Sunday, May 22, 2016

Nicaragua: DAY ONE

This morning, I woke up in Nicaragua.

I never thought this day would get here.  Even Friday, as I was packing and shopping and running around with Mom to tie up all the lose ends and finish all the things I’d forgotten about, it hadn’t set in that I left the next morning.  Every day leading up to the trip felt like two or three months before the trip started, even if it was only two or three days.  It’s insane how quickly this trip popped up.

I got to Taellor’s House last night, to my new home for the next three months, and the homesickness set in.  It’s weird to be so far away from my family and to know it’s going to be for so long.  On campus, I was always a quick drive away from my family (or a quick walk over to Dad’s office).  Here, I can’t get hugs from my mom or tell Molly goodnight or go visit Dad in his office at work.

But what I’m learning is that that’s okay.  It’s okay to be homesick and to miss my family, and it’s okay to be nervous about the next three months.  It’s what I do with those feelings that matters.  Am I holding on to the worry and the uncomfortableness and helping them build homes in my life, or am I focusing on looking to Jesus and why He brought me here?  Am I letting my negative feelings sit and fester, or am I talking to Jesus about them and finding my peace in Him?

Peace.  That’s a big word for only five letters.  I still have little idea how to define peace, but God’s been teaching me what it’s not.  Peace is not equivalent to joy or comfort.  It has nothing to do with my circumstances or how I’m feeling at any given moment.  Peace is something that comes only from Jesus.  I’m still working on learning just what that something is, but (at least in my opinion) ruling out what it’s not is a pretty darn good start to allowing God to show me what it is.

Anyways, back on my original train of thought.  I was pretty homesick last night.  But as soon as I pulled myself off of my bed and stepped outside, it was as if all was well.  Simply smelling the Nicaraguan air and feeling the Nicaraguan heat took away so much of my homesickness; I can’t really even describe it.  God really is good, calming my fears and worries and doubts in some of the most unexpected ways.  He’s pretty cool.

Today, I visited the homes in the village where Project H.O.P.E. has been building for the first time.  I’d been to this village once before, but I’d never seen the homes or the work and building PJHOPE was doing there.  It was pretty amazing.  Tomorrow, I’ll get to head to the worksite with the team that’s here now and see them in action.  For the first time, I’ll get to see what the majority of the teams who work with PJHOPE do.  I couldn’t be more excited.

In short, today was an amazing first day in Nicaragua.  I cannot wait to see all that God does in the next three months.  Hopefully, they won’t fly by as quickly as I (sadly) know they will.

Also, I didn’t cry at all on the flights yesterday, so that was awesome.


Okay, well, that’s all for now!  ¡Hasta luego!







No comments:

Post a Comment