Nicaragua!

This past weekend we took a 4 day trip to San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. It was... amazing. We had two purposes for going on this trip: 1- to renew our stay in Costa Rica. We are allowed to live in Costa RIca for 90 days then you must leave the country for 72 hours to come back in and be allowed 90 more days. 2- to practice evangelism! Our topic for class last week was evangelism- so it was a great time to practice what we learned and practice our skits we have been preparing for outreach. For the evangelism projects we partnered with a missionary couple living in Nicaragua, David and Tamara. 

Thursday was a long day full of traveling and chicken buses (normal sized buses crammed full of around 120 people- standing or sitting- smooshed!) On friday we went to work at a school in a village named Ojo Chal. Its a small village with no electricity, running water, and it mainly consists of poor farming families. The school has about 40 kids ranging from 1st grade to 8th. The girl in the black shirt is name Cristina, she's 13 and just finished 3rd grade and someday she wants to be a teacher.  It was their end of school party (because here its now summer). It was  a really fun time of playing and loving on the kids. It was so weird how many of these kids weren't used to just playing- because at home they often have to work and do chores instead of play. So this party was a really good ending to the school year also a fun time to share our dramas to the kids and their moms. 

Friday afternoon we also did some outreach in the actual city of San Juan del Sur. It was kind of a challenge because its a tourist city so it was a lot of rich tourists we talked to. I had a great talk with a lady from Guatemala. She was doing an internship with a company who works on social justice issues. She said she isn't a christian because she wants a religion thats more spiritual but she thinks what we do as missionaries as great. We had a really good talk about how christianity is spiritual and its not just about going to and belonging to church. Even though she didn't like accept Jesus into her heart right there- I know that our conversation had an effect on her. She even said she was going to write to her 9 year-old daughter about us meeting! How great is God? And praise him for my giving me the gift of speaking spanish!

On saturday we did beach cleanup and then had a beach party with the surf ministry there. The trip ended so successfully and in so much unity as a team. God did amazing things and I can't wait to see what else He is going to do through us on our outreach!