to walk more intimately with the Lord. The focus of the church in Santa Matilda is definitely introducing people to Jesus. There are so few Christians who currently live in the village. There is also a lot more gang activity and violence in that village. I was excited that our youth were able to visit and minister there. They visited homes, prayed with people, and also
performed several of their dances and dramas during the outreach. They did an
amazing job sharing the Lord's love in a way that really captured people's
attention. I'm so proud of them!! It was an amazing afternoon. Please continue to pray for this village and for our church plant there.
Our church has been reaching out
to one of the local gangs who are really hungry for the Lord. One of my
favorite moments of the entire month was having a church service in the yard of
one of the gang members. We worshipped together, our youth danced and shared
about the Lord's work in their lives, and Tommy and the guys from Living Water
shared the truth of God's grace and love for us. These guys have started
attending our church. Five of them (including the gang leader) gave their lives
to Christ this month! The church leaders are now beginning a discipleship
program for them. You can read the full story here
Right before the Living Water team
left, I was able to take a trip with them to the beautiful mountains of Matagalpa. It was
such a fun, adventurous, and refreshing getaway! We were able to swim in
waterfalls at Cascada Blanca, spent an afternoon hiking through the rainforest in ridiculous amounts of mud and then venturing off the path to chase after the howler monkeys (we did find the monkeys eventually),
enjoyed the beauty of the Nicaraguan mountains, and spent time at Selva Negra
coffee plantation. I loved being able to adventure with them! It was so much fun and such an incredible time of fellowship together! I also need to get in a lot of rest and time alone on my days off because both of those things are hard to come by in Candelaria. So, I was able to sneak off one morning to visit my favorite coffee shop in
Nicaragua and spend a couple hours just
drinking delicious cappuccino, eating Nutella crepes, and spending some time
alone with the Lord. Good coffee shops are definitely something that I miss
being here so it was such a wonderful morning for me!
We ended August supporting the
youth at a regional Christian Dance & Drama competition. Our church's dance
ministry team has been practicing and preparing all month. They were entered in
drama, choreography, and traditional Nicaraguan folk dance. They danced and
performed beautifully. I was so proud of them!! They won 2nd place
in both drama and choreography and won 1st in folk dance. The best
part for me was seeing how unified they were during the entire competition and
to see how proud they were of themselves. I love the self-confidence that this
ministry is giving them!! To read more about this ministry and to see pictures and video from the competition, click here.
Bonus Photos (August Mishaps):
August has been an amazing month, but we have also had some crazy mishaps happen this past month.
First my friend Rosita and I were in a motorcycle wreck in the middle of the month. Rosita was driving me around Candelaria on the motorcycle of one of the guys from our church. We were on our 2nd round through the village when the bike's headlight got caught on a low-hanging, illegally-connected power line and was clotheslined. We went sliding across the dirt road. Fortunately we had really minimal injuries just a few scrapes and bruises. Rosita's scrape was a little larger and deeper than mine, but we were both fine. My oddest injury is a hole in the middle of my right thumbnail from a rock puncturing a hole in the middle of my nail. It doesn't hurt anymore, but I will still be waiting a few weeks for it to grow out. This is a picture of me right after the accident still covered and dirt and blood, but clearly not in too much pain considering that this picture is taken in the Eskimo ice cream shop.
I also had my first experience with Nicaraguan hospitals. No, I wasn't in the hospital, but Ellie (one of our short-termers this month) had to go to the hospital and have her appendix removed. Linda stayed with her for the surgery and her first night in the hospital. Then I took over the next day, spent the night and stayed with her until she was released. I will say that Nicaraguan hospitals are definitely not like hospitals in the States. We stayed in a recovery room with 6 other women. All of the beds were in use and there are no chairs so I slept on the tile floor all night (which was fairly dusty considering that it's a hospital). Ellie couldn't eat or drink anything so she was on IV fluids the whole time. However, IVs in Nica don't have wheels so everytime she had to get up and walk or go the the bathroom I was following her with the IV bag on my head. This picture is Ellie in her hospital bed holding up her appendix in a Gerber baby food jar. Hilarious! No worries. Ellie is fine. She is out of the hospital and recovering really well.
Last December, my beautiful friend Ashley (pictured left) and some of the lovely ladies from Living Water Church really had the desire and heart to introduce dance as an outlet for worship and as a ministry of the church.
The Living Water team was able to spark a heart for dance ministry and then Ashley spent five months working here in Candelaria teaching the youth to express themselves and to worship through dance. She taught them how to worship, to choreograph their own dances, and rose up leaders from within the group. Because of her perseverance and work, the dance ministry has grown by leaps and bounds. Ashley poured her heart into the dance ministry. She sparked a fire in the hearts’ of the youth for ministry through dance. She taught them how to express themselves to the Lord in prayer and worship through their movements. I watched the youth come alive in dance!
As Ashley and her husband, Jake, returned to the States at the end of May, Jovanny (pictured right), who is one of our youth and one of the most talented dancers I’ve ever seen, stepped forward to lead the dance ministry. He has done an amazing job! Under his leadership, youth who thought that they could not dance now dance with confidence. He has choreographed and taught close to 20 new dances. They have won regional dance competitions, performed in church, and begun using dance as a means to share God’s love with street gangs, the city of Chichigalpa, and surrounding villages. I have been amazing to see the movement of God in this ministry.
