Good-bye Nicaragua

Well here’s our last blog of the trip. Today was a great day! But it was also very sad. We went to church this morning at 9:30 at Centro de Fe and saw our Nicaraguan friends! We all worshiped together. After the service things went a little crazy. We had planned to say our good-bye’s and leave quickly after the service, but we ended up going to a youth bible class at the last minute. Because of this all our good-bye’s were very rushed which was really unfortunate. Many of us felt very strong connections with the Nicaraguan students and found it incredibly difficult to say goodbye. Many tears were shed.

The rest of the day was a great opportunity to wind down and relax while soaking up the salty water as a team, and playing and jumping in the waves. It was great getting to know the culture and the people here in Nicaragua, it was truly an amazing experience, and many memories were made! We will miss Nicaragua very much!

Now that we have reached the end of the trip, I have had many opportunities to reflect on how this experience has impacted myself, the team, and the people we came in contact with. Having been a first time leader I have had my eyes opened to the amazing abilities of 17 and 18 year olds. As a middle school teacher, it is incredibly encouraging to see what my students will one day grow to be. Each and every day I found myself astonished by the depth of faith that some of these students have. The way that many of them can eloquently express their relationship with Christ is inspiring and humbling.

Overall, I was most impacted by the incredible relationships that students developed with the students at Centro de Fe. Throughout the week, the other leaders and I continuously made comments about how quickly our students connected with the Nicaraguans. Our North American hosts expressed the same sentiments. They have helped with many school groups in the past, and they said that they have never seen a group jump right in and develop friendships so quickly. From the very first activity, students were actively engaged in conversations with students their age, despite a language barrier. I was concerned that this level of engagement would not be able to keep up all week, but each day they continued to integrate themselves and soon found that teenagers are the same no matter where you go. It was heart-wrenching to watch some of the goodbyes today, as there were so many tears and long embraces. I still find it hard to believe that in one short week, these kids really came to love each other. Tonight we had our last devotions/debrief together as a group. We did an activity called a “Pow-Wow” where each person had an opportunity to share one “pow” and one “wow” (one negative and one positive from the week). For the past two days we did some very touristy things like zip lining, boating, looking into a volcano and swimming at the ocean, and yet not one single “wow” had anything to do with those things. For every person on this trip, the most meaningful moments were those shared with the people here. I truly believe that our team has come to understand what it means to serve God by loving others. One student said something that will probably stay with me for a very long time. He expressed that even though our plan was to come here and do missions through loving others and helping with development of Christian education, he felt that the people here were the true missionaries and we were the ones learning. He said that he felt that the people here are the ones who really know how to love. They know what it means to welcome you with open arms and to show God’s unconditional love and he hopes that when he arrives back home he will be able to love others more like the people here. To me, that thought is a true testament of what this trip was all about.

 

~Bethany