Nicaragua 2007 :: Part I

Recently, I've been spending some time reflecting on some mission trips I've taken in the last 5-6 years.  Since these were very impactful points in my life and something I think about often, I thought I'd share some things from my trip in a little mini series.

In 2007, I was just finishing up high school and was given the opportunity to travel to Nicaragua with the Northminster youth group I was involved with.  I had never been out of the country or on any type of mission trip before so this was an entirely new experience for me.

visiting schools:
Immediately after arriving, we went straight to one of the schools that my church had connections with. All of the students were so happy to see us and performed some dances for us wearing traditional Nicaraguan garb.  We got a tour of the school and really got an idea of where these students spent their days.

Another day, we went and visited one of the schools of a missionary there.  We got to tour the school and then spend some time playing on the playground with some of the students.  I learned how to double dutch that day.  I didn't speak and Spanish, but I still managed to play and laugh with the kids.  Smiles and laughter transcends all languages.

touristy stuff:
We got to do some touristy stuff.  One of the first days there, we went to a couple church services and then to a market near Lake Managua.  We had lunch at a restaurant and then spent some time walking around the market looking at the little shops.  I got a little pot with turtles carved on it.  I was also able to spend some time people watching and enjoy the beauty of the lake.  Later in the trip, we were also able to visit a volcano (pictured left) and some kind of coffee factory where we learned about their bagging process.  We also went to a tourist market where they had a lot of tshirts, flags, local artistry, etc. that you could purchase.  Throughout the trip, we drove around the city a lot and learned some history of Nicaragua from Bill, our host.

missionary testimonies:
We spent a couple evenings listening to testimonies from a couple different missionaries.  One in particular stuck out to me.  The man was telling us how he felt he was being called to become a missionary in Nicaragua.  The missionary said he would go to Nicaragua as long as God wanted should the money come in to provide for him and his family.  At the point he shared this story, he had been a missionary in Nicaragua for years.  This showed me that if it was the right place for you to be, God would provide and it would work out (granted you still need to put in some work to raise money).  This lesson has translated into a lot of different places in my life and helped me mentally with fundraising for my other mission trip.