From Nicaragua to the Flood Zone!

My lovely roomate:)

So cute!

My buddy Kevin

Mama and her daughter

Me and Fr. Anthony!

I feel like every time I sit down to write I talk about the crazy weeks, so I am beginning to accept that this is just life here as a missionary nurse! Two weeks ago I found myself in Matagalpa, Nicaragua the home of Ave Maria University. These trips across the border are never as uneventful as one could hope, and as we got to the border we found out that our other car (the one with ALL our stuff, and 4 other missionaries) could not get through because of the name on the registration of the car! So we went to do a mission 2 missionaries and a truck load of stuff short! But it was a great week! We were with Fr. Anthony and Fr. Augustino from the CFR’s, so it was a lot of laughs to say the least! It was so beautiful to work in a different country, so close but yet so different. We worked with a young priest Fr. Edgar who is 29 years old, and in charge of 5 HUGE parishes! We were working in one of his barrios, and it was so beautiful! I would have to say my highlights were the little kids and our time at Ave Maria University. These were some of the cutest kids I have ever seen in my life! And SO open to learning about the saints, creation, and each little project we did with them! These little kids would go home from the programs and invite and bring back their parents to mass that night! It was so beautiful to see! We were able to spend a night at Ave Maria with the students there. These are students from all over Latin America, and a few from the states. It was a stark contrast from the poor we were serving in the towns, and this big American university that we were at not more then 2 doors down. As the night went on, Cristina one of the missionaries from NYC got up and began to speak. She spoke about a lot of things, but one of the most powerful things she encouraged these students to do was go OUT and meet their neighbors. These “poor” live right next to you! She said… it does not have to be a “mission trip” experience where you meet the poor! We can do it everyday! The response was amazing! The students were coming up to talk to us after wondering how they could help! Where are our poor? Our goal is for Hondurans here to join us in serving their own poor. Where are the poor in our lives? Are we searching them out to extend a hand? A lot of times we can not change their situation or their economic status, but we can surely feed them with our time and our interest. I was thinking about this, this past week. We have had torrential downpours, and the main bridge to leave the city collapsed! This left entire towns destroyed. I walked downtown last Sunday to see the damage, and it looked just like Katrina. Having been down in New Orleans the Thanksgiving after Hurricane Katrina, I was looking at those towns once again. We had to respond. The Friars opened up Casa Guadalupe, and there we cared for and housed 200 people who had lost their homes. It was truly an amazing experience,. For people who have so little to start with; to have EVERYTHING taken was devastating. I was working as the nurse, and as I set-up a little nurse station, the people kept coming and coming! One of the most impressionable moments for me was when I was able to leave for a day to accompany the doctor up to a mountain village that had access to no help thus far. We went up to bring food and clothing and offer medical consults. I had been sick the whole week, and was feeling like I could not move another step, but I was the only nurse able to go, so I went. It was one of those moments where I said God, if you want me here you need to give me the strength! We got to the village and it was devastating. We started the consults, and patient after patient I could not help but notice the growing joy that started to take over my heart! It was one of those times where you KNOW you are in the exact spot and place in time that you are supposed to be at…and God just kind of smiles down on you! It was so humbling for me to see how MUCH God does…and how little it is of me! Please pray for these families. Having been able to live with them for the week, you are able to see and hear their brokenness (and I’m sure my own) become so much more visible. I pray that through the week they spent with us, they were able to bring back hope to their homes. Thank God the rain finally stopped and last week the families left to rebuild! I am truly spent, but what a feeling to go to bed EXHAUSTED yet fulfilled! Thank God!

I LOVE this pic! Br. Mateo and the little girl holding onto his rope!

Some of my new patients:)

ARMY taking people back to their homes

The Floods