Hello all, I'm Paula Lindsey, a missionary in Nicaragua with Waves of Love. Life here can be funny, sad, exciting and absolutely miraculous at times. I want to share some of those times with you and maybe in some small way reveal God's movement through our lives.
I couldn't have dreamed this year if I had tried and trust me I have some crazy dreams. But 2020 has been a year of broken plans, broken dreams, broken world views, broken schedules...the list could go on and on. But I challenge you to find hope in the broken. Some of my greatest periods of growth have been out of the broken pieces of my life.
Funny-Last weekend we had so much fun visiting with friends. They brought their kids and stayed through the Christmas Holiday. It has been a long time since we have had children around for an extended period of time. They had a 1 1/2 year-old, a 4 year-old and a 13 year-old. As you can imagine the conversations were diverse. One day we were driving in our truck (Truck Norris-named by my husband after Chuck Norris). When the 4 year-old asked if we could play music. My husband Michael explained that the radio didn't work. He said it was like that sea urchin in the movie Surf's up. When he got stepped on he said, "broken...broken...gone...gone...broken." After that every time we got in the car we heard a little voice from the back saying "broken...broken...broken."
Sad-
In November Nicaragua was hit by two hurricanes, ETA and IOTA. It was devastating to our Caribbean coastline. We live on the south Pacific coast and flooding was wide-spread in our province. More than 67 homes in our area were gone and 147 homes need repairs and rebuild. Incredible devastation for a country already suffering economic hardship. Borders are closed and tourism is at a standstill because of the arrival of covid-19 and previous political unrest.
Exciting- Here's the thing...as soon as phone service started working again and people could communicate help started to arrive from communities and organizations. We were able to start with food distribution right away because food had arrived a few days before the first hurricane. Our storehouse was full! We could get to difficult places because we had "Truck Norris" even if he was a little broken. Large communities who had resources started to send beds, cots, water filters and more food. People were coming together in the broken. THIS is what it means to live in community and to help one another out. In the bible it talks about blessing those that are less fortunate; to feed the poor, cloth the naked, visit those in prison. Sometimes the prison is our life not an actual cell. Sometimes we get stuck in the broken and can't move forward. The fastest way to get out of a broken situation is to help someone else. Move the focus from YOU to someone else. Jesus said "it is more blessed to give than to receive." (Acts 20:35) This is an absolute life truth.
Miracle- The definition according to merriam-webster.com 1 : an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs the healing miracles described in the Gospels. 2 : an extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment.
Want to hear of an extraordinary event that I can say only manifested by divine intervention in human affairs? In our region of Nicaragua not one life was lost to the floods. This was our prayer. To add to that, financial assistance came pouring in from all avenues to help rebuild our little community. People from around the world who themselves are suffering during the pandemic, who themselves are watching political unrest in their own countries reached out to a small central American country and offered hope for the future.
God moves in people's hearts and hears the prayers of His children. It says in the bible that our prayers are like incense to the Lord. God wants us to talk to Him. He wants us to lift up our broken dreams, our fears and our greatest desires. He wants us to reach out to Him in all things and at all times. With His help we see the needs of others, we see our next steps and we see the possibilities.
That is how miracles come out of broken...broken...gone...gone...broken.
PS-If you every want a post about something specific just send me a message. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
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