Sorry for the lack of a blog last week. School came to an end for the students down
here for the semester and they won’t resume until mid January. With that our ministries have been slowing
down and I am not sure I have much more to report about this week. My ESL class ended last week so Monday and
Tuesday those of us who were teaching at Colegio San Antonio did ATL’s while
the others went and continued their ESL class at the Sisters of Charity. This Monday and Tuesday we met at Casa de
Mujeres, which is a women’s resource center and had a meeting with the director
to figure out what ministry opportunities will be available for the second half
of the trip. I am not sure if I will
want to pour into this ministry or not but I am praying that God will open my
heart to something soon because I haven’t really felt led to continue with any
of the ministries I have been involved with so far. I would like to do something related to art,
maybe doing crafts with kids or something like that. I want to be able to really invest in my next
ministry and genuinely enjoy doing it everyday. I love doing things that require some creativity and kids are so free
and have wonderful imaginations I think it would be a blast to paint, color,
bead, or build things with them. Last
week we were taught by Charles and we were again talking about our identities
in Christ. Most of the week was focused
on how we have sin in our lives that is keeping us from living in our identities. Christ freed us from the bondage of sin and
therefore when we sin it is our own choice and it hinders our ability to serve
him fully and know him fully. We then
read in Galatians 5:19-20, it discusses the sins that we hold on to even though
we are free in Christ and then we wrote down four sins that each of us is
holding on to. Charles had us write our
sins on four heavy rocks and we then carried around our rocks in our backpacks
day and night for four days. It was
horrible! I was so frustrated and grumpy the entire time. At the end we gave up our rocks when we had
prayed over the sins and released them. It was really liberating to get rid of the rocks and my eyes were opened
to the deceptive nature of Satan and the realization that there are things in
my life that keep me from living out God’s plan for my life. A verse that I really enjoyed from last week
was Galatians 5:1 “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves
be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.â€� Wednesday of this week and last week we had our trash pick up and had a
little children’s program afterwards. We
gave up our Sins last Friday so last Thursday in the morning some of us girls
spent time discussing our sins and just lifting each other up in Christ and
really digging in deep. It was really
nice to be able to meet as girls and be open about things that are harder in
team time with everyone there. Last
Friday we went to the Sisters of Charity for the last time to do the daycare
program. I have come to realize that God
did not gift me with the patience of dealing with kids in a daycare
setting. I love kids but when I am
surrounded by forty or more monkeys that have runny noses and are treating me
like a jungle gym I just about swear off kids forever! Needless to say if I do
work with kids after Christmas it will have to be in a more controlled setting.
NO MONKEYS for me :)! Then we gave up
our sins Friday afternoon in class which meant freedom from our backpacks. Then on Saturday we went to Laguna de Apollo
and we had a glorious time swimming in the lagoon and just relaxing. Thursday of this week we got the day off in
order to celebrate Thanksgiving as a team. Some people woke up as early as 5 am to begin cooking! I went to breakfast with some of the girls
and then came home and relaxed for awhile until I realized that my camera was
missing and then spent the majority of the afternoon searching for my camera
which I have deemed missing as of now. That was a depressing start to my day. Then around 11am some men came by from the power company and cut off our
power supply. They claimed that we had
not paid our power bill for the month and drove away. Well this is when chaos began. Half of the people who were cooking were at a
different house using the oven there because our oven at home was being
monopolized by the turkey. When the
power was shut off we were in the middle of cooking the turkey in the oven and
countless other dishes on the stove top! So we asked our next door neighbors if it would be possible to use their
oven to finish cooking our turkey. It was a close call with their tiny oven but
the Turkey
fit and around 4pm we were able to sit down and have an amazing Thanksgiving
dinner. We ate it at El Puente and were
able to sit all together and we went around the table and said things that we
were thankful for. Our power has been
out for 3 days now and it has been very frustrating. All the food in our fridge has gone rotten
and nighttime is awful, no fans so the rooms are hot and the mosquito’s biting
like mad, not to mention you keep running into other people or stubbing your
toes. We did pay our bill and have the
receipt to prove it, Roberto even bribed them with 300 cords to put it back on
right away and they still failed to come. Hopefully today is the day that we
get some electricity. Living in the dark
is horribly depressing. Yesterday we
hiked up a mountain to have a day of solitude. The view was amazing and you could see all of Granada
and a beautiful view of Lake
Cocibola. I spent some time just admiring Gods creation
and just thinking how beautiful Eden
must have been and how sad God must be to see his creation now. But I also was reflecting on how if I see him
reflected beautifully in creation now how much more magnificent he must be and
I felt an intense need to be with God and got so excited for when I will
someday bask in his glory! Wow God is
amazing. We only have one week left here
in Granada and
then we leave for Ometepei for a week and then come home for Christmas
break. I am very excited to come home. I hope that when we pack up to leave my
camera will be found! Be praying for my
team and I as we wrap up the Awakening part of our trip. You will hear from me
soon.

-Melissa