Sunday, June 17, 2012 Esteli, Nicaragua
This morning we planned to leave by 9:20 in order to make it
to the church on time for the 10:00 service.
The reality of it was that we should have left by 9 am, but I’ve found
in other countries folks don’t seem to be so hyper-vigilant about being on
time! As you can imagine, having arrived
around 2 am and leaving by 9:20 am, it was a short night! Actually, I woke up around 4:30 with the
birds singing at the top of their lungs, bless the little buggers! But, breakfast was great – each and every day
we had great food, usually eggs, rice and beans, cereal and some form of fresh
fruit and fruit juice for breakfast. One
day we had omelets, which I particularly enjoyed. I had also made some granola to take along on
the trip, so several times I just ate that for breakfast. Not to get too detailed, but gut issues are
not uncommon when traveling J.
Sunday morning I explored the courtyard near our cabin. The cabins were actually located on both
sides of a dead end road. For the most
part the men were on the side where the open-air dining room was located and
the women across the street. I spied
lime, orange, coconut, and mango trees.
There were some others, too, but I didn’t know what they were
called. A 4-foot parrot was also in the
courtyard, and it was evidently quite talkative through the night based on the
testimonies of those in the adjacent cabin!
We made our group introductions – our name, where we’re
from, what we would be doing for the week – and I decided that I wanted to try
to sit with different people each opportunity so that I could get to know as
many as possible. The ride from Esteli
to Condega, where the church and thus the clinic were located, was about an
hour one-way. The countryside I found to
be absolutely beautiful, with mountains and wooded areas and rivers. There was much less trash present than in
some other countries where I’ve visited.
In several places short stone walls were present, but I’m still unsure
as to their purpose. Nothing was built
within the parameters of these walls, so I doubt that they were for property
marking.
We arrived in Condega later than anticipated, and we had
some trouble finding the church.
Evidently, it had been relocated when they built the new building and
people weren’t sure of the new location.
I can tell you that, somehow or another, over 2,000 people found their
way to the church that week! The song
services were started, and it is always a joy to me to hear familiar tunes to
hymns being sung in another language.
The preaching was in Spanish without interpretation, and with the short
night, warmer temps, and not understanding anything that was said, my greatest
challenge was staying awake. Not sure I
won that battle :}. We milled around
after the services to determine how the clinic would be arranged and then
returned to Esteli to eat fast food chicken at Tip Top. We stopped at one, but it was full, so they
sent us to another one, then we filled it.
There was a stray dog hanging outside the restaurant, and I know
he was happy that we stopped by! I’m sure he’s never eaten so well in his
entire life. Pretty good food,
actually.
When we got back to the hotel it was time to count
meds. We prepackage Tylenol, Ibuprofen
and vitamins in little Ziploc bags so that this doesn’t have to be done during
the week. Antibiotics and such are
packaged on an as-needed basis. All of
us worked for two hours doing this job, so you can imagine just how many we
had, yet we still ran out of Tylenol and vitamins during the week. I think I heard someone say we had 2,000 bags
of each medicine. Praise the Lord, I had
an hour to take a nap, so I was much more alert during the evening
service. This is the commencement of
their rainy season, and boy, did it rain!
The services started about 45” late b/c the rain on the corrugated roof
made it impossible to hear. The little
creek next to the church building turned into a raging torrent! I was also praising the Lord for safety back
to the hotel; b/n the rain, fog, mud and traffic there was plenty of room for
accidents. I sat with a team member that
had been on another trip with MMO earlier this year. I like to ask people their testimony of
salvation when meeting someone for the first time, and this team member got
saved while on his first MMO trip! His
interpreter led him to Christ. Sometimes there are folks who aren’t saved that
participate on these trips because they want to donate their services for a
‘good cause’. An added blessing to this
ministry is that the gospel is presented to everyone, so sometimes it’s
actually the provider that gets saved. I
rejoiced in this testimony as I lay down in bed, and I had no trouble
sleeping.
