Hello everyone, I am sitting here by my Christmas tree going through pictures and videos of the past 3 months in Nicaragua. I am so thankful for this experience, that God opened the opportunity for me and that He provided a way for me to do it. It was truly a life-changing experience, and I will never be the same.
Therefore, I would once again like to say thank you to the people who supported me financially, and with their prayers throughout this entire experience. None of this would have been possible without all of you. THANK YOU and God bless you all through this Christmas season!
Posted in A Trip Update by Ruth Daugherty on 11/27/2009
Y´all, let me just tell you about Giermo. First, I love him. He´s nine, and he´s a little bit in love with me. I don´t mind. His dad comes to Bible study at El Puente twice a week, so he´s around a good bit. He cracks me up - he´ll start out sitting three chairs away from em and then spend the next five-ten minutes moving closer and closer until he´s holding my hand and laying his head in my lap.
Giermo lives in the barrio. I don´t know the actual name of the street he lives on; the guys call it no-no street because going down it is not a good idea. I haven´t been to his house, but I´m gonna go out on a limb and guess that he lives in a shack, like most everyone else in the barrio. He´s one of nine kids. I´m pretty sure his dad doesn´t work. He seems to just wander around town alot. Whatever, point being, they don´t have enough money to send the kids to school. Giermo can´t read and most likely won´t learn. He´s a smart kid, a good kid. He´s sweet and funny and mischevious and he always jumps at chances to help out. And I can´t help but look at him and think, where are you gonna be in 10 years? Illiterate, jobless, drug addicted? cause that´s what he´s being set up for. You wanna talk about at-risk kids, there´s an at-risk kid for you. And the barrio is full of kids just like him. I wish...I don´t know what I wish. I wish people didn´t have to start life with the odds stacked against them.
´Why do you say, O Jacob
and complain, O Israel,
´My way is hidden from the LORD;
my cause is disregarded by my God´?
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.´
-Isaiah 40: 27-39
also, julie and joe, if you happen to read this, we saw the do-you-want-to-buy-cheese guy today, and it made us miss you!
Posted in A Trip Update by Jessalyn Waddell on 11/27/2009
"Always be joyful. Keep on praying. No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
What is the Lord's will for His followers? To be thankful. No matter the circumstance, we are told to have joy and give thanks. How often we forget that any good thing we have or that happens to us is a blessing from God. Here is a small list of the things I am thankful for right now.
My incredible parents that always support me and love me unconditionally. I would not be where I am in life without them, as well as Haley, Eli and Will, my 3 favorite children in the world.
My sister, Julie, who has always been my best friend, and who I will never get sick of hanging out with.
All my extended family and relatives, every single one of them are a blessing to me in some way.
My church family (CUMC) and friends who supported me through prayer and finances. I would have not been able to come on this trip if it weren't for them. I am so thankful for all of it!
The fact that I never need to worry about what to eat or drink, I have more than I need every single day.
The team I am with-Annie (the girl who provides moral support and comic relief), Ruth (our pillar of sanity who is fun to hang out with when caffinated), and Heather (our crazy, fearless leader with a cool body trick). God knew what He was doing when He placed us together! And since we're on the topic of my community, I'll give thanks for Bekah and Frank, Julie and Joe, Seth and Baker, the Hickerson family J
LAUGHTER! The Holy Spirit gives joy, and He has filled me to overflowing.
Forgiveness. My Creator loved me enough to want to make a huge sacrifice for all the horrible things I do, so that He could have an intimate relationship with me.
The fans in our rooms, we would be very hot without them.
Our health! We are healthy now.
The small, annoying,bugs that are everywhere...actually I´m not so thankful for them...
Lame jokes.
Happy birthday songs at 5:15 in the morning.
The freedom I have only in Jesus...I have never experienced anything like it.
The Lord knew the desires of my heart, and lined His will up with them. He gave me the opportunity to come to Nicaragua.
Posted in A Trip Update by Ruth Daugherty on 11/20/2009
Hey y´all. I come home in 2 1/2 weeks. Hollaaaaa.
So I don´t really think very much about the names of God. I mean, I think they´re cool and all, but I couldn´t tell you many off the top of my head and I don´t know what they all mean. When I first got here, for some reason, the name ´Yahweh´was on my mind alot, but I didn´t know what it meant, and I kept forgetting to look it up. When I finally did, I found out that ´Yahweh´comes from the Hebrew acronym ´yhwh.´They believed that the name of God was so sacred that they couldn´t say or write it; they just wrote ´yhwh´and read it ´The Name.´ The most accurate translation for ´Yahweh´is ´present´or ´in existence.´ Basically, it means ´the God who is.´ In my Bible (NIV), it´s translated LORD in all caps.
