Many people of faith have at one time entertained the idea of becoming a missionary to foreign lands, but the realities of everyday life – falling in love, getting married and raising a family, and then providing for and nurturing that family – pull their attention away from foreign peoples as they concentrate on their mission here at home. For those who once felt that call, there are now more and more opportunities to respond by being a part of a short-term mission, some lasting only a week and fitting in to the person’s vacation schedule.

Following is an account (edited for length) of one short-term missionary, Rebecca Cayford, sister of Brenda Carter of Port O’Connor. First Baptist Church Melbourne, 3301 Dairy Road, Melbourne, Florida 32901 sponsored this mission trip to Nicaragua.

Sunday, July 10: I’m heading out within the hour for Nicaragua on my second missionary trip with my church. Among other things, we are doing a children’s ministry at the parent church in a large city, Tipitapa, on Monday and Tuesday and also at a newly planted church in a remote area, Marvin Salazar, on Wednesday and Thursday mornings. We are planning to erect a used McDonald’s playground next to the newly planted church. This is the Eagle Scout project of one our church youth.

Monday, July 11: Today, the first day of our School of Hope Bible school for the kids, was excellent! It was held at the parent church in Tipitapa, and the pastor’s wife has excellent organizational skills. Although the church was a relatively small area for 500 children, it had a concrete floor with a huge roof and no walls. So we had a good breeze and shade from the blazing sun.
We divided the children up into four groups by age, and I prayed for the youngest ones (3-6). Sure enough, I got them, and they were the biggest group by far. We had two interpreters, one of which I had last year. I was never so glad to see an interpreter. Xavier is excellent; what a blessing! And the other, Ezekiel, is a wonderful man, too.

We had face painting, a puppet show, two Bible stories (my part), games, and a parachute to play with, and coloring books for a craft time. It went great. The best part was the way the pastor’s wife, Odily, organized the snack time. She had the kids get in line by their age groups, in order, and they got the snack as they left. No pushing, and you could tell if someone tried to get in line for seconds with another group, because they weren’t the right height, lol!

Our bus driver took us on a tour of Tipitapa on the way home, and then we showered, swam, played cards, napped, and had lunch. We had a women’s Bible study tonight. Four of the ladies had recently survived a van accident. Their van with 13 people in it rolled off a cliff and two of their husbands had died; one is seriously injured. We gathered around them and prayed. Violeta was especially used by God to encourage them, as she is a native of Nicaragua and fluent in the language. She also has a powerful testimony of God’s faithfulness in her own life.

Wednesday, July 13: Tuesday was our last day at the Family First Baptist Church, and it went even better than Monday. Today, the kids had a blast playing with balloons with animal faces painted on them. (All of a sudden I’m an artist!) We handed out salvation bracelets and played cool games. We really had a blast with them. It doesn’t take much to smile: give a hug, and say “te amo” (I love you.) or “Dios te bendiga” (God bless you). They are so cute and their smiles are worth a million.

This afternoon we went to the men’s prison. The men met with eleven prisoners who were being rewarded for good behavior. They stayed out by the ball field, supervised by five armed guards, and got to know one another; told testimonies of what God has done in their lives; and had a Bible study, and prayed. One man was a Christian, but he is serving a life sentence. He told of how Jesus helps him not only cope, but thrive. Our men left some balls, bats and gloves as a gift.

Nine of our women, including me, met with about 25 women employees in what looked like a cafeteria. Pastor Odifly offered to start a Bible study with all of them and got several names of women who are interested. Just to let you know, this prison is not like any we have. It is very poor, run down, and I’m sure it is horrible inside. We weren’t allowed to take pictures.

Thursday, July 14: Today we went to Marvin Salazar. From what I understand, it is a new community that was planted in this location after flooding destroyed their original community. The houses are made out of rusting, leaking tin roofs and plastic or cardboard walls, whatever they can find. Because of the heavy rain last night, there was plenty of mud to slide around in. We had to walk at least 20 minutes, if not more, because the new church site is on the back edge of town. I had on my new WalMart blue mud boots with white polka dots, so I was set.

One of our young, newbie translators, Linda, had on very fashionable and delicate silver sandals. After 10 minutes into the trek, each entire foot was covered with mud and she was slipping around in a dangerous manner, held up by her friend (who had warned her not to wear those sandals). I remembered I had two WalMart bags, so we had her put her sandaled feet in them and tied them at the ankles, but after a while her toes broke through the plastic.

