"Chains be broken. Lives be healed."

This past week I have been spending time with the Spring Branch Community Church youth group who arrived on Tuesday. I know I have a heart for youth because I feel so much more energized with this team than with my last, although my last team was really great, too. This week the team has had the opportunity to visit the feeding center in the Hurricane refugee camp, Nueva Vida, take an educational fieldtrip with the kids at the orphanage separating the older kids (who went to visit a former prison) and the younger kids (who went on a boat tour of Managua), to go to a river for the day, and spend time getting to know each other in general.

Hanging out with some friends in Nueva Vida.

Many ORPHANetwork trips do a guys night/girls night out where the boys hang out with the older boys from the orphanage and the girls spend time with the older girls from the orphanage. This gives everyone the opportunity to bond and have a chance to really get to know one another in a smaller group setting. The girls ate dinner at Valenti’s, a pizza place in Managua and went to the circus, and the guys played soccer at a nearby complex and then ate out at a Nicaraguan cuisine buffet. In the beginning of girls night, I always love watching the girls as they get on the bus with us one by one…they look so proud as they are wearing their cutest clothes, hair done up, and favorite accessories on. I love seeing them feel and look so beautiful—ready for a night away from the orphanage.

A couple of days ago I spent the morning sorting donations from Spring Branch with Doña Velena, who is the wife of the orphanage director here at Casa Bernabe and the caretakers at Casa. ORPHANetwork does not budget for clothes for the kids at the orphanage, so what people donate for clothes, is the children’s wardrobe. As I help the ladies separate boys from girls clothing, I am overwhelmed with the love these caretakers have for the kids as I watch them put clothes with tags into a bag labeled “New clothes” that they will save until December when they wrap those clothes up and give them to the kids at Christmas for presents. As we were finished sorting through the supplies people had donated, Dona Velena and I stood back and looked at the closet full of shelves of donations (brand new Youth bibles, several toothbrushes, toothpastes, shampoos, soaps, etc) and as we stood there thanking God, she told me that last month she had prayed for toothpaste, toothbrushes, and necessities such as these, and since that prayer had been answered, she said that they were able to purchase things like new rakes and brooms that the children use to do their chores. I know that many of you donate your clothes, so I tell you this to encourage you as you continue to be blessed, to keep blessing others.

Dirty with coal after the team's work project.

One of the things that we did this week was walk into the nearby community of Veracruz. Whenever I go into Veracruz, I feel like a local celebrity because they all are able to remember my name and from every direction I hear them calling out, “Teresa!” However, I will say that this status came at great price—its all because I was forced into a dancing circle by myself last year and everyone in the community who was there still remembers the event. I am never able to leave without at least 3 people asking me to repeat the performance, “Teresa, baila!” (Teresa, dance!) they say…I decline, politely. J When I told the women in the village I won’t be leaving until the 14^th of August, like the kids in the orphanage, they too respond with huge smiles of surprise. And when I told them my birthday is just 2 days later, their next reaction is to throw me a birthday party with a piñata and all. Their kindness and generosity never surprise me—I wish they could come home with me and teach everyone (including myself) about how to really love others.

Jessica, me, Selena, and Mercedes at a church carnival in Veracruz.

As I am in my third week processing through things here in Nicaragua I have come to realize that I see God here in most places. Yes, there is a lot of darkness—places like La Chureca, nights in Veracruz, in the stories of the kids I have come to know and love, but the pattern I have come to know here, is that in those dark places, Jesus has planted himself there as Light. I see Light in the face of my friend, Claudia, in La Chureca as she tells me (in English), “I am beautiful.” I hear Light every time one of my favorite little girls here at the orphanage, Ana, begins to laugh and giggle like there is no tomorrow. I see Light in the smile of a young child when a “gringo” yells, “Hola!” out the car window, as the child stands in the middle of the street in busy Managua at night begging for money. And I see Light in the lives of my friends here who willingly share their testimonies about how God has changed their lives, completely giving Him the glory.

The people I have encountered here in Nicaragua over the last year and a half have really shown me what an unshakeable faith looks like. Hosea chapter 6 says, “surely as the sun rises, [You] will appear,” and it is so evident these people believe that through the way I watch them live their lives and share their stories. There is a line from a song I love that repeats,

“Chains be broken, lives be healed, eyes be opened, Christ is revealed”

My prayer for the people here is just that. That they may be set free from the chains of poverty, addiction, and anything else that is keeping them in bondage. For lives to be healed through the Holy Spirit, and eyes to be opened to Christ as their Redeemer.