Day 36

It was a slow day today at the office.

This morning I had to make sure I was up and ready to go at 7:50am to make sure I was at the office before 8am. Brad had given me the keys and I didn't want Rocío to be waiting outside. Brad didn't come in today because his girlfriend is here for ten days and he wants to hang out with her. So it is just Jessie, Esmir, Rocío, and myself. Esmir has been taking care of Jessie and I and making sure we are getting around fine and bringing us where we need to go. He is really great when it comes to looking out for us.

So I met Rocío at the office and unlocked the door and got everything set up for the day. Jessie and I had been given a task from Dylan yesterday. You see VISEDAL is hosting a virtual 5K to raise money for the scholars. The thing with a virtual 5K is that you register online for $30 or so and then on the scheduled day you can either run 5km, eat 5 cookies, read 5 chapters of a book, do 5 pushups, and so on, you get the idea. Anyways, and then you post a photo of you doing it and post it on social media with their hashtag. I believe it is in October. I am definitely doing it! You also get a shirt sent to you and some other things too for registering! It's really neat! So Dylan had asked us to make videos to help get the word out instead of having just a text for people to read. He asked for three 15 second videos. The first one we filmed for yesterday and today because I wanted to help with at least one video before I leave. It has been really neat to see my idea for the video coming to life. Dylan really liked my idea that I gave so we have been going for it! It has been fun that's for sure! :) I can't wait to share it on my Facebook page for everyone to see and then hopefully to register for it! :) This has definitely been a fun part of my day!

We had one scholar, Kevin Antonio, come this morning and he met with Rocío and then sat down to leaner some english. He is a really bright kid and has so much potential! I pray that he is able to see this and will apply it in his daily life. He stayed with us until noon. He then left when we headed to lunch.

We had lunch on Managua's university campus again. The food is so delicious there. Oh and by the way I had another pupusa for breakfast this morning! I am telling you I need to learn how to make the dishes down here so I can make them back at home! So delicious! :)

After lunch we headed back to Casa and waited and waited and did some more waiting. No kids came this afternoon. It was really disappointing. To be honest I was upset and hurt, I started to think of how much energy and effort I put into coming here and preparing lessons for them and then they don't show up! But I know that the greatest love a person can give is love after being disappointed by the one they love. I claim to love these kids and I questioned myself if even after this sad day if I still loved them and there was no doubt or hesitation! I love these kids! I understand that life happens and things get in the way and so I can't stop loving them. Besides, how could I ever say that I would stop loving someone after they disappointed me when so much of my life I myself have disappointed loved ones and most importantly God. I am not perfect but God's love is and if He can love me in-spite of the disappointment and hurt I cause him, more often than I should, then who am I to stop loving someone because they have disappointed me! My daily prayer is that God give me your heart, so I can love like you love, give me your eyes, so I can see what you see, give me you ears, so I can hear what you here, give me your hands, so I can touch like you touch, and give me your feet, so I can walk like you walk. I love these kids and will love them no matter what!

So we just hung around in the afternoon. Esmir, Rocío, and myself watched movies that Esmir had brought, on one of the laptops. We watched two of them and of course both in spanish! :) It was really fun to hang out with my co-workers and just talk and laugh and enjoy each other's company. I was also able to Skype my mom and sister at work and was able to say hi to a few of my mom's co-workers which it was really great to see them. I also had fun chatting with my mom and sister and just laughing and being girls! It was fun and I miss the old times where my mom, sister, and myself would hang out and do girl things just the three of us and talk about girl things! Well we are grown up and have our own lives but I still want that to happen again and so it shall! :) I love my family!

We left the office to head back to the hostel and Jessie and I had to film one more thing for our video. So we went across the street to the fields and did what we needed to do…no I'm not going to tell you what we did! That would spoil the surprise of what happens in the video! :) So anyways while at the fields there was this statue that had writing on it in spanish about the love of God and the creation of man etc. It was really neat and so beautiful to look at. Every time I think of the goodness of God and His love I am just in awe of Him and get so excited! Also thinking about the power of God to create life so intricately too is just so incredible! :)

The front side of the statue and myself

It is just so great to think about how amazing God is! You know ever since I was born I have been in the church and have known of God and when I was eleven or twelve I began to want to get to know who God really is for myself. My walk with God hasn't been perfect trust me! I have fallen more times than I can even count! But the point isn't that I have fallen so many times it's that I never stayed down I always got back up even though sometimes it wasn't right away. Before coming on this trip, to be honest, my relationship with God wasn't where it should've been. I had hit a rough patch in my walk with God. Since I have been here, my relationship with God has gone back to my first love. I feel as though I am falling in love with God all over again! It is such an amazing feeling! I just want to be in His presence all the time and never want to leave. I think God needed to uproot me out of my comfort zone and out of my regular habits of life to show me how much I need Him and need to rely on Him especially when I have others relying on me. I don't know I just thank God for bringing me back to my first love with Him. You see when you love someone for awhile things can turn into habits and then your actions aren't really out of love but out of a habitual need to fulfill. Sometimes you need to be taken out of your habitual actions so you can love again instead of fulfilling that habitual need. I am just so in love with God, He has touched my heart immensely these past few weeks, especially when the enemy has been attacking left and right with different situations. Throughout this trip I have been brought to my knees crying out to God. I feel that it is those hours, the hours when you are at your lowest or things are coming against you when God begins to bring you to a different level in Him. In order to shoot an arrow it must be drawn back before it can fly forward. Just some food for thought and wanted to be transparent tonight.

Before we headed back to the hostel, a man with his two kids stopped us because his little daughter wanted to know where we were from. She was learning about Orlando, Florida in school and thought maybe we could be from there. I talked with the family for a little bit telling them where I was from and why I am here. It was really neat because I was able to have a conversation with the family in spanish and did fine! I can't tell you how exciting it is to be improving every day! I love languages so much, especially spanish! :) 

I showered and then made myself dinner, my pasta and vegetables stir fry. It was delicious of course! :) I watched a movie and just relaxed and am getting myself organized and semi-packing to head home on sunday. It's crazy how fast the time went by and to think tomorrow is my last work day with the kids makes me sad but it has been a good trip and I have had a great time with the kids and everyone here. :) 

Well I am off to bed, I need to wake up early tomorrow to finish preparing for my last "Girl Talk" session tomorrow! :) 

Until next time, buenas noches