Sunday in Nicaragua

Church was awesome today. There was this really amazing moment during the worship time where the power went out, but the worship continued without skipping a beat. To hear the voices singing praises to God from a dark stage and from the people in the crowd standing and dancing in a dark church was really powerful. We all felt it was a beautiful and authentic worship experience and it seemed to actually add to the energy of the worship for the electricity to go out. There was a translator on stage who helped us to understand the message the Pastor shared about how to view your finances in a God honoring manner and how not to conform to the standard or the world but to rely on God and to be content as a source of strength.

After church we had lunch at a park overlooking Managua where we had a history lesson about Nicaragua by one of our translators. We learned some of the amazing obstacles that the people of this land have had to overcome. Hurricanes, earthquakes, corruption, wars, and there is still an amazing spirit of hope that we have felt in our new friends here.

Our night ended with a "club" time with the older boys and girls where we played some games (we learned that the maximum number of jumbo sized marshmallows that one person can hold in their mouth is 9) and during this time one of the girls at the orphanage shared with us her recent experience of serving in one of the poor communities just down the road. The staff of the orphanage led the children in gathering some of their clothing and taking some of their food to give to give to the people of this community. She shared that she had never thought about what she had to give someone else but now she will, she said it felt good to serve God and to know that they had helped people in need.

We want you to know that we agree with her and that she said it better than we can! We are learning a lot from these children and we are making a contribution.

Thanks for reading this.