My husband and I were fortunate enough to spend seven days in Nicaragua January 18th-25th. We went with the Church of the Nations based out of Athens, Georgia. Along with us, we had 10 more church members go and 5 interpreters and numerous pastors. We flew into Managua and stayed at a missionary camp through Mefel. The next day we were grocery store bound (to the Pali – kinda like wal-mart) then to Palanka.
After a four hour bus drive, we arrived at night and slept on mats, under mosquito nets, in the church. No windows or doors, plenty of fresh air and bugs! Needless to say it put everyone out of their comfort zone. We were exhausted at the end of each day and sleeping became pretty easy after that first night 😉 Showering was a different story – it consisted of a 50 gallon barrel with a soup bowl full of river water. It was an adjustment, but I am a country girl and bathing in a river isn’t too far fetched or unimaginable!
My husband, Aaron is a dentist and I am a Registered Nurse. We help put on clinics each day and reached out to many people. Revivals were each night and it was awesome to see people getting to know Christ. Two days were spent in this rural community and on Tuesday we headed out to Somoto.
From Somoto we did stay at a Pan American hotel and got our first shower (with cold running water) in three days. It was amazing. We headed into another community called Pueblos Unidos (United Village). This village was located in a valley with beautiful mountains surrounding it. There were a ton of kids, some with clothes some without, and some with shoes and others barefoot. These children just stole my heart. They were fun, energetic, and so lovable. Aaron pulled plenty of teeth and everyone worked extremely hard. Each day we fed the people (consisted of around 100-150) and for less than $90 everyone got a meal that day. I think that is when reality really struck me. These families are lucky to eat one meal a day. Who can fathom feeding 100-150 people in America for less than $90?
It was an extremely humbling experience and one that I am so grateful for. It is easy to take for granted the things that you are given. Something as small as a trash service, HOT running water, and shoes. My mom packed a ton of snacks for us to take down and I gave every single bit of them away to these children. I truly believe that God put in my heart to adopt from Nicaragua some day. I learned to really put my faith in the Lord and to be patient (NOT my strongest area) things will work in His time and it will be the RIGHT time.
Love and Light,
Brooke
Brooke , you have truly touched my heart , i am sooo very proud of you and Aaron . I felt as if i were there with you …. god Bless you ….. love and prayers Debbie Harbaugh
Girl this is great. I wish there were more people getting out and learning what its really like out there. You have such a big heart and i can’t wait to see where else God takes you.
Hey Stephenie! It was such a learning experience and I am so thankful I got to witness it. I hope you are doing great – miss seeing you! Thank you so much for checking out my blog!
Thank you so much Debbie! I wanted to write about our trip and try to convey it as it was happening. It was a huge blessing to go and I can’t wait to see what God has in store for the people there:)
So awesome!
I love you both. You two are truly a blessing to all.
Brooke thank you so much for sharing your experience. Mission trips are so amazing and humbling at the same time! My heart was always so full and I could tell yours was too. Watching these kids play and be so happy even in the toughest of conditions made me realize just how blessed I truly. It certainly put the right perspective on the little things that had seemed so big before…. They were nothing in comparison to what I had witnessed. The best part to me was watching them praise our God with so much enthusiasm and thankfulness. God bless you and Aaron for your compassion and work!
Thanks so much Barb! You are right, seeing how thankful and humble these people were really made us look at our own lives and realize how we have it all with Christ. We wanted to bring all of them home. What’s funny now is some of the kids have found us on Facebook. There is a tiny radio station with an old computer there. While the pastor does a segment on the radio, his boys get on the computer and email us. So glad we were able to go. Thank you for sharing!!