Reflection


I think I need to spend a little time today processing the last 7 weeks.  And since that is the case - maybe we could do it together?…

When I told the Amigos organization I had felt “called” to spend time in Nicaragua this summer, I didn’t know what that would look like.  I said that I could dig ditches, help build bathrooms, work with the kitchen ladies cutting up fruits and vegetables, or changing sheets and doing laundry.  It didn’t matter to me, I just knew He wanted me to serve.  And if I look through the Bible I can find lots of examples of God calling people, and them saying “yes”, without really knowing what that meant.  So I think the important thing is the YES.


My second lesson had to do with need.  While I was in Nicaragua I saw lots of it.  In the community of San Benito the need was for clean water.  And now in just a few weeks the 500 or so people living there will be able to turn on a faucet and get it.  This is something novel that will change the lives of generations to come.  


At the Amigos school there were children who needed LOVE…as so many had watched family members (including parents) leave the country for better opportunity.  These kids, like all kids - wanted to feel seen, to feel loved, and to feel that they mattered.


And the missionary groups who came to a third world country with active volcanoes, scorpions, tarantulas, and mosquitos carrying dengue fever.  For many, traveling internationally was new and this was their first mission trip. Often they were anxious and needed direction, assurance, and grace. 


In the devotional Danny Duggan lead about “Compassion” he said the word meant “seeing a need and filling a need.” As Christians we should always be  looking for opportunities to help one another and to lift each other up.  Galatians 6:2 reaffirms this - “Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”


And then one of the final lessons from my trip was that God is everywhere.  Scott Cunningham talked about this in one of the devotionals he led.  He said he’d first encountered God in Frenchburg, KY - but then saw Him again in Canada, and then in Africa, El Salvador, Nicaragua and so many other places he had traveled.  Scott concluded: God is everywhere.


I agree!…. I too saw God in a lot of places these last few weeks.  I saw Him in the power of nature:

  • In the torrential thunderstorms
  • When San Cristobal shot ash 3 kilometers into the air
  • In the Earthquake we experienced my last week at Amigos
  • And in watching the lava flowing at Masaya.  
I also saw him in the people I worked with:  

  • In the servant hearts of the missionaries
  • In the compassionate and hard-working staff/interns at Amigos
  • And in the warm hospitality of the people of San Benito.  

So my final lesson is that Scott is right, that God is EVERYWHERE.  He loves us, and nothing but ourselves can separate us from His love, grace and mercy.  “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” - Romans 8:38-39

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