Touching Down

I’ve never been to Miami before, but today I got to touch down there on my layover between Managua and Chicago. As far as airports go, it’s fine. As far as cultural bridges, I think it fit my needs perfectly. Because it was a new place, I got excited to see something new, to think that I was in MIAMI. Walking around the airport smiling, I was distracted from feeling sad about leaving Nicaragua, from feeling apprehensive about the busy upcoming month, from my exhaustion… Plus, I heard Spanish. Now, I don’t live 100% of my life in Spanish, but it is always accessible, and it is comfortable. When I don’t hear it, I miss it. In Miami, the majority of personnel were speaking Spanish if they weren’t speaking to travelers, and just hearing it comforted me.

When you change cultures, all sorts of little things hit you. I have felt called to Nicaragua, and I am happy with my decision to live there long-term. I’m to the States today for a month to raise care, prayer, and financial support as a partner missionary with the Nehemiah Center. The schedule is full of travels and visits, theoretically, though I only have rough plans for the month. I’m excited to be home, to see friends and family, to feel like I belong on the streets as just another person… But the fact is that I have chosen a new home now, and it’s hard to leave. It’s amazing how much the little details impact me, how much they matter. Transitions, you know. That’s why Miami was helpful.

Don’t get me wrong- I’m excited about all sorts of things being back in North America. Here’s a list of examples:

• ·         I can and will eat apples with reckless abandon, seeing as how they are way too expensive in Nicaragua, and I doubt they taste the same.
• ·         Flushing toilet paper down the toilet.
• ·         The smell of fresh-cut grass
• ·         Choosing the water temperature. In my shower, washing dishes, washing my hands… well, just about everything. It might not seem like a big deal, but it is.
• ·         Driving a car without feeling like I should be honking at every intersection to signal, “Here I am, don’t pull out, I have the right-of-way”
• ·         Few people will stare at me because I’m white, fair-haired, or blue-eyed.
• ·         I won’t be wondering half the time if I really meant to say what they just heard. Maybe I should be, but I don’t have the same questions about English as I do about my Spanish.
• ·         Hugs will be abundant; kisses will not.
• ·         Unlimited texting and an abundance of cell phone minutes. My calling plan in Nicaragua runs out pretty quickly, and that’s just with making calls to other Nicaraguans
• ·         I won’t be sweating constantly
• ·         In fact, I will get to enjoy fall! Changing leaves, apple cider, crisp breezes. I’m excited to wear hoodies and scarves and fashionable boots – and maybe even a hat
• ·         Since the purpose of my trip is support raising, I’ll get to share about Nicaragua, the Nehemiah Center, and my work as a matchmaker in ministry. That’s right – All the things that I love best professionally.
• ·         Leaving my wallet and keys in the car without locking the car… though I still think twice now before I go inside

But there are also things I will miss about not being in Nicaragua even though I know I will be back in a month, such as:

• ·         Riding my bike everywhere I need to go in town, or walking across the street to buy what I need for supper
• ·         Not needing to drive a car to get from one place to another
• ·         Greeting nearly everyone I lock eyes with on the street, especially my neighbors
• ·         The attention I automatically get. Maybe this isn’t a good thing to miss, but it will be something for me to get used to even if I’m glad about it
• ·         The hummingbird that comes to the tree in our garden every day
• ·         Buying fresh tortillas from the vendor on the street
• ·         Simply twitching my face to ask someone to repeat something, or pointing with my lips
• ·         Speaking in Spanish a majority of the time
• ·         The way a heavy rain automatically cancels whatever activity you had planned
• ·         Not needing to look at the weather because I know that basically every day will be the same temperature
• ·         Not really worrying about being late
• ·         Going to church on Thursday nights as well as Sunday mornings because there’s something centering about going to a mid-week service

I could go on listing, but that’s not the point. The point is, there are things about both places that I love, and things – people, mostly – that I miss. The transition between worlds might take me a few breaths, but I’ll get there. Until then, I’m thankful for places like Miami.

August Newsletter: So Many Changes!