Some of my favorite moments have been:
*Watching the youth worship in a deeper way through dance. I remember one night the youth were dancing in church and part of their dance was an unchoreographed, free worship section. I loved watching Kenia twirl before the Lord and seeing on her face a joy that can only come from encountering the Lord. I just sat back and smiled as Anthony jumped around like a kid at a rock concert- worshipping in a way that was uniquely his, but so purely for the Lord. My heart cried out as I saw Jovanny pouring his heart out before the Lord through his dance on the night that his mom walked out on the family.
It was the only way he was able to express all of the hurt that he was feeling.
*Seeing the youth grow in self-confidence. They have begun to see their talents and believe in themselves. You used to have to drag Ariel onto the dance floor as he yelled, “No, no. I can’t dance. I can’t.” I remember the first night I saw him ask someone to dance. It sounds like a small step, but it was a huge leap in his self-confidence.
*I love seeing them learn to work and to move in unity. There is still so much work to be done in unifying the youth, but this ministry is teaching them unity.
*I loved seeing them celebrate together as they competed in and won a regional dance competition. They entered dances for choreography and traditional Nicaraguan folk dance. They placed 2nd in choreography and 1st in folk dance.
*This ministry sparked a passion for outreach and ministry. The kids have taken their dances to the local parks, to church in homes of the local gangs, and to New Song’s outreach villages. They are using dance as a platform to share God’s love and to show how He is working in their lives.
Gangs have always been a problem in Central America. Anywhere that you find extreme poverty and a majority of children living in broken homes, the draw to gang life is strong. It becomes a place to belong and a way to ensure that your needs are met. Canderlaria and Chichigalpa (the closest city) are no exception. Last month while I was home in the States rioting broke out between the police and the largest gang in Chichigalpa. I still haven’t figured out exactly what started this riot, but it resulted in the death of one of the gang members and tear gas filling the streets. Something about losing one of their members in these riots really made these guys from the gang soften their hearts.
Pastor Jose is the retired former pastor of Iglesia Canto Nuevo (New Song’s church in Candelaria). His son used to be the leader of this gang. Pastor Jose has always had a heart to reach out to these gang members and to help them find abundant life in Christ. The riots and the death of one of their members opened the door for him to begin ministering to them. Jose has spent the last several weeks visiting with these men in their homes and sharing the good news of Jesus.
Last week when we had the team from Living Water Church in Boone, NC with us, we were able to join Pastor Jose and hold a worship service in the backyard of one of these gang members. For me, it was one of my favorite church services because it is what the church should be. It wasn’t a church distancing itself from sinners, but a church seeking them out and meeting with them in their homes. We worshipped together, we prayed together, our youth came to worship the Lord through dance, and some of our guys shared Truth with these guys. It was beautiful! They were really interested in visiting our church so Tommy promised to pick them up in his truck on Sunday and bring them to service. My heart smiled to see the truck pull up with 15-20 guys and girls from this gang longing to come to church because they were hungry for something MORE in their lives. The church welcomed them, embraced them, and just showered them with love. It was a really unique experience for these men who are normally feared and ignored by the churches in the village. The love of the church filled these men who are normally so hard and so tough with a hunger for the love of a God that they didn't yet know. At the end of the service, Pastor Walter invited the men and women of the church to come and pray over our new friends. It was wonderful to see my youth and faithful adults from the congregation coming and praying with these guys. I watched as these men who are feared throughout the area, stood with tears streaming down their faces as the church loved them and spoke truth over them. I don't know that I have ever seen such a beautiful sight before! Tragedy came into their lives, but it opened the door for the Lord to begin to whisper "The thief has come to steal and kill and destroy, but I have come that you may have life and have it to the full." These men saw something different that they knew they needed. Five men from the gang (including the gang leader) gave their lives to Christ last night! Yes, this is an amazing testimony of the Lord's work and what happens when the church becomes more concerned about loving sinners than about avoiding sin, but this story is not an end in itself. Rather it is the beginning. It is the beginning of change in the lives of the men, in the ministry of the church, and in the power that the gangs hold here in Candelaria. No, this is not the end of the story. It is only the beginning...
*Photo of the worship service with the gang taken by Kaitlyn Suter (www.kaitlynsuter.com)
I sat on a picnic table in the middle of the church with my beautiful friend, Paula. Tears filled her eyes, threatening to spill over at any moment. For reasons that she couldn't explain she just began to open up on this particular day. We started talking about her recent reconciliation with her boyfriend, but quickly moved into the deep hurts of her heart: how she has been handling her father's death, her strained relationship with her mom, the affect of living with her sister and her sister's abusive husband, how alone she feels in her life, etc. The words just spilled forth endlessly. Every so often Paula would stop and ask my advice. "What's your opinion? What should I do?"
These are all situations that she has no control to change. She wanted advice on how to fix all of these things, but the hard truth is that sometimes you can't do anything to change your situation. However, the one thing I knew that could change is the constant ache of unhealed wounds that she is carrying in her heart. As she was talking I was praying, inviting the Holy Spirit to speak, to open my eyes to what she really needed. The Lord kept speaking “She can’t change her situations, but she can walk through them with a healed heart. She needs to invite me to work.”
