The morning started with a delicious meal of omelets and fresh fruit, lovingly prepared by our lovely host cooks. Already dressed by the time we got to the table, we were wearing our Sunday clothes, an array of skirts and dresses for the girls and pants for the boys.
Once we were ready to go we hopped on the bus and drove over to the guest house to pick up the students from Hamilton Christian School. Once they were on the bus, we tried our best not to scare the students with our rambunctious behaviour and overly loud singing to popular 80’s songs. Once we arrived at the church we were greeted by fist bumps and an emoji poster with a face mask on. The service started off with loud and fun songs in Spanish. Though we couldn’t understand most of the words, we sang along as best we could. Next followed a warning about Covid19 and then the sermon. We had a translator for the sermon and enjoyed an inspiring sermon about trust and faith that God’s sacrifice is enough to save us if we believe. After the sermon we packed up and hopped back on the bus and this time we didn’t hold back and screamed out the lyrics to fun sing-along songs.
We dropped off the other students at their residence, and made our way back to the Nehemiah Center. We changed out of our church clothes, and into swimsuits. We ate a delicious lunch – chicken, potatoes and cheese, salad, and of course, rice and beans – and then waited for the Hamilton team to arrive with the bus. They got a brief tour, and then we started the long drive to the ocean.
The beach adventure started with pre-ordering food and applying sunscreen for those who burn. After this, multiple students had the misfortune of burning their feet on the sun-baked sand, before our guide told us the trick to making it to the water without burns – wet your feet and then sprint. Many of us were quick to jump into the water, where we were drenched by large waves, while our eyes started to sting from the salt. Others chose to stay dry, with most of the boys renting quads to drive on the beach and others taking horse rides across the sand.
While others were down on the sand, some stayed up underneath our cabana to look at various hand-made jewelry and sunglasses. Many of us also bought popsicles and ice-cream, enjoying a delicious cold snack on hot beautiful day. After a couple more runs down to the ocean to body surf on the waves – during which several people lost their sunglasses in the powerful waves, Kylah and Rachel both found theirs only to loose them once more – it was time for dinner. Dinner was an enjoyable compilation of fish or chicken, rice, fries, and salad just for decoration – as we couldn’t eat the vegetables washed in the normal Nicaraguan water. After finishing dinner, we searched the area to make sure we did not forget anything and got on the bus for the ride back to our temporary home. Exhausted from the beach, lots of us napped.
The evening has thus far been ended like usual. Devotions, reading of yesterdays blog and comments, and a run over of the next day’s schedule. Thrown in was the fun adventure of seeing who had gotten burned, and how badly. Unfortunately, there are some brilliant ones due to the large amount of fair complexions in our group.
We thank you for your continued prayer as tomorrow we figure out what the rest of the week will look like. Things are still up in the air, but we trust that God is working in and among us all, and will do what is best for us, even if we can’t see it ourselves.
Goodnight!
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