Emily's Team in Tipitapa...

Two weeks ago, we had a terrific Saturday at Tipitapa…I’m just now getting time to finish this blog that I had started that night! That was a fun day from beginning to end, in spite of the rain which tried to dampen our spirits! We had the privilege of taking 4 teens (Kari, Eva, Andrea & Abbey) and 3 young women (Emily, Rhonda & Rachel) to Tipitapa with us to minister to the kids at Rayitas de Luz. Most of the girls on this team are members of various Mennonite churches who connected right before coming to Nicaragua to meet their team leader, Emily and a friend of hers from church, Rhonda. They have a full schedule with and we were so excited that they chose to include meeting the kids in Tipitapa as one of their days’ activities.
Our day started out with us dropping some things off at CINAFE before heading over to Huembes market to meet up with the girls. They wanted to get some shopping in first and it was a good location for us to meet them at to go on to Tipitapa. We were able to re-connect with some of our favorite vendors there as we hadn’t seen them for several months and at the same time, we were saddened to learn that Anna, our Christian friend who worked there, had left and no one seemed to know where she had gone. I was glad that I had gotten to pray with her before we had left for the States in March and I know that if we don’t get to see her again here, we will see her again someday in heaven.
Because we could only take 3 of the girls with us in our car, Emily hired Oscar for the day to transport the other 4 in the group. He is one of our Nica friends that we had met through Karen and CINAFE and is a taxi driver. Oscar is a little more expensive than taking a public taxi but he is worth the extra money as he is a safe and honest man and that peace of mind is well worth the additional cordobas.
We arrived at Danelia’s house shortly after 1:00 and stepped in to her small living room to be met by 30 children all packed in like sardines!!! Many of the kids were sharing little plastic chairs and stools that had been borrowed from various friends. After introductions were made and the welcome greeting issued, the kids sang several songs for us and then showed off their English skills. It wasn’t long before the smell of something yummy began to whet everyone’s appetite. We knew that Emily’s team had wanted to pay for lunch for all the kids, so we advanced the money to Danelia last week and she and several of her friends had been cooking over a wood fire since early morning in order to feed all of us some really delicious chicken, vegetables, rice and platanos.
All the kids were so excited and I’m sure it was the combination of having visitors and coupled with the anticipation of also having a great lunch. Plus, it was the 6th birthday of one of the children, a little girl named Wendy. So the mood was definitely celebratory. Danelia asked me to pray so that we could get started on lunch. We were so packed in the living room that we couldn’t even join hands but our hearts were definitely linked together.
I wish there was a way to adequately describe how close the quarters were there. Danelia had set up a cloth covered wooden prep table between the already bulging living area (ultimately holding 30 kids plus 10 adults including Danelia (a number I can’t even imagine ‘tho I was one of the 10) and their unbelievably cramped bedroom. They had moved their small television stand & tv plus one of the regular school tables in to their bedroom which greatly diminished the area of maneuverability in that room, as well.
Arturo was in charge of dispensing the drinks (Rojita – a red, syrupy sweet drink and Orange Fanta) and their neighbor lady, Myrna, was in charge of filling the small paper plates with food. They stood on one side of the table and I stood on the other. Abbey went around to the back of the house to put ice in the cups and then handed them to Arturo to fill. Arturo would hand me two cups at a time and I would then hand them to one of the several girls standing behind me. They would pass them on down the line making sure each child had a drink. We then repeated the “bucket brigade” move with the plates of food. It was so crowded that there was no other way to do it. We could barely turn around to hand the plates to the person behind us. But it was fun, nonetheless, to see the kids’ faces as they received their plates of piled-high food.
By the time everyone had finished their lunch, it had pretty much quit raining. Usually, the ground dries pretty quickly but there had been several days of heavy rains so the ground around Danelia’s house was saturated which created a slippery, mucky mud that would suck your shoes right off your feet. We had, for the briefest of moments, wondered how the team was going to be able to play with the kids with it being so muddy out. Silly us! A little mud never stopped any of these kids and it wasn’t going to do so that day, either.
The girls were amazing and so good-natured about just going along with playing games in the muddy mire. Several of the girls are members of a very conservative branch of the Mennonite church and so they always wear skirts or dresses and head coverings. I was concerned how they would fare with all the mud…they did fine! Their flip-flopped feet and legs were coated with the slimy stuff but it didn’t seem to bother any of them. If laughter was the gauge for a good time, there’s no question that the team and the kids all had a great time!
After about an hour and a half of bubbles, balloons, Frisbee, tag, hide and seek, etc., it was time for us to go. We had another time of prayer and then lots of hugs and some organized picture taking and then loaded up in Oscar’s taxi and our car and we headed back to Managua. If the conversation of the girls in our car was any indication of how good of a time they all had, I think the day was pretty successful in terms of encouragement and intercessory prayer.
There were lots of questions and we had the opportunity to share some of the ways we had been seeing God work. Just being able to share those stories with someone face-to-face is a faith-strengthener in itself. I think we all can sometimes be guilty of forgetting God’s faithfulness and focus instead on the challenges we are facing.
I’ve told you before that this is a very oral society and it is not at all uncommon for stories, directions or explanations to be repeated several times over. This is done to ensure that the teller and the listener are perfectly clear on all points. I used to find that a bit annoying…but now…I can see such great value in doing that. We need to tell and re-tell what Jesus has done for us. We need to be free in repeating how and where we have seen God move. It is of great benefit to those who are listening…but it is also of great benefit to the one who is doing the telling. Remember the hymn, “I Love to Tell the Story”? It’s true…I do.

I love to tell the story
of unseen things above,
of Jesus and his glory,
of Jesus and his love.
I love to tell the story,
because I know 'tis true;
it satisfies my longings
as nothing else can do.

I love to tell the story,
'twill be my theme in glory,
to tell the old, old story
of Jesus and his love.

I love to tell the story;
more wonderful it seems
than all the golden fancies
of all our golden dreams.
I love to tell the story,
it did so much for me;
and that is just the reason
I tell it now to thee.

I love to tell the story;
'tis pleasant to repeat
what seems, each time I tell it,
more wonderfully sweet.
I love to tell the story,
for some have never heard
the message of salvation
from God's own holy Word.

I love to tell the story,
for those who know it best
seem hungering and thirsting
to hear it like the rest.
And when, in scenes of glory,
I sing the new, new song,
'twill be the old, old story
that I have loved so long.