Cohort of Missioners in Nicaragua : Caminantes en la Misión There is a time for everything, and everything changes with time. Since the last time I wrote, many things have changed. I have now been in Nicaragua for over half a year. My fellow Caminantes and I seem to have found our place in the Nehemiah Center. Many of the IMPACT Clubs have started, and we are all acting as leaders in these special youth groups. My brother graduated from university, and I was able to be a part of the celebration in Iowa. I planned and participated in a visit from a peer organization called Communities First Association. Sickness attacked with a vengeance during the month of May, and I've learned some difficult lessons about balance and rest. I moved out of my host family's house and into a place for communal living with the other Caminantes. For the first time in my life, I have my own house! We have had several short-term visitors, and we facilitated their time in León. I had a birthday. I also decided to accept an offer to continue working with the Nehemiah Center long-term. Lots has happened! Through it all, God has remained faithful, and I'm grateful that wherever I go and whatever I do, He remains the same. Mi Casa es Su Casa As the Caminantes in Nicaragua, we have been praying, planning, and searching for a house for several months now. Mark, Guissell, and I started thinking about it because we wanted a place of our own where we could invite all sorts of people all the time. People from the community, our friends, our colleagues, etc. We dreamed of having a place where participants in the Caminante program would live, eat, pray, and play together. As our work became more diversified, we saw a common house as a way to bring us together again. After looking for houses to rent, we heard of one close to the baseball stadium with many rooms and bathrooms at an affordable price. From our first visit to the signed contract, we delayed a month. It seems that this house was God's gift to us because the landlady really wanted us to live there, and she waited for us to agree. Since Guissell and I moved in the first week of June, we have already hosted a short-term team for 24 hours, invited people to dinner, acted as a hostel for traveling friends, and held Nehemiah Center meetings at our place. Our Nicaraguan friends have pitched in to loan us everything from a fridge to a stove to beds to dishes. It's a beautiful display of the generosity among the Body of Christ, and we hope it continues to be a place that points to the Kingdom of God. That said, you are welcome to visit! We have room for you. Please and Thank You -- I got sick with the stomach flu and various colds in the last month, but I'm thankful that the Lord gave me rest in those times. I'm also thankful for health now --Praise God for my 26 years of life! And thanks to all who made the day special and helped me feel celebrated -- I'm thankful for a new place to live as well as continued relations with my old family --Thank God for direction by confirming my decision to stay in Nicaragua and continue to do what is placed before me --Rejoice with me about a refreshing week at a Servant Partners training, with a mini-retreat, group Bible studies, and intercessory prayer with o --Ask God for discernment so that I can balance my life and make healthy choices regarding work and rest -- Ask the Lord to provide for my financial, emotional, and spiritual needs as a partner missionary. I need to raise more funds for a longer period of time. I plan to return to North America from August 30 to September 30, and I hope to have most of my budget raised in that time as well as reconnect with people. -- Ask the Spirit to give us harmony in our new home and help us work together as the Caminantes to describe what our program is and how it should be run in the future You're Doing What Now? Towards the end of May, I received an email from Nehemiah Center staff offering me a long-term position. It will be a bit different from the work I have been doing in the community development program, but it encompasses a lot of the partnership roles I have taken on. The most exciting thing is that I will be a member of the Nehemiah Center's Ezra Team and get to work with local pastors a lot. My official title is Intercultural Facilitator, and I will act as a bridge between Nicaragua and the rest of the world. A lot of the partnership focus is on North America, but we have connections to other Latin American countries as well as Romania with IMPACT Clubs. Some of my duties will include working with the Ezra Team to develop volunteer opportunities, figuring out how all volunteers leave the Nehemiah Center with the same basic ideas, maintaining and expanding church partnerships, looking into and pushing for more Nicaraguan missionaries to go abroad, overseeing and contextualizing the IMPACT program, and encouraging discussions about city vision among pastors and leaders. Some examples of these tasks would be helping university students find internships, translating emails between Nicaragua and Canada, keeping track of how many IMPACT Clubs Nicaragua has and what the leaders need, or calling local pastors to meetings where they pray and dream together. In other words, I get to be a ministry matchmaker on individual, group, organizational, city, regional, and country levels. In many ways it seems like my dream job though I am aware of my inadequacy for the task, forcing me to recognize the importance of prayer in everything that I do, depending on the Lord and His strength. (Pictured above are all of us at the Nehemiah Center who share a birthday on July 7) A Week in the Life When I'm not traveling with a group or participating in some training, my weeks have a general rhythm to them. On Mondays, I go to Managua to the Nehemiah Center for morning devotions. It's advisable to go by car, spend the night in Managua, or do whatever you can to avoid the bus on Monday morning because it's always full. After devotions, we have meetings with the Nicaraguan program coordinators (monthly) or with Steve, our supervisor. I go out to lunch with friends or pack something from home. In the afternoon I catch the bus back to León and go to Nuevo Horizonte to lead an IMPACT Club. Nuevo Horizonte is a neighborhood where I attend most of the community development activities, including this group for young people to do community service-learning projects, and their leadership team is pictured above. Tuesdays are usually planning days with Roberto. We map the week and divide up tasks. Sometimes we have an afternoon meeting in a community where we work. Wednesdays I have been trying to make as quieter days. Usually I have extended morning devotions, clean or do laundry, catch up on paperwork, and visit friends and acquaintances in León. In the evening I go to pick up Guissell from the community where she leads an IMPACT Club. Thursdays are often full days of meetings or trainings with Roberto, or we work on reports together. In the evening I go to church at Promesa. Fridays are also days for training, meetings, and paperwork. I work on translation projects, interviews, writing policies for the Caminantes, etc. Sometimes we have people over for dinner on Friday or Saturday nights. Saturdays are days to catch up, finish projects, clean the house, and have special meetings. Occasionally I go with a projector to a church to show a movie or a slide show at the request of a church member. Sometimes I plan for the next week's IMPACT Club meeting. Sundays, I go to church in the morning and spend the rest of the day with people or resting in my house. This gives a picture of my daily life although there are always exceptions to the average week's schedule. Up and Coming -- Conversations with the Nehemiah Center and Christian Reformed World Missions about my transition from being a short-term volunteer to a partner missionary for the foreseeable future. This includes a lot of work for becoming a partner missionary as well as transitioning from one position to another at the Nehemiah Center -- I will participate on the committee to evaluate the Nehemiah Center and determine the parameters for a five-year strategic plan, with definitions laid out by October -- Training with Roberto in each community about the five dimensions of development -- Describing and writing a lot of the policy for the Caminantes so others can follow us -- Partnership development as a missionary via social media and a trip to North America from August 30 to September 30 to share with c To partner with me: Go to www.crwm.org/donate OR make out a  check to Christian Reformed World Missions, put WMLA 803904 in the memo line, and mail it to  CRWM USA 1700 28th St. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49508 unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences To contact me: Adrianna Oudman c/o Nehemiah Center Apartado Postal 1076 Managua, Nicaragua Email: adrianna.oudman@gmail.com Blog: adriannaoudman@blogspot.com