I’m home and I’m finding it really hard to describe how I’m feeling. I really miss my Nicaragua family! On Sunday at church I shared a journal entry about our trip and think it about sums it up. Here it is…
Love one another: For love is of God. 1 John 4:7
Love one another: For love is of God. 1 John 4:7
Saturday, May 8th, 2010
It’s Saturday morning and we’re heading home. I thought by now I would feel exhausted and homesick…ready to be going home. I don’t. I miss my family terribly but I feel like I’m leaving a job unfinished and friends behind. There’s still so much left to do. I’m leaving behind the precious children who waited at the gate to get in to the clinic but couldn’t because they didn’t have a ticket and the mother and her child who were seeking care because they were badly beaten. I’m leaving behind the children at “the dump” who dig through trash to find items to recycle so they can fill a large white bag only to make $1.50 per day. I’m leaving behind the mother and her children who walked 3 hours (one way) to the clinic to have her baby girl seen. I’m leaving behind people and a country that need us. It’s devastating! One evening we were all feeling very disheartened, like we couldn’t possible do enough to help these people….Mike encouraged us all to recall the Parable of the Mustard Seed or Semilla de Mostaza as our friends would say.
The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. Matt 13:31-32
I KNOW that the work that we did and the love that we showed the people of Nicaragua are SEEDS THAT WE PLANTED and they will grow! We can not despise the day of small things. This is how the Kingdom grows! It will spread through our efforts, God uses us! This past week he used each of us in a very special way to bless these people and share with them about our Savior.
I know each of us at one point this week was brought to our knees, begging God to help these people. Many of us are wearing a bracelet or piece of jewelry that was made by a Nicaraguan youth from the community of the Managua City Dump, where over 1500 people call home. We purchased the jewelry from an outreach program that helps at-risk youth (mostly those that live in the dump) to re-enroll and remain in school. We wear the bracelet to remind us to pray daily for our Nicaraguan brothers and sisters.
Never having gone on an International Mission Trip before, I didn’t know what to expect. I never imagined I would see what I saw or feel what I feel. Not only has my personal relationship with the Lord been strengthened but I now have a bond that is so unique with 16 amazing people from Celebration Church. This group of people, that I spent a week with on foreign soul, has touched my life forever! As a group, we treated over 400 people in our medical clinic and 150 in our dental clinic. Each of the patients touched our lives and we were able to pray with each one of them.
I want to share 2 stories that reinforced my faith. The first story is about a man named Anjel. We met Anjel in the streets of Granada. We were walking around doing some site seeing on the last day and someone in our group needed change. Our translator, Carlos, began asking people on the street if they knew of anyone that could make change for American Dollars and someone pointed to Anjel. He quickly provided change for us and then we just started talking to him. He asked what we were doing in town and we explained we were there on a mission trip to tell people about Jesus. He said he was trying to understand about Jesus and the personal relationship people have. Anjel was only familiar with a Christian faith where the only way to communicate to God was through another man or a priest. He said that this did not feel right to him and that he wanted to have a personal relationship with Jesus. We asked if we could pray with him and he said, “ Here??...in the street?” We said, “Yes, here…in the street!” We laid our hands on his shoulders and prayed with our new friend, Anjel.
The last story is of my very last patient of the week, who was a 49 year old man. He had on nice clothes and smelled of cologne. I’m thinking, “this man takes good care of himself.” He came in my room, laid down on the table and said he wanted his teeth cleaned. I said, “Abra la boca” or Open your mouth. When he did I could hardly see his teeth they were so covered in calculus. I then learned that he had NEVER had his teeth cleaned in all of his 49 years. I started working on him and an hour later I was done. He stood up and began talking a mile a minute to my translator, Rosa. Rosa looked at me and said, “he wants you to know that he is so thankful for what you have done. He was ashamed to smile until now.”
These are just two of the many stories and memories that I brought home with me from Nicaragua. There are many more stories like the 100 year old lady that showed up at the clinic with a broken arm and no chance for other medical treatment. There’s the story of the Nicaraguan lady that got dressed-up in her best white dress to come and thank us for helping her village and her people. There are the stories of the dogs, cows and horses roaming and grazing the streets of Managua in search of food for their withered bodies. These images are burned in my mind forever…I am forever closer to God…I am forever changed.
My patient table.
It’s Saturday morning and we’re heading home. I thought by now I would feel exhausted and homesick…ready to be going home. I don’t. I miss my family terribly but I feel like I’m leaving a job unfinished and friends behind. There’s still so much left to do. I’m leaving behind the precious children who waited at the gate to get in to the clinic but couldn’t because they didn’t have a ticket and the mother and her child who were seeking care because they were badly beaten. I’m leaving behind the children at “the dump” who dig through trash to find items to recycle so they can fill a large white bag only to make $1.50 per day. I’m leaving behind the mother and her children who walked 3 hours (one way) to the clinic to have her baby girl seen. I’m leaving behind people and a country that need us. It’s devastating! One evening we were all feeling very disheartened, like we couldn’t possible do enough to help these people….Mike encouraged us all to recall the Parable of the Mustard Seed or Semilla de Mostaza as our friends would say.
