I was able to go on a mission trip with my church and experience/learn many new things from the 10 days. Although Nicaragua's outdoor is beautiful (like the volcano in the picture above) it is known as the second poorest country in Latin America, after Haiti. I didn't realize this until I got there. Many people were poorly dressed, streets were filled with trash, and homes were nothing but sheds or huts that the people owned. So to fulfill our duty as a mission team, we got straight to work. A few types of the ministries that we did, are listed:
Cleaning
Plastic bottles/bags, and wrappers were visible wherever we walked- on the sides of the dusty roads, near people's houses, sticking out of the ground. We spent hours walking around towns pulling and picking up trash from the muddy ground.
VBS
We transferred the ways of VBS from the United States to Nicaragua. We sang, danced, and laughed with the kids as we led them into games, taught them songs, and gave them the love that they deserve.
Helping Churches
As a team, we visited different churches and helped them rebuild their church by painting the walls new, building furniture, and painting murals on the wall to brighten the atmosphere.
This mission trip significantly stimulated my desire to become a doctor. During the most recent mission trip to Nicaragua, I visited a village built on a waste disposal site. Villagers were exposed to a high risk of the disease due to their unsanitary living environment and a major deficiency of medical resources. Witnessing two little girls walking barefoot and playing in a polluted puddle, I more firmly established my goal to be a doctor and to provide people living in unprivileged locations with necessary medical treatments.