First off, I want to state that not all short term missions people go out of the U.S. Some travel to different States working in inner cities, in poverty stricken mountainous regions, in weather torn communities.
God does not call everyone to missions overseas, just as he has not called everyone to missions in the States.
I am blessed as I get both. I work in my community as a missionary. Yes, I get paid by the entity to work for them, I do not have to raise funds for living expenses. I have daily contact with people who are starving...in body and in their souls. I take this mission very very seriously. My skills that I use at the food pantry are the very same ones that I also use in out of country missions. But since this about my experience outside the US I am going to stick with that.
I take my call to work outside the US very seriously. I go where God leads. When I go I work very hard too. So for a time I am going to Nicaragua, where God has led me to go.
If God were to lead me elsewhere, I will go, most people know my heart well enough to know I would.
I do not use these mission trips as a vacation, a getaway for sanity, or a place to get away from my family.(but I could very well use one of the listed) Everyone knows my life I lead at home, it is very tough at times, and my health problems too. My troubles and health situations will follow me and if they dont I am blessed, if they do well hey I figure I can go anywhere with a case full of meds/remedies and hurt any place in the world or the US, why stay home. I am not exempt from a mission call because I am physically ill.
I know it must be puzzling to some of my friends why I would go to Nicaragua year after year.
When I go, it is a follow up from the previous year on construction projects, how people we have helped are coping since we last saw them and being able to see the many preschool teachers, the school principal, the pastors and the village dr. It is all about relationship!
Because we have established a relationship with the village doctor, the school principal, several at home preschool programs and of course El Ayudante we want to follow up AND help out, bless and learn some more!
In these relationships we have been able to help building a new wing on the clinic and make home visits with the dr. Some of us have been able to work in the clinic also.
Our relationship with El Ayudante we have been able to make relationships with a village school principal where the children from El Ayudante attend school. We helped lay cement in a classroom for floors, painted their library, and other renovation projects at the school. We have left supplies for classrooms and teachers each year we have worked there.
We have also met a half dozen at home neighborhood preschool mom's who've opened their homes and yards up to around 50 children in each of their programs. These moms are homeschooling teachers, they have training in teaching school but are not working in schools at the present, theyve seen the need to the children in their neighborhoods for preschooling. We have aided them in teaching supplies and school supplies for their students.
This year on our agenda, we will be working with El Ayudante, to help in building and furnishing a small home for one of the children's familiy. The Nicaraguan government is closing many of the orpahanges and reorganizing. The Nicaraguan government is closing many of the orpahanges and reorganizing. So children are being moved back into families who do not have homes.
Again this year, we will be visiting families occupying someone elses property, using their electric in order to have somewhere to live and have a family life. In this area we will be walking through a huge field with weeds, sewage and garbage. We will provide them with some food, a Bible, and hygiene items.
We visit local churches and have Bible studies. This is something new that we started doing last year. We find the people of Leon and the surrounding communities receptive of hearing the word.
I want to end this part of my note stating that Leon, Nicaragua to me is not an exotic place, it is out in the middle of nowhere. Leon is not a place I would choose to go to for any kind of vacation.
Once off the plane on Saturday morning we will ride in a team vehicle for 2-3 hours north of Managua, Nicaragua. It is not a rough ride on unpaved roads, we will be in a team bus that can carry 30 people uncomfortably(which we have done before), but 11 team members, 22 checked pieces of luggage and each persons carry on.
I will end what I am saying here with one statement, I now understand that there is destitution in the US. I agree that we need to educate those around us about the destitution here in the US. Who will do it? Who is going to answer this call?
In these relationships we have been able to help building a new wing on the clinic and make home visits with the dr. Some of us have been able to work in the clinic also.
Our relationship with El Ayudante we have been able to make relationships with a village school principal where the children from El Ayudante attend school. We helped lay cement in a classroom for floors, painted their library, and other renovation projects at the school. We have left supplies for classrooms and teachers each year we have worked there.
We have also met a half dozen at home neighborhood preschool mom's who've opened their homes and yards up to around 50 children in each of their programs. These moms are homeschooling teachers, they have training in teaching school but are not working in schools at the present, theyve seen the need to the children in their neighborhoods for preschooling. We have aided them in teaching supplies and school supplies for their students.
This year on our agenda, we will be working with El Ayudante, to help in building and furnishing a small home for one of the children's familiy. The Nicaraguan government is closing many of the orpahanges and reorganizing. The Nicaraguan government is closing many of the orpahanges and reorganizing. So children are being moved back into families who do not have homes.
Again this year, we will be visiting families occupying someone elses property, using their electric in order to have somewhere to live and have a family life. In this area we will be walking through a huge field with weeds, sewage and garbage. We will provide them with some food, a Bible, and hygiene items.
We visit local churches and have Bible studies. This is something new that we started doing last year. We find the people of Leon and the surrounding communities receptive of hearing the word.
I want to end this part of my note stating that Leon, Nicaragua to me is not an exotic place, it is out in the middle of nowhere. Leon is not a place I would choose to go to for any kind of vacation.
Once off the plane on Saturday morning we will ride in a team vehicle for 2-3 hours north of Managua, Nicaragua. It is not a rough ride on unpaved roads, we will be in a team bus that can carry 30 people uncomfortably(which we have done before), but 11 team members, 22 checked pieces of luggage and each persons carry on.
I will end what I am saying here with one statement, I now understand that there is destitution in the US. I agree that we need to educate those around us about the destitution here in the US. Who will do it? Who is going to answer this call?
