I simply said yes. That was it.

Last month I packed my bags and moved to a place far away  from everything I know and hold dear in this life to go live among the indigenous Miskito people of northern Nicaragua.

Why? To do volunteer medical work at an area so remote, it almost feels like it is completely cut off from the rest of the world. No family, no friends, no phone signal, no Wi-Fi… except for once or maybe twice a month.

Is it scary? Yes. Do I regret it? No.

So here I am, at a place called Tasba Raya, which translated means “New Earth”.

A place where the ground is orange and dogs look like coyotes. Where the sun seems smaller in size, yet redder and hotter. Where the cows, the chickens, and the pigs run loose. And so do the children.

Often naked and barefooted, the children run on a ground infested and almost completely covered with animal feces. With runny noses and rotten teeth, tummies full of parasites, heads full of lice, skin full of fungi and eyes draining pus… they run loose.

You know, it doesn’t matter how many pictures you look at or how many documentaries you watch. Nothing will ever truly prepare you for the pain you’ll feel when you experience these things firsthand.

And when you see all these ailments together on one child, and then the next, and then the next… and soon you realize that most of them are pretty much in the same condition, your heart breaks. I mean it really breaks.

The one thing that comforts me, is knowing that even amid all the pain and suffering, and even though sometimes it seems as if the Miskito people have been forgotten by the rest of the world; God has not forgotten about them.

In fact, He loves them as much as He loves me. He keeps a meticulous record of the number of hairs on their heads and saves each and every one of their tears in a bottle.

And that’s why I’m here. To remind them through my hands that there is a God up there that watches over them and loves them unconditionally.

I must confess, that my longing for Heaven and the New Earth grows stronger each day. Because on that New Earth children will not be running barefooted and naked, there will be no runny noses or rotten teeth, no more pus, fungi, lice or parasites. No more pain and suffering. And the need for nurses will cease to be.

This has only been my first month, but it has been a great one. I think I have begun to understand what it feels like to be under the wings of the Almighty in the midst of danger. I’ve felt the warm embrace of Jesus through the peaceful face of a sleeping newborn baby. And I have experienced the restoring grace of God through the stabilization of a critical patient.

I don’t know what the rest of this year will bring along, but I am really looking forward to it. Because I know that whatever it may be, God is in control…and He has a plan 🙂

 

To be continued…