February Highlights (Photo Blog)

     Every February Chichigalpa has a cowboy festival. I’m not sure how I missed this last February, but I was really excited to go this year. All of the youth told me that I need cowgirl attire and a sombrero to be ready. Thanks to the help of my youth, I found all my cowgirl attire (including awesome cowboy boots). So, Barb and I shopped for our outfits, got all dressed up, and then headed out to the festival. The first part was in the stadium with horse shows, then a parade through the streets of Chichigalpa, and ending with more horse shows in the park. The horses were beautiful! I couldn’t believe how close all of the crowds were allowed to get to all of the horses. What a fun day! I love getting to take part in new cultural activities.

     This month was also Valentine’s Day which in Nicaragua is called “The Day of Friendship & Love”. The youth decided that they wanted to have a big celebration of friendship. We had a dinner, dance party, and gift exchange at one of the girls’ houses. We drew names for gift exchange, the girls cooked a big dinner, and we hung out and danced all night. It was such a fun time celebrating my wonderful friendships with these amazing youth! Plus I love any celebration that includes dancing!! (My lovely sister, Paula, and me at the party- pictured right).

     Another highlight of the month, is getting to spend some time with our friends, Sandra & Preston. They have been living in Leon almost a year and run an amazing ministry there! Preston has been discipling young guys and teaching them carpentry skills. Their goal is to train young men in the Lord and give them skills needed to start their own businesses and support themselves. This month they have expanded their ministry taking in three young guys that just finished a rehab program. They are becoming a halfway house for these boys while continuing their discipleship and carpentry school. I had so much fun visiting with them this month and getting to know the teenagers living with them. I loved hearing the boys’ testimonies, encouraging them, and just laughing and joking. Please pray for the boys and for Sandra and Preston as they minister to them.

     I was able to take one of my little brothers, Andres, out to dinner one night this month. Over the last several months, he has gotten less and less involved in the church. It really breaks my heart to see him walking away from the Lord because he was in my original discipleship group three years ago when I was here with my World Race team (me & Andres 3 years ago-pictured right). I have always been really close to him and love him like he’s my little brother. Even though he wants nothing to do with the church right now, he will still hang out with me and sometimes let me really speak truth into his life. I had the chance to hang out with him one-on-one this month which hadn’t happened in quite awhile (me and Andres this month- pictured left). There were no super important conversations, but it was good just to have some time with him and hear how things are going in his life. Pray that the Lord will really capture his heart! He’s such a sweet kid and has so much potential in the Kingdom. I really want to see him walking in the fullness of all that the Lord has for him!

     You can see pictured here my face completely covered in mud. This is definitely NOT a rare occurrence in my life. My lovely friend Rosita and I (pictured right) have a friendship filled with jokes and pranks. I really think pranks are her way of showing love (and my way of showing love is just letting her do all of this stuff to me!). During rainy season, we always have hugs that turn into me getting thrown into giant mud puddles. However, in February we have been without rain for months and have a couple more months of dry, dusty weather so Rosita had to improvise… she filled large bags with water, threw them on me, and then tackled me to the dusty ground rubbing dirt all over me (pictured left). Ha! I really love this girl and our crazy friendship that no one else understands (except Lindsay Dobner). Oh, my other favorite Rosita prank of the month was buying three of the 5-scoop icecreams from the cart in the park and making me eat them all while she rode me through the streets on her bike. 

     In my very first trip to Nicaragua with the World Race, the Matamoras family was living in the house where I now live and their daughter, Kayla, cooked for our team. We absolutely loved hanging out with her!! Shortly after we left Nicaragua, Kayla moved to Costa Rica to work there. She hasn’t been home to visit at all since I moved here (until this month). Kayla came in for a visit to her family and I was able to go and see her and spend the day with her last Wednesday. It was wonderful to see her again, catch up on her life, and fill her in on where the other Kiatera girls are now.

     United 4 Christ, the band that does our Sunday night worship, had an anniversary concert in the park in Chichigalpa. I loved going and hearing them worship in the center of the city! I think my favorite part of the night was seeing all of our youth gathered together and dance together as the band worshipped. Oh how I love seeing them dance in adoration and in unity!

     I have gotten to spend time this month getting to know Nubia and her beautiful daughters (pictured right). I have spent a lot of time talking and praying with Nubia and have gotten close to her daughters, especially Gisel (the oldest daughter). It’s been heartbreaking to hear of their struggles, but beautiful to see how the Lord is working on their behalf and the way He is providing for their needs through the body of Christ. To read more of their story, read When Life is Hard, There is Hope (Part 3).