Who Am I?

Another week of ministry begins tomorrow morning at New Song after our two days off come to a close this evening. I'm excited for the opportunities this coming week is going to bring, and I'm excited to share what's happened over the last few days.


Lately, I've been discovering so much about myself, and about God's plans for me. I'm learning about who I am as an individual, as a teenager, as a student, as a missionary, and most importantly as a Christian and child of God. I've written a little about that in this entry (amongst the stories of sweat, lack of water, and ice cream).


Sunday was one of the most...insane (in a good...and busy way) days I've had in awhile. I had an amazing experience in the morning, which is a little too complicated to explain here, but just know that my life has been changed (for the better) because of it.


Sunday afternoon, the short term team from Ohio, Lisa, and I walked to Chichigalpa to get ice cream. Yasmin and a couple of the other kids tagged along, too. I had cookies 'n cream mixed with Neopolitan (it's amazing), and I got a little cone for Yasmin, too. 10 Cordobas...or 50 cents, so why not? :) The ice cream was great, but it was so, so, so hot. There was so much sweat dripping off of my hair and face and glistening on my arms and legs that I literally looked like I'd just stepped out of the shower. It was disgusting.


After we finished our ice cream, Lisa, Josh, and I took a taxi back to Candelaria so we'd have time to clean up and do sound checks before church. Cleaning up for me consisted of throwing a purple sundress over the tank top and shorts I'd worn to bed the night before and hadn't had a chance to change out of yet, and re-scrunching my already wet with sweat hair. Cute, I know.


Church was great. I sang in the praise band again, and Josh and I played guitar and sang Reign In Us before the sermon. Tommy's sermon was incredible. It included discussion about repentance, forgiveness, transformation, love, and grace. A pretty epic combination.


After church, I spent a lot of time with the Ohio team since they were leaving the next morning. They figured out that saying "nickelmuffin" will cause me to burst out into uncontrollable laughter, so that was...interesting. The background picture on my phone is currently a piece of paper with "nickelmuffin" written on it. There was also a pretty intense game of Ninja Tag, including the ripping of pants (not mine). Awkward. Later on, a few of us went outside to check out the stars since the sky was clear. Although, not as clear as in January, and there are a lot more lights on the New Song property than at the Bloquera, so the stargazing wasn't as good.


The next morning was extremely difficult for me. I have a new appreciation for the kids here. New missionaries come and go all the time. Monday was the first time I've been on that end of the mission field. I've always been the one to leave, not the one staying behind. It was really hard, I have no idea how the kids can handle stuff like that so often.

Later on in the day, though, things got much better. I hung out with Abel, Gato, Ariel, Cristhian, Jovanny, Andres, and Anthony. They definately cheered me up. I ended up walking to the park in Chichigalpa with them that night, too. A seven-year-old boy kept blowing kisses at me. Fun stuff. I was really glad I got to spend some time with them outside of Candelaria. Not only did it cheer me up, but I got an opportunity to better understand who they are as my peers (Abel and Gato are 20, Cristhian is 18, Jovanny is 17, and Ariel, Andres, and Anthony are 15, so they're all around my age), and not just people I'm witnessing to. It can be difficult to find the right balance between being a missionary and being a friend, and both are so important when it comes to being a missionary, especially with junior high, high school, and college aged kids. Even more so when you as the missionary are within that age group yourself. 

One of the youth, Joel, giving me a hug after church.

Since I didn't have a lot of time to form strong relationships with people during the short time I was here in January, this time, I really want to spend time with my peers to better understand who they are, and where they're at in their faith walk. Combining that with my experience as a camp counselor, I'm hoping that it will lay a good foundation in preparing me for my future as a missionary, since I want the majority of my focus to be on youth ministry. I love the excitement and energy that goes a long with working with youth, especially junior high aged kids.

