Leaving in the rain makes the sweet goodbye's that much harder

It's raining and I'm about to leave Nicaragua. (In approx. 4 hours that is) What a day. What a day. The last couple days actually. I have been completely blown away and humbled at the same time. I have been here for 5 weeks. Many times questioning why I was here… what my purpose was… confused because I had no distinct role. I feel like most of what I was doing was just having a presence among the people. I had little words to say, not much work to do, I don't know -- I just felt that much of my time here was useless and that I was here because I had nothing else to do at home - better yet because I'm trying to avoid the job process for absolutely as long as possible.

But God had a few things to teach me. First off, I was a part of 3 different team trips which my parents led this summer (2 teams in Nicaragua and one with the jr. high at home). This meant that I had to do the same devotional book each day  with each team. Lucky for me, the theme of the book is Compassion - of which I have no compassion of my own to give. I'm a skeptic and I naturally believe that everyone should suck it up and just deal with their situations. Anyways, one of the root words for compassion means "to be with". God had compassion on us and he chose to be with us. And I was here in Nicaragua with these people, perhaps just to be with them. Just to have a presence among the people even if I didn't have much to say or to offer. Because I have a relationship with God, I carry his light wherever I go - and it's not me, it's him. 

[editor's note: fell asleep, returned to the states and added the rest of this post a month later]

The last week here, since the teams left and we didn't have any ministry arrangements, my sister and I planned to spend the entire week in the pool so that we could return to the states brown and lookin' good... God had other plans. I picked up the mentality of a 13-year-old and was ready to serve myself and go home. Fortunately my parents decided to pull us along as we visited some people last minute and we were able to experience blessing after blessing of which belongs to many more people than myself. Since we were the last ones left from the teams that came down this summer, we had the honor and the privilege of hearing personal testimonies, receiving thank you's, gifts, prayers, and God's blessing that were totally undeserved.

We rode bikes to two families home and were able to minister to the families while seeing God working in their situations. We rode to the dump and shared with a family who prayed over us. Then the workers at the dump joined hands and prayed for us (the first time someone has prayed out loud). Then the entire church came to our house to bring gifts beyond their income level, share how God is working among them, give us blessing as we go back, and pray for us. Then 4 young men ages 18-22 came over and washed our feet (slightly awkward) but absolutely amazing as these 4 young men are the face of the generation in this city and God is training them, ministering to their hearts, and building them up to be the ministers throughout Granada. As all this happened, I thought to myself, a missionary's mind set should be to serve and receive nothing in return. I didn't expect any of that. Nor did I really want that. Pride stabbed me again as I tried to reason with God why I shouldn't be the recipient for these people. 

But that's HOW GOD IS WORKING!!! I felt like Peter when Jesus bent down to wash his feet - "No Lord, don't wash me, I am here to serve you" - but God used his people to teach me and humble me. As Acts 20:35 says,

In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'

I got to be on the receiving end of a blessing that these people received by blessing us. And in that, I received so much more which I cannot keep to myself but must continue to spread to the world - laying myself down so that I am continually spreading the joy of God's presence among the people that they may experience the joy in finding Jesus who brings them back to fellowship with Him.

We said our goodbye's which seemed to go on for hours as the rain poured down that night. It rained - it poured - hard for ten hours straight. It usually doesn't rain for more than an hour at a time. What a special goodbye - to leave showered with blessing and rain as the people hugged and thanked and prayed and poured out their love on us. Completely backwards of anything I expected yet exactly what God wanted for all our sake and ultimately for his sake. To him be the glory for the great things he has done. 

And as Pastor Flores' wife always says, Amen y Amen y Amen.