More about Nicaragua

So, as I posted a few days ago, Nicaragua was incredible. I wanted to post a bit more detail for those who might be interested as well as a few pics (which I got from my wonderful friend, Jessica... haha thanks :D).

Construction at Iglesia Adonai





Iglesia Adonai with new doors and paint (inside and out)

We arrived late Friday night at about 7:30 Nica time, which is two hours behind GA time. While this wasn't extremely late, it made things slightly difficult because we still had to unpack all of our team gear and eat dinner before going to bed (which wasn't successfully acheived until around 12:30am Nica time...). The next morning, we hit the ground running. We had two studies at Iglesia Adonai (our sister church in Nicaragua) at 10:00am. The men watched the movie "Courageous" in Spanish. The women had a separate study about God's faithfulness even in difficult times. They also painted handbags and fellowshipped. I got to lead worship for the women and participate in the study, which was really neat! Later that same day, at around 4:00pm, the youth from our team (both Americans and Costa Ricans) led the Saturday night Youth Service at the church. We played music, shared some testimonies, presented a powerful drama, and one of the Costa Ricans, Daniel, preached. It was a really powerful time!

The next day, Sunday, we headed back to the church for the Sunday morning service, where we played music and the pastor from our church, Ed, preached with a translator. We ate lunch at the church and fellowshipped until the afternoon youth service where one of our team members gave the sermon in Spanish. He had been praticing this speech all year, and it was really cool to hear him read it in Spanish! It was also neat to see so many of the youth rededicate their lives to serve God.

Iglesia Adonai with beautiful new doors, stonework, and paint!

Monday, we worked at the church all day. The guys mainly worked on digging a trench for water pipes and constructing a sidewalk out of concrete outside of the church. The rest of the team started painting the inside and outside of the church, which was an ongoing project for the entire week. Tuesday and Thursday, we went evangelizing door-to-door in the neighborhood, which was very powerful. Due to the witness of our team members (especially those from Costa Rica), several local people professed genuine faith in Jesus Christ. That was so exciting to see! On Tuesday, we also had a small service at the church, during which Pastor Carlos (the local Nicaraguan pastor) preached. That was very encouraging to hear! Wednesday was definitely our most difficult day because almost half of the team was sick and unable to leave the hotel. Those of us who were feeling well enough went to the church to get as much done as we could. That was discouraging, but God had the victory! We still had our VBS session that day, and we saw almost 140 kids with about 10-12 mothers! How exciting! Thankfully, by Thursday, almost everyone was back on their feet and able to work. Satan tried to stop us, but God overcame him! Friday, we had another VBS session, and we saw about the same number of kids. We also had an evening service at the church (during which we played music and performed our drama again) and a wedding! The cool thing about this wedding is that it was the union of a former gang leader and his girlfriend who had previously been living together, but who now wanted to live in a manner glorifying to God. That was so incredible to witness! During the church service, we also got to share communion as believers from three different nations. That was definitely an amazing experience. How cool it is to see God unite believers as one! And finally, to conclude an already awesome evening, several people were saved, and their profession was genuine. It was so overwhelming to be a small part of God's work there in that neighborhood in Nicaragua! Praise be to God!

All in all, God really used the team despite Satan's attempts to discourage us!

Lake day!

Saturday, we had a tourism day. After spending the morning at the Nicaraguan market, we went to a beautiful lake where we all relaxed, swam, and ate lunch. We all had a lot of fun fellowshipping together after our difficult week.

One of the things that God taught me through this week is how powerful He truly is. No matter what scary circumstances Satan presented us with, God had the victory. It didn't matter what was going on, God prevailed. He brought several people to Himself and caused all of us to get to know Him better. Wow! I wouldn't have traded this experience for ANYTHING else in the universe!!! All glory to God!!!

Nicaragua Team 2012