Abre Mis Ojos O Cristo!

  • Apr 5, 2011

Our 2011 Nicaragua Mission with the 2PC College Ministry was an experience of a lifetime.  To capture it in a page is difficult to say the least.  In short, we took a leap of faith.  We prayed, bought some plane tickets, raised some money, and took off.  We came home changed. 

It was “An experience that only God could bring me into, to see that God is of all languages and all cultures and is so beautiful” (Jordan Zigler).  We arrived in Nicaragua on Saturday, March 12.  After a brief orientation with Ann Sharpe, an American working in Nicaragua for Young Life, and a birthday cake for Lee Butler, whose leadership, experience, and faith made our trip possible, we were sent in pairs to stay with a Nicaraguan family in their home.  “The first night we were there the speaker said so many times it takes the Lord taking you out of your comfort zone to really be able to reach you and that was so true. For the first time in a while I was able to put small worries away and truly soak in the love of the Lord. It was beautiful” (Morgan Clay).  We lived for a night with people we could not speak to in the language we understand, people who had very little for themselves, but gave us the best of everything they had.

“I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you.” Acts 3:6 

A long bus ride from Matagalpa brought us to the Vida Joven (Young Life) camp.  The camp is nestled deep in the mountains of northern Nicaragua, on a coffee farm.  The coffee grown there provides a source of finances to maintain the camp, pay for the children to attend, and provides steady jobs and respectable wages for locals.  For the rest of the week we worked, played, and worshipped side by side with the Nicaraguans, rain or shine.   “The people in Nicaragua were radiant for Christ, I feel inspired.  Inspired to love. To love Jesus as deeply as the Nicaraguans and in effect to love those around me well” (Kristin Forsberg).  Every moment was quality time in relationship with each other, seeking and pointing out Jesus in our daily comings and goings, inviting God into the details of our lives, learning and asking the Holy Spirit to help us keep practicing these things when we get home.  “Despite having been twice before, God proved there is always more to learn, more to gain- the biggest lesson God showed me is that here in America, society tells us that we can live life without our faith- that we can do it ourselves- and this trip served to remind me that not only do we need God but that God, not school nor work, is our first priority, day by day” (Taylor Hale).   

The students came home looking and living more like their true identities, in Christ.  And so did we.  We meet with them, they meet with each other, seeking to be In love with and committed to Christ, in love with and committed to each other, desiring and working that others may come to know the One who saves.

“If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”  John 13:17

We cannot thank you all enough for your prayers, your support, and your love towards us for this trip and ministry.  You played an integral role in getting us there and back, and the work that Christ did, is doing, and will do in the wake of our 2011 Nicaragua Mission.  Don’t stop praying.  We’ll be heading back soon.