July 4th was a day of celebration, but not for Americas Independance.
Last wednesady my team and myself had the opportunity to go to a nursing home to mingle with the elderly. Another team that we had previously talked with said all you really do is “pick up” after the elderly. (When I say “pick up” I do not mean their toys.) Hearing this awesome news, I walked in with little enthusiasm. Boy, did I make a mistake.
A teammate of mine, Ms. Mallory Rondeau, had struck up a conversation with two elderly men named Manuel and Fransisco. I eventually joined the conversation, (or attempted to join, my spanish is mal or bad) which led to both Mallory and myself befriending these two elder gentlemen. Through we conversation we learned both of the men love to dance. We also learned Fransiscos Birthday is close to Mallorys and my own birthday. (July 11th and 14th) Unfortunatly we would not be in Nicaragua at the time so we decided to celebrate all birthdays early and dance the next time our team visits the nursing home. So we did!
Monday, our team walked in with all hands on deck. We began out our morning by leading the ancients in morning exercises. Which is basically just putting your arms up and down with little leg movement because most of our new friends could not do a whole lot more. We bonded with them through this process and eventually ended our exercise time with bubbles. They really like bubbles! I blew bubbles next to an old lady named Maria. Her eyes lit up like a kid walking into a candy store when I began making the magical shperes. Then her eyes grew bigger when I offered her the stick for her to give it a whirl. Who knew God would show his love through morning exercises and bubble fun!
Our next activity was a piñata. Yeah! We brought a piñata to a nursing home. They absolutely loved it! There was one blind old man and we convinced him to have a turn. After he had hit the piñata I guided him back to his seat and he smiled in my direction and said that this was the most fun he had had in a while. Then he proudly proclaimed that I was precious and beautiful and gave me kiss on the cheek. It opened my eyes to see how much of Gods love was flowing out by just simply having a conversation with them.
The piñata party then transformed into a dance party. Each of us began dancing with any elderly person who could. They tought us more than we could handle. It was such a fun experiance and afterwards God really showed up.
One of the old men that I had mentioned earlier, Fransisco, asked us about our ministry and what we were even doing in Granada. This led to our oh so awesome translator/padre to witness to him and talk about our relationship with Jesus Christ.
For not being to thrilled to even go to the nursing home, it became my favorite ministry so far. God shows up even when you least expect it! 🙂
-Heather
