This month we are in Nicaragua! We get to serve alongside Light and Salt Ministry (LASM), an organization who is dedicated to helping the families chage their lives by sharing the gospel, helping them change their mindset, teaching them marketable skills, and working with them to teach them how to live godly lives. LASM has a boys program that serves boys 9-15 years old and they make a 5 year commitment to participate. The program also holds parents accountable by making monthly home visits and helping the parents suppport raising godly men. This month, I have the privilidge of serving with the boys program. 

When we got to Light and Salt Ministries, our host told us to pray about where we wanted to serve for the month. I had already decided I wasn't going to go in the classroom. Before joining the Race, I was in the classroom and I was struggling. I didn't like who I was becoming. Everything about teaching was hard and I felt like I couldn't get ahead. I had not support and when I asked for help was made to feel like I was failing. I felt like if I didn't leave soon I wouldn't recognize who I was, so I left. But, I prayed about where God wanted me to serve and felt Him calling me to the classroom. I thought I heard Him wrong. He saw how much I struggled, how miserable I was. Surely, I wasn't going back to the classroom. Again, I felt Him tell me to serve with the boys. I was hesitant to jump in after leaving teaching in May, but I did it anyway. 

Within the couple of days, I loved it and was so suprised. Being in there reminded me of why I wanted to be a teacher in the first place. I wanted to help kids see their potenital, change the way they view themselves, and help them create a better life for themselves. That's what I am able to do in this classroom. We give them a foundation of the Word of God, we give them skills to get ahead in life, we show them that they don't have to continue in the patterns their families are in and they get to choose to create a better life for themselves. 

The Lord has been healing my broken heart and while I have loved being in the class and am excited for the next two weeks, I am not sure what the future holds after the Race. The Lord is teaching me to be present with the ministry I am serving in because in the long run, a month isn't very long. I have an open mind about returning to the class, but for now I am enjoying being present in the lives of the boys and holding my future to the Lord with open hands.