"So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor." (1 Peter 5:6.)
This was my first trip to Nicaragua and I was truly inspired and humbled by the people, the members of our team, and by God's grace. It was an honor and blessing to spend 9 days with my brothers and sisters in Christ. God was glorified and this was a very powerful experience for me. The medical clinic saw approximately 500 patients during the week, ages ranging from 1 month to over ninety.
The people of Nicaragua work very hard and therefore suffer from neck and back pain, arthritis of the knee and shoulder and other overuse injuries. The team also saw of variety of other medical problems including colds, urinary tract infections, skin infections, and hypertension. The pharmacy did an amazing job keeping up with the 350-400 prescriptions per day. Cristin Henry and Carrie Ballenger worked tirelessly to get patient vitals and medical information, applying splints, and teaching patients exercises and stretches. Wendy Arnold did an amazing job getting us prepared and with stocking our pharmacy. I can't thank her enough for answering all my questions and helping me throughout this incredible experience. Mary Ezzell was a blessing to us in so many ways. After spending several years in Nicaragua, she is obviously familiar with the people and the language but her physical therapy skills and ability to create medical devices (heel lift for a patient with plantar fasciitis) was awesome.
We were also blessed to work alongside Carlos and Aracelis -- both are Nicaraguan doctors and CFCI staff who were able to help us make appropriate follow-up where needed (6 year-old boy with a brain tumor who needed further care in Managua).
I will never forget our worship and prayer service on Wednesday night, seeing Jonathan Edmonds and Tommy Fowler laying hands on this boy and praying for God to heal him and eradicate his cancer.
I want to also thank our interpreters Melvin and Carolina who helped us in the clinic. Melvin would read verses in Spanish, witnessing to patients, and even spent the night with Jim Mitchell and I as we stayed with a local family. Amy Roe jumped in when she was hurt and helped pray for patients. Wes Cavin did an incredible job, not only leading up to our trip but also during the week (except the 4am wake-up call on Monday, lol). His gifts in organizing and leading were evident. As Tommy Fowler said to me on the flight home, "God showed up!" And, as our brother Fabricio says, "It was Amazing!" Can't wait for the next trip!
– Kyle Cassas, team member
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Five years ago, I read a few chapters from Rick Warren’s “A Purpose Driven Life”. There is only one line from that book that I now recall: “God isn’t all you need until He is all you have”. I never see the evidence of this statement more clearly than I do when I travel to Nicaragua. The faith of Nicaraguans is truly inspiring. It is amazing to hear all of their prayers knowing that God is the only one in their lives who can help them with their issues. When you look at a native, you see the look of dependence on their face. These people are truly blessed. They do not have near the number of distractions that I take for granted every day. They wake up and wonder how they are going to eat that day, if the health of their loved ones will finally improve or even whether or not they will have a wet or dry place to lay their head that night. I rarely have to pray for things along this line. I pray for desires while they pray for needs.
I had the opportunity to work with the children this year (I have done construction the past 2 trips) and I think this was my favorite trip. I could feel the Holy Spirit guiding me the entire time I was in country and I know that he had a purpose for our team there when we were. By the end of the week, the kids were basically climbing all over Amy Roe and me. They could not get enough hugs, face paint, stickers, Pato-Pato-Gringo (Duck-Duck-White Man), football, baseball, or dodge ball. Their favorite thing though, was definitely the two water balloon wars we had towards the end of the week. You would have thought it was Christmas morning!
Twice a day I led bible studies with the children. After one of my stories, I had a little girl who was probably 9 years old come up to me and ask me to pray for her heart and pray that she had truly accepted Christ. She was kind of uncertain of which side of the fence she was on at this point. So I prayed with her for her salvation. The fact that God allowed me to be a part of this little girl’s life for a week and to pray with her was quite a humbling experience, one that I will never forget. I will likely never see that girl again but I know that God had me on this trip for that three-minute interaction with her.
After my first trip to Nicaragua, I remember saying out loud to everyone in the airport “I will never come back to Nicaragua again”. (tell me God doesn’t have a sense of humor). After this experience though, I really didn’t want to leave, a feeling I have not had on previous trips. I really hope that God calls me back there again in the near future.
-Denny Schatzle, team member
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The trip to Nicaragua was humbling and taught me more about true joy, pride, and dependence on Christ than I expected. For years, I have seen pictures and heard stories from past trips, but being there gave me a new awareness of how prideful and autonomous I am. Not only do I depend on our ability to meet needs through our material possessions, but I also depend on my own abilities and comforts.
This was made evident to me by a precious 11-year old girl. She would not let our language differences be a barrier. She continued to reach out to me and others on the trip and through repeating words slowly, use of hand signals and facial expressions, she communicated with us. She desired relationship and communication no matter how hard it would be to establish and she wouldn't give up. Oh how I need this in my life. I need to depend more on Christ to help me beyond my abilities and comfort to create relationships around me.
I was also in awe of how God and God alone could take a group of English speaking women and create a Spanish speaking/writing pharmacy. We each learned dependence on God and partnering with each other in order to complete the task He had put before us. By the end of the week, 459 patients were provided with 1,759 prescriptions to meet their physical needs and praise be to God that 84 of them accepted Christ as their Savior.
-Lee Anne Cavin, team member