Naked Streets

I’m sitting back at “home” listening to salsa music on pandora because I miss Nicaragua.  I’ve put off blogging for so long because I’ve been scared to put words to what the Lord has been doing or to try to see what it is that He did in me, in those kids. Why is forward motion scary sometimes?  Or maybe it is moving on that I’m afraid of.  I’ve been saying goodbyes my whole life, and leaving Nicaragua was no different.  I cried, the kids cried. I believe the Lord did so much more than I know or will ever know through me there and through the people in my life.  My thoughts are so jumbled right now… bear with me as i sort.  

As you know from reading this blog, the Lord spoke a lot through us being there to support the dreams of the youth.  We were able to talk to so many and call out the purpose that the Lord has placed in them and just be there to encourage and pray over them as they begin to walk in that purpose.  As all this was going on with telling the kids that they have purpose, the Lord was speaking sweetly to me that I too was included in that.  Through working with a ministry that is so involved in the community and daily lives of a people, I have seen that this is the type of missions I would love to be involved in.  I was raised as a missionary kid, and for this reason I adapt easily to many cultures, and I love being overseas more than in the US sometimes.  As I was preparing to leave Nica I was sad and afraid that missions might not be something I am actually called to. I wasn’t listening to what the Lord was speaking over my life.  So I took a walk with Him on the beach and told him all my fears and concerns of never coming back to a mission with so much freedom and relationships with the people, and how I really want to do missions, but I’m afraid if He has something different.  And when I got done, He said “I didn’t make you a mission baby for no reason.”  I freaked out and cried, cause that really spoke straight to my heart and all my fears of my purpose in Him were gone!  So that is probably the biggest thing that the Lord did in me, showed me how to move along side Him in a mission and really see lives transformed through relationships and love. And that that time was training for the rest of my life!

The thing that is so hard about leaving is that I got really attached to the youth there, and to the things going on in their lives.  There was a different love that the Lord poured into me for those kids, and I did fall in love, with them, and their families.  I learned a different way to love, it is so pure and so accepting!  Coming back here, I’ve been carrying a sadness.  Sad to leave, sad for the lives that are still hurting, sad to not be comforting them.  And this sadness has begun to touch my relationships here.  I haven’t been leaning on the Lord daily for His abundance of love as I did in Nica, and my relationships with my family haven’t been as full as I know they are meant to be.  I spent time giving the concerns I have for the youth to the Lord, and now I’m really trying to focus on building relationships of love here with my family. I know this is why I’ve come back early before the team, and I know that my experience and love that I learned so much about is going to overflow into my relationships with my family!  

The team has less than a week, so be praying for them and their time finishing up. If you want to see some pics go to harvestequippers.net and click on Nicaragua 2010.   Thank you all my readers..  This is my last real entry. 

~Brianna

Quick recap:  Whit, Meg and I have moved to the New Song base here in Candalaria.  We left a wonderful house and couple in Leon to be closer to the action and avoid the long transit from Leon. 

I really love being out here, it allows us to wake up in the morning and be on the land, seeking the Lord together, HERE. Where we are called to minister.  Also, we never have to skip out on a meeting or service or time of ministry because our house is literally 10 steps from the church building. I am loving the freedom that this time here with just Whit and Meg has given us. The Lord gave me no plan, except that I was going to be focused on relationships.  And believe me, that has been my focus.  It isn’t always easy, though, forming deep friendships with youth a lot younger and still very young in their faith, and with so many hurts in their lives that need healing from the Father.  A lot of the difficulty comes from not being able to fully communicate myself to those I want to, as well as wanting so much to pray with them and see the healing that I know they desire and need.  

Someone who is very special to me here is Conni.  I love that I can actually say that, because it is a testimony of the Lord’s faithfulness.  Before I came here, us girls were prayed for and I got a word that I was going to connect with a girl named Conni.  And I did!  It is a friendship that is taking time, just be in prayer for her, and her relationship with her mom.  

