June 8, 2014

1 YEAR!

June 8 marked my one year in Nicaragua!  I thought I would for sure do something that day to celebrate, but reality is, life here has just become life so it kind of came and went as another day.  A great day, however, as so many are now at 1 year later!  

I came full circle the day, by flying back from being stateside for a week, and met Denver K-Life at the airport.  So my one year was spent with K-Life kick-starting their 2-week mission trip.  I don’t think I stopped smiling for the entirety of those 2 weeks.  There is something so wonderful about having my 2 worlds collide the way they do when K-Life comes down.

There’s so much about this past year that could speak to how faithful God is, how He has shown me His love, evidence of how He knows me so well, and how His timing is absolute perfection.  At the beginning of K-Life’s trip I found myself torn between two worlds, wanting to go back, but still feeling a pull to be here.  But as the week went on I saw them begin to fit together.  And at the end of the two weeks, I experienced a contentment like never before while I worshipped with the team on their last night.  I had begun to cry at the idea of having to say good-bye to dear friends that night and the next day.  Upon collecting myself and standing back up, my friend Karina (the wife of one of our translators) moved over to take my hand.  Not minutes later my other friend Daysha (a K-Life leader) wrapped her arm around my shoulders to give me a hug.  In that moment I was standing between my two worlds, receiving love equally from Nicaragua and The States.  It was a small gesture on both parts, but meant the world to me because in this last year part of me has longed to go back and the other part has longed to be present here.  And in that moment, one year later, I had both.  

In that moment, I was reminded, in such a real way, that friendships cross borders.

And in that moment, I felt the love of new friendships that had been developing for a year.

Again, it was small and simple, but a beautiful gesture of God saying, “I got this.  Let me have this next year.”

With that, I give him this next year.  A year to be stretched.  A year to be transformed.  A year for new experiences.  A year to draw closer to all friends.  A year to continue to love on sweet Nica children.  And a year to see God’s glory be revealed in Granada, Nicaragua.  

And I ask, again, that you all will come alongside me for another 12 months and be apart of this with me.  

To God be the glory. 

Until next time…

Much love!

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And a trip down memory lane:

       

                                                        (K-Life goes back, I stayed here) 

         

                           (Pre-school program prep)                                        (Welcome Meeting for the Pre-school) 

                

                             (Lesson on gardens and plants)         (Folklore dance at Yolanda’s, Jesse’s daughter, school)

 

         

                              (Parents came to visit!)                    (The friends who helped us with the pre-school)

          

                              (My friend, Lilliam, pre-Nathaly)                 (Now with Nathaly! April 2, 2014)

            

        (Discipleship class which has blossomed sweet relationships).        (EP girls danced for Mother’s Day)

                           

(Denver K-Life comes back and these two girls stay for 1 month!)     (K-Life making a difference across borders)