Tuany

Hey everybody! Ashley Jenkins here, writing from the mission center in Nicaragua! Here’s a few of my thoughts about the trip so far.

Friday night when we arrived, I was so exhausted and I didn’t feel well. The flight seemed so long and boring. I was a little anxious about arriving at the airport knowing there would be 15 Nicaraguan youth so excited to see us, but most of our team had  no energy. When we finally arrived, I think all of us had a second wind when we got to hug our Nicaraguan friends.

Although we kind of got thrown into the youth retreat, it turned out to be a good thing because we were able to create relationships with the Nicaraguans right away (I guess being packed in the back of a cattle truck with 30 people forces bonding). This experience allowed me to create friendships more so than last year because we spent so much time with them, whereas last year we got to see them here and there for a few minutes in Bethel. I also think this was a really good opportunity for the Nicaraguan youth to get away and do things they normally don’t get the chance to do. For example, ZIP LINING THROUGH A CANOPY RAINFOREST. This was such an awesome adventure and everyone had so much fun.

Zip Lining

It was also good to grow in our faiths together. Several of the youth really opened up and it was a time of refreshing for all of us. One thing that I thought was so cool was that on Sunday morning, the Nicaraguans sang a song in Spanish and then we Americans followed by singing the same song in English. It’s so cool that we serve and worship the same God in different languages.

Since we’ve been back at the mission center, it has been a time of re-charging and spending time with the people of Bethel. I’m excited for the rest of the trip!

P.S. “tuany” means cool 🙂