It's 5:30am and Bekah is out of town. I strap on my running shoes and head out before the sun fills Granada with heat. I run down my normal route - Calle Santa Lucia to the lake. It's unusually cool as I approach the pier. I look up and there is a man dressed in dirty rags just standing there.
"Stop and talk to him" God says.
"But why? How? I'm not fluent enough to carry on a conversation. And what would I even say to him?" I say back.
"Tell him that I love him."
At this point in the dialog I am well past the man and I tell myself, "Ok if he's there when I run back by I'll stop" and I keep running.
As I continue to run and think about what just happened I am sure that God was speaking to me so I am eager to get back to the man. I approach the spot where I saw him but he is no longer there. I missed my chance to see God at work. Was I supposed to pray for him? Was God going to set him free from some life-controlling addiction or illness? Was he going to speak to me through him? Was he an angel?
I am filled with feelings of conviction. If only I had stopped and been obedient. What was it God was going to do?
I ask God to give me another chance. I promise him that next time I will stop. I will listen instead of doubt. He tells me there will be a next time.
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I'm sitting on a dirty floor at Lenin Fonseca Hospital in Nicaragua trying to prove to boredom that I am stronger than he is with my issue of Conspire, an iPod and journal. I can feel the dozens of eyes as they stare at me and think, "Look at that crazy gringo with his iPod and notebook sitting on that nasty floor. Que loco!". Yet they are all sitting on a bench with nothing. Just sitting there staring blankly at the wall (and the crazy gringo). I've been waiting with Juan for over 3 hours with no sign of a call to see the doctor. A guy just walked by me with a 5 gallon bucket full of dead fish. In a hospital. This place is a zoo. At moments it is a picture of complete and total chaos like when a door opens and people stampede to see who is going to be called next.
I am here with a friend named Juan. I've been here with him 6 or 7 times now trying to have a surgery that he desperately needs. This should-be-easy process is complicated for many reasons. I'll do my best to explain.
First, let's talk about the hospital. This is the hospital in Managua that is free to all Nicaraguans. Sounds great right? But this free hospital is run by people that are not qualified to run a hospital. That's the first problem. The second is the "system" that is in place here. It seems so ridiculous. You are handed a slip of paper from your doctor when you have an appointment. To get back into the hospital you need this piece of paper. The security guard will not let you in the door without it. Once you figure out how to get in you wait. Everyone waits. No sign in. No number system. No snack machines, books, magazines - nothing.
Now let's talk about Juan. Shortly after we got here last August, another crazy couple came down to work with us. Their names are Joe and Julie (Joe is pictured right with Juan). They have some medical training so they started volunteering at the local hospital with another friend of ours - Seth. The three of them met Juan during their visits to the hospital and as they became friends they learned more about his story (you can find Seth's post about Juan here). Juan had surgery 15 years ago to correct his bowed legs. His left leg healed fine but his right leg did not. The doctors put some screws in his leg damaging it further and the leg never fully healed. He also has a bone condition called osteopetrosis (or "stone bone") which means his bones are extremely hard, making it very difficult to operate.
He has had a bone infection for 15 years now. Joe, Julie, the Hickersons and Seth decided they would help Juan get the care he needed so they took him to a better hospital to get a professional opinion and some x-rays. After this, he was all set to go back to the free hospital so he could have the surgery there. Seth continued to go back with Juan only to be re-scheduled or given any number of other excuses just to not operate that day. Seth must have gone to the hospital with Juan 10 times. When it came time for Seth to leave, I offered to take this over for him never having met Juan. In my attempt to let my yes be yes - this is where we are now.
I can't begin to imagine what it's like to live with a bone infection for 15 years. The doctors describe the open sores that expose his bone as "volcanoes". Juan needs a miracle. His entire life has been changed by this. He has never walked like a normal man. There is no doubt that if Juan was born in America he would be walking today. This hospital is Juan's only choice and you could argue that it is the hospital's fault that his leg is in this condition in the first place. I'm looking at him now and he looks terrified at the thought of having to stay here again - scarred with what happened here when he was a boy. He tells me that if I'm not with him, they will not even see him or ignore him all together. Without his "Yankee friends" he says he's hopeless.
Juan makes a very difficult journey to get to the hospital from his home in Tipitapa. The hour long bus ride is very painful and this morning he fell really hard while getting out of the bus in Managua. It took him 10 minutes of sitting down for the pain to subside enough for us to make the 20 minute cab ride to the hospital.
