Missions to Nicaragua: Spring 2009.
This year, our team of 20 went to the new site of Cristo Rey to build a well for the less-than-a-year-old community that had been displaced by the floods in October.
It seems like it's out in the middle of the desert because...it is.
The well we dug was supposed to be about 50ft deep. Just think about a five-story building.
From this...
deeper...
and deeper.
We also built bathroom stalls so that people (especially women) won't have to risk being endangered.
In this community, there are a lot of children as the average households have three or more kids. Our team had an amazing time playing with them.
...or so I hear. "Where is Joanne all this time?" you may ask. Sad to say, I was not able to participate in digging the well or playing with the kids because of my weaksauce knees (I was banned from doing hard labor). I didn't even make a scratch in the well to say that I helped to dig it. But that entire week, this is what I did:
I am pointing at this:
While the majority of the team was out in the hot sun for hours at a time, Danielle and I spent all our time in shacks made out of metal plates and cardboard - in their homes.
...giving eye examinations and passing out reading glasses for free.
Danielle is a grad student in the Berkeley School of Optometry who came to Nic with us for the first time this spring. It was the first time anyone on our team could actively use our specialized skills for God's Kingdom. It was such a blessing to have her on our team, setting aside her own finances to pay for all 300 reading glasses out of her own pocket.
This is what every morning looked like as we drove into Cristo Rey after an hour-long drive: 30 to 40 people waiting for four hours since dawn to get their (and their friends' and family's) eyes checked. When we announced that we were going to hold free clinics, word spread like wildfire.
The first day was a little slow as the both of us were getting used to carrying out the examinations, but by the start of the second day, Danielle and I tag-teamed different stations to check up on over 150 patients by the end of the week.
After four days, we held a revival service. Earlier that day, the team went throughout Cristo Rey, visiting home to home and inviting families to join us for the service and the feast we were to hold - a feast of rice and beans and a HUGE pig that could feed more than plenty.
God had worked through our time and energy spent digging the well, playing with children and holding eye exams to soften the hearts of the people.
It was amazing to see, among the 200 or so men and women and children that came, many who brought their new glasses with them.
People in that community were so hungry for God, a God that pursues them, a God that seeks to love each and every one of them regardless of who they are or what they've done.
Our time in Cristo Rey was short, but not without God leaving a legacy. More than two hundred people were reached out to that week - and more to come with the completion of the well. Your open ears and hearts and hands to my story has made this possible. Thank you for being a part of my life, and I pray that God will continue to bring you and I closer together. :)
I hope to see the completed well this summer (my fourth time to Nicaragua!!) from July 5 to 18. God is continuing to expand His Kingdom in Nicaragua...as well as in the neighboring countries of Honduras and El Salvador. This time, Livingwater Church will be sending a team of four to these countries to scout for new locations to send future teams.
I can't WAIT to see how God will move this summer, how He will move His hand across Central America. :)
If you find it in your heart, please keep our team in your thoughts. Each one of us has to raise $2500 to provide for travel expenses, lodging, food and the like. If you would like to continue to participate in the Writing of this Story financially, you can make a donation on our church website (link below).
http://www.
Please write, "This donation goes toward Joanne Kim's Nicaragua missions" under the "purpose" box at the checkout. (Ask me for the tax deduction code!)
If you have any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to email me at vtodai@gmail.com.
Thank you for reading this and for being such a HUGE part of my life!! Totally unexaggerated! :)
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Below is a copy of my journal entry while I was in Nicaragua. It might not make sense (after all, it was written mainly for my own sake), as it is a more raw account of what happened this spring. But feel free to take a peek into this crazy mind :)
march 22. sunday.
3am. in the plane to el salvador.
i still can't believe that You've brought me to nic again for the third time. wasn't once enough? wasn't twice enough? why a third time?
this might be something i might not understand now, or in a year, or in ten years.
...but in good time, in Your time, You will reveal what You have kept hidden.
in Your time, Your glory will be revealed.
...what a thought. :)
[Isaiah 65: 17-19, 24]
17 Behold, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind.
18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight,
and it's people a joy.
19 I will rejoice over Jerusalem
and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and crying
will be heard in it no more.
24 Before they call I will answer,
while they are still speaking I will hear.
the word of the Lord. :)
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7pm. first day in nic!
jj + tino + pastor cordon. :)
shotguns. after the rigged election in november 2008 that led to an opposition uprising, the political climate has been more and more sensitive and tense.
God, would you move in and beyond the system.
cristo rey. a community of 450 families whose homes have been destroyed by the flood last october. cardboard and metal plates serving as walls of this community deprived of electricity and clean water.
poso = well. posero = welldigger.
queremos ser poseros, Señor.
___________________________________
march 23. monday. second day.
4:30am. no bug bites. PTL!! :)
in silence with Your Word:
In this world you will have trouble.__________________
But take heart! I have overcome the world.
[John 16:33]
All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. [7:10]
10:30pm. WTC, God. WTC. :)
vision ministry. PTL for danielle!! :)
who knew that God would have me be a part of this.
maybe i should change my major. :p
God, would you make the blind see colors.
the drive. you use my weakness to shed light to others.
dinner talk with emily. what God has taught me.
nic sp2008: God has the power to do all he has promised.
nic sum2008: it is time for you to heal.
debrief: [2 Corinthians 12:1-10]
I must go on boasting.
why do bad things happen to good people?
