Nicaragua

We spent the past 5 days in Nicaragua and it was absolutely fabulous. We packed a lot in, but I learned so much. I love traveling to new places to see God's creativity both in people and in nature. It was so fun to see new cities, new beaches, new people and new food. I've definitely concluded that going to the beach is so good for your soul somewhere deep down. Kate and I went to Nicaragua with two missionary families for fairly cheap (prices are considerably lower than in CR)...plus since we were staying with a family, we rented houses for cheap. It was about an 8 hour bus trip, but wasn't bad except for passing the border. In Granada, we stayed in an absolutely beautiful house. Granada is an old European city, so the architecture and color are beautiful. There are many churches and the people are so friendly. I absolutely loved it. I could definitely see myself living there. We toured the city, visited some church plants, met some great people and ate the best calzone ever.

Kids from the church plant

We were able to drive and see the biggest lake in Central America and look at a local volcano.

Kate, Ellie, Karis and I at Lake Nicaragua

We also went to a town called Masaya, a town considerably poorer, but full of passionate Christians. We went to the market and visited a church there. Kate and I went into this service and absolutely everyone was singing at the top of their lungs. It was so bad! lol I'm not a good singer, so I can say that, but I mean tone deaf. I loved it. I belted it out. Anyway, they start talking about us in there. They said in Spanish that they were thankful for the poor gringos that came even though we didn't understand anything they were saying. lol I raised my hand and let her know, that we actually did understand. slightly embarassing. They apologized. Then they asked for everyone take out their Bibles (which of course we didn't have with us at the moment). EVERY single person turned around to look at us and see if we had brought ours. Now it was my turn to apologize. ugh. Really funny though. On Sunday morning we went to a baptism in Lake Nicaragua. Everyone got in with their clothes on. I really wanted to...but I unknowingly wore a white skirt and thought that would be a bad idea...bummer! We then walked around Granada and took pictures. There are a bunch of churches there, so we took lots of pictures. After that we visited a mission home for girls rescued from sex trafficking. It was awesome. It gave me some great ideas and freshly renewed my desire for working with sexually abused girls.

One of the children in the home :)

I'm really excited about that. On Monday we drove to the beach and had a lot of fun there. There was like no one there and we stayed in a cheap but really nice home. I loved it. Overall, I really just had a blast. There are more pics on facebook, but I put some of my favorites up on here. Well...I need to go to bed, thanks for reading!