Saturday, March 18, 2006

Thoughts from Nicaragua: Day II

It has been a most enjoyable day in Nicaragua. I awoke the first time to my bedmate twitching in his sleep... striking me. The second time to an alarm clock of mysterious origin and several hours later I awoke again to my other roommate wandering about our house in search of the alarm to finally turn it off.
We then dressed and ate breakfast which our host graciously cooked for us. It was a pancake breakfast and they were most satisfying. We then lounged around waiting for our other teammates to get back from contacting the school and/or waking up and meeting us from the other house. We played the guitar and took pictures of the pajaros de abuela. We shot some hoops and kicked the soccer ball when finally we, as a fully assembled team went into Masaya and had lunch at Tip Top, a chicken place. I had Tip Top a la plancha y una coca cola (a grilled chicken breast served with beans, pico de gallo and tortillas). We bought water at the supermarket and then went to tour the local active Volcano.
We strolled through the museum and then drove up to the hiking trails where we walked for about 45 minutes to an hour, seeing the other two volcanoes and the lake. It was quite windy. Hace Ventoso. By then, we were pretty tired and headed back to the church/houses. We travelled the backroads home, behind a golf course on a dirt road, trees providing shade. The steeper part of the road reminded me of the time in Mexico where we struggled to get up a muddy hill with no traction.
When we arrived back, we showered (nothing was rushed the entire day) and first Rachel, Pastor Pablo and I ate dinner, a pasta salad con avocado, chile (not too hot, which impressed Pablo), arroz y frijoles. Church youth group eventually followed where I understood maybe three words in the songs and the congregation was separated by gender. Dan ate cheese puffs to win a shirt. We felt convicted for not knowing our Bibles very well, and we shook a lot of hands, greeted by smiles and blessings.
I sort have checked out then, changing back into my casual clothes and meeting with the team to debrief the day. For the most part, we shared our desire to want to communicate better, how we love the Latin culture with more care-free attitudes, noticing this and that about the culture... We all just feel so blessed to be here, experiencing it all.
I have some expectations, or rather desires, for this trip that I feel are legitimately from God. I want to see how Christ is the Lord of Nicaragua and its people. He told me to just enjoy Him in this culture, in this language despite my incomprehension. The Spirit is not hindered as we are and I want to fully embrace that truth and not fight against my selfishness of preference. I also want to feel comfortable being awkward with the people. I want to stretch myself by trying the more advanced spanish I know. I also want to show the love of Christ through my actions. My words won't be too great, but I want to learn to let my heart lead me.

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