Serving Him in Nicaragua: Eagle volleyball on a mission, Day 4
DIRIAMBA, NICARAGUA – The following is a series of first-hand accounts of Carson-Newman volleyball players and coaches on their missions trip to Nicaragua. Jeremiah 20:9 If I say ‘I will not mention his word or speak anymore in His name’, His word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed I CAN NOT.”
DIRIAMBA, NICARAGUA – The following is a series of first-hand accounts of Carson-Newman volleyball players and coaches on their missions trip to Nicaragua.
Jeremiah 20:9 If I say 'I will not mention his word or speak anymore in His name', His word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed I CAN NOT."
First and foremost I would just like to thank everyone who helped each of us to raise the money to make this trip possible. I knew that this experience would be life changing for all of us if we allowed God to work in us, but I was never expecting for the trip to be this life changing. Most of my teammates and I thought that we were prepared to be the light for
these children who are starving and have so little. But this experience has been flip-flopped. I was prepared to minister to the people of Nicaragua but instead I am the one who is being ministered to each and every second. Instead of us changing their lives and being a help to them, they have changed my life in a way that I didn't know was possible.
Yesterday (Sunday) we went to a church in the city of Matagalpa. I was anxious to see how they portray God and worship Him compared to us. Well, after being a part of that church service, I very clearly found out that they worship the same exact God that we do in mostly the same ways - with one exception. The people of Nicaragua worship God in a way that I didn't even know existed. All of the music was in Spanish, but they were the same songs that we sing at home. Just looking around at the faces of the people here - they have a smile and a certain demeanor about them that can only come from God - it is truly amazing. We danced the whole time in church. I don't mean just clapping our hands to the beat, but literally jumping and dancing for joy - the joy of the Lord.
These people love people God in ways that I didn't know was possible. We feel sorry for them and think that they have so little. But in reality they are so rich, rich with the spirit of God. After church we ran a clinic for middle-aged women. This clinic was a challenge from God to us because we had mostly worked with children up to this point. We can play with the kids without having to really communicate with them, but not with the women. Those women were some of the happiest people that I have ever seen, it was great. Sure we played charades for the first couple of minutes but once we played with them it was as if we could communicate with them just fine. Again, this trip has been so life changing for me in ways that I cannot even explain, but each day that I wake up in this beautiful place, I thank the Lord for all he has blessed us with and I say Psalm 118: 24 to myself, "Today is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it". I really think the people of Nicaragua live by this verse and I think we should too.
Click the links for stories on day one, day two and day three.
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