Looking forward:  our team arrives in 3ish days!  And we are all super excited to see them!  Pray for safe travels.  

~Brianna

awaken dreams.

I am so excited to write! (and sorry it’s been a bit, I have been w/o internet..kinda)

Well…The Lord has a stirred up a new joy inside of me! I know I have said it before, but this time I really might just explode.

I will explain, The Lord is awakening dreams here in Nicaragua!
Not just in me but in the hearts of the youth.
Lets just say I have spent a lot of my life helping others chase after their dreams, which is not a bad thing. But I used it has a way to tuck away my own dreams, I didn’t just tuck them I away, I pretty much buried them…

Ever since I set foot here in Candelaria, the Lord has given me so much excitement and joy for his children here. Ask Brianna or meg, its kinda ridiculous. There are a specific few that I have really been overwhelmingly in love with. The Lord has continuously spoken to me about their lives and the plans they have for them. I have invested much of my time here with these kids, encouraging and supporting them in their dreams and just believing in them. Sometimes it is hard here to get the people to step out and say their dreams, because they don’t believe in themselves and once they have said their dreams they feel as though they have set themselves up for automatic failure. The Lord is destroying that lie right now, he is shaking lose dreams in Nicaragua!

and inside of me.

Since I have been here the Lord has used these youth to stir up my passions!!! Ones I didn’t even know I had—which I will write more about later ☺

Just pray with me that Meg, Brianna and I will hear clearly the ways in which we can support dreams! Spiritually, physically practically.

Dreams:
Jovanny: An incredible dancer-He wants to attend school in Managua for dance. Let me tell you, he’s already changing Canderlaria with this gift. He teaches classes three times a week.

Anthony: He wants to be a translator. Anthony can really do anything he sets his mind too, I just love him.

Ariel: He wants to be a dentist! He’s got the smile for it. We are going to try to get him started helping in the clinic while he finishes highschool ☺

Each of these kids wants to use their passions to help the village.

These are just a few of the spoken dreams I have heard since I have been here—The ones that I am committing to supporting for the long run…and helping find other supporters.
I will write more later, Meg and I are heading into Leon (I am living in Candelaria now) to help Linda with the website, brochures etc. and Brianna is going to the University with Tommy and Julio to discuss getting a campus ministry started there!

Yo creo en ti!!!!!!!!!!

-Whitney

P.S I am completely healthy, thanks for all who prayed it was just a 48 hour fever and stomach bug, a really bad stomach bug. But I am healthy and eating!

Disclaimer:  We are COMPLETELY SAFE!

ok…

Wow what a day we had yesterday! So just as a little background info on the situation that is going down in the village/city of Candelaria and Chichigalpa:

Sometime early wednesday morning there was a shootout between some area gangs and the POLICIA.  well the Police ended up killing atleast one gang member. Which then enraged the people of the community so the families and friends and other gang members were enraged so the all began gathering outside the police station, which we witnessed while making a run to the grocery store, and to the bakery. Well apparently the tempers continued to grow and pretty soon an all out riot began in the streets of Chichigalpa (which is the main city that newsong base neighbors) 

meanwhile….

on the Newsong Base Andres and I were playing with the wiggle stick (at-least thats what i call it, it’s one of those skateboard type things but instead of having 4 wheels it only has 2 and you wiggle your feet back and forth to make it go….you know what I’m talking about) well like I said Andres and I were playing with it (and I must say I’m getting pretty good!)  But in a split second while Andres was taking his turn on it he hit a groove in the cement which then catapulted him off of the wiggle stick and straight onto the ground. In an effort to catch himself he naturally put his hands down only to have his right wrist and elbow break under him.  OOOOUCK!  I was standing there watching the whole thing and realized pretty quickly that he was not OK. So we took him the hospital in the nearby city of Chinendega to the emergency room. 

back to the riot situation…

as we were leaving Chichigalpa to go the hosptial the riots were really breaking loose.  We had to go a completely different route to avoid all of the crazy people in the street. We did get close enough to the fires in the streets and the plumes of tear gas rising amongst the hoards of people.  Turns out about the same time some guys in the mobs of people were getting in a fight and one guy was shoot in the back and two other guys were hurt (but I’m not exactly sure where.) I only know this part because as we were sitting in the emergency room in Chinendega the ambulance carrying those men came and they wheeled them past me on stretchers. 

