Hello family, friends, and prayer supporters. We have had a wonderful month here in Granada and are finishing up our last week of ministry. We will be flying back to the States on Thursday. We will not have the opportunity to communicate again until we have landed stateside. So, before we leave, we would like to share with you some of the highlights from our last week of ministry:

Today we were able to visit one of the local nursing homes. We had a wonderful time interacting with the patients and helping them with their daily exercises.

Yesterday was our day off. We were able to visit the lagoon (which was created by an imploded volcano). We enjoyed the afternoon swimming in the lagoon, kayaking, and taking a 12-mile bike ride through the muddy Nicaraguan streets. It was quite the adventure!

On Saturday we had a true Nicaraguan experience visiting the local market, learning to barter with the merchants, and seeing all the traditional hand-crafted items.

On Friday we were able to return to the orphanage for girls to spend some more time hanging out with the girls before we had to say goodbye. We have loved building relationships with them, showing them the love of God and just enjoying one another. We were able to laugh and enjoy our last day together dancing to Justin Bieber (yes, he is popular in Nicaragua too!)

On Thursday we returned to the church were we have been doing the feeding program and vacation Bible school. It was wonderful to spend more time with the precious people in the congregation.

     The Lord has blessed our time and ministry here in Granada so much! We have enjoyed the warmth of the Nicaraguan people and are sad to say goodbye. We will look forward to sharing more stories with you once we return home. Thank you for your prayers while we have been here.

Coming into this trip I thought our team was going to be all girls and that it was just going to be a huge mess of emotions. Little did I know that assumtion was not completely true. David is a 17 year old typical teenage guy on the outside, but his heart has something special inside. At first glance he seemed very out of place leading us around town with his bare feet and his tye-dye tshirt. My first thought screamed sketchy since I am a year older than him and my life is basically in his hands. All I needed though was a short amount of time with him to know that he was different than the average 17 year old male. He has a pure passion for missions and sharing the gospel. He was in Nicaragua for a month by himself, meerly because he loves it here and in his words, he doesnt like the attitudes of Americans. He truely loves God. He truely loves to change peoples lives by showing them what it means to just be a friend and to be a light in the darkness. He definately changed my life and the life of my teammates. The kid has the most contageous joy and is sarcastically hilarious and could never fail to put a smile on my face. He proposed to me with a pringle and played card games with us for hours on end. Although his humor does make him special, its the side of him that is on the inside that really makes your heart happy. He is not prideful, but if you look closely you will catch him always reading the Bible, getting so lost in worship that he acts like no one else is around, and praying for you when you need it the most. He has such a servants heart and his attitude is selfless. He heard Gods call on his life and he obeyed. He's holding nothing back and that alone gives me hope and a reason to strive further everyday to obey God's call on my life. I know God put David in my life not only for a friend, but one who I can count on to challenge me in my walk with God and I know he will be walking his out right beside me.

     July 4th was a day of celebration, but not for Americas Independance. 
     Last wednesady my team and myself had the opportunity to go to a nursing home to mingle with the elderly.  Another team that we had previously talked with said all  you really do is "pick up" after the elderly. (When I say "pick up" I do not mean their toys.) Hearing this awesome news, I walked in with little enthusiasm.  Boy, did I make a mistake.
     A teammate of mine, Ms. Mallory Rondeau, had struck up a conversation with two elderly men named Manuel and Fransisco.  I eventually joined the conversation, (or attempted to join, my spanish is mal or bad) which led to both Mallory and myself befriending these two elder gentlemen.  Through we conversation we learned both of the men love to dance. We also learned Fransiscos Birthday is close to Mallorys and my own birthday. (July 11th and 14th) Unfortunatly we would not be in Nicaragua at the time so we decided to celebrate all birthdays early and dance the next time our team visits the nursing home. So we did!
     Monday, our team walked in with all hands on deck.  We began out our morning by leading the ancients in morning exercises.  Which is basically just putting your arms up and down with little leg movement because most of our new friends could not do a whole lot more.  We bonded with them through this process and eventually ended our exercise time with bubbles.  They really like bubbles!  I blew bubbles next to an old lady named Maria.  Her eyes lit up like a kid walking into a candy store when I began making the magical shperes.  Then her eyes grew bigger when I offered her the stick for her to give it a whirl.  Who knew God would show his love through morning exercises and bubble fun!
     Our next activity was a piñata. Yeah! We brought a piñata to a nursing home.  They absolutely loved it!  There was one blind old man and we convinced him to have a turn.  After he had hit the piñata I guided him back to his seat and he smiled in my direction and said that this was the most fun he had had in a while.  Then he proudly proclaimed that I was precious and beautiful and gave me kiss on the cheek.  It opened my eyes to see how much of Gods love was flowing out by just simply having a conversation with them. 
     The piñata party then transformed into a dance party.  Each of us began dancing with any elderly person who could.  They tought us more than we could handle. It was such a fun experiance and afterwards God really showed up.  
     One of the old men that I had mentioned earlier, Fransisco, asked us about our ministry and what we were even doing in Granada.  This led to our oh so awesome translator/padre to witness to him and talk about our relationship with Jesus Christ.  
     For not being to thrilled to even go to the nursing home, it became my favorite ministry so far.  God shows up even when you least expect it! 🙂
    
          -Heather
 

For a while I have not feeling connected with my body or anything. I did not know for sure why so I talked to our translator named Jesse who we call Padre about it. He asked me where my heart was. I gave him that look of what do you mean, where is my heart? It seemed like such a silly question, but then he told me if your heart is not fully with God then what are you doing?
We got into this conversation about how you have to live your life either fully for God or not at all. You can fool people but not God… WOW!
So as I was praying about it a couple hours later I realized I have not really been giving God my all. I may have given Him a couple pieces or most of it but deffinately not ALL of my heart. I just gave it all up, told God to just take my heart all of it. I was tired of feeling that way. When that happened I had such an amazing feeling. It was something that I have not experienced in a long time, and it was so relaxing. It was like a whole bunch of peace had come over me.
Now I am saying everyday, God I give you my all, my heart, mind, soul, just have it all! This trip has let me experience that, and I am so thankful for that. I am thankful for padre as well, taking time out of his day to spend a few minutes helping me while I was in a Spiritual Low.