I talked to Paula about the way we build up walls in our hearts trying to protect those hurt places in our hearts. And yes, those walls will keep those wounded spots from being touched, but they also keep the Lord’s love at bay and they do not allow the pain to escape. The result is that we carry this pain around every moment of every day and spend our lives trying to numb this throbbing ache in our hearts. Paula just nodded recognizing this is her own heart. I told her about another way…
I told Paula that she cannot dismantle the walls in her own heart, but that she can give the Lord permission to enter into the deep places of her heart. He asks for our permission to work and then asks us to follow Him into our pain. It can be a terrifying journey to actually confront the pain that you have been hiding from, but it is the only road to healing. As we follow the Lord into the dark, hidden corners of our hearts, we will feel the full weight of our pain. However, as we sit in this pain for a moment we will begin to hear something else rise above the overwhelming ache. It is the loving whisper of our Father as He brings His truth and love to these wounds. This is how we are healed. It is a frightening thing to enter your woundedness, but IT IS WORTH THE RISK because healing awaits on the other side of this road. Amazing things happen in our lives when we stop hiding and invite the Holy Spirit to move about freely in our hearts.
When the Spirit Shows Up...
There
is freedom
Walls
are broken
Relationships
are reconciled
Forgiveness
flows
Fear
must flee
Healing
Springs Forth
Things
come into right alignment
Redemption
comes where it is needed
Things
begin to change
Truth
is clearly displayed
Peace,
joy, & tuaniness abound
There
is LIFE abundant
When the Spirit Shows Up I...
Recognize
myself
Fall down in worship
Am
filled with joy
Rest
in His peace
Cannot
contain myself
Feel
the Lord's lavish love
Am
completely alive- body, soul, & spirit
Am
healed in the deepest parts of my heart
Surrender control of my heart and my life to the God who loves me with abandon
It
all begins with a single step... Invite the Lord. Give Him permission to enter
into the deep places in your heart. Our God is a gentleman who will not force
His way into an unwilling heart. He knocks and He waits. The Bible says, "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with Me." (Revelation 3:20).
Paula admitted that she is still terrified to enter fully into her pain, even if healing is awaiting her. So we prayed for courage. Courage risk pain in order to find healing. Courage to invite the Lord more deeply into her heart. Courage to follow Him into her wounds. As much as I would like to, I cannot make this decision for her. She must decide for herself that she wants the Lord's best for her life. She must decide to give up her "control" over her hurts and trust the Lord to heal her pain. I don't know what she will decide, but I am placing her in the Lord's loving hands. And I'm asking you to join me in praying for her. Please continue to pray for my beautiful friend. Pray for her healing, first of her own heart and then flowing outward into reconciliation of the broken relationships in her life, particularly within her family.
*Thanks to my brothers and sisters in Christ here at New Song and at Living Water Church in Boone, NC who helped me compile this list of things that happen when the Holy Spirit shows up. I love being able to share my life and this ministry with people who love the Lord wholeheartedly and long to walk in His Spirit daily!
Working with teenagers can be really difficult, mostly because my relationships with them are so inconsistent. They will love you one day and won't speak to you the next. This is really difficult for me because my heart is so relational.
Yesterday I had problems with several of my friendships just with kids being punks or becoming angry with me for no reason at all. It's so frustrating, but it also really breaks my heart. I was feeling a little discouraged after all the problems from yesterday, but hadn't had a chance to really process with the Lord. This morning we met together for prayer and worship with the two short-term teams that we have here this week.
As I sat in the Lord's presence, the tears just began to fall. I let His love wash over me and clean out the hurts and frustrations from the day before. I sat there as the Lord spoke His truth to me. It was beautiful and cleansing, but I needed to feel the closeness of my God. I sat there praying "Lord I really need to feel Your touch. I need to feel completely surrounded by Your love." As I prayed silently, my precious friend Rosita reached her arms around me from behind hugging me tightly and began to pray over me. The Lord just whispered in my ear "This is Me wrapping My arms around you, embracing you with My love."
I love it when my Jesus knows exactly what I need!! Today Rosita was the arms of God giving me giant hug and it was exactly what my heart needed.
I apologize that there has been such a long break since my last blog. The main reason is that I just returned last week from a 2 1/2 week trip to the States to visit my family.
Now that I am back in my beloved Candelaria, I would love to share with you all what God has been doing here. Thursday I had one of the best days that I have ever experienced. It started with an amazing time of worship with one of our short-term teams just soaking in the Lord's presence. I was absolutely overflowing with His love. All day long I was just spilling joy on everyone I came in contact with.
I have an amazing group of brothers here that I love with all of my heart!!
Thursday night after service there was a time for people to come forward for prayer. I looked up and saw all of my brother huddled together in a circle. I went forward with the intention of standing behind them supporting them in prayer, but when I arrived up front one of the boys shouted, "Lisa nuestra hermana (our sister), come in the middle of the circle and pray for us." I entered the circle and began praying for my brothers. As I began the pray, the power of the Holy Spirit just began to fall upon me. I could feel Him giving me the words to speak in Spanish. I had the opportunity to go to each of my brothers individually, lay hands upon them, pray for them in the power of the Holy Spirit, and speak words of truth over their lives. I could see in each of their faces that the Lord was working on their hearts in a really profound way as the tears just poured down their cheeks. After I prayed for each of my brothers individually I just continued praying in the middle of their circle calling out for more and more of the Lord in their lives.
This night was so special to me because it was such a rare opportunity. I always have the opportunity to speak deep truths over my girls here. They invite these conversations, even long for them. However, with the boys things are so different. I mean teenage boys aren't known for being really open and vulnerable. Talking about the deep things in their hearts make them feel really awkward. Usually when I try to have serious conversations with them, they quickly change the subject and return to our normal just joking and laughing. It was such a beautiful moment to be able to pray over them with power and share deeps truths in a time when I could have their attention without them feeling embarrassed.
