Nicaragua Resident 2026 Day 5

Today was our last day in León and our time to close out our trip before we leave tomorrow. Hard to believe it’s over already.

We arrived at church in the morning and the service began with worship. First they sang a few worship songs in Spanish, and then Selah and I led the church in worship with a song in English. We saw dance performances and there was more worship that was super loud but made me wish I knew the words so I could sing(shout) along with them.

Pastor Dennis preached an encouraging message about the confidence we can have when working for God. He said that some of the least glamorous and most neglected work is with children because they can’t pay you back, but Jesus did not spend his earthly ministry looking for those who could return the favor, but sought out the children. Pastor Dennis tied this to the church’s outreach through their school and their sports programs. He encouraged the church and our team to be confident that even when we don’t see the outcome of our work, we can trust that God will continue to use it!

At the end of the service they had us stand in front of everyone as they shared their gratitude for our visit to them. He explained that we hadn’t fixed their problems, or changed their situations, but had served as reminders of God’s already present work on their community. We stood in line for a couple dozen group photos and said our thank you’s and goodbyes as some members of the church stayed behind to chat. It was so exciting to see many familiar faces again from our home visits from throughout the week. Even some who hadn’t come to church in a long while showed up to see say goodbye! The morning had acted as a sweet bookend to the encouragement this trip has been, for both our team and this church. It was such a joy to realize through goodbyes that the connections we had made across language barriers were bridged by faith and love for God and one another.

For lunch, we went to León’s town square and checked out a Caribbean cultural festival that had popped up there for the day. There was fun music, stands selling food and trinkets, and lots of dancing (hard to say if the onlookers appreciated our dancing or if they were just looking because we stuck out as foreigners who can’t dance).

Then we drove back to Managua and started some of our goodbyes to our friends and translators from Nourish. During dinner we heard more about the work Nourish does around the country outside of what we had interacted with and had the opportunity to ask David more questions about their work. We ended the night with a debrief on the whole trip, sharing and laughing about their sweet moments and the difficult experiences that we will remember and take with us in prayer as we leave.

Thank you to all who have contributed in support of this trip in prayer or giving. Your care was seen and felt by our team and by the church here.

The End.

- Jacob Shuman