It was a wonderful 3 weeks stateside for Christmas and New Years. Full of friends, family, and fabric softener, Chick-fil-A, sweaters and laughter as we tubed down hills in the mountains!
Now I’m back and it didn’t take long for me to dive back into the swing of things!
It seems that most people take the start of a new year to re-organize their schedules and make resolutions, and what-not, so coming back I took about the first week to prioritize the next stint of my time here in Nica. God put about 3-4 things on my heart that seemed to stand out among all of the programs we have going on and the people we know.
1) Ernestina and Mis Pequenitos
As most of you know by now Ernestina is a dear friend of mine here and helped Heather and I with the preschool program we had over a year ago. When that ended she had the idea of starting a feeding program out of her childhood home and how clear it is that The Lord put that on her heart because it is a beautiful ministry now feeding about 100 kids every week, teaching them bible stories, and tutoring them with school work. I was blessed to see this get off the ground and wanted to be of any support I could be. Ernestina will also start working on the beginnings of the school this week and in order to teach in the future she needs her teaching certification so hopefully in 2015 she can start working toward her title and have that in the next couple of years to be able to officially teach and keep her job at the school once it is accredited!
2) Maria Elena, Fernanda and their families
These 2 girls are two 15 year olds that God has put in my path over the last year or so and we have all become very attached. 🙂 They bring so much laughter and patience testing and I just love them dearly! I long to see them well off and know that they’re ok. I pray that their relationship with The Lord is taking root and they are growing to be mighty women of God. They bounce around between all of us down here and it makes my heart so happy to see them loved on and cared for by so many people. I didn’t have specific ideas with them, necessarily, but in December before I came home for Christmas they both accepted Christ! So I knew I wanted to do some kind of study and we started Who Is Jesus Christ and the 2 weeks in that we are have been great! Fernanda also has a DARLING little cousin, Marina, who shares a birthday with my DARLING niece, Clarabelle, and has 100% stolen my heart. Their siblings, aunts and mothers have come to mean so much to me too that I wanted to be more intentional with their whole families as well.
3) Granada Christian Education Center
When I initially committed to coming to Granada 2 years ago I committed to work with the opening of the Granada Christian Education Center in Pantanal. After a few false starts in the last year and a half, stakes are in the ground and walls are going up! Ernestina will be teaching the first pre-school class and she’s getting ready to go. It’s happening! My commitment stands which means helping Ernestina with a community survey to find the kids that may attend and get information for the accreditation process, hold enrollment sign-ups to build a class list, as well as get the curriculum ready and an idea of classroom supplies/materials together. It’s exciting to see this finally happen and to see Ernestina’s faithfulness and patience finally rewarded with a teaching job that she will be SO great at!
4) Prepare to leave…
Prioritizing this time was important for various reasons, but also because while I was home I decided to come back at the end of my 2 year commitment. For a few months I had been praying through extending and staying longer, but more recently I felt God’s pull back to the states. It’s strange because I truly love it here, but I have an overwhelming peace that this is in God’s plans for me, to return. It’s also strange because I came back to Nicaragua with several new beginnings – new curriculum at Backyard Bible Club, English lessons at Fortin, starting anew with Children’s Church classes at El Puente, GCEC getting up and running and all came with quite a bit of planning and preparation. However, I have a strong sense of needing to trust The Lord in this and the decision stands and this summer I will be coming back to Denver to hopefully land a teaching job and use the skills God blessed me with in my time here.
Now you have a snapshot into the start of Nica 2015! I’m looking forward to seeing how these goals come to pass and all developments on heading back to the states.
Until next time…
Much love!