It's difficult to put in to words how special this night was for me, but I have been thanking God every time I think about my brothers and this time with them. Please join me in praying that the Lord with continue to cultivate these words of truth in their hearts.
I love taking the teenagers here to explore new parts of their own country. Like most low-income communities, the majority of people in Candelaria have very little experience outside their own village. Lindsay and I were able to take a group of four youth with us to Cerro Negro volcano. We announced the trip to the teens and took the first four people to bring us the money to cover their entrance fee (while we covered food and transportation costs).
After walking, taking a bus, and all piling into a taxi, we found a truck that could take us down the winding dirt roads to the entrance of Cerro Negro. We danced, sang, and laughed as we flew down the bumpy roads. We were so excited when we caught our first glimpse of Cerro Negro appearing in the distance.
We finally made it to the Welcome Center of Cerro Negro where we paid our entrance fees and received our instructions which were basically "Hike down this path until you reach the base of the volcano. Look for the side that's lower to the ground at the base; you can climb up there. Once you get to the top you can surf or run down and then come back here the way you came." Yes, only in foreign countries could you climb an active volcano with so little instruction and no guides.
We reached the base of Cerro Negro and looked up at the large black mountain. With clouds rolling in from the morning's rain and blocking out all of the sunlit, Cerro Negro looked much more ominous then it actually is. We took a good look at the volcano and then the boys sprinted off towards the base ready to start the day's adventure!
We found the area with the most gradual incline and begin to work our way up the mountain. The beginning is large pieces of rock to climb over, but as you progress up the volcano the terrain changes to a thick black sand.
There is a beautiful place to stop about halfway up that overlooks the surrounding mountains and valleys. I love the way this gorgeous lush green landscape contrasts with the rugged beauty of Cerro Negro. And I'm not going to lie, I liked having a moment to just sit and soak in God's beauty. I discovered today that I'm really out of shape and that I really miss having my best friend, Steph, here in these types of adventures. My type of climbing is much more leisurely and includes a lot of picture taking and sitting and talking about how pretty God's creation is. My youth, on the other hand, wanted to sprint straight to the top of the mountain.
Also on the way up you get a great view looking down into the volcano's crater. Today it was impossible to tell what was steam rising up from the crater's crevices and what were clouds that had rolled in with the day's storm. Cerro Negro usually erupts about every 7 years and is actually overdue for another eruption which apparently here makes it the perfect destination to allow tourists to roam freely with no supervision.
We celebrated making it to the top and conquering Cerro Negro volcano! It was fun to be at the peak all together. However, the fog was so thick that it was impossible to see anything from the top which made me even more glad that I had stopped at that mid-way overlook to take in the view and get some good photos.
The fog not only made it impossible to see the surrounding views, but we also couldn't see the bottom of the mountain or where we were supposed to surf/run down. Lindsay was the only one in our group that had been to Cerro Negro before so she begins to search for the slope of thick sand where we can run down the mountain. She finds an area of thick black sand and we all begin half running and half sliding down the incline. Super fun and a little scary not being able to see the bottom!
We realized about halfway down that this was not the right path to go down as the decent became increasingly more steep and the covered in a loose gravel rather than a thick sand. We ended up sliding part of the way down on our bums which was still fun, but painful (I'm pretty sure I won't be able to sit comfortably for at least a week)!
Our adventure had finally come to an end. We walked back to the truck laughing as each person shared what it was like running and sliding down this mountain. We looked to see who was covered in the most dirt, had the most rocks in their shoes, etc. This is definitely a day that we will not soon forget! I'm so glad that I was able to share this adventure with Lindsay and some of our youth.
Candelaria is my home. After almost 5 months of living in this village, the language barrier isn't nearly as big of a deal and I am adjusting to the inevitable cultural differences of living in a foreign country. My relationships are really growing. I feel so content waking up here each morning. I really want to give you all an idea of what my life looks like here so I made this video just showing clips of my life. Enjoy this glimpse into my world...