Ok back to the hosptial… 

turns out Andres broke his elbow and wrist on his right arm. He is doing great and in good spirits to have his entire right arm in cast nearly to his shoulder. 

OH yeah and I mentioned something about a party!…

After all of the was over we still had a party!  Yesterday was Kenia’s 19th Birthday…so we helped throw a party for her complete with masquerade mask, cakes, and dancing! Lots of DANCING!  It was a great way to cap of what was a pretty hectic and crazy day.

So I filled you in on all of that, to say this:

please be in prayer for the situation in Chichigalpa and also for sweet Andres. 

It was a pretty epic day…hopefully we will have many more epic days, ,just not anymore quite like this one!

safe and sound, 

Meg

I’ve been in Nicaragua for almost 2 weeks now, but it feels like months.  Honestly, the way the kids here are able to welcome and actually love the new people that come in to help with the mission, it amazes me.  I am so full of love for the youth!  Yesturday was such a special day for one of the youth in particular (and for Meg, Whit and I.) We brought Rosita into Leon to try on the dress we bought her for her Quinceanera, which is this coming Saturday.  (and for those of you unfamiliar with Latin culture, the Quinceanera is a 15th birthday party, but for the young woman it is the biggest celebration ever.  It is almost bigger than her wedding.  Similar to a “sweet sixteen”  But bigger. Much Bigger.)  So because of the importance of this particular age in the culture here, Meg, Whit and I are making a BIG deal about it too!  So we bought her a dress, and were able to have her come get it fitted.  In the store she saw a dress that was even a better fit and required no alteration,  so we just asked for favor on us as we haggled over the price.  And Praise God!  We got the dress for half what they were asking, and it is PERFECT!  (pictures to come, after the party!)   I can’t explain what it made me feel to be able to provide a dress for a 14, almost 15 year-old-girl, who had no idea if she would even have a dress for this quinceanera.  I was so so happy!  The Lord has been so faithful in providing beyond what we could have imagined, so that we are able to make a big deal about a birthday.  Their Daddy just likes showing how much He loves them! So Birthday parties have been a big deal right now!  

On a personal note:  I am doing so good, I’m in love with the people here, and falling more in love with my Jesus.  I’m so thankful that I could come and live here this summer.  Also, I know that the Lord is stirring up things inside me, even though I can’t fully see what is happening, I feel my gifts beginning to surface, I’m learning to walk in who I was created to be.  So thank you to all my financial and prayer supporters, please just continue to pray against the attacks that the enemy has.  Attacks against my joy or energy.  And also for opportunities to go deeper with some of the youth, to get to the heart of the issues in their lives so that they might let Jesus come in and heal those hurts, and ULTIMATELY to know God more!

Love,

Brianna

First off, I love our home with sandra and Preston here in Leon, its beautiful! Its just good to have a place that feels so much like home :) such a blessing!

Since we have been here so much has happened. Meg, Brianna and I go out to Candelaria every day with Tommy and Linda and spend the day there with the kids. Linda has got a lot of stuff going on here already, so it was good the Lord told us not to plan anything, cause we have just jumped on board with all the incredible stuff thats currently going on. Lindas got Me and Meg working on PR and advertising for the new stuff at the base, including the clinic! which now is open and running for the public with Doctors! -Yesterday Brianna and I saw a little boy with a large abscess on his chest and smaller ones in other places, we took him to the clinic and the doctor checked him out and sent him home with some medicine :) 

