Welcome to the Kingdom!

Hello my favorite people!

It’s that time of the week! BLOG TIME! Yay!

As my time here in Nicaragua comes to an end, I want to rave on how good God is. With each day, challenge, blessing, miracle, conversation, or relationship I’ve experienced here, I’ve seen His hand moving so clearly. And so, to adequately brag about His goodness, I want to share a few stories from the various ministry outreaches I got to participate in.

Hospital visits: If I’m being completely honest, I thought these would be my jam. I have a heart for people with medical impairments or health troubles, but for some reason, I had the hardest time with the hospital. It made me angry to be there because it was so different from home. So angry that it was hard for me to focus on the things that God wanted to tell these people I was praying for. So rather than speaking through me (and maybe He still did and I just won’t know) God used that time to shift my heart and perspective on my work back home. Before leaving for this trip it was so hard for me to find positives about my job and the patients I worked with, especially since they appeared to not care that they were getting help that some people didn’t have access to. Looking around at the hospital I got to visit here, I realized that none of them had ASKED us to come. None of them had ASKED for prayer, but once it was offered they became desperate for it. It was prompted. They became desperate for Him. People back home (in my work) haven’t asked me for prayer, but it doesn’t mean they’re not desperate for it. They just haven’t been prompted. God reminded me that I am the same “missionary” back home as I am here. There is nothing about me that changes besides my location, and because of that, I can express the same care and life of Christ with them as I do here. I am able to prompt someone to be DESPERATE for God.

Prayer walks: Prayer walks are AWESOME! I would probably call it evangelizing more than anything, so it definitely brought me out of my comfort zone (thank you God for answered prayer). I’m not sure how many of you saw my instagram post, but if you did you know this awesome story! The mama in this home is a warrior. About 10 years ago she was pregnant with triplets in which two of them passed away and the third was miraculously saved. This is their precious daughter you see in the picture. Because of the complexity of the birth, their daughter lives with Cerebral Palsy which typically significantly shortens an individual’s life. For those who aren’t sure what this is, Cerebral Palsy is damage or condition in the brain that limits or restricts parts of the brain that control movement of the body. This affects posture, causes weak or still muscles, and can impact vision, hearing, or speech. The mama explained to us that her pain and grief was heart wrenching for about 5 years until she realized that God had given her such an incredible gift of their living daughter, regardless of her condition. For the past five, almost 6 years, they have lived in complete joy and love starting each day with thanksgiving for another day with her, despite the looming idea of another loss that hangs over them. They said that sometimes they struggle with getting all the materials to care for her but have found the ability to lean on and trust in God’s provision and His plan. She ended her story with explaining to us that she and her husband know that God has a plan and purpose for everything and they can find rest in that. Thank you God for your blessings and miracles that I get to witness!!

VBS: Now, for those of you who know me well, you know that I’m GREAT with kids. This does NOT mean I like them. In the past year, I’ve really struggled to find patience in myself when interacting with kids. I’d rather ditch them to hangout with the adults. But Mom will be excited go hear that God has softened my heart. Yesterday we were invited to host a VBS for the kids of nearby church and some of my family members (squad mates) got to organize that for us. While I didn’t necessarily bond specifically with any of the kids, I was absolutely touched by the joy and energy they brought to the church. The whole room LIT UP when they came in. And I know, some of you are thinking “don’t kids normally do that for any normal person anyway”. Guys, these kids don’t live a normal life and the things they live through are things I’ve never had to think about and for them to come into the room with the biggest smiles on their faces was absolutely heart melting.

After hearing these stories, I hope you’ll see just how great God is and understand why it’s so hard to leave this country. Welcome to ministry! WELCOME TO HIS KINGDOM!

If you made it to this point, congratulations! You’ve made it through another one of my long blogs! I’m so appreciative of your patience and your love!

I miss you all TONS!

Yours truly,

Em 🙂