“Cada mañana al despertar y por la noche al descansar, agradezco Tus bondades a mi vida por todo lo que me permitas disfrutar.”
-Cada Mañana, Jesus Adrian Romero
These song lyrics say, “Every morning when I wake up and at night when I rest, I am grateful for Your kindnesses in my life for everything that You allow me to enjoy.” We sang this song repeatedly during our weekend field trip to Matagalpa at the end of April and to me it just perfectly encapsulates the weekend.
I could not have asked for a better weekend in the mountains with our students in their 4th/5th year of high school (our entire group pictured above). The weekend was overflowing with worship, education, laughter, prayer and adventure. We toured Kiss Me’s ice cream production, a farm that produces bio gas, a coffee plantation, and learned about sustainable farming. We hiked through the cloud forest searching for howler monkeys. We screamed and laughed on a giant swing. We worshipped and prayed. We sought the Lord corporately and individually. We helped our students set goals and plan for their futures. We enjoyed the beauty of this place and the goodness of our God.
These are students that Cadence and I have worked with in our youth group for the past 3 ½ years. We began working with them when they were 12-13 years old. They We have seen them grow so much over the past few years and these students hold such an incredibly dear place in my heart.
I feel like there are a million things that I could say and share about this weekend and how much it was drenched in the goodness of God, but I will share just a couple of moments that captured my heart the most…
There’s this giant swing in Selva Negra that has been one of my favorite things there since the Georges introduced us to it last year. Of course swinging adventures with our teenagers took things to a whole new level!
One of the things that I love the most about these incredible teens is their heart for community. They love to make all things a group event…. even swinging! We had the most fun playing on this giant swing (as you can see pictured above). It was absolutely hilarious to hear their screams and laughter on the swing and to see everyone work together to push each other as high as possible. It’s amazing how supported you feel when everyone has your back and pushes you to go higher than you could on your own. I would love to see them push each other in this same way within their lives and their dreams!
My other favorite moment was on our last night together. There was a gazebo where we met together for prayer, worship and Bible study. It became our place to meet with the Lord and it was saturated with the beauty of His presence! The last night after worship we broke into small groups to give them the opportunity to share the goals that they had set for their futures and to pray over one another’s dreams. I was in a small group with four of our students: Leo, Keyla, Gissell and Charly. They shared their goals and dreams. They heard each other’s hearts and took turns praying for one another. Once they were finished, they just sat back looking at me and smiling waiting for me to share as well. So I began to share my goals and dreams both in the next couple months with New Song and for the future of Abide. These teenagers listened and prayed over me. As soon as they finished praying over me, they began to just speak truth and encouragement over my heart. They affirmed my ministry among them as well as the dreams that the Lord has for me. It was such a beautiful and powerful time! After the spoke words of life over me, I invited them to do the same for one another. We sat in the darkness in this Spirit drenched gazebo speaking words of encouragement and life over one another and enjoying all of the goodness and beauty of the Lord that we see in each other. It was beautiful and powerful.
Like I said this weekend was so drenched in the beauty and goodness of our God! I’m thankful for these students and for this time with them. I believe that they have powerful destinies and are going to make a huge Kingdom impact in their community and nation!