So I read all that, and I was like ´eh, ok.´ Good to know, but I didn´t really get anything out of it. I figured it was just random that it popped in my head one day and stayed there for two months. Then. A situation came up where I was really worried about a friend - I was scared that they were falling away from God, and I was going a little bit crazy because I couldn´t stop it. And I was just so sick of things happening that I cannot fix, that I have no power over. So I prayed - alot - and one day as I was praying I used the name Yahweh. And then it just clicked. I guess he opened my eyes, or something. I mean, I´m just some random American kid. I have no idea what I´m doing in life 97% of the time. I can´t control freakin´anything. But. There´s Yahweh. The God who is. You can´t really get around that, you know? You can´t get away from it. He simply is. I don´t even know why, I can´t even put it into words, but there is something so comforting in that. He simply is.
Here´s a semi-random but thoroughly awesome Bible verse for you - ´O Israel, put your hope in the LORD (Yahweh), for with the LORD (Yahweh) is unfailing love, and with him is full redemption.´-Ps. 130:7
So... I hope that made sense. At least I know that my mama is happy because I blogged.
Posted in A Trip Update by Annie Riggs on 11/13/2009
So twice a week we go to this girls home and hang out with
the girls, do homework with them, play games, and jump rope. I'm sure you've
heard all about the place from Ruth and Jessalyn. The home is a place where
girls ages 6 to 15 live because their families aren't fit to take care of them.
They are not orphans but many come from physically abusive or drug addicted
parents. We mainly hang out with four little girls that are 7 and 8. Oh and I
forgot to mention, the home is run by nuns. It is quite a sight. One day, we
walked in to two nuns giving each other pedicures. There is something intimidating
about their white habits (is that what they are called?) and stern faces, but
that generalization was blown to pieces when we saw them picking at each
other's feet.
Last Tuesday we
were playing with the little girls when a nun asked Kayla to help her with
something. She was traveling to Florida to give a presentation to raise money
for the home and wanted help with her English. This nun was 5'1, probably mid
50's and clearly did not speak English. (When she first called Kayla over I
thought she was going to yell at her for her clothes or the way we were
playing.) However, the nun just needed some help, so Kayla spent two hours
going over her presentation and helping her with her pronunciation. She then
asked Kayla and I to return the following night to go over the speech again. We
did, and it was a comical sight. Two teenage gringas wearing t-shirts and
flip-flops correcting a nun. Wow. My favorite part however, was after we
finished helping her, she asked us for our phone number so that we could continue
giving her English lessons after she gets back. She pulled not one but two cell
phones out of her "nun suit" pocket and had us enter our number, I can honestly
say that I never imagined I would be giving my phone number to a middle aged
nun in Nicaragua. Sometimes, I look around and have to ask myself, "Is this
real life?"
Moral of the
story is that learning opportunities present themselves in all shapes and
sizes. Some are more familiar than others, but I have learned to embrace all
these new and different experiences with a joyful heart. Also, I learned that
although most nuns inspire fear -even if you are a head taller than they are-
they're probably just as "plugged in" to the world as I- an eighteen-year-old
American girl- am.
P.S. Sorry it has taken me a while to blog. My apologies, my
deepest apologies.
Posted in A Trip Update by Ruth Daugherty on 11/6/2009
Here´s another blog about the dump. It´s intense enough to warrant 2. Sorry if it comes out kind of scattered and all over the place.
There are two little girls there who have just totally stolen my heart. They´re sisters: Marlene is one year old, and Maria Feli is six. Marlene is precious. She has huge brown eyes and precious moments curls, and she´s still chunky from baby fat. She doesn´t wear diapers, and her clothes are always urine-soaked. Her feet, like Maria Feli´s are so dirt-covered and stained from living barefoot in filth that they´re several shades darker than the rest of her body.
Maria Feli is gorgeous. She has this long brown that´s been highlighted by the sun and malnutrition - it looks fine and soft, but it´s so coated in dirt and filth that it´s crunchy to the touch. She and Marlene are both extremely, extremely shy. We´ve been going to the dump for two months, and I could barely get Maria Feli to meet my eyees, and Marlene would cry every time I tried to hold her. Until this week. This week, we had a breakthrough. Marlene let me hold her for like 20 minutes, and she even smiled at me. When I told Maria Feli goodbye, she gave me a hug. Voluntarily. That´s huge.
On one hand, I am so so excited and happy that they´re finally opening up and letting me love them, but on the other hand, it breaks my heart, because I´ll only see them 3 more times. Then I´m going to leave them in that craphole and go back to my life.
There´s this mall in Managua, the capital city of Nicaragua. It´s big and nice and airconditioned. Most of the stuff in it is imported from the U.S. or Europe, so it´s freakin´ expensive. The people in that mall got money. Half a mile from it, there are people living in plastic houses. An hour´s drive from it, there are two little girls wearing filthy clothes and no shoes living in garbage. I hate that mall. And I hate it with the full knowledge that doing so makes me a hypocrite, because how am I different? My whole country is like that mall. We have so much stuff. And there are people everywhere who have nothing while I chill out in my bubble with my stuff.