= a thorn in my flesh:
- to keep us humble.
- to make us dependent on Him.
- to demonstrate His grace.
My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. [v.9]
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses. For Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses. [v.10] For when I am weak, then I am strong.
i will hold on to the promises of God:
God will restore to the full what was lost and will bring restoration through me to the ends of the earth.
Where I go, You will go Because You dwell in Your Temple You dwell within me.
nic sp2008: God has the power to do all he has promised.
nic sum2008: it is time for you to heal.
nic sp2009: holding on to the promises of God.
PTL. :)
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march 24. tuesday. third day.
8pm. revival at la iglesia nazarena de tipitapa!!
solo cristo.
did you know that God made a bet on you?
that God believes, trusts in you?
put on the full armor of God, not just the helmet of salvation.
__________________
11pm. panic.
i don't understand. what are you trying to teach me?
today was a hard, hard day.
1) girl who can't hear or speak.
i can't do anything to help her.
total powerlessness. nothing i can do...but to pray.
Do you believe that I could heal?
2) woman who can't walk or bear children.
i don't know what to say.
i don't know what to pray.
Do you believe that I could heal emotional wounds, but not physical ones?
3) pablo - coughing.
this is not what i expected/hoped for.
i wish things could have been different.
Do you believe that I could heal small physical ailments?
4) panic.
i can't control it. i can't do anything.
my body reacts to triggers.
Do you believe that I could heal?
Holding on to the promises of God.
God will restore to the full what was lost and will bring restoration through me to the ends of the earth.
...i'm so tired. what a day.
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march 24. wednesday. fourth day.
1am. WTC. thanks for joey. what a brother. :)
job. suffering. death. two jewels.
if adam and eve never sinned,
there would be no death.
if there was no death,
there would be no resurrection.
if adam and eve never sinned,
we would never have been able to see
the full extent of God's love.
...what a Mighty God we serve.
The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.__________________
1pm. cancer hospital for children.
God, they are so beautiful.
Your eternal life begins when you come in.
Death has been defeated. PTL.
__________________
9pm. debrief.
how do you begin your day?
God doesn't evaluate us in how much we do,
but in how much we rest in Him.
it is God who does everything.
He begins our day for us.
We wake up to a work in progress.
__________________
11:26pm. planting seeds. tomorrow is a BIG day. D-Day.
clinic. checked about 70 people so far.
praise God for danielle. a Godsend. :)
healing. i still don't understand.
teach me. help me understand.
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march 26. thursday. fifth day.
8:30pm. i don't understand the gifts of the Spirit.
but i don't want gifts. i want You.
i'm not satisfied. i want more of You.
i wonder what will happen to that deaf and mute girl.
i don't want to see to believe.
i want to believe. and see.
i didn't touch the well at all. bummer?
i don't want my walk with You to be like others'.
i want my walk with You to be mine.
__________________
10pm. God is just.
God has the best intentions for us.
maybe the girl and her mother didn't visit for them.
maybe it was for me.
You are just. God, You are just.
I don't understand why you do the things the way you do.
...but i trust (help me to trust) that all things are
in the palm of Your hand.
girl who is deaf and mute.
i can't do anything to help her.
total powerlessness. nothing i can do...but to pray.
God has her life in His hands.
He is just, so don't worry.
He will reveal His glory in His timing.
...so trust in His Justice.
...this is the way You speak to me. gloria a Dios.
Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in His life. [John 9:3]___________________________________
march 28. saturday. seventh day.
12:50am. what a long day.
ventarron. kids are growing fast.
talk with june. :)
__________________
1:50am. last day! seventh day.
i give this trip...7/10 --> 8/10
building a solid layer
instead of a spiritual high.
-- stability?
__________________
7:30am. i came to nic expecting to see crazy things.
...but what i needed was not a emotional or spiritual high,
but a layer of solid foundation.
God, what is my next step?
...for Your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a Light unto my path.
__________________
12:30pm. shopping + lake + AWESOME FOOD (thanks charlie!!)
i want to come back.
why? i don't know.
but i want to come back.
__________________
5:30pm. back on the plane.
what a week. i would have never imagined this week to turn out the way it did.
jj. tino. pastor cordon. pastor odel y aholibama.
ventarron. antonia. fatima. ana malana.
cristo rey. bryan. jenny. deaf and mute girl.
may they always be in Your hands.
"God is Just."
how will You reveal your glory at home?
how will You bring nic back to berkeley?
__________________
7:3opm. [Job 12:7-10]
7 But ask the animals,
and they will teach you,
or the birds of the air,
and they will tell you,
8 or speak to the earth,
and it will teach you,
or let the fish of the sea
inform you.
9 Which of these does not know
that the hand of the Lord has done this?
10 In his hand is the life of every creature
and the breath of all mankind.
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march 29. sunday.
12:45pm. back at livingwater.
i traveled 3000 miles to learn that You are just.
where do i go from here?
i feel like i never left.
but something has changed.
__________________
5:30pm. last debrief.
i've learned the most from this trip
after i got back from nic.
PTL. :)
we know that You are doing a good work in us.
we want more.
i want more.
i don't want to settle for less,
but to delve deeper into You.
i give this trip a 10/10. :)