Along the way, we saw a man with a bleeding gash in his temple. We cleaned his wound and put some band-aids on it. He said he was going to the hospital for stitches. All this excitement before even getting to the site!

As we got close to the pastor’s house, I saw this woman and felt the Lord prompting me to ask her if she had any shoes that our fashion plate interpreter could wear. She said yes and came back with a great pair of rubber boots, size 9, just Linda’s size! Isn’t God wonderful! Linda was beaming with relief.

We were so pleased to see the progress the men had made with the McDonald’s playground. It is going to be so much fun for the kids! We all huddled under the only shade, the new Baptist church, which consisted of a large roof. The play equipment, the church, and the pastor’s new block house the men had erected two weeks ago were all in a row.

We began our children’s ministry that morning with Bible studies. The group was small at first, but others arrived late and we ended up with about 300 kids in all. After two Bible stories and Bible activities, we had recreation out in the scorching sun. The best thing about it was there was plenty of room. Some workers did relay games and played with the parachute with the older kids. I helped with the 2-4 year olds, and man, was it hot! One of our staff had to guard our belongings.

The most interesting part of my day began when I got out of the bus and realized I had to empty my bladder again. Yup, I regretted drinking two cups of coffee this a.m.! I’m wondering how this was going to pan out, whether I would have to hold it the entire morning until we got back to the hotel, but I found out a woman who was a community resident/church member had a “bathroom” and she seemed so excited to share it with us.

One of the male interpreters escorted me with her to her house, two doors down, and she led me to an outhouse with walls that went about chest high and a door that wouldn’t shut. She stood in front, holding the door for me. There was a cement toilet and a seat with a lid that wasn’t attached. I had to touch the lid to open it, which was brave of me. Maybe it was just stained? No paper, but she led me into her house to wash my hands.

That was the best experience of all, being in her house. She had a large barrel with rainwater and scooped a bowlful for me to wash, and had a large bar of soap. The sink had two parts, one side to be for food and dishes, the other for washing, since it had ridges made of cement for scrubbing clothes.

Thank God I had the interpreter with me so I could ask her questions. She had a cast iron kettle of rice cooking on a wood stove inside the house, in the heat of the day. The floors were just dirt, and mud at that, since the rain came right through the holes in the tin roof last night. There were three rooms; the second room had a hammock. She said her husband slept there with the children and she slept in the back room which had a curtain, so I didn’t go back there.

They have four kids, three boys and one girl, with the oldest 13. That place must have been fifteen feet square. She was so proud of it. It was really clean, too, all things considered.

On the way back to the bus, I got to listen to the interpreter who escorted me to the “bathroom”. He wanted some dating advice, and then said my advice was the same as his mother’s, lol, and also the same as a dream he had from the Lord. Turns out he wants to serve the Lord as a youth counselor. He was surprised to hear me say that I was going to school to be a counselor, too. Birds of a feather, and all…

Friday, July 15: Today was our last day of “work”. We were at Marvin Salazar again, and had a wonderful time with children doing the Bible school. The playground was finished, and it is a wonderful and colorful addition to the community. What is cool is that every time the kids want to go there, they will have to walk past the church to get to it and will be reminded that it was the love of the Lord that brought it to them.

More work was done on the pastor’s house. I learned today his wife is a school teacher and will be quitting her job to move to Marvin Salazar to do the Lord’s work. We are going to try to raise another $300 to build her an outhouse/shower for their new home. It must be tough to move from the city to the country and to leave a job you love. She is praying about starting a pre-school next year.

Did you know they are in their winter months and this is the coolest time of the year? Needless to say, they aren’t sweating at all, unlike us. Their summer break is from November to January.

We had a meeting tonight after supper and everyone got a chance to share how they were impacted by the trip. There were many tears shed as we reflected how we will go home to an extremely wealthy world while they will continue to struggle to survive, hauling water from the one well in town, one five gallon bucket at a time, to drink, and collecting rain water for everything else.

Besides the great sightseeing we experienced in Granada before departing, the highlight of the last few days was that one of our interpreters accepted Jesus’ death on the cross for the payment of his sins, right there on the bus. His name, Yaddar, is now written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and if we never see him again this side of glory, we will spend eternity with him praising our Lord Jesus Christ. We have been encouraged to have hope in hopeless situations.

Thank you so much for your prayers. They were invaluable. God bless you all.

Rebecca