God has given me another fantastic opportunity for tomorrow night. I get to lead the youth service. I did this in January, so it will be my second time writing and leading the service, and I'm crazy excited to do it again. As of right now, I'm leaning towards basing it off of John 15:18 "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you." This is a verse that helped me get through my last year of high school, and that I've found is great to use during devotions at IDW Junior High Week with my campers. It reminds us that Christ has called us and chosen us. He loves us, and while we were still sinners, He loved us so much that He died for us, and just like the world hated Jesus, we experience hate and persecution, too because of our faith. It's not because we're not good enough for this world, and it's not because something's wrong with us, in fact, it's quite the opposite. Because we have been made pure and holy, and because we have been chosen, we are hated. Satan will do whatever he can to isolate us, to make us feel unloved, to tempt people to persecute us, hate us, and turn against us. It's so important to remember that we are chosen and loved children of God. We should cling to Him and to His truth, not the lies and hatred that infect the world we live in. Please pray that the words I speak to the youth tomorrow night will be of God, not of me, and that they strike a chord within the hearts of these amazing kids. The topic will be so easy for them to relate to, as they are at an age where pressure to stray from the path of righteousness is stronger than ever. An age where the popular thing and the right thing are so often polar opposites. I pray that God will work in me and through me to make an impact on them tomorrow night.


All in all, my time here so far has just been wonderful. Coming back to a place where I wasn't even sure if the people I'd formed relationships with would even remember me, and then just getting showered by their excitement at my return, their love, and their joy has been amazing. Christ is doing some amazing things here, and I'm so grateful to be a part of so much of it. Every minute is an incredible experience. From visiting houses, to praying with the locals, and even to just teaching kids the Hustle when they've never even heard "Stayin' Alive" before, I haven't stopped smiling for more than ten seconds at a time.

Teaching the Hustle (I'm in the yellow) to the kids (and some of the Americans!).

Today has been relatively slow. The water has been out since yesterday morning and just came back on this afternoon (it happens often, but usually not for more than a few hours or so), so I finally got to take a shower. It was a good thing, too. I hadn't showered since Monday morning, and Ariel was giving me a bad time about smelling gross (and honestly, I probably did)...especially my hair. Maybe it's time to take those corn rows out? Nope. Too much work to keep my bangs out of my face. :) After lunch, Lisa and I went to the grocery store to buy a few things, and we're going to make chocolate cake tonight (!).

In the midst of this more relaxing day, I've also had some time to read the amazing devotional books from my sponsor, as well as spend a lot of time in prayer, talking with God about His plans for my future. So far, I've found that Uganda will always be in my future in one way or another, but how long I spend there, and the journey along the way is completely undecided right now (I never thought Peru or Nicaragua would be part of that journey, so who knows what else God has in store for me!).


I've been talking a lot with Lisa about her ministry experience. She is an alumni of The World Race, a mission organization that sends teams of young adults between the ages of 21-35 on an 11-month mission trip to 11 (or more) different countries around the world (if you want to know more about it, you can go to http://www.theworldrace.org/). Lisa came to Candelaria while on The World Race, and said that the experience helped her decide where she wanted to be and what she wanted to do. Even though I know I want to spend at least 2 years in Uganda, I want the chance to see the rest of the world in a mission setting, and find out where, what kind, and how much help is needed elsewhere, as well as in Eastern Africa, and I think that The World Race would be a great way to do that. I can feel God working in me and changing my heart and I feel that He has even more plans for me than I originally thought. You think God is going to do something big with your life...He laughs and shows you something epically massive. For example, in the 7th grade, when I first felt the call to be a church worker, I thought I was going to go to Concordia University Saint Paul (which I did), complete the Director of Christian Education program, and end up working with an Iowa District West youth group in a Lutheran Church Missouri Synod congregation. Little did I know that a string of life-changing events beginning with participation in a 30-Hour Famine, would lead me to realize that God has called me to be a missionary in a third-world country. So, I'm going to be prayerfully considering participating in The World Race after I graduate from Concordia. If God is telling me this is a path that He wants me to take, I'd want to do The World Race before I start my 2-year overseas internship to complete my certification as a Director of Christian Outreach in the LCMS, or see if there is any possible way to incoorporate The World Race into my internship (the latter is the more favorable option of the two).


Looks like I've got a lot of thinking, planning, and most importantly, praying to do, for both tomorrow, and a few years down the road, so I'm going to go get on that!


Also, be sure to check out the slideshow at the very, very bottom of the page. Sorry for the lack of pictures so far. My camera was stolen in Leon about a week ago, so all of my pictures are on my cell phone, and it would cost me money to send them from there to a computer since I'm not in the U.S. I'm pretty much stealing other people's pictures off of Facebook. :/


Thanks for reading! God bless your day, and please keep the ministry in your prayers.


Love Always,
-ellie*