I´m not sure I want to spend my life in the States. I don´t know where Jesus wants me. I do know, though, that wherever I end up, I´m called to love peple. I think that´s my life purpose, just to love people. So. We´ll see where that takes me.
I couldn´t decide which verse I liked more, so here´s three.
´But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you.´-Psalm 39:7
´Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.´- Psalm 63: 7-8
´I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirite, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.´-Isaiah 57:15
Posted in A Trip Update by Ruth Daugherty on 10/30/2009
Helloooooo.
On Wednesday mornings, we help a local church cook for a feeding program in the barrio. ´Barrio´means ´neighborhood´, and it´s basically a bunch of shacks built from plastic, scrap metal, whatever. The kids bathe in the cement sinks in the yard, and their clothes are always dirty. You don´t go there alone, or at night, unless you have a Nica with you. The church, Torre Fuerte, cooks a meal on Mondays and Wednesdays for the kids - it´s usually soup and veggies, and it´s most likely the best meal they get.
A couple weeks ago, we were hanging out with a bunch of kids in between cooking and serving the food - that usually involves getting sweet hairdos from the girls, holding babies, and trying to keep up with the boys. This day was a little different for me, though. There was this kid, Manuel, who I think is 8. He´s an intense little person. Usually Heather keeps him busy throwing lemons or feeding goats or something (entertainment Nica style), but that day he kind of latched on to me. Which involved alot of violence. He´d just come up and kick me, or throw rocks, or hit me. I tried being like ´No, Manuel,´but I mean, obviously he knows what he´s doing is wrong - that´s not the issue. ´Turn the other cheek´popped into my head, so I decided to just take it and see what happened. I was just sitting there, and he was standing behind me kicking me in the side (not super hard), and I got this mental picture of me and God. I am so small in comparison to him, and sometimes I fight so hard against him when all he wants is to pull me closer to him. He´s trying to love me, and I am so determined to do what I want that I don´t care that it hurts him.
You know how people say ´you may be the only Jesus that person ever sees´? I am officially determined to show Manuel what Jesus looks like. I´m not gonna lie, sometimes/most of the time he´s pretty hard to love, but so am I.
Anyway. Pray for us.
´This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seend God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.´- 1 John 10-12
The Lord has revealed to me this entire trip the freedom He gives. It is no freedom I never expected to have, or can possibly understand, but it is something I have desired for many years.
God desires to give every single one of us freedom. Not just freedom from the slavery of sin, but freedom from guilt, doubts, fears, accusations. Sometimes we will even doubt our salvation!
Most of us are all too familiar with the extreme feeling of anxiety and fear that can cause us to panic. Whether it is about a situation, a friend, a family member, or even something completely irrational. He wants to give you peace. It is not the kind of peace that can come from any medication, no matter how powerful. It is the peace that we cannot understand, because it surpasses our understanding.
"But if the Holy Spirit controls your mind, there is LIFE and PEACE." Romans 8:6
We need to understand that fear, worry, anxiety, and doubt are all subtle tactics by satan to bring us down and destroy us. Do not believe these lies or fall into this deception!
David said in Psalm 34 "I prayed to the Lord and He answered me, freeing me from all my fears." It says in Psalm 143 that his enemy has chased him, and forces him to live in the darkness, he lost all hope, that he was paralyzed with fear. In Psalm 77 David cries out to God telling him that he can't sleep, he is so distressed he can't even pray. Does this sound familiar?
We first have to identify the lies and deception, and bring it from darkness into the light. Whether that is saying them out loud, writing them down, or talking to a godly friend. Ask the Holy Spirit to be in you and to give you this peace. The battle begins with our thoughts, and for many of us it can become our entire battle. Jesus died that we might not be in bondage to these things at all.
"So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw close to God, and He will close to you." James 4:7
We take those thoughts and make them obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). Replace them with truth. Memorize scripture that relates to that specific thought. When those thoughts come into your mind, immediately pull out the Word of God, pray truth. Get books that have a biblical foundation and spend time reading them. (I highly recommend "Bondage Breakers" or "Victory Over Darkness" by Neil T. Armstrong).
We know that the battle is spiritual, in Ephesians 6:11-12 it says plainly that the battle is not against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rules and authorities of the unseen world, the wicked spirits in the heavenly realms. But God has given us armor for the battle, three of them being the belt of truth, the shield of faith to stop the arrows of the enemy, and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:13-18).
"In this way, God disarmed the evil rules and authorities. He shamed them publically by His victory over them on the cross of Christ." Colossians 2:15
Jesus already died and won this battle for our minds, and the enemy has absolutely no power over us. This is a process, and it takes work and time and practice. There are probably things in your life that will need to be changed, but there is victory only in Christ!
