“God sets the lonely in families, he leads forth the prisoners with singing” Pslam 68:6
God loves when people come together and unite in family. God wants us to live in community with eachother. Granada, Nicaragua has been that for me. I came here by myself and have discovered what “Family of God” means. This past month we have been pressing forward and trying to savor every oppertunity we have with this part of our family.
So one of the things that I have been doing this past month is preparing ministries for when I return. One of the ministries that I am so excited to help with is Luz Del Mundo. This is a local church in the barrio near our house. They are a newly formed church and are really just trying to better their community. There is a children’s ministry that occurs here once a week now and I went a few times to get a feel for it. I love these kids so much, they bring so much joy to our team. Their church is constructed of concrete pillars and some sheet metal. 
On Easter we had a celebration with the community at El Puente, a BBQ and worship. The night before we decorated eggs. Clearly, things got a little out of control.
we found a cat. Its basically worthless. Its name is jerry/Geri, depending on if it is a boy or girl. We only keep it around because its kind of cute.
One saturday we got invited to a farm to hang out for the day. It was really relaxing and nice to be out of Granada for a bit. We had some lamb and pig to eat. It was probably the best food I have eaten in Nicaragua. The family had a 4 year old, so to entertain him we ALL played musical chairs.
One of the ministries that has been in action for the past two months is a 5K race for Vida Joven. It took place on April 25th. Thanks to God everything went smoothly and the community got super involved. They hope to make it an annual event. My job was to hand out water. This kid is Yadder and he is so cool. He only knows a few english phrases such has “I run”, “I cry,” “Hey Man, Chill Out.”
Since things are coming to a close it has been sad having the last few days of ministry. In the neighborhood Children’s ministry that I am a part of we had our last day on wednesday. we had a Pinata and lots of games. We normally have 8-12 kids show up. This day we had 30. We also invited their parents and had a good send off. It will be sad to not be part of those kids lives every wednesday after noon.
best neighbors ever.
On May 1st and 2nd a group of us decided to go back to Ometepe. It is an island in lake nicaragua, on this island there is an orphanage called Cicrin. We spent a week there in December before we went home for Christmas break. I loved the kids there and was excited to have the chance to go back and visit them again.
While there, the majority of our time was spending hanging out with the kids. The first night we took them all to a nearby park. The oldest girls used the internet, the boys all played soccer and the youngest ones spent time playing on the swings and slide.
Cicrin over looks lake Nicaragua, so every night we had an amazing view of the sun set. We could just hang in the hammocks with the kids.
I am astonished that these 9 months have flown by so quickly. I couldnt not have imagined where all the time has gone. Tomorrow is my last day of ministry and then after that we are going off to debrief for 5 days. We come back for 2 days and then head home out on the 13th. I ask that you pray for these last 10 days because they will be hard on all of us. I will be praying of the community in the hopes that we have impacted their lives, I know they have impacted ours. These people have become our family and I am going to treasure the time I had here.
Annie Valenziano
