I’m Going To Nicaragua with Compassion International
I have such a story to share with you one of these days. About a young woman who had never been on an airplane, who sat at home all day begging God to give her a chance to show that she could be good at something – anything. Who went through years of depression and clawed her way out of that pit only to realize that the sun had been shining on her all along.
And then one day, after she had been put in this strange place where airplanes were a regular occurrence and people asked for her autograph on books and magazine she’d written, she had been traveling off and on for two months, hadn’t seen her family in a week, and became discouraged to the point of wondering what the purpose was in it all. On that very day a person sat beside her on an airplane and spent an entire flight building her up with encouraging words, directly addressing thoughts that had never been spoken aloud, and quoting scripture to her about her past, her present, and her future.
I’ve never told this story to you, and there is so much more to it. The beautiful thing is that an opportunity to share this and more is coming up.
In fact, it is only 15 days away.
Because on June 18th, I’m going to Nicaragua with Compassion International.
Just in case you don’t know much about Compassion, you’re in the right place because I’ll be learning, too. We have just signed up to sponsor our first child as a family, a fourteen year old boy in a village that I’ll be visiting. I’m going to actually go to his village, see his home, meet him and his family.
I’m going to go to other villages sponsored by Compassion as well and you’ll be with me as I learn how Compassion works, the impact they have in the lives of these children, and how easy it is for you and I to have this rich experience of changing the life of a child.
This will be my third mission trip. My third time to use my passport. In as many years. I hope to share with you why that is so significant while I’m on this trip and it all goes back to that plane ride I mentioned at the start of this post.
In the past, I have done my best to come back after a day of traveling and working in the villages and write a summary of my day. Sometimes that has been possible, other times I’ve walked into my hotel and dropped on the bed, not to wake up until morning.
On this trip, we have the day scheduled so that we will be out during the first half and the second half is reserved exclusively for writing, for sharing with you, for telling what we have seen and felt and learned. I’m so excited. You’ll be there with me each day as I share my heart and my photographs taken only hours before.
Follow my countdown here, on Instagram, and on Facebook to stay posted because I am going to show you how you can actually sponsor a child in one of the villages I’ll be visiting, too.
I’d also like to ask a favor of you. Please pray for this trip – and if I can be selfish, please pray for me. We can do all things through Him who gives me strength, but apart from him we can do nothing. There is something that happens on trips like this, on any trip, really, where you are called out from the familiar into a place that is unknown to you. These trips give us an opportunity to go alone or to reach out and take God’s hand and allow Him to lead us through the villages that are so familiar to Him, through the countryside, through the desert or jungle or wherever it is our feet land on soil that is infinitely foreign to us but that He knows so well. To show us what he wants us to see, to speak the importance of those sights seen to our hearts, to open another door to the mystery of this wonderful world he has created.
I sincerely hope I can share these things with you as I experience them throughout this trip.
I hope you’ll follow me each day so that I can pass on directly to you whatever it is that God shows me.
Gratefully,
Christy
Phil 1:12
To be able to read the daily posts of each blogger on this trip, you can click the image below to visit a page where they will all be posted, then linked back to our blogs. Also, be sure and follow me on SouthernPlate.com, Instagram, and Facebook, where I will be posting each day I am away – with the exception of travel days.
After each post, I’ll also put a link below to make them easier to find:
Links to come
If you would like to sponsor a child in Nicaragua through Compassion, see the graphic below for a special offer from me and Compassion 🙂
My Disclaimer: I voluntarily write posts about Compassion International. I am not receiving compensation for my participation, but Compassion is sending me to Nicaragua in order to write and share this experience with each of you. Regardless of who you are, what your station or lot in life is, and your religious affiliation or lack thereof, I firmly believe that everyone CAN change the world for the better, and we should all try.
Christy, I will eagerly await your posts as well as the message you bring. And you will have my daily prayers for all that you need. Most excited for you!
Prayers Christy! I look forward to hearing all about it!
If you’re just half of the blessing that I receive from reading your posts to the people of Nicaragua, then they truly will be blessed indeed. Your post make my days and lift me up from the depression that sometimes take over my spirit. I will be praying for you and everyone on the trip and the people that you meet. Can’t wait to read your posts.
Prayers going up!! Thank you, Christy, for being the eyes, ears and feet for those of us who can’t go with you.
So looking forward to hearing all about your trip this year! Look forward each day reading all the recipes, stories etc., I receive! Will be thinking about you!
when do countries or churches in such countries, as Nicaragua, learn to take care of their own….how many so called churches have connections from the usa…that span…literally…over decades….I was on the plane coming here to Nicaragua…have been in and out of the country, since 1996….
da me….da me….da me….
people, pastors and such, make a “career” out of going to the usa and asking for money…
usually these groups are dominated by “young”, “innocent” and if you will allow…”ignorant”….so keep “singing the blues” because the young from the usa will…for ever….be “seduced” to go and “experience” the “poverty” of this country….and the locals will learn….oh just wait…someone will come and “rescue” them…
been there, done that….
May God bless you Phillip, and speak tenderness to your heart.
Christy – I will be praying for you every day! And I am looking forward to seeing Nicaragua through your eyes!
This is great. I am going to Nicaragua July 20 on a mission trip also! It is my first mission trip and I am so excited. I look forward to hearing about your stay in a country that needs alot of help. I also am going to sponsor a child while I am there. We can share our stories with each other. LOL There are 24 of us going from our church. This is our third trip there as a church but my first one. I ask that you pray for us also. We are doing VBS, distributing food and clothing and hopefully building a house.