Hey everyone! We miss y'all dearly but we had an amazing week here in Nicaragua.
This week, Ryan and I were able to attend all of our classes for Spanish and even added an extra hour on Wednesday to try and catch up a little bit. We had a good week at tutoring/teaching as well. We only went on Monday but it was a great day.
We FINALLY got to return to San Juan de Limay. The devil has been keeping us from going since June between sickness, flooding, and travel. We left early this morning and made it to service. We helped with the children's ministry today and then I also got to help prepare and deliver communion to the congregation.
Serving communion is a very humbling experience in my opinion. Usually we sit in our pew and do our own thing but today I was able to watch as people received the resemblance of God's body and blood given to us. For some reason it hits differently here in Nicaragua. When watching the faces of the people after giving them communion, they show their repentance and gratefulness in a genuine manner. Sometimes I feel like at home, communion is just something we do as Christians but today reminded me that it is a time of repentance and receiving that mercy from Jesus Christ. It's a time of thankfulness as well for what Jesus did on that cross so that we could be forgiven. It was a wonderful experience and I hope and wish that one day our country (the U.S.) would learn to better appreciate what the Lord did for us so many years ago.
Anyways...after service we enjoyed a meal with the pastor and his wife. Then we were able to visit three homes of shut-ins (what we call them in the states, people who cannot be at church for some reason or another). There we were able to pray with them for their needs but also to bring The Lord's Supper to them in their homes. Again it was just such a wonderful sight to see.
On our way home, we were able to talk to the big kids (Hannah and Josiah) about what communion is and what it means as well. They were in the children's Bible study and didn't get to partake. They are growing and maturing daily in their walk with Christ. We started doing a daily Bible study with them before school starts or in the evening several months ago but it is really showing that God is molding them daily.
The kids got to talking after that and Josiah was talking about how he thinks that the devil is making him think or have bad behavior sometimes. Then, Hannah said well maybe God is allowing him to do that so that you can learn and grow and remember that God is the one we should turn to when we are having a bad day or want to say or do hurtful things. This was one of the Bible devotions we learned about two weeks ago. This makes our hearts so happy...it also means they are listening even if we think they aren't!!
Sorry for such a long post tonight. It's been a great day! Next weekend we are going to a department in Nicaragua called Rivas. There, we will do some "tourist" activities but also meet with some churches and or church leaders to begin building relationships there.
Thank you for your prayers. Talk soon...sending our prayers and love.
