ggpwn3d #4- Letters from Nicaragua

Just over a month ago, my good friend, Leo (lheaom) sent me stack of 3 envelopes to my temp home in New York. You know you become a true local when you start getting snail mail... (hehe)

Anyway, the 3 letters were from 3 friends in Nicaragua... Rene, Miguel & Edinson. Leo led the Nicaragua team this summer and they had given him the letters to deliver to me. You see, every day since I came back from Nica last summer, I have not stopped thinking, dreaming, remembering about this faraway land that I fell in love with. But even so, these letters reminded me of things that I forgot; about our ministry, about the people, about why I fell in love in the first place.

Our team had an unintentional ministry... during our month-stay, we built a relationship with the older youth group kids. Even when we stopped doing the VBS and English programs in the first half of the month, they would come see us in the late-afternoons, just to become friends and hang out. We ended up teaching them body worships and skits during these hours of free time.

Free time. People think that when you go on missions you should not have "free time" because we should be actively finding ways to serve the missionary and work ourselves as hard as possible. But in Nicaragua, we were the first KCM team there and a lot of things were unorganized at times and unfortunately, we had plenty of free time.

But this GOD, he is funny. Because during those free times is when our team built a deep relationship with this group of 10 kids. It is also when I found myself lying on the tree house with open ears and an open heart; it is when I fell in love with Him.

Now I forgot about this... the idea of having free time for God. When I get too busy and there is a set schedule of activities in my day, it leaves little or no time frame for God to squeeze into my life.

Rene, a 14 year old, was a smart and hardworking boy in my English class. When I taught him to make sentences, he wrote, "I am sad. Why do tears come down my face?" It broke my heart.

But here is something he wrote in his letter, a whole year after we met him:

"...me acuerdo cuando nos enseñaron los dramas que nosotros no entendiamos muy bien pero como ustedes estaban todo el tiempo con nosotros para motivarlos y salir adelante. por eso nosotros nos esforzamos y aprendimos algunos dramas. pero lo mas importante es que ustedes nunca nos dijeron no. siempre nos decian que sí. esta carta la escribo con mucho amor y cariño. como cuando esta alegre un niño que le han dado un regalo muy especial y es que eso son ustedes para mi son un regalo muy especial que Dios me ha dado..."

Translation:
I remember when you guys taught us the skits that none of us understood very well, but you guys were there the entire time with us to motivate us and to do it in front of us. Because of this, we were able to go on and learn those skits. But the most important thing was that you guys never said 'no', but always said we could do it. I write this letter with a lot of love. That joy in the boy is a very special gift that you guys gave to him. That is why, to me, you guys are a very special gift that God gave to me.

There you go. Who knew that NK9 was capable of loving someone? We were the underdog team that had little confidence because we were not drilling our days dedicated to any super ministry v. 10. We felt guilty when we did not have a crazy schedule and felt discouraged that we were not on "missions".

But friends, God´s plan is not always a list of things. He directs his time in our steps and does things that are far greater than what we are able to see. Sometimes, you just have to take time to make time for His time.