Recently on my days off I tend to spend a lot of time at the beach just lying in the sun, listening to the crashing waves, and reading. This week I was reading When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. In this book the authors said that the work of Jesus is to redeem all that has been so deeply marred by sin. As a result, I’ve been thinking a lot about the Lord’s redemption lately. Little did I know how I was going to see this redemption unfold in all of its glory this week…
I was sitting on the beach reading because I was trying to let go of the stress and frustration of the past week. Any of you who have or have worked with teenagers will know that they can be incredibly frustrating. This has been one of those weeks for me. Lindsay and I were here leading alone with Diego, Tommy, and Linda all in the States. The first half of our time leading alone went really smoothly, but in the last couple of days we have had a lot of problems with disrespect of us and of the church. The first problem was with some of the boys speaking disrespectfully or saying vulgar things to Lindsay and I and then laughing because we didn’t understand their street slang Spanish. The other problem was with a couple of the kids drinking, not on the church property, but coming to the church drunk. It was a hard week for me because all of the stuff that was happening with the youth was happening with some of the teenagers that I’m closest to. Honestly it really hurt that the people that were disrespecting me were the same people that I consider to be my family here. I felt like a thousands things were happening all at the same time. In the midst of all of this Pastor Walter, Bismark, and Alex (the church leaders), came to Lindsay and I letting us know that they knew about the disrespect and weren’t going to allow it to continue. They told us that they were going to step in and talk to the boys. I should have been relieved and grateful, but some hidden fear rose up inside of my heart. I couldn’t even explain why I felt this unsettled feeling in my heart so the next morning when I awoke at 5:30 I remained in my bed talking to Jesus, following Him deeper into my heart and following the winding path of feelings that I still didn’t understand. What I found surprised me. I discovered an unhealed place in my heart that God wanted to speak to in order to bring truth and healing. There was a part of my heart that feared failure in places where God has called me. Having the pastors step in to talk to the boys immediately brought forth all of the lies that they are stepping in because I couldn’t handle it. The Lord began to speak truth about all of the work that the He was doing through me and the good that is happening as a result of me being here. God was also speaking to me about the pastors. First that this is the way that He is being my Dad taking care of me and protecting me. Secondly, I have been praying for the Lord to transform the men of this community. I have been praying that they will step up and become men of integrity and lead their families and their community well. This was an answer to prayer; the beginning of the Lord transforming the men of this community. Suddenly I could feel gratitude both toward the Lord and toward our church leaders. The longer I was in my bed listening to the Lord speak to me, the more my heart turned to worship as I saw all that He was redeeming both in me and in this community. Here was a situation that I thought was just about the hearts of my teenagers, but the Lord wanted to use it for so much more. He was in the midst of redeeming the broken places in my heart, the brokenness in the community, and the broken lives of my teenagers. After the Lord spoke His sweet words over me and changed my perspective, I was prepared to partner with Him in this redemption. I spent all afternoon Sunday having one-on-one disciplinary conversations with my teenagers. This is definitely not my favorite part of my job, but the Lord was at work in the midst of it. We also had a time of address disrespect and giving people a chance to take responsibility for their actions and seek forgiveness in front of the group. It was beautiful and powerful to see as each of the teenagers involved came forward, took responsibility and sought forgiveness. As Henri Nouwen says, "Forgiveness is the name of love practiced among people who love poorly. The hard truth is that all people love poorly. We need to forgive and be forgiven every day, every hour increasingly. That is the great work of love among the fellowship of the weak that is the human family." Here was a frustrating and hurtful situation that I thought only affected a handful of teenagers, but it was through this situation that the Lord wanted to redeem and restore so many broken things. This is the work of Jesus to redeem all that has been so deeply marred by sin. This week I saw the vastness of God’s glorious redemption at work.
We started the month celebrating Jovanny's 17th birthday. It was exciting because we were able to throw Jovanny his first birthday party ever! Jovanny has been having a lot of difficulties in his family so it was really incredible to see his church family come around him, celebrated who he is, and make him feel special. We took him out to dinner, had a party at the church, danced (of course since it's Jovanny's favorite), and followed the Nicaraguan tradition of cracking eggs on his head.
The month of May also brought the return of the rainy season. All throughout March and April (the hottest months of the year in Nicaragua) I have been praying for rain. Well this month it came down in buckets!! We had over 36 hours of unending torrential downpours and flooding. It was so good to see the rain again, but it did make for a boring week when all the services were cancelled and everyone stayed in their houses. Of course it was fun to play basketball in the pouring rain with some of the little kids.
The best part of this month was seeing my beautiful friend, Junieth, begin a relationship with the Lord! She is so precious!! My teammate and friend, Ashley led Junieth to the Lord one afternoon while visiting at their house. I love to see the way the Lord moved on her heart after encountering His love! The very next day Junieth wanted to talk to her best friend with whom she had been fighting for nearly a month. Junieth wanted to go and apologize to her friend and begin making things right.
One of the hardest parts of May was saying goodbye to Ashley and Jacob Willingham, two of our teammates. I LOVE these two so much!! They have been doing such amazing things for the Kingdom and for the youth here in Candelaria. It was hard to say goodbye and our community here isn't the same without them, but we had an incredible last week celebrating with them! Please keep praying for them as they transition to life back in the States and discover more about what God has for them next.
The week before Jake and Ashley left, Ashley, Lindsay, and I had a sleepover with all of the girls at our house. We had so much fun with all of our girls!! It was a great night of laughing, dancing, singing, watching movies, praying, and worshipping together. The girls were so excited to have time together just us ladies!
May also brought the celebration of Mother's Day which apparently is almost as big of a deal as Christmas here in Nicaragua. Lindsay and I were able to cook breakfast in the morning for Coni, our Nicaraguan momma just to say thank you for loving us and taking care of us while we're here. She was so surprised and felt so special that she just started to cry. We also had a huge celebration at the church including games, dances, prizes for mothers and time of worship and preaching. Jovanny even convinced Lindsay and I to be a part of a salsa dance for the mothers (pictured right).
May ended with the celebration of Lindsay's 22nd birthday. I was so excited to be able to celebrate with her. Lindsay has been my roommate and my best friend here in Nicaragua for the past 4 months. I really prayed that God would send me community here in Candelaria and He answered that prayer in abundance. I have been so blessed to have Lindsay here to hold one another accountable, pray and worship together, and laugh nonstop! We had a wonderful day celebrating Lindsay! Rosita took Lindsay out for the day so that the youth could decorate and prepare for the surpise party that they were throwing for her. This surprise party included a special Nicaraguan dinner, dancing, more than 10 eggs cracked over her head (pictured left), and a huge cake fight which left us both with faces and heads completely covered in cake icing. All Nicaraguan birthday parties tend to end with a massive cake fight... I love it!
