Fresa

Hey everyone! I know I have not written in a while! I have had such a busy week! Last week, I was sick and did not work at all. I was diagnosed with pharyngitis. It was so different for me to be at home everyday. The first couple days of being at home, I seriously laid around and rested. By Thursday, I was able to attend the normal devotion the CFCI group has every week. I arrived late, and was able to listen and pay attention in between the couple episodes of coughing I experienced. We discussed the planning for the next year and I am so excited! I get to work with at least 3 medical brigades next year! People, CONTACT ME, COME ON, HELP THIS COUNTRY OUT, ANY SUPPORT WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED! I have been reading a lot of interesting passages in The Bible and picking up more spanish here. The verses and stories I have been reading have been about following God wholeheartedly, gladly, with your whole spirit, soul, and mind; with your whole life! I am listening to God's plan in my life and I have never been so sure that I am doing what I am called to do! Loving on the people at the clinic daily, and just smiling and waving at every little child that enters the clinic is what I live for! I was reading this passage in Philippians 3 that says "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus...our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." These couple of verses give me such a good feeling about God, how He loves His children and how in the end, we WILL surely be rewarded. I have also been reading about God's grace in a book titled Transforming Grace by Jerry Bridges. If you really want to read a DEEP book, please read this! God's grace is always and forever. The only thing that allows you to receive His grace is to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and you will naturally be given God's grace. I truly believe that you cannot exercise love unless we are experiencing grace. You cannot truly love others unless you are convinced that God's love for you is unconditional, based solely on the excellence of Christ, not on your performance. One of the main reasons I am here on this trip is because of God's grace. He has given me chance after chance and time to renew my mind through His son Jesus Christ. I have failed, sinned, and fallen short of His glory like every other Christian(it is human nature). I always think my sins are much more condemning, but then I remember the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I remember when we ask for forgiveness, our sins are remembered no more. I have been through many different situations where I thought, "I messed up big time", or "God probably hates me". But I am here, in Nicaragua, serving Him! I have been renewed and I feel like a new spirit in Christ! I have turned away from the world and listened to God! Some people have called me crazy, others say they would like to do what I am doing. People, the opportunities are there. You must take the leap of faith. The opportunities are in America! I can see my audience and where they read from and they are ALL from the USA. I know you think, you don't have the time, the money, or desire to do the same thing I am doing; but let me tell you how lucky you are to be in America (sitting in an air conditioned house, with running "clean" water, and food probably spoiling in the refrigerator). These blessings can be demonstrated as a curse by some Americans who exercise their rights to the point of exhaustion of their self, and make the rest of the world, look homeless. Homeless people in America have it luxurious compared to the average Nicaraguan here. The average earning a day is $2.00. I am blessed to be from America. You are probably wondering what the title of this blog post means. It actually means Strawberry, but here it is referred to people who have a "lot", usually Americans who match everything they have, or have things that are unnecessary. I am referred to as "fresa"(not an insult). I have either pink or zebra things and it is one thing I get made fun of on a weekly basis. I was discussing this with my mom today and she said "I don't know if we should take is as a blessing or a bad thing". I totally agree with her in the aspect that if we have things that aren't used, and would be used daily here, it's a bad thing, and that it is a blessing because we are answers to some people's prayers here. I realized how many things I do not need since being on this trip and will probably leave most, if not all those unnecessary things behind when I come back. This trip has allowed me to see more of my life unfolding right before my eyes. I desire and so badly want to live with people who aren't born in America and given freedom, but who grow up in countries where their life is worth being impacted by mine. I desire to learn about peoples hearts who live in areas where I would never think would exist in this world. I desire to especially reach out to women and help those who are hurting from physical, sexual, and verbal abuse daily. My soul desires to lift up those kind of women and just hold them with the love God has given me. Show them His grace and His love, and lead them to the best life ever; Christ driven. My verse for this week is "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will" Romans 12:2. It has really made me think of how awesome it is to be here and experience all that I have thus far. This week in the clinic, it was a very busy week. We had one lady that came in Monday, who had an infection on her foot that was so bad, skin was being peeled off by the doctor who cleaned it and the wound was then opened and bleeding and pus and white eroded skin covered the rest of her foot. The next day, the ambulance came to pick her up and rush her to the hospital. I think she probably had diabetes and didn't think to take care of it until now. It looked like it might end up as an amputation. Yesterday a man came into the clinic with a blood sugar of 380. He had all other normal vital signs, and a normal EKG. We had to hook him up to an IV and NS 0.9%. I laid my hand on him, prayed for him for about 5 minutes and 15 minutes later, he was up walking around and praise God! I had to give about 10 injections yesterday and clean a little girls wound on her inner thigh from a rusty park bench. I had a pretty eventful week after not being in the clinic for a week. I also went to Granada with my family this past weekend. We went on a tour of 30 little islands. There is a hotel on one island and it costs $200 for 24 hours (yes, American dollars). It is ridiculous! There is AC, cable, and internet. But there is nothing else on this island. No food, you must take a boat to reach anything else you might need besides a bed. And I am saying this meaning, you don't need AC, cable, and internet to survive. Those are just luxuries. I had a great day and ate the typical food from there that is shown below, on the huge leaf! It is a very touristy town and was the first place the Spaniards founded when they arrived in Central America. Thank you all for supporting me and keeping me in your prayers, I feel so blessed and loved! Keep up prayers for more money to come into support our base here in Nicaragua, for the man I mentioned who wants to go to college and my church I attend here to reach their goal to buy the property of their church. Thank you all!