Junior | UCSD

“What makes Nicaragua special to you?”

It’s a question that I had posed to two Nicaragua STSM alumni during a Q&A session we held at one of our training sessions back in May. Despite having gone to Nicaragua last year, and knowing that I applied with the intent to return this year, I found it hard to articulate why I wanted to go back to this particular country. In fact, I had approached this trip with the mindset that nothing would be special. I’ve been here before. I know the missionaries, the kids, the churches, the ministry. To a certain extent, all of that was true, and yet with each passing day, I only fell deeper in love with the country. So then, what makes Nicaragua special to me? Let me tell you.

1. Nicaragua is special because every day is special.

Something I struggled with was finding any recurring themes God was teaching me because our ministry was incredibly diverse. Our first week was spent doing VBS at KCA, the missionaries’ school, which was like second nature to me. But the week after was a completely different style VBS at La Amancia where we partnered with a short-term team from a church in Michigan. Then we spent the rest of our weeks doing everything from open-air ministry in the city with the jovenes (youth/college group), going on a graduation trip with KCA seniors, and even sleeping at native church leaders’ houses. Every part felt so disjointed and seemed only to increase in difficulty, making it harder to find purpose in what I was doing.

But the Lord provided clarity through the wise words of Nicaraguan ice cream chain store Eskimo, whose tagline reads “cada día es especial” or “every day is special”. I realized that it was actually an extraordinary privilege to be able to do as wide a range of ministry as we did; because every day was a new image of the Lord at work. To me it was a clear picture of God’s particular faithfulness to Nicaragua, having fostered so many ministries, that to have spent ample time with each one would have extended our stay significantly.

I’ve learned to appreciate all ministry as special because the object of our service is an unbelievably deserving God that makes even the hardest of labors seem worth it. Colossians 1:29 says “For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.” Ministry is not always easy, but it is always purposeful, and the very God who gives purpose will give strength.

2. Nicaragua is special because it is loved by a special God.

Partnering with the church from Michigan that second week was a challenge for our KCM team. But I was humbled when, after its conclusion, Missionary Kim told us that she was grateful for that church. Why? Because she loves Nicaragua. All the missionaries we work with live and breathe Nicaragua. Missionary Kim was grateful because, at the end of the day, the Michigan church took care of her people. Missionary Kim’s heart for the Nicaraguans is a direct imitation of God’s heart for His people. Despite all my shortcomings as a servant and partner in ministry, in that moment, I understood that the Lord our Shepherd’s very heart lies with His sheep. My heart for Nicaragua is a mere 2 years old, and small compared to the decades of Missionary Kim and especially so compared to the infinitely deep heart of God. And yet thinking how full of love my tiny, sinful heart still managed to be, I realized just how unfathomable the Lord’s love is. Nicaragua is special to me because every memory of my time spent there serves as a personal reminder of the greatness of God.

I can’t lie and say it was easy to leave. At the end of the day, Nicaragua is a broken country, and my growing heart also brought greater hurt knowing their struggles will continue. But I found solace in the story of Rahab in Joshua 2, in which the Israelite spies she saved gave her a scarlet cord to tie in her window as a sign of promise that no harm would come to her family. My experiences on this trip have been God’s scarlet cord to me, promising my anxious heart that He will continue to care for Nicaragua because He loves them more than I ever could.

As a person who struggled with transitioning back into my “normal” life after missions last year, it seems counterintuitive to write a whole testimony on how wonderful another country is. ​​But the intent of all I say here is not to glorify life there. The underlying focus of my testimony is not of Nicaragua’s greatness, but God’s. Psalm 23 says the Lord makes us lie down in green pastures and leads us beside still waters. As beautiful as Nicaragua is, the pastures and waters David describes here are not a place. They exist anywhere the Lord leads. And as ordinary as my life may seem, and as much as I will miss and treasure Nicaragua, it will forever be the same extraordinary Lord that shepherds my life. And oh what a special truth that is!