We were blessed with two wonderful
short-term teams during August, The Quest team from Ohio and the Living Water
team from Boone, NC. I loved having the opportunity to minister, worship &
pray, and just hang out with these teams. They brought so much life to the
mission and really poured out their lives for the children and youth here! They did incredible work here and we were so blessed to work with them. Plus
it was great having such
amazing community here for a few weeks! I also got a lot of practice as a translator which is really pushing my Spanish skills to grow (unless of course I am translating for Andrew and then the only word I get to say is "tuani" over and over again). Oh, and an
added bonus... traveling around with the Living Water team helped me to discover
that hammocks in the back of trucks are my absolute favorite mode of
transportation!! (Unless of course the hammock breaks mid-trip which has
actually happened to me twice this month).
The end of July and August we
celebrated so many birthdays! I really think at least half of our youth were
born in July and August. Of course all of these birthdays meant tons of
dancing, giant cake fights which always led to Rosita tackling me to the ground
and smearing cake EVERYWHERE, and taking kids out for pizza dinners to
celebrate. I love getting to make them feel extra special and loved on their
birthdays!! 
such a gift to have her back
here with us for a little while. It made my heart happy to catch up with her
over morning coffee dates, to pray together for each other and for the mission,
and to minister alongside of her again. Ashley has such a sweet spirit and
loves the Lord and the youth here so deeply. I'm so thankful for her!! 
We were able to make a trip to the
neighboring village, Santa Matilda, for a huge outreach there. I loved getting
to spend time with the children and families in Santa Matilda. It's amazing how
different each village feels even within the same country. There is so much work still to be done in Santa Matilda. It is spiritually one of the darkest villages in this area. The focus of our work in Candelaria is discipleship and teaching people to walk more intimately
with the Lord. The focus of the church in Santa Matilda is definitely introducing people to Jesus. There are so few Christians who currently live in the village. There is also a lot more gang activity and violence in that village. I was excited that our youth were able to visit and minister there. They visited homes, prayed with people, and also
performed several of their dances and dramas during the outreach. They did an
amazing job sharing the Lord's love in a way that really captured people's
attention. I'm so proud of them!! It was an amazing afternoon. Please continue to pray for this village and for our church plant there.
Our church has been reaching out
to one of the local gangs who are really hungry for the Lord. One of my
favorite moments of the entire month was having a church service in the yard of
one of the gang members. We worshipped together, our youth danced and shared
about the Lord's work in their lives, and Tommy and the guys from Living Water
shared the truth of God's grace and love for us. These guys have started
attending our church. Five of them (including the gang leader) gave their lives
to Christ this month! The church leaders are now beginning a discipleship
program for them. You can read the full story 
Right before the Living Water team
left, I was able to take a trip with them to the beautiful mountains of Matagalpa. It was
such a fun, adventurous, and refreshing getaway! We were able to swim in
waterfalls at Cascada Blanca, spent an afternoon hiking through the rainforest in ridiculous amounts of mud and then venturing off the path to chase after the howler monkeys (we did find the monkeys
eventually),
enjoyed the beauty of the Nicaraguan mountains, and spent time at Selva Negra
coffee plantation. I loved being able to adventure with them! It was so much fun and such an incredible time of fellowship together! I also need to get in a lot of rest and time alone on my days off because both of those things are hard to come by in Candelaria. So, I was able to sneak off one morning to visit my favorite coffee shop in
Nicaragua and spend a couple hours just
drinking delicious cappuccino, eating Nutella crepes, and spending some time
alone with the Lord. Good coffee shops are definitely something that I miss
being here so it was such a wonderful morning for me! 
We ended August supporting the
youth at a regional Christian Dance & Drama competition. Our church's dance
ministry team has been practicing and preparing all month. They were entered in
drama, choreography, and traditional Nicaraguan folk dance. They danced and
performed beautifully. I was so proud of them!! They won 2
of the month. Rosita was driving me around Candelaria on the motorcycle of one of the guys from our church. We were on our 2nd round through the village when the bike's headlight got caught on a low-hanging, illegally-connected power line and was clotheslined. We went sliding across the dirt road. Fortunately we had really minimal injuries just a few scrapes and bruises. Rosita's scrape was a little larger and deeper than mine, but we were both fine. My oddest injury is a hole in the middle of my right thumbnail from a rock puncturing a hole in the middle of my nail. It doesn't hurt anymore, but I will still be waiting a few weeks for it to grow out. This is a picture of me right after the accident still covered and dirt and blood, but clearly not in too much pain considering that this picture is taken in the Eskimo ice cream shop. 
I also had my first experience with Nicaraguan hospitals. No, I wasn't in the hospital, but Ellie (one of our short-termers this month) had to go to the hospital and have her appendix removed. Linda stayed with her for the surgery and her first night in the hospital. Then I took over the next day, spent the night and stayed with her until she was released. I will say that Nicaraguan hospitals are definitely not like hospitals in the States. We stayed in a recovery room with 6 other women. All of the beds were in use and there are no chairs so I slept on the tile floor all night (which was fairly dusty considering that it's a hospital). Ellie couldn't eat or drink anything so she was on IV fluids the whole time. However, IVs in Nica don't have wheels so everytime she had to get up and walk or go the the bathroom I was following her with the IV bag on my head. This picture is Ellie in her hospital bed holding up her appendix in a Gerber baby food jar. Hilarious! No worries. Ellie is fine. She is out of the hospital and recovering really well. 