The dance ministry is thriving! the first day I got to the base I just sat with tears in my eyes as they showed me all the dances they had choreographed since I have been gone (which I am in the process of learning) There are so many! Ashley birthed this ministry, but Jovanny and new christian and incredible dancer on the base is in-charge of it now and it blows my mind how great he is with zero training(his only training was learning from the television).  Last night we had diegos birthday, Jovanny got me up to dance with him…I loved it and Tommy got it all on video…

For all of you that don’t know Rosa, the portal from heaven into this town dwells in her house. All of her prayers and faithfulness to the Lord, I whole heartedly believe is the reason the Newsong base came to this village. She is a 49 year old women with 8 children. Yesterday, meg and Bri and I went to spend time with her at her house. She asks us everytime we are there where Darrell is( she missed you darrell!) anyways, just recently her husband has lost his job and they are struggling a lot, but still her faith in God is stronger then ever. Just keep her and her family in your prayers. 

oh yea!-we made Caroline Elys keylime pie recipe yesterday to surprise diego..even though we had to crush tweak and few a of the ingredients it was incredible! 

Well I must go— we are going to be heading out to the base soon. 

I am trying to keep up on consistently blogging, but when I get back from the base I always fall asleep….

I’ll blog again soon, promise. 

Love you guys

Whit

This is my third day in Nicaragua.  I’m here. Finally. The first two days we went out to Candalaria where the New Song base and church is.  We will be going out there daily except for Mondays and Tuesdays, which is the weekend for the mission.  This is my first time in Nicaragua though Meg and Whit have been here before.  So, the first day I was able to meet a lot of the youth and spend time with them.  There are other americans staying on the base doing missions as well.  We are staying in Leon, (about 30 min from Candalaria) with a wonderful couple, Sandra and Preston. They have opened their home for us to stay for the first month that we are in Nicaragua. Later, when our team gets here, we’ll move out to the Bloquera with them so that we can all be together.  

Yesterday was our second day out at the base.  The youth there have a dance ministry that Ashley Welingham, from my church in Boone, started.  There is one boy, Giavanny, who is 17 and a very talented dancer.  He has continued to choreograph for the youth, and everyone loves to dance!  While dance practice was happening (which it happens everyday for about 2 hours!)  I saw the younger boys, (ages 6-13) playing soccer, and so I went and played with them!  A friend of mine had given me a word about ministering to people through the simple things like playing soccer. She saw oil on my feet, and when I kicked the ball to another kid, there was then oil on his feet, and so on.  So part of me wanted to play because of that word, and also I love being active with people!  I had the best time out there! All the boys learned my name, and I got to learn many of theirs.  I got hugs from all of them when I left at the end of the day.  Those were my hugs from Jesus.  It blesses me, maybe more so than it blesses them, to be able to have a friendship, and see the love, the same love that I have, flowing out of them!  They have Jesus’ love, he’s all over them, I can’t wait for them to recognize it!

~Brianna

June 24, 2010

Last January when we walked the streets of Candelaria, Nicaragua, we encountered a raw Love. A love that was free from expectations, a love stronger then sorrow and fear. We encountered this love on the faces of each child we held and in the eyes each man or women that we prayed for. It was a love that stripped us down to our core and revealed a side of us that was more vulnerable then we could have imagined.

The name of this blog is Naked Streets because that is where we are. In a place of vulnerability before the father, a place of beautiful exposure.

Arriving in Nicaragua we have no plans and no agendas, remembering the simplicity of love. Leaving our expectations, we have come to let the love of the Lord embrace his children. This journey began by simply saying yes! And the Lord was faithful to provide beyond what we needed.

Right now we are sitting in the Atlanta airport, waiting on our delayed flight to arrive. Hopefully reaching Nicaragua sometime late tonight, where Diego is going to be waiting on us to take us to our home. Our home for the next two months in Leon, Nicaragua.

Hope you follow along on our journey! 

Whitney, Meg and Brianna