10/3/22: TRUST IN HIS TIMING// NICARAGUA UPDATES

I want to start this post off with saying I think I have rewritten this 15 times in the past few weeks, but I’m just gonna write this raw and see how it goes(: Hello! Last time I wrote on here I had just finished training camp, and let me tell you Nicaragua has given me about a million different experiences and feelings. I have never experienced anything like this, and trying to put it into words seems impossible, but I am so unbelievably grateful for what I’ve taken with me so far. God is so evident here, and has been SO intentional with me. I didn’t write much about it, but life before deciding on this mission trip was very confusing for me. I was very conflicted with decision making, and I didn’t have a passion for basically anything it seemed like. My faith had lessened over high school, and it felt distant whenever I tried to tune into it. I would say I was a train wreck in the most loving way. I turned to anything that I felt would fulfill me, and I used the world as my distraction. There was always this emptiness that I needed to fill, but I never felt less empty. My old youth group leaders, Steven and Jen, came to my church to talk about their mission trip to Peru. I remember sitting there and feeling so inspired and so challenged by the thought of going on a trip like this. That week I had researched mission trips, and found this one. Fast forward to now, I am so shocked that I decided to go on this trip. It was completely out of my comfort zone, but in the moment I felt so much peace about it. We teach lessons as apart of our ministry here (I will talk more about the ministries), and this week I decided to teach about trusting in his timing. For me, it was a complete leap of faith (in the dark it felt like) to go on this trip. God was so purposeful with me being placed on this trip, and it has single handedly changed so many aspects of my life already. Before I get into more, I want to tell you a story that I will bring with me. For a little background info, talking about my faith and my testimony has been really hard for me here. My faith was never strong, and I felt like I had too much baggage to even get anywhere with it. And let me tell you my story is more important than I think. Today, we went prayer walking. It looks pretty similar every week, but this week was different. We went to this house, and this lady started talking about life after her baptism, and how she had to trust the timing of god because life got really really hard. She told her testimony and it was extremely similar to how I have been feeling. I got re-baptised a month ago in Georgia, and my life has thrown me lots of challenge since I made that decision. Just this morning, I was writing in my journal about trusting in timing. After she talked, Gustavo (our translator) told us it was time to group pray over her. And for some reason, I felt an overwhelming and anxious feeling of needing to say something out loud to her. Without even really realizing what I was doing, I interrupted him and said I needed to say something to her. I talked about my story, and how I just wrote in my journal this morning about trusting in his timing, and how she was proof that god is leading me on this path of trusting him.  It was such a sweet and surreal moment for me, and the timing was perfect. I got to pray over her, and I have been learning that he will give me the words even when I struggle with what to say. I am so thankful to have gotten to meet her and hear her story, and know that I really am not alone. We got back tonight and got to do an activity that my friend Faith led. We wrote all the lies that we have believed and heard about ourselves in our lives. We got to just lay there and be peaceful and realize that truly these don’t define us. God’s timing once again. Today I saw that the things I bring with me that hurt me, are seen, are forgiven, and teach me how to be vulnerable and strong moving forward. thanks god.

 MINISTRY LIFE 

from a week to week basis, these are the things we have been up to! ps I learned the hard way, but mosquitos here are real!

   MICRO-CHURCHES: some of the coolest hours of my life. micro churches are churches of whoever, absolutely wherever you want. this can look like 60 people in a church, or 7 people sitting on fold up chairs in someones front yard. it truly is cool because church is church, and it doesn’t have to be in a big building with air conditioning to be counted. one of us will go prepared will something to share. this can look like a bible verse, a testimony, absolutely anything you want to share. they take it all in, and have the most strong and untouchable faiths I have ever seen. there have been so many stories and testimonies shared by them, that I will take with me everywhere. so much wisdom to be shared here. church here also isn’t structured. if it means sitting there telling stories the whole time, then that’s cool because god was working that entire time. I hope everyone can experience this at some point!

   PRAYER-WALKING: prayer walking has focused on the poverty heavy areas, families, widows, drunks, absolutely everyone. We walk down the streets and pray and talk with as many as we can, as well as following up with them the weeks following. you never know what you’re going to walk into, and I think thats the best part. its having your arms wide open to love on whoever needs it. its prayer, its sharing the gospel, its sharing of experiences. it fills me up so much. its so important to be unified. it has also been so sweet with translators, to have been able to communicate even with the language barrier. I LOVE THESE PEOPLE. there is a lot of hurt, a lot of sickness, lots of suffering, but so much kindness. truly these people welcome you in their homes, and they are so grateful you are with them. I even had a couple of people give me mosquito creams because it’s just that bad! Through prayer walking, my goal is to remind them how valued and important they are through every circumstance. nothing they could ever do will ever take away from that. no mistake, no regret, separates you from that. I encourage you to view everyone around you as equal, because truly we all just need to help each other out