The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. Matt 13:31-32
I KNOW that the work that we did and the love that we showed the people of Nicaragua are SEEDS THAT WE PLANTED and they will grow! We can not despise the day of small things. This is how the Kingdom grows! It will spread through our efforts, God uses us! This past week he used each of us in a very special way to bless these people and share with them about our Savior.
I know each of us at one point this week was brought to our knees, begging God to help these people. Many of us are wearing a bracelet or piece of jewelry that was made by a Nicaraguan youth from the community of the Managua City Dump, where over 1500 people call home. We purchased the jewelry from an outreach program that helps at-risk youth (mostly those that live in the dump) to re-enroll and remain in school. We wear the bracelet to remind us to pray daily for our Nicaraguan brothers and sisters.
Never having gone on an International Mission Trip before, I didn’t know what to expect. I never imagined I would see what I saw or feel what I feel. Not only has my personal relationship with the Lord been strengthened but I now have a bond that is so unique with 16 amazing people from Celebration Church. This group of people, that I spent a week with on foreign soul, has touched my life forever! As a group, we treated over 400 people in our medical clinic and 150 in our dental clinic. Each of the patients touched our lives and we were able to pray with each one of them.
I want to share 2 stories that reinforced my faith. The first story is about a man named Anjel. We met Anjel in the streets of Granada. We were walking around doing some site seeing on the last day and someone in our group needed change. Our translator, Carlos, began asking people on the street if they knew of anyone that could make change for American Dollars and someone pointed to Anjel. He quickly provided change for us and then we just started talking to him. He asked what we were doing in town and we explained we were there on a mission trip to tell people about Jesus. He said he was trying to understand about Jesus and the personal relationship people have. Anjel was only familiar with a Christian faith where the only way to communicate to God was through another man or a priest. He said that this did not feel right to him and that he wanted to have a personal relationship with Jesus. We asked if we could pray with him and he said, “ Here??...in the street?” We said, “Yes, here…in the street!” We laid our hands on his shoulders and prayed with our new friend, Anjel.
The last story is of my very last patient of the week, who was a 49 year old man. He had on nice clothes and smelled of cologne. I’m thinking, “this man takes good care of himself.” He came in my room, laid down on the table and said he wanted his teeth cleaned. I said, “Abra la boca” or Open your mouth. When he did I could hardly see his teeth they were so covered in calculus. I then learned that he had NEVER had his teeth cleaned in all of his 49 years. I started working on him and an hour later I was done. He stood up and began talking a mile a minute to my translator, Rosa. Rosa looked at me and said, “he wants you to know that he is so thankful for what you have done. He was ashamed to smile until now.”
These are just two of the many stories and memories that I brought home with me from Nicaragua. There are many more stories like the 100 year old lady that showed up at the clinic with a broken arm and no chance for other medical treatment. There’s the story of the Nicaraguan lady that got dressed-up in her best white dress to come and thank us for helping her village and her people. There are the stories of the dogs, cows and horses roaming and grazing the streets of Managua in search of food for their withered bodies. These images are burned in my mind forever…I am forever closer to God…I am forever changed.
My patient table.
The line of people hoping to enter the clinic. They would wait for hours in the hot sun.
We had the opportunity to pray with every patient!
Don't look if you're faint of heart...this was a typical patient, although not at all the worst. But they were all soooo thankful.
If I could have adopted this little girl I would have brought her home with me!
Walking around the village the day before clinic opening we encountered this family
Me and my roomie, Angie!
These women prepared our meals everyday while at the clinic. All they had was a propane tank on a little stove to use and they did wonderful!
So precious! I hope she grows to know and love Jesus!
Mom who walked 3 hours (one way) to have her daughter seen.
100-year old lady with the broken arm.
Dressed her her best white dress to come and tell us Thank you and goodbye.
All their little feet were so dirty.
His little eyes say it all.
In Granada.Cardboard blinders and frail body.
A home in the Managua City Dump. Most homes are made of scrap metal tied together with barbed wire.
Workers in the dump.
Children living in the dump. They were playing ball in the dirty street there.
My last patient! Look at how proud he is of his new smile!
4 comments:
Anne!! This is incredible! I'm so happy you had this amazing opportunity. What a blessing! The pictures are great. This reminds me so much of when I went to Venezuela with a mission team about 6 or 7 years ago. It's such an enlightening experience. It's also very similar to a village in Panama that Jose and I have visited twice. The people that live this way are nothing less than amazing.
Anne, these pictures and stories are amazing! The picture of the boy's eyes, brought me to tears! I'm so glad that you had the opportunity, and listened to the voice of God and went! I'm also glad that you got to take along a camera, to capture some of these incredible images.
Kerri
What an amazing thing you did. Just looking at the pictures makes you thankful for what we have here. I can't imagine what an impact it made experiencing it first hand.
Oh Anne, whata beautiful job you did sharing with us the experience you had there. It truly brought tears to my eyes seeing the people whose lives you have forever touched by your kindness, compassion, and talents. You were definitely the hands and feet of God to people who needed it more than you could have ever imagined
I am so proud to be your friend.
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