Last December, my beautiful friend Ashley (pictured left) and some of the lovely ladies from Living Water Church really had the desire and heart to introduce dance as an outlet for worship and as a ministry of the church.
The Living Water team was able to spark a heart for dance ministry and then Ashley spent five months working here in Candelaria teaching the youth to express themselves and to worship through dance. She taught them how to worship, to choreograph their own dances, and rose up leaders from within the group. Because of her perseverance and work, the dance ministry has grown by leaps and bounds. Ashley poured her heart into the dance ministry. She sparked a fire in the hearts’ of the youth for ministry through dance. She taught them how to express themselves to the Lord in prayer and worship through their movements. I watched the youth come alive in dance!
forward to lead the dance ministry. He has done an amazing job! Under his leadership, youth who thought that they could not dance now dance with confidence. He has choreographed and taught close to 20 new dances. They have won regional dance competitions, performed in church, and begun using dance as a means to share God’s love with street gangs, the city of Chichigalpa, and surrounding villages. I have been amazing to see the movement of God in this ministry.
*Watching the youth worship in a deeper way through dance. I remember one night the youth were dancing in church and part of their dance was an unchoreographed, free worship section. I loved watching Kenia twirl before the Lord and seeing on her face a joy that can only come from encountering the Lord. I just sat back and smiled as Anthony jumped around like a kid at a rock concert- worshipping in a way that was uniquely his, but so purely for the Lord. My heart cried out as I saw Jovanny pouring his heart out before the Lord through his dance on the night that his mom walked out on the family.
It was the only way he was able to express all of the hurt that he was feeling. 
talents and believe in themselves. You used to have to drag Ariel onto the dance floor as he yelled, “No, no. I can’t dance. I can’t.” I remember the first night I saw him ask someone to dance. It sounds like a small step, but it was a huge leap in his self-confidence.
Pastor Jose is the retired former pastor of Iglesia Canto Nuevo (New Song’s church in Candelaria). His son used to be the leader of this gang. Pastor Jose has always had a heart to reach out to these gang members and to help them find abundant life in Christ. The riots and the death of one of their members opened the door for him to begin ministering to them. Jose has spent the last several weeks visiting with these men in their homes and sharing the good news of Jesus. 
on Sunday and bring them to service. My heart smiled to see the truck pull up with 15-20 guys and girls from this gang longing to come to church because they were hungry for something MORE in their lives. The church welcomed them, embraced them, and just showered them with love. It was a really unique experience for these men who are normally feared and ignored by the churches in the village. The love of the church filled these men who are normally so hard and so tough with a hunger for the love of a God that they didn't yet know. At the end of the service, Pastor Walter invited the men and women of the church to come and pray over our new friends. It was wonderful to see my youth and faithful adults from the congregation coming and praying with these guys. I watched as these men who are feared throughout the area, stood with tears streaming down their faces as the church loved them and spoke truth over them. I don't know that I have ever seen such a beautiful sight before! 
I sat on a picnic table in the middle of the church with my beautiful friend, Paula. Tears filled her eyes, threatening to spill over at any moment. For reasons that she couldn't explain she just began to open up on this particular day. We started talking about her recent reconciliation with her boyfriend, but quickly moved into the deep hurts of her heart: how she has been handling her father's death, her strained relationship with her mom, the affect of living with her sister and her sister's abusive husband, how alone she feels in her life, etc. The words just spilled forth endlessly. Every so often Paula would stop and ask my advice. "What's your opinion? What should I do?" 
So we prayed for courage. Courage risk pain in order to find healing. Courage to invite the Lord more deeply into her heart. Courage to follow Him into her wounds. As much as I would like to, I cannot make this decision for her. She must decide for herself that she wants the Lord's best for her life. She must decide to give up her "control" over her hurts and trust the Lord to heal her pain. I don't know what she will decide, but I am placing her in the Lord's loving hands. And I'm asking you to join me in praying for her. Please continue to pray for my beautiful friend. Pray for her healing, first of her own heart and then flowing outward into reconciliation of the broken relationships in her life, particularly within her family. 
and clean out the hurts and frustrations from the day before. I sat there as the Lord spoke His truth to me. It was beautiful and cleansing, but I needed to feel the closeness of my God. I sat there praying "Lord I really need to feel Your touch. I need to feel completely surrounded by Your love." As I prayed silently, my precious friend Rosita reached her arms around me from behind hugging me tightly and began to pray over me. The Lord just whispered in my ear "This is Me wrapping My arms around you, embracing you with My love." 
I love taking the teenagers here to explore new parts of their own country. Like most low-income communities, the majority of people in Candelaria have very little experience outside their own village. Lindsay and I were able to take a group of four youth with us to Cerro Negro volcano. We announced the trip to the teens and took the first four people to bring us the money to cover their entrance fee (while we covered food and transportation costs). 
After walking, taking a bus, and all piling into a taxi, we found a truck that could take us down the winding dirt roads to the entrance of Cerro Negro. We danced, sang, and laughed as we flew down the bumpy roads. We were so excited when we caught our first glimpse of Cerro Negro appearing in the distance. 
We finally made it to the Welcome Center of Cerro Negro where we paid our entrance fees and received our instructions which were basically "Hike down this path until you reach the base of the volcano. Look for the side that's lower to the ground at the base; you can climb up there. Once you get to the top you can surf or run down and then come back here the way you came." Yes, only in foreign countries could you climb an active volcano with so little instruction and no guides. 
