A Little Gallivanting Fun…

    I know that most of my blogs tend to be more serious and ministry-related, especially recently because so much has been happening here at New Song. However, today's post is just for fun…

    Lately our little family has been making a greater priority to just spend time really enjoying one another, traveling and adventuring together. I have just LOVED this increased focus on community building within our family. It is leading us in a good direction and opening doors to deeper heart sharing.

     So, for those of you who do not know how our ministry schedule works, Mondays & Tuesdays are our days off and so we often will take little trips to other areas of Nicaragua on these days. This past week we decided to all go to Masaya together for family fun, market shopping and volcano adventures (Haille and I getting smoothies in the park in Masaya- pictured right). We laughed, hung out, shared our hearts, drank great coffee and smoothies, explored the markets and city streets, watched movies, and planned to finish out our weekend with a night tour at Volcan Masaya.

    The word gallivant had come up in several of our conversations. We discussed the art of gallivanting and decided to show our different interpretations of the word while on top of the volcano. Yeah, just a quirky little family joke.

gallivant |'gal??vant|
verb [ no obj. ] informal
go around from one place to another in the pursuit of pleasure or entertainment

    So Tuesday evening we head to the volcano for our night tour which would have included visiting the crater and exploring the lava tubes and caves. I was really excited about this outing because it's one of the Nicaraguan sights that I still haven't seen in my 3 1/2 years living here. (And I was even more excited when I discovered that having my residency gives me discounted entrance into the volcano! Yep, residents pay 30% of what tourists pay.) However, when we arrived at the volcano we were told that all night tours had been canceled because the volcano had just erupted two hours earlier and was still spewing smoke and sulfuric gas. They workers then added as a side note, "I mean if you wanted to pay the entrance fee you could go up there for 10-15 minutes, but that's all because we are going to be evacuating the last of the workers in 15 minutes. Besides you shouldn't stay up there longer than that because of the sulfuric gas."

    I do not think that they expected us to take them up on their offer. They seemed genuinely surprised when we jumped at the chance. But honestly who can say that they have gallivanted on an erupting volcano?! (Our gallivanting interpretations are featured in the video below) I feel like you just can't pass up an opportunity like that. Life becomes really boring if you're not willing to take some crazy risks! Besides the biggest risks turn into the best stories later and everyone knows how much I love having a good story to tell.

    So we hopped in the back of our truck and started making our way up to the volcano. Even when we could just see the volcano in the distance, the air was already thick with smoke. We bumped along the road joking and laughing as we approached the volcano. We jumped out of the back of the truck and headed straight toward the crater overlook. And it was beautiful and incredible! (Pictured right at the volcano's crater) We laughed and gallivanted and talked about the beauty of this adventure right up to the moment that massive amounts of smoke began to pour forth from the crater and the evacuation team begin frenetically honking their car horn signaling that it was time to go. So off we go to adventure another day. 

    Life and ministry here can be very intense. Fun is an essential part of life. And some days you just need to gallivant across the top of a volcano!