Nicaragua 2016

I'd be lying if I said I never had time at home to myself, but, it is rare that I should think to use time alone to work on something like a blog or computer related. 

Time alone usually means that I sit in the sunbeam that comes through our sliding glass door to the balcony and read my Bible while sipping coffee. After thus finishing, I usually end up doing laundry, washing dishes and contemplating if attempting to vacuum the floor is worth it on account our vacuum doesn't work all that well. 

But! That's not important! Guys, in just 20 days, I will be kicking off my fake toms in the security line at the airport and hoping that I managed to remove all of my liquids from my carry on. 

I have a few new supporters this year, so I feel like I need to give a little run down of what my trip might look like.

When we arrive in Managua, we clamber aboard an old school bus and make our way across the city, amidst donkey carts and motorcycles until we arrive at theeee most beautiful mission house atop a small mountain, over looking a volcano and the rest of the city. There's a wrap around deck that is furnished with rocking chairs and there is a mango tree in the yard. 

We will rest there the first night, getting what sleep we can and taking our last warm shower for a while. 

Sunday morning, after breakfast we will meet our translators, put together care packages for the village families (Soap, washcloth, tooth brush, small toy), grab a pack lunch of some sort, and board the old school bus again. 


Depending on what village we go to, we may be on the bus for hours. It's usually about 5 or 6. There is no air conditioning and it's usually about lovely 95 degrees. I find this to be comfortable, but it sometimes happen that people get a little woozy. I HAVE been known to take a Dramamine to keep the nausea at bay and sleep off as many as the hours as possible. 

Once we arrive in the village, we immediately pray in and over every building, piece and place of our compound, and then we take over, setting up our clinic. We organize our medicines in the pharmacy, we set up the stove in the kitchen, we lay out mattresses in the classroom and take the little school desks outside and make our dining-room-living-room-blood-pressure-check-up-station-where-we-sit-and-wait-for-a-shower-place for the week out in the middle of our compound. All you need is a school desk in the middle of the sand anyways.  I can't even begin to describe the wonderful moments I've shared singing hymns in an old school desk outside, waiting for a shower while munching on jacotas. 

Once things are set up, depending on when we arrived in the village and not depending on if we are hungry or not, we set right to work. The pastors hold a church service and share the gospel and then our first round of a couple hundred villagers come through our clinic. 

I just put medicines in a basket as per the medical card I receive, and then label them all with the patient's name and take it to the pharmacist to be approved. It only gets overwhelming if we are short staffed, but that is rare as pharmacy work is nothing difficult. 

A typical day in the village starts at 5am. It is always best to wake up before the sun as there are no windows or curtains and we are guarded round the clock by the Nicaraguan army which is made up mostly of young men in their early twenties who are quite good at whistling. Which isn't bad.. you just prefer not to hear a whistle when you're swapping out your sleeping clothes for your day time clothes. 

It's never that difficult to wake at 5am as the roosters usually start crowing at 11pm and continue in doing so until about 7am. There really is no rush to getting ready in the morning, but takes very little time as there are no mirrors, your outfit is already picked out, and showering in the morning would be very cold since the water would have cooled over night. 

After dressing and starting one's coffee infusion for the day, there is a morning devotion and prayer and the medical team eats breakfast while us that do churchy stuff like kid's ministry head straight away to the first service. And then we rotate, Service, breakfast, service, pharmacy, service, pharmacy, lunch, service, pharmacy, service, pharmacy, supper, service. 

After the last service, the villagers go home and we lock up the compound for the night. And then we get in line for the shower.. which is 4 metal stalls set up in the middle of the compound with large vats of water heated by the sun next to them. With a sump-pump and garden hose, we basically just rinse off and try and keep the dirt build up in our hair to a minimum. The benefit of showering outside at night in the dark, is you actually have no idea how dirty you are and so you just imagine you're clean. ALSO! you get to look at the stars while you shower.. that's a beautiful thing. 

We keep that basic schedule until Thursday when we pack up and head back to the mission house in Managua. Once back, we douse ourselves in lice killing potions for a solid 15 minutes and then rest for the remaining hours of the day and we debrief with stories of what God did before going to bed. 

Friday we venture out to the market and see a bit of the local culture and Saturday we return to the U.S. 

Every year has been different and good and wonderful. Every year my heart has been in a different place than the time before. And Every year the Lord loves me deep into the bottom-most places and fills me with a joy that goes beyond words and description. 

I look forward to this year's edition of this adventure. I'm so thankful for everyone who is supporting me financially and prayerfully. 

I have been asking the Lord, "For what purpose have I been called?" I know a short-term, week long medical mission trip does not have a very big impact on the patients we see in our clinics. But, even a little pebble dropped in a pond makes more than one ripple. And sometimes, it's not so much the people we see, but what God does in our OWN hearts.. in MY heart. One week could seem like nothing, but, God only need us to be right in the exact spot He wants us for a short while to do an EPIC work on our hearts.

Some times our hearts have not yet healed because we have yet to be still for long enough for His voice to reach our broken hearts. And the healing we experience from a week with the Lord can echo into eternity for all our lives. As we return to our regular mission fields, our offices, our Bible studies, our homes.. the fruit of the spirit can ripen in our hearts and all at once, we can come back and bless the people around us and carry the sweet aroma of Christ.

Investing in short-term mission trip is really investing in a long-term missionary. So I thank you. You will never know the impact of your prayers or your finances until the Lord shows you in heaven, but I can assure you, for the rest of my earthly life, this trip will echo in my heart and influence decisions I make even ten years from now. It is no small thing.