The Holy Spirit Was MOVING During Hostel Week

So this past week my team and I stayed at a Hostel in Leon, doing ministry in a new city. It was an awesome week and the Holy Spirit was definitely moving. A lot happened this week so I think I'll just kind of sum up some of the highlights for you:

Day 1:
We started off the morning each of us asking God to give us direction for the day. We spent about a half hour in individual prayer, and writing down any thought that came into our head. Then we came back together and shared our lists of what God put on our hearts that morning. Mine went something like this:
     -beach ball
     -tiki hut
     -surfing
     -the piercing store
     -a little asian girl with a ribbon in her hair
     -the color teal
     -otras cosas tambien
I had at least 3 things in common with the other girls on my team, which was awesome because that shows that God actually speaks to us. 
We started off going to the piercing store because Leigha and I had both written that down. We went in and prayed over the store and instantly felt this darkness covering the store. We prayed over it for about 5-10 minutes and then left to talk about what we were feeling. Leigha had gotten a headache the second we walked into the store, so we prayed that God would take her pain away AND HE DID. Immediately after we finished praying her headache was gone. 
A few of the things that Leigha had on her list were a woman carrying something on her head and that we were supposed to help someone make something today. Once we looked up from praying we saw a woman carrying mysterious Nicaraguan street food on her head talking to a lady at a little food stand. She walked away and we decided to go over to the woman at the stand. We introduced ourselves to her and bought one of her tortilla-like things (which actually turned out to be pretty delicious) and just stayed to talk to her for a little while. Her name is Rosa and she is quite the character. She invited us to her house on Sunday to teach us to make the tortilla things, and we visited her a few times during the week too. 
After we said goodbye to Rosa for the day we went back to a store that we had seen along the way. It was the teal color that God had shown me that morning and it was nautical themed which fit in with the first couple of things on my list. We met a woman named Brenda who worked at the store, and after we talked to her a little bit she invited us to her church on Sunday morning. 
After all of that we still had some more things on our lists to finish up, most of them involving tattoos, so my team found a man that had a tattoo shop in town. All five of my team members got beautiful tattoos, and I was there for some moral support, slash I got to go explore the town and have some good conversation with one of my squad leaders. 
Its hard to look back at all of these things and remember that they all happened that one day.

Saturday:
We went volcano sledding! It was really cool, but also really tough. We get in the truck to go and the tour guide is telling us all about how 12 people have died this year from it and how he's seen so many injuries and how just that day one girl had broke her arm. Needless to say we're freaking out a little bit on the way there, pretty terrified thinking we might die, you know, normal stuff. We have to hike up the volcano in order to be able to sled down it, of course, and I was really excited about that! I've been wanting to hike ever since we got here, this was going to be great! We started hiking and not even ten/fifteen minutes in i start having trouble breathing. I could not take air into my lungs, all i could do was let it out. So here i am trying to climb a volcano, and I cannot breathe at all. AT ALL. I'm hyperventalating and crying from fear and frustration that there is no air in my lungs, and just having an awful time trying to climb up this volcano. It was really, really scary and bad. I have to keep stopping and everyone keeps telling me, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Almost every person who saw me said it, so it kind of became my mantra for climbing the mountain. This is a verse that I've heard a lot in my life. I used to say it when I'd get frustrated practicing piano and for lots of other stuff too in my life. I've always focused on the "I can do all things" part, and not so much on the "Through Christ who strengthens me" part, but God kind of changed my focus that day to the "Through Christ who strengthens me" part. He showed me that I can't even breathe on my own, let alone run my life on my own, or make my plans on my own. He kind of put me in check and told me to quit trying to plan out my future without Him telling me what He wants for me. Quit trying to make my plans and to just wait for Him to reveal His plans for me, because without Him I can't even make air flow correctly in and out of my own lungs.

Sunday:
We went to church with Brenda that morning, and it's probably been one of my favorite experiences in Nicaragua so far. The pastor has such a heart for kids and it's obvious when He is preaching. Plus, the minute we walked into the church we could FEEL Jesus presence. The worship was powerful, the message was powerful, and HIS PRESENCE WAS POWERFUL! The church service was great, and refreshing to find a church that really understands God's love, not just the laws and customs of the church. 
Later we went to Rosa's house, where she was supposed to teach us how to make tortillas but it basically turned into us playing with her puppies, dancing with her, and just talking to her and showing her God's love. 
Sunday was fun. And crazy (mostly because of our transportation situations).

Monday:
We got to go worship on the beach! Super awesome!

Tuesday:
We walked all over town and ended up buying bundles of flowers to hand out to all of the women we could find and tell them that Jesus loves them. It was perfect.
Then that night we went to church again with the same pastor, but in a different home. The church service consisted of the pastor, about six women, a man with a sling on his arm, a man that would pop in and out randomly and cause a commotion each time he came in, and six Gringas(my team). The pastor preached an awesome sermon on healing. I, however, only listened to about half of it, because in the middle of the service my left arm started throbbing. My shoulder got all tensed up and my arm started to go numb and hurt at the same time and I was so confused as to what was going on. Then I remembered the man with the sling and felt like God was calling us to pray for healing over him. So I went up to the pastor after his sermon was over and asked if we could pray for healing for the man, and he said yes so all 13 or so of us started praying over him. Nothing seemed to happen. I was really confused. God just told me we needed to pray for healing and then didn't heal this man. I was a little more than disappointed. 
Next thing I know the pastor is telling us we need to pray for one of the women as well, because she has cancer. So we start to pray for her and almost instantly she falls to the ground and starts convulsing. We pray and sing healing over her for five or ten minutes and when she starts to calm down we help her up. 
Now I don't know for sure if this woman was healed. But I fully believe that she was. God has crazy healing powers, and I have seen them in action, and I believe that she was just one of the many people that God will heal along my journey here. He is good, and His steadfast love endures forever. 

Wednesday:
After a chaotic morning running back and forth all over Leon, we came home. 🙂

Overall, I'd say it was a perfecto semana in Leon.

Thanks again for your prayers and support. Stay tuned so I can tell you about my good friend Ya Ya. Love you guys!