Today was our first day in the community of Santa Barbara.
After breakfast we all loaded up in the back of a pick-up truck and headed down the highway. About three miles later we turned on to a bumpy, winding dirt road, which led to the school in Santa Barbara. The kids lined up along the school fence with curious looks on their faces as soon as they saw us coming. We hopped out of the truck and let the fun begin.
Soccer is a pretty big deal here and well, everywhere else in the world except America. So as soon as you pull out a nice shiny inflated soccer ball, you instantly have at least 10 new best friends swarm around you ready to play. We played soccer for around two hours straight– my shirt became soaked in sweat and covered in dust.
After a good game of soccer it was time for a Bible story.
With some help of some of the kids we told the story of Jesus calming the storm in Matthew 8:23-27. If you’ve heard it you know this is a short story but it’s a pretty big deal. There was a really bad storm threatening to sink the ship Jesus and His disciples were on, and Jesus thought it would be a good time to take a nap. The disciples were freaked out and woke Jesus up. Jesus seemed a little pissed and asked the disciples why the heck they got scared of the storm and woke Him up. So He told the storm to stop, and it did– I imagine He went back to sleep after that. The disciples were awestruck. Jesus just spoke to the storm and it went away– they had no idea who really was on the ship with them.
Jesus is God in the flesh.
And you see earlier on Jesus told them they were going to cross the sea. He didn’t say “Hey guys, let’s try to get to the other side and hope that a storm doesn’t kill us all or wreck our ship.” He said: we’re going to the other side. When God says you’re going somewhere, you are going to go there (look at what happened to Jonah). The disciples saw the storm as an obstacle and a possible end to their mission. Jesus, on the other hand, just saw it as naptime. Jesus knew they were going to make it and something as little as a storm couldn’t stop Him.
I can’t even tell you how many times I try to wake up Jesus while He’s taking a nap because I’m scared of a storm.
I’m always asking: “Jesus how am I going to have the money to go on this trip?” Or “Jesus how are we going to make it to this place?” And Jesus replies: “Oh you of little faith– will you shut up already? I’m trying to sleep. Don’t worry I’ve got this. You’re going to make it.” If Jesus didn’t think things were going to go according to plan He wouldn’t have been sleeping. So if there’s a scary storm in your life and God doesn’t seem to be paying attention, don’t worry about it. He already knows your going to make it through the storm alive and well.
After we told the Bible story it began to rain– really hard.
The schoolyard flooded and probably held a foot of water in it. We had a good time playing in the rain with the kids.
We walked down the road in the mud to one of the houses in the community for some lunch. They cooked us a delicious meal of rice, chicken, and plantains. For them to cook chicken for all of us was a big deal. They don’t eat meat very often and they probably had to kill three or four of their chickens to feed us all. After we finished lunch we walked back to the school to pack up our stuff and leave.
Those dirt roads we came in on had turned into one big mud bog.
We eventually slid our way out of Santa Barbara and made it back home. I guess I can check “mudding on the back of a pickup in Nicaragua” off my bucket list.
When we got home we dug a small trench to bury cable and then hung out at the pool. It had been a long and exhausting day and we were more than ready to rest. We ate dinner and went to bed, ready for our next day in Santa Barbara.