Not only was today Sunday, but it also was our first morning in Jinotega! Church was so great this morning; the worship was genuinely joyful and the people really seemed like a church family! Church is more than a good sermon here; it’s fellowship. Our group and our projects were introduced to the church again this morning, and Pastor Julian made a joke about volunteers for the projects showing up and starting on “American time” (on time, not late). If there’s one thing you have to love about that man, it would have to be his silly sense of humor and his eruptive laughter! As part of the service our group led different Sunday school classes, shared testimonies, and performed special music.
The kid’s Sunday school class was led by Jacquelyn, Jeb, Christy, Amanda, and myself. We first did a little puppet show with a message and then made salvation bracelets with the kids. Tyson, Amy, Nikki, Janna, and Mike had lots of fun with the youth and young adults. They played games to get to know each other and then Tyson led a short Bible lesson. Joanna did a great job leading a discussion with the adult Sunday school group along with the help of Kenton and Zac.
Our team got to share the songs Be Though My Vision and How Great Is Our God with the congregation today. It was so great of Amy to lead the singing and Mike to play the keyboard. Both felt like these responsibilities were outside their comfort zones, but God empowered them to utilize their gifts in ways they never knew possible. With only 13 people on the trip we were given lots of opportunities to grow and be strengthened in new ways, making everyone an essential part of our team and the ministry we came to share.
The church here is very testimony focused! This morning Tyson shared his testimony with the church; great job Tyson! Throughout the whole service, between our group leading Sunday schools, singing, and Tyson sharing his testimony, it was evident that the church really wanted to include us in everything this week and make us feel welcome. All the people were so friendly and excited to meet us!
Shortly after church we went to a small neighborhood in town, barrio in Spanish, where Nikki led VBS with a bunch of kids from the church and even more kids who just randomly showed up! In all I believe that there were probably around a hundred kids that showed up for the VBS. It was so much fun to be with the kids and see them smiling and laughing. We did another puppet show and as part of the lesson there was a scene where Tyson and Amy did a little skit of Adam and Eve in the garden. Tyson received quite the amount of laughs when he actually bit into the mango (that we had just found on the ground) after Amy had only pretended to do so. Afterwards we passed out candy to the kids; this was far more challenging than one would think. To kids candy is like gold and they will be as deceitful as they need to be to get more. We were torn by wanting to give them something special, but not wanting to encourage deceitful behaviors. I can’t help but wonder if this selfish desire to take whatever they can is a result of poverty. If so, what could we do to help? And though it seems unreasonable to try to help children in Nicaragua, it could certainly inspire action to help those in poverty from even Nampa, ID.
After leaving and saying goodbye to the kids at the VBS we piled back into the van and headed to another park that was more in the center of town. It was there where we did a little sports ministry. While a few of the girls played softball and some colored pictures with the kids, the boys from our group were invested in a game of basketball against a surprisingly organized team. It was a good game, our guys played hard, but the other team just really had some talent. At half time the guys from our group took advantage of an incredible opportunity to minister to the other team. While Tyson passed around his water bottle and made sure that everyone was hydrated, Mike shared an awesome testimony. The guys seemed very interested and content to listen to what Mike and our team had to share; it really was a perfect example of what street evangelism should look like. Rather than just shouting out to people that they are going to hell, or not doing anything for fear of offending people, we built a small relationship by doing something that interested them, and then honestly shared a personal experience of who God is to us. After getting to pray with the team, the basketball game got underway again. Although the guys from our group lost the game, as a whole they were successful in being able to minister though the game; which made for a much bigger win.
We loaded up into the van again, this time to head back to the church where we would quickly eat dinner and then have another church service. We sang How Great is Our God for the church and had an incredible time of worship with them. This service we were blessed with getting to hear Amanda’s testimony; thank you so much for sharing Amanda! Then Kenton gave a fitting message that I am sure spoke just as much to the church as it did to our team. Great job Kenton!
There have been many awesome aspects of being in a Central American church: the worship, the people, the passion; it’s all so incredible! But I have to admit that one of the most intriguing things while sitting in the pew was watching little salamanders (or maybe they were geckos) crawl all over the walls. They’re so insignificant, but so fascinating!
Today was packed with so many awesome opportunities for ministry! I think that I have only scratched the surface of what God was able to do through us today, and I really have no idea how to convey the depth of what could come from the seeds that were planted today. I am so thankful and impressed with everyone in the group for just going with the flow and jumping into everything with great attitudes. Some things we did today were not really part of our own trip agenda, but this did not faze anyone, and God used us just as much in those opportunities as in the ones we had planned for. They say that flexibility is necessary in missions, and we saw that first-hand on this Spirit-filled, God-inspired Sunday! It is only our first day here but I feel like we could go home tomorrow and we would have made a difference in Jinotega! But I am so glad that we get to stay and hang out (and do ministry!) for the rest of the week!
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