I Peed In The Wrong Hole!

I was incredibly blessed with the opportunity to spend last week in Managua, Nicaragua with nine other wonderful people! We partnered with Chosen Children Ministries and set out to share the love of Jesus and the message of the Gospel with hundreds of children and adults throughout the week. We visited several villages where we made house visits, led a short program, and gave shoes to kids. Over the course of the week we were able to give away over 400 pair of shoes! We also visited an orphanage where we gave out shoes to every child who lived there. Another neat thing we did was give away a handful of bicycles to the church planters who are supported and trained by Chosen Children. Bikes are one of the primary modes of transportation for people in Nicaragua, yet they are so expensive. It was a wonderful week of fruitful ministry and I loved working with the staff of Chosen Children. What I loved and respected most about them was that they worked WITH us and not FOR us. Yes, we needed them to translate for us, but they were not just translators hired to speak for us. The staff is trained to work with teams, but is also challenged to see it as their ministry as well. Our program was integrated with CC staff and our team. The staff led in witnessing to the people in the village. It was such a cool picture of the Church unified and working together for one purpose.

Some really funny stories from the week:
1. I REALLY had to potty when we got to one village so I asked where the restroom was. I was told it was in a small outhouse around back. So, when I got "around back" I saw a small little 3 walled area that had 2 buckets in it. Immediately, I thought that this had to be the restroom and I rejoiced because it was so clean and the bucket had obviously been dumped for us! So, I proceed to potty in one of the buckets and convince 3 other people to do the same. Next thing I know, I see another small building like thing behind us. I opened the door and saw the actual squatty. I was mortified when I found out that the place where I pottied was actually the storage place for buckets that people use to get their well water with. Oops!

2. The leader of our trip apparently has this constant desire to lead people to Christ. Yes, I agree, that's a good thing. However, on this trip he would always talk to people at the most awkward/intense times! The 1st time we were in the same village where I made the potty mistake and we were all going around talking to people after the program. Well, it started to rain which made our Nicaraguan leader yell out to us to hurry and get in the van. The village that we were in was all dirt and would easily turn to mud which would lead to us getting stuck. It apparently happens a lot and is no fun to try and get out of. So we are being yelled at to hurry on the van because we have to go, but nobody can find Mark. Pretty much our whole team is yelling as loud as we can to Mark after we see him talking to a few guys in a group. He keeps holding up his finger to indicate he needs a minute but we all keep yelling that we are going to get stuck if he doesn't come. Later we found out that he was praying with someone and they were surrendering their life to Christ. Oops! The 2nd time we were getting ice cream one afternoon and this boy was standing outside watching us through the window. I bought him an ice cream and gave it to him after we left and he was so grateful. Mark and 2 other guys stopped to talk to him and while we were waiting for him a few of us girls decided to take some pictures on the street. Well, the other random guy showed up out of nowhere and started making kissy noises at us. We told him that we were not interested but we tried to start some sort of conversation with him. Hilary was really the only one who could understand him as she knew a little Spanish. Well, as she is talking to him, her mom snaps a photo...sending him into a fit of rage! He began yelling and pointing and getting all up in our personal space and the next thing we know Rosanne (one of our team members who was sitting in the van) is yelling "VAMOOSE, VAMOOSE, AQUI, AQUI!!!" So, we hop in the van, the man tried to steal our water jug out of the van, Rosanne almost slammed his hand in the door closing it, and then the man proceeded to spit on the windshield and yell all kinds of Spanish profanity at us. While all this is going on, Mark and the guys are still witnessing to this kid right beside our van. Finally, after the man left we realized that Rosanne said Vamoose! I think we laughed for about 10 minutes straight. When Mark returned to the van we told him that he was no longer allowed to share the Gospel with anyone unless they were in the van with us!

3. Someone was telling a really neat story on the van and right when they were done Hilary very casually says "Sherwin Williams." I busted out laughing because I thought that Sherwin Williams was code for "Praise the Lord!" I found out that she saw a Sherwin Williams store on the side of the road and was just stating that she saw it. Haha.

And now some pictures!