POST by SOPHIA: My Life

When I’m alone with Him, in my mind he takes me to a path in the woods that he’s leading me on.

Doing what we're doing, we come across a LOT of broken lives, and people desperate for answers. To date, I haven't been as moved by anyone's story, in the way that I've been moved by the life of Sophia. This young lass, is beautiful and talented, smart and driven, yet she has been used, abused, rejected, despised, and now works with everything she's got to get her life on track for the promise of glory.

I have met Sophia's parents, who are just human like the rest of us. They've done a magnificent job at raising their kids, with compassion and love, and yet, like other parents, they’re not supernatural beings and can only be in one place at one time. Unfortunately, their baby girl was deeply broken, and nothing that they could do would mend the heart of their daughter, which lay in tatters.

But, there is hope. Jesus Christ came for the lost. He came for the sinner. He came for the broken. He alone knows the pain and suffering of all humanity. He took it with him to the cross. And so I’d like to allow Sophia the opportunity of sharing with you her story. She’s a brave girl and I’m mightily proud of her:

Everyone goes through hard times in life, some worse than others. But it’s who you depend on and how you get through it that makes you who you are. I've been through a lot in my life, but instead of leaning on God, I just wanted people to pity me.

When I was ten, my best friend at the time told me every detail of how her dad had often sexually abused her and what he had done to her. I remember everything she told me, but because she told me when I was so young, I blocked out all memories of my childhood to protect myself. I don't have any memories of anything until about the age of 13, and even then I only have bad memories.

I am the 5th child of 8 in my family. I was homeschooled ‘til 9th grade and in 10th grade I started getting into drinking, drugs, boys and sex, and everything bad. I thought that the only way to be happy was to do all of these things.

Well, surprise, surprise, I was wrong. Guys and drugs only hurt me. I have had my heart broken in so many ways. Guys would tell me they love me and they don't want anyone else, and that I am so beautiful and special. Yet after they gotten what they’d wanted, they would tell me it was all a lie and that I am actually trash.

I tried to kill myself many times and I used to cut myself every day for many months. All I could think was I just wanted to get away from the hurt and the pain. Yet, I continued to run after guys and drugs.

Twice I thought I was pregnant and I would worry about what I’d tell my parents and what I’d do with a kid at 17. But lucky for me, I was not pregnant and God helped me through it.

Now, for the last four weeks or so I’ve been reading my Bible and talking to God. When I’m alone with Him, in my mind he takes me to a path in the woods that he’s leading me on.

I often feel really alone and sad. I cry myself to sleep because I wish I could remember my past... but then I remember that God is always there, even when no one else is.

A couple of weeks ago I met all of these wonderful, handsome, nice, crazy Nicaraguan boys who got me to think in a whole new way. They have been through hell and back and they still dance and sing for God with smiles on their faces. If they can be happy then I think I can too.

Sophia & Cecilia (Sophia's younger sister)

POST by ANNA: Stepping OUT

Nicavangelists

The Mercado Oriental, located in the beautiful city of Managua, is the largest market in all of Latin America. It is also one of my favorite places to visit here in Nicaragua. The very first time I went, I went with Liz and all the trickers and bboys to get shoes for their performance outfits.

Jonny, (who is one of the top bboys of Nicaragua) insisted that we power walk through the market because it wasn’t time for sight seeing or acting like tourists. Essentially, this meant that we hardly had time to look up because we were all so focused on where we were placing our feet. I found this to be quite nice because if I had the chance to look at more people, then more people would have seen I was a "Gringa" and yelled strange things at me.

First pulling up to the market, I was surprised to see that we parked in what looked to me like a gas station. Parking here is so random. In my mind, I would just park anywhere because there doesn’t really seem to be a rhythm to the madness.

As we exited the car, the looks began, not because we unloaded about 20 people from a car that seats 9 but because we were white and white people don’t really come to the market.

Loud music played from several shops, many of them blasting the hit-single Gangnam Style, a personal favorite of mine. Stenches of trash, fresh and spoiled meat, and burning tamales drifted straight to my nose, causing me to smile and making me want to puke, all at the same time.

Premier Nicavangelist Performance

Here it’s perfectly okay to throw your trash wherever you please, but somehow the environment seems happier here. Therefore, trash cluttered the alleyways between the shops. The boys took the tail because it’s not necessarily safe for us girls to be the very last ones in the line of people.

The shops are all attached to one another through a maze of narrow, dirty paths. Each shop probably has three or four duplicate shops that sell the same thing, but each claims to offer original products.

After minutes of power-walking, we stopped at the first shoe place that seemed to offer what we were looking for. I never thought that it would be super difficult to find the right shoes for the performance, especially considering they were JUST for the performance and for boys. Most of the guys wanted Converse because the outfits were black on top and bottom, with reflective stripes throughout. I thought Converse would be a nice match, although I personally thought any black shoe would work.

So, after many misses, we found a nice black converse at a good price. Most of the guys tried on their sizes and all was well in the world, but a few of them were not particularly keen with the Converse.

Nicavangelists performing GLOW at NCA

After at least a half hour making the shop lady search for the different sizes, someone ventured to a similar shoe shop and found a nice knockoff pair of Nikes. Those apparently were the winners.

I am making it sound much less difficult than it was because with some of the performers not present, sizes had to be guessed, different sizes fit better with certain shoes, and principles such as fashion and comfort had to be considered, of course.

We were there for at least two or three hours. A trip to the store here always seems to turn into a parade of people who need to get this or that. I definitely understand and I am ever amazed with how much Liz gets done working with all these gents. LOVE HER and THEM.

Throughout the search for the perfect shoe, I managed to purchase a delicious donut that was from Price Smart (Costco) as well as two pairs of earrings, all for less than 2 dollars. People walk around carrying trays of goodies and products making it easy to purchase something no matter where you are.

I look forward to more trips to the market as I grow more comfortable with the language, products, and food. Liz and I will surely go there one day just to peruse around for nothing. And when that day comes, I am going to buy a tamale.