Well, I am finally here. My new home is Nueva Vida, which is a church a few kilometers outside of Jinotepe. Our travels started at 5 am on Tuesday at LAX. From there we flew to Miami then Managua, and a yellow school bus ride followed as we arrived at our new home at 11 pm.

Right now we are starting to get out feet wet. Wednesday consisted of a cultural orientation, and at 3 o’clock there was a special church service to welcome “Team Imertion” as the sign read. One of the first cultural differences we learned is that we are now on “Nica time”; if church starts at 3, that is the time people start leaving their houses so it really starts going more around 3:30. The service was absolutely beautiful. It was a time of celebration to welcome all of us here, and I loved being a part of my first Spanish church service.

The rest of our time has consisted of meeting the locals and learning about the community. Yesterday, Thursday, we went to the barrios (the local neighborhoods) to start meeting people. The barrios will be where we will do a lot of our ministry. It was truly a very humbling experience. On our team of 6 people I am one of the people will the most proficient Spanish speaking skills, which isn’t saying much. We walked around and awkwardly started talking to people. Our conversations slowly transgressed from hi, how are you, do you go to school, etc to playing tic-tac-toe, braiding girls’ hair, throwing cockroaches…yes, you did read that correctly. The kids gladly welcomed us into their cockroach fight. I can’t wait to see what comes of our relationships with the families in the barrios.

My biggest prayer right now for my squad (the group of 20 college age kids I am living with) and myself is that we just jump. Even if we make a fool out of ourselves as we butcher Spanish, we bust our butt as we attempt to keep up with 12 year olds on the futbol field, or we spill water all over ourselves as we wash clothes in a washbin, I pray that we jump – just let go as I can easy feel ties holding me. Father, let me and my family be unabashed.          

Here is the center courtyard of Nueva Vida.