   THE HOSPITAL: this has been a tough one for me. we have been able to prayer walk on both kid and adult units. hospitals in Nicaragua have little to no privacy with six people to a room, and nothing separating them. It is pretty hot in all of the rooms, and not lots of air flow. We have been with new born babies all the way up to 80+ years of age. It is very sad, but also so happy to have been able to meet them and shine a little light onto them. We usually have a translator, so we get their age, their name, their sickness, and we all get to split up across the room and pray for them individually. although we don’t speak the same language, things like grabbing their hand or laying a hand on them makes me feel more connected to them. this trip has also shone light on my passion for nursing, and for helping the sick. before this trip, I had never really heard much on healings in my church. I didn’t believe in it, and thought it was crazy when I did hear of it. My experience a couple days ago has changed my mind. We were wrapping up in the hospital and were gonna go into one last room. There was a woman with a kidney condition, and she was screaming out in pain. She was sobbing, and some of our group was already praying on her. They all asked us to hop in, and we all put hands on her and were group praying. It was so hard to see her in this state, absolutely miserable, and in the most pain she had ever been in. One of the leaders in our group (he is 16 you wouldn’t believe), started praying for her that the bad be taken out of her body. He was loud and assertive with how he prayed, and has the most undeniable and unfearful trust in the lord. as he was praying this over, she started gagging and needed to throw up. she was throwing up for quite a bit of time, and some of us had to step out for a minute because it was a lot to take in. we went back in, and we kept praying over her, consistently. she started crying but in a different way. she started apologizing for her sins, and saying she needed to follow god. we noticed a change in her, she stopped crying, and was calm. she was calm and started smiling. for me, this was almost scary and absolutely nothing I had ever seen before. if not a physical healing, this was without doubt a spiritual healing. god worked through US, that was our purpose there. this was a huge eye opening experience for me, he works miracles!

   THE DUMP: the dump ministry is located on the inside of the city’s trash dump. as sad at it is, people live here. they live in conditions where they make use of the trash there, to make a living. this was the lowest of lows. they have absolutely nothing, and still show up to a church service. with so little, it’s inspiring to see the faith and the love that they have in the lord. our group has struggled with this. it’s hard to teach about light in the dark, when they are in the darkest of the dark. but something so light has come out of this. as well as being able to share the gospel here, we get to feed them meals when we go every week. they are so grateful, and so kind. so kind. it reminds me that materialism means nothing, absolutely nothing. love fills you up. so today, love more.

   KIDS MINISTRY/ BABYSITTING ON THE FARM (ministry base): THESE KIDS ARE THE MOST EXHAUSTING BUT FUN HUMANS EVER. There are some London missionaries here as well, so it’s been an interesting battle with our English and Spanish speaking pals all mixing. the one thing that has been so sweet is that the language barrier has nothing on them. they are all BEST FRIENDS even if they don’t speak the same language. absolutely the sweetest humans, that I have learned so much from. there is no one I would rather sit in a hammock with, have paint my arms, or try and speak Spanish with. bffs!

   VBS: my absolute favorite time of the week, we have been going to the same vbs spot for the past couple of weeks, and there is no possible way to feel upset around these kids. going into it, I was worried about the language barrier, but I have learned more Spanish from them teaching me then any class I could’ve taken. they love soccer, love food, love hugs, love taking pictures with you, and most of all love just being there. before vbs each week, we get to go down to the homes and invite more kids to go. so many familiar faces, but new ones each time! I adore them and how on fire they are for life 

   FARM WORK: nothing like a good sweaty day with my friends! team time on the farm has been SO much fun, and even better with the cool people I get to live with! There are also lots of workers here, they are SO MUCH FUN, but also are known to wrap snakes around your legs and show you up in just about anything!

  PRISON: the boys got to go to the prison and share some inspiration, some motivation, and encouragement. with snacks and some drinks:) 

some side notes:

– you can fit 13 people in the back of a truck!

– juice is served in the city in bags, where you just cut a hole and drink through

– 3 other friends and I went on a beach trip two and half hours away and got to do public busses the whole way, yay for not knowing what to do but getting there eventually 

– got to see an active volcano

– mosquito spray please 

– josie : we are on the bottom of the bunk bed, you can’t sit straight up, you’ll hit your head. 

– faith : check under the yoga mat or you might get bit by a scorpion!

– waking up at 5am never gets easier 

UNTIL NEXT TIME!!! <3 kylie