Significant Impact

This year at the Nehemiah Center (NC) we are trying to up our game on evaluation and monitoring, so we started asking teams to fill out evaluations. Yes, this used to be done, but somewhere in the busyness and upheaval of life, no one reminded me that written evaluations were a thing so they fell by the wayside. However, we started written evaluations for teams again this year. Besides being encouraging as far as how we were doing our work, there were some cool questions included. One of the thought questions was "what significantly impacted you during this trip?"

Here are some answers that have stuck out to me, taken anonymously from four different groups.

What significantly impacted you during this trip?

• The meetings with Nehemiah Center (NC) partners, ministries, ministry workers and community connections. 
• In order to pray we need to dream, like Paul praying his dreams in Ephesians 1:15-20
• Great times of prayer
• Encouraging signs of God's work in Nicaragua, even through pain and suffering
• The church service was powerful, especially as the congregation prayed for us
• all the various talks, seeing and hearing about the effects of the 2018 crisis
• Great opportunity to learn about Nicaraguan culture and how the NC is helping motivate churches to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ. This has become even more important following the social unrest that occurred in 2018.
• Feeling God's Spirit this week
• The staff at the NC and their walk with Christ 
• Seeing Nicaragua's beauty and remembering its Creator
• The way the team prayed for the NC staff
• The love and passion for Jesus and God in all the people, but mostly the power of prayer
• Seeing our friends again and how they missed us
• Seeing the youth in some of the churches start to take on leadership roles
• The closeness of everyone; we genuinely cared about each other and prayed sincerely
• Watching friendship continue to develop and grow; memories from previous trips were shared and relationships were deepened
• The Holy Spirit moving in the people on the team and staff, being focused on prayer and seeking God's direction for all decisions was the most impactful
• Praying in our own language together [at the same time] aloud
• Hearing the pastors preach at their churches and the community event service
• learning about the poverty attitude. I didn't see it last time, and so when all the kids had to get in a line [but wouldn't because they kept pushing to the front], it was just shocking to me how it affects everything for them, all the way to their mentalities
• Painting the prayer room

Wow! It's so cool to read these testimonies. I get to be part of this work in people's lives, and I am grateful to God for what He is showing people who come to Nicaragua and what He does in all of our lives. To Him be the glory!