It’s our third day here in Nicaragua and it has been fantastic, even through the dirt and sweat. Today we started our day off by going to a special education school. All the kids there had a learning disability in some sort of way. At the school we got to give away toys and candy, all the kids loved seeing us. In the first room we met a boy with down syndrome, he went to almost all the rooms with us and his smile lit up the every room he went in. The room with the deaf kids was one of my favorite rooms because some of our group members knew American Sign Language, which is very similar to the Nicaraguan Sign Language. It was cool to see our group members interacting with the kids first hand with out an interpreter. After we were done signing with those kids we went to a room where the kids learn how to cook and do handy craft work such as making jewelry and piñatas. We had the chance to buy the jewelry and a few piñatas from the kids.
In the afternoon we went to a village and did a vacation bible school and the doctor from Vision Nicaragua did a clinic for people who were sick. At the vacation bible school the kids learned about Noah’s Ark as other people in our team prayed with the adults that were there to see the doctor. After everyone was prayed for and we were all playing with the kids a few of us saw this group of boys age 18-25, we went over and talked to them. At first we were all joking around and having fun taking pictures and video taping each other, but then we started getting serious and talking with them about God and how he has impacted our lives. We asked the large group if they were interested in accepting Christ as their Lord and Savior, the group kept down sizing and people kept getting more and more serious. After a long conversation about the pros and cons of making this life decision four of the boys came to Christ and are now in our family of believers. It wasn’t an easy decision for them though, they were the leaders of their group and will soon be leaders of their village, they were already in with drugs and alcohol and were hesitant about that decision. We had the chance to pray with them a sinner’s prayer and it was so neat to see them change and go on and share with the younger boys about their decision. Them telling the younger generation of boys what they had just done impacted them and seven more boys came to Christ that day.
I didn’t get the chance to pray with the seven boys, but I did get to pray with the four boys and that is what impacted me the most. Seeing God move in their lives and just using us as His tools was neat. I learned that if you follow God’s will and listen to what He has to say He will use us to make a difference because we are following His will and not being selfish. God was already here in Nicaragua, He just let us come here and encourage the Christians that were already here and to show love to those who weren’t.
