Hailey Lim

This summer, God gave me the opportunity to go to Nicaragua for missions, and what a blessing it is to join God in His work! God revealed He is who He says: the one mighty, good, and loving God of all nations. I decided to apply for Kristos Campus Missions’s (KCM) Short-Term Summer Missions (STSM) program after attending the missions event, Kingdom Come. The week leading up to the event, Biola KCM held a prayer night for the students that would apply and the countries that KCM would send teams to. That night, I found myself struggling to find words to pray as I later realized my heart posture was fearful that God may send me. I spent much time in prayer throughout the week and meditated on how God deserves my whole life, including my willingness to do anything and go anywhere for the sake of advancing His kingdom. After attending Kingdom Come, I laid down my fears and planned to apply for STSM as I was reminded that God calls for a heart posture that loves Him whole-heartedly and is ready to serve wherever and whatever way He wills.

The week after I applied to STSM, I learned I had some health issues that could mean I may need to withdraw from the program. Throughout the training process, I could not know for sure if I would actually go to Nicaragua, and I wrestled with trusting His plan. In this frustration, I came to see that I was lacking faith in God’s Sovereignty. By God’s grace, He showed me how He wants to cover me with His love day-by-day as my Heavenly Father and that there is freedom with learning to trust in Him rather than assurance of situations. God taught me that by the spiritual blessings He has already given me of an eternal life and abundant life, He is deserving of all my praise and obedience. By God’s will, I found out I was able to go to Nicaragua, and I could not have been more excited! With all that God had taught me during the months leading up to the trip, my heart was softened to feel the magnitude of the blessing it is to be used by God and join the work He is doing to make His name known in all nations. Once arriving in Nicaragua, I was instantly in awe of how beautiful and active God has been in the country and people and basked in the blessing it is to have more of His glory revealed to me.

Within the first few days of the trip, God taught me how He does not determine if He will use me by my abilities or experience but by my obedience. On our first Sunday at church, I saw my teammates were able to jump in and converse with the locals in Spanish, and I quickly felt unequipped as I had no prior experience learning or practicing the language. Then before service, I got to join the jovenes, the young adults, for their Bible Time as they read through a passage from Scripture and share their insights. As they began, we went around in a circle to each read a verse in Spanish! I became fearful and self-conscious of how I was going to sound and mess up the pronunciations. When it came to my turn, I read the verse aloud while only thinking how I stood out from everyone else in the room. However, I instantly felt rebuked that I had forgotten I was reading God’s Holy Word and that trying to speak their language is a way of meeting the locals where they are at. The circle continued, and I got a second chance to read another verse. Though my pronunciation was no better and I did not know the meaning of the verse at the moment, I was reminded to give my full obedience and effort to God and remember the significance of the Bible as I read the verse aloud. As our trip went on, God continued to show me His love is greater than any language barrier but is manifested and shared through various facets, including letting it be an overflow of receiving His love in my heart.

The God of all nations. During the second week of the trip, our team traveled to the mountainside to do ministry at two church plants, and after the first day of ministry, we split into groups to visit different church members’ houses and pray for them. We got to walk the paths the locals travel to get around and to church including navigating steep hills, rocky areas, and dirt that gets muddy when it rains. Though the living conditions and lifestyles of these local Nicaraguans are largely different from mine–having dirt floors, metal or wooden walls, and some without bathrooms–God revealed to me how the Gospel and His Word are the true sources of life. Where I could easily see the material things they don’t have, their prayer requests were not to change their conditions but were for family, health, peace, or joy. One of the homes that stuck with me was of a young couple, as the man said that he didn’t have any specific prayer request and that his life is good. He seemed happy and content, and I was delighted in how this man may have a very different life than me, yet we both find our joy in the same God and same Gospel. Another local that touched my heart was a woman named Ramona who shared with our group that her father had recently passed and asked if we could pray for peace as she grieves. As grieving a loved one is a significant part of my story in meeting Christ, I was blessed with the opportunity to pray for Ramona and her family. It was a tough pill to swallow that I could not stay with this woman and be with her in this time of mourning and grieving, and I realized I have to believe the words I was praying: that God is the God of comfort, the God of peace, the God of joy. I have to believe that God is not bound to what I know in California, but He is also the God of this woman’s life. God proved to be the God of all nations, and I can’t help but stand in awe.

With the opportunities I got to pray for the locals in Nicaragua, God placed His cares onto my heart to care for their spiritual lives and salvation as well as of my team. To be burdened for others to be rich in faith, I am able to love better with the love of God and delight in others yearning to know God. The same God who covers me with love has been so mighty in loving the people of Nicaragua and drawing their hearts to Him. As I return home, I am reminded that the mighty, loving God of all nations is deserving of my full obedience to seek to live my life missionally: staying focused on God’s Kingdom ministry as the mission field is everywhere.

Psalm 77:13-14 “Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders; you have made known your might among the peoples.