Most of the people I work with here in Granada have difficult circumstances today because of bad decisions they made in the past. This is not the case with Juan. He has never struggled with addiction. He has no self-destructive behaviors or compulsions plaguing his life. In fact, despite his circumstances, he spreads joy everywhere he goes. He talks to everyone and they instantly love him. His joy is contagious, heart-warming and encouraging. He truly is a blessing to know and be around.
So why am I here? I am here because I believe in a God that hears the cry of his people. I believe in a God that wants to heal Juan's leg. I am here because, as my friend Joe Kidd put it, "The Lord has won the war and is much bigger than the stupid Nica system and any of satan's forces working with it!".
It's been a while since our last update and a lot has happened so here we go!
Shortly after arriving, we started a small group (Solo Por Hoy) for people that struggle with addiction. The group has not only blessed me but many people from the community now have a place to come and share their struggles and victories with each other and receive encouragement and prayer. The group has multiplied and now meets 4 times a week! Recently we were lead to implement some of the material from Celebrate Recovery into the program. We sent out an update and within 4 days all the material was purchased! We are putting together a solid curriculum for the leaders to follow long after we leave Nicaragua.
Rebekah had the opportunity to lead a group of 9 high school-aged girls on an Ambassador trip here in Nicaragua. The trip was through the same organization that we work with - Adventures in Missions. Her time began with a week of training to get familiar with the program and then they spent two weeks working in the community in Granada and then two more weeks working at an orphanage (CICRIN) in Ometepe. The girls had a great time and Bekah did an amazing job leading the girls to get the most out of their experience. She just got back yesterday so she is still processing everything (which means waking up at midnight because her brain doesn't shut off while it processes). You can find out more about their time in Ometepe here.
My nephew (Treyson) has been here for the past 6 weeks during his summer break from school. It's been so great for me to have him around all the time and to see his smiling face in the mornings. Lots of Ramen, picos and grama has been consumed and I have seen God work in Treyson's heart during his time here. He was always up for going out and serving the people in the community and never complained. I pray that this summer changes his life forever and that he sees that the world is much bigger than America and that God is working everywhere!
Lastly, my parents have been here for the past week and they felt led to come here and do a Hearts in Hands project for a needy family. When we began to pray about who, we immediately knew it would be Massiel and her family. During the past week, we built a concrete retaining wall along with some concrete steps that lead to her house. We also did some other minor improvements. My dad had the opportunity to give Massiel a Bible (she has never owned one). It's been an amazing week and we have been blessed to have my parents here with us!
Pray for Massiel and her family. Pray that the leaders that God has raised up for Solo Por Hoy to stay strong. Pray for El Puente and the short term teams that are here this summer. Lastly, we are on the homestretch of our time here so please pray that we finish strong and that God would continue to use us and change us. It's been such an amazing year!
As I think back over the past 4 years and I look more intently at events and the result of those events, I am amazed at how everything has come together. Let me trace back some of these events for you:
Down a broken road, Rebekah was led to the same church
We met during a time in our lives when we were finding peace, joy, and ourselves after many years of pain and struggle
We married in March of 2007
9 months later we went to Honduras
10 months later we went Nicaragua
1 month later God told us to move to Nicaragua
Our lives now have purpose and meaning and it is all because of God's work in us
But what we didn't know was that while God was at work in our lives during this time, he was also at work in the life of a single mother of 2 in Nicaragua. After arriving in Nicaragua in August 2009, we met Natalia. Rebekah began to build up a relationship with her and this led her to help Natalia start a sewing business to help her support her family. We decided to film her story and share it with our friends and supporters with the intentions of raising some money to help finance her business. After talking to her further, I was shown how God had woven our paths together. Here are some of the events that led her to where she is now:
God began to show me who I was and how much he loved me
God brought a Christian woman named Brittany into my life and she help me and discipled me
God brought another Christian woman named Annie into my life and she helped me as well and discipled me
And now God has brought another Christian woman named Rebekah into my life and she is helping me start a business and she disciples me as well
My life now has purpose and meaning and it is all because of God's work in me
This left me wondering whether all this has happened by chance or by divine appointment? see below for the answer
As these three lives walked down broken roads seeking their identities, God was working in the midst of their brokenness in order to have those paths cross so that he would be glorified.