We reached the base of Cerro Negro and looked up at the large black mountain. With clouds rolling in from the morning's rain and blocking out all of the sunlit, Cerro Negro looked much more ominous then it actually is. We took a good look at the volcano and then the boys sprinted off towards the base ready to start the day's adventure! 
There is a beautiful place to stop about halfway up that overlooks the surrounding mountains and valleys. I love the way this gorgeous lush green landscape contrasts with the rugged beauty of Cerro Negro. And I'm not going to lie, I liked having a moment to just sit and soak in God's beauty. I discovered today that I'm really out of shape and that I really miss having my best friend, Steph, here in these types of adventures. My type of climbing is much more leisurely and includes a lot of picture taking and sitting and talking about how pretty God's creation is. My youth, on the other hand, wanted to sprint straight to the top of the mountain. 
Also on the way up you get a great view looking down into the volcano's crater. Today it was impossible to tell what was steam rising up from the crater's crevices and what were clouds that had rolled in with the day's storm. Cerro Negro usually erupts about every 7 years and is actually overdue for another eruption which apparently here makes it the perfect destination to allow tourists to roam freely with no supervision. 
We celebrated making it to the top and conquering Cerro Negro volcano! It was fun to be at the peak all together. However, the fog was so thick that it was impossible to see anything from the top which made me even more glad that I had stopped at that mid-way overlook to take in the view and get some good photos. 
The fog not only made it impossible to see the surrounding views, but we also couldn't see the bottom of the mountain or where we were supposed to surf/run down. Lindsay was the only one in our group that had been to Cerro Negro before so she begins to search for the slope of thick sand where we can run down the mountain. She finds an area of thick black sand and we all begin half running and half sliding down the incline. Super fun and a little scary not being able to see the bottom! 
We realized about halfway down that this was not the right path to go down as the decent became increasingly more steep and the covered in a loose gravel rather than a thick sand. We ended up sliding part of the way down on our bums which was still fun, but painful (I'm pretty sure I won't be able to sit comfortably for at least a week)! 
Our adventure had finally come to an end. We walked back to the truck laughing as each person shared what it was like running and sliding down this mountain. We looked to see who was covered in the most dirt, had the most rocks in their shoes, etc. This is definitely a day that we will not soon forget! I'm so glad that I was able to share this adventure with Lindsay and some of our youth. 
the crashing waves, and reading. This week I was reading 
We started the month celebrating Jovanny's 17th birthday. It was exciting because we were able to throw Jovanny his first birthday party ever! Jovanny has been having a lot of difficulties in his family so it was really incredible to see his church family come around him, celebrated who he is, and make him feel special. We took him out to dinner, had a party at the church, danced (of course since it's Jovanny's favorite), and followed the Nicaraguan tradition of cracking eggs on his head. 
throughout March and April (the hottest months of the year in Nicaragua) I have been praying for rain. Well this month it came down in buckets!! We had over 36 hours of unending torrential downpours and flooding. It was so good to see the rain again, but it did make for a boring week when all the services were cancelled and everyone stayed in their houses. Of course it was fun to play basketball in the pouring rain with some of the little kids. 
The best part of this month was seeing my beautiful friend, Junieth, begin a relationship with the Lord! She is so precious!! My teammate and friend, Ashley led Junieth to the Lord one afternoon while visiting at their house. I love to see the way the Lord moved on her heart after encountering His love! The very next day Junieth wanted to talk to her best friend with whom she had been fighting for nearly a month. Junieth wanted to go and apologize to her friend and begin making things right. 
Willingham, two of our teammates. I LOVE these two so much!! They have been doing such amazing things for the Kingdom and for the youth here in Candelaria. It was hard to say goodbye and our community here isn't the same without them, but we had an incredible last week celebrating with them! Please keep praying for them as they transition to life back in the States and discover more about what God has for them next. 
The week before Jake and Ashley left, Ashley, Lindsay, and I had a sleepover with all of the girls at our house. We had so much fun with all of our girls!! It was a great night of laughing, dancing, singing, watching movies, praying, and worshipping together. The girls were so excited to have time together just us ladies! 
almost as big of a deal as Christmas here in Nicaragua. Lindsay and I were able to cook breakfast in the morning for Coni, our Nicaraguan momma just to say thank you for loving us and taking care of us while we're here. She was so surprised and felt so special that she just started to cry. We also had a huge celebration at the church including games, dances, prizes for mothers and time of worship and preaching. Jovanny even convinced Lindsay and I to be a part of a salsa dance for the mothers (pictured right).
May ended with the celebration of Lindsay's 22nd birthday. I was so excited to be able to celebrate with her. Lindsay has been my roommate and my best friend here in Nicaragua for the past 4 months. I really prayed that God would send me community here in Candelaria and He answered that prayer in abundance. I have been so blessed to have Lindsay here to hold one another accountable, pray and worship together, and laugh nonstop! We
had a wonderful day celebrating Lindsay! Rosita took Lindsay out for the day so that the youth could decorate and prepare for the surpise party that they were throwing for her. This surprise party included a special Nicaraguan dinner, dancing, more than 10 eggs cracked over her head (pictured left), and a huge cake fight which left us both with faces and heads completely covered in cake icing. All Nicaraguan birthday parties tend to end with a massive cake fight... I love it!