be brave.: #nicabound.

This past week, I got to go visit Managua, Nicaragua aka MY FUTURE HOME.

A few highlights:

-Got to laugh a lot and play with my Nica YL team.
-Visited my first International Schools Young Life club, where there was lots of dancing and singing (including an amazing rendition of "Sweet Home Nicaragua"), games, largest ice cream sundae in a rain gutter (which turned into largest ice cream food fight) and heard a great talk from Pratt about being satisfied in Jesus.
-Saw more of the city, options for places to live, Nica restaurants, ect.
-Hung out with some girls who go to the American Nicaraguan School and are getting to go to work at a Young Life camp this summer in the states for work crew.
-Went to the largest market in Central America...60 blocks worth of everything you could every want. Super hot, super overwhelming and super awesome.
-Attended my first "Campamento Crecimiento" or "Growth Camp" for all the team coordinators and planning teams for the different clubs in Managua (in Spanish) and got to serve on the "equipo de programación" or program team.
-Celebrated my first Nica birthday with basically lots of delicious food and team time all day...ending the day with Strawberry Cheesecake at midnight!

And it was amazing.

It is so cool how at home it already feels there. Before deciding to go on International Staff, I don't think Nicaragua had ever crossed my mind. And now, I can't wait to finally move there and get settled in.

"'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord. 'As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.'" -Isaiah 55:8-9

How true. I have thought on this verse many times in my life, but never have I experienced it more clearly then through the process to get here and my time here.

As humans, we can only see one piece of the puzzle. But the Lord sees the puzzle put together - the whole, beautiful picture of His story for each of us. And it really is so much better then what we think it should be.

His perfect will for us. There is no better place. Because even if that place brings pain, hurt, confusion...we can trust that He is working it out for our good.

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose." -Romans 8:28

Maybe my thinking is naive. Maybe because of where I am in life right now I can see it more clearly. It's so much easier to claim the promises of God when you don't feel that deep, heart wrenching pain that life sometimes brings. But...

"One thing God has spoken, two things I have heard: that you, O God, are strong, and that you, O Lord, are loving." -Psalm 62:11-12a

ALL THAT TO SAY, I am thankful for where the Lord has brought me and where He will take me. Grace and grace and more grace is all He gives me. Eucharisteo.

"For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace." -John 1:16
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