And so it begins

          Hello, everyone! I am Nick Johnson. Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. I am called to the great commissionand currently in the mission field in Nicaragua with Adventures in Missions. I previously had spent a year in Ensenada ,Mexico with YWAM and went through a Descipleship Training School and worked 2 seasons of our mission trip camp, Mission Adventures. There God changed my life in a radical way and revealed to me the calling and passion for missions he had givin me. Long story short, God was calling me somewhere else and brought me here with these amazing people for the nextchapter in my life. Our squad consists of 24 people ages 18-22 and 4 separate teams within the squad. I am leading a team of
6 incredible young adults who love God and people with all of their hearts and constantly make me feel so blessed to spend these next 9 months of my life with them.This is week 1 of our 9 month trip around the world.This is my first blog and I'm not that great at writing, but I am so excited to invite you to join me on my adventure, to see what God is doing all around the world in Central America, Asia, and Africa, and share with me the joy that comes with seeing a living and loving God still active and all powerful and allowing people like me to join him in his story.

       We arrived into Managua, Nicaragua at about 8:30 pm on September 4th. It was so surreal…everything we had been dreaming about and working toward for so long was finally coming to life. Finally became real. All 24 of us and our 50 pound backpacks were loaded into an army truck, sitting on luggage and each other for a 3 hour ride to Chinadega. After arriving to our new home, a compound for a ministry named "The Hands of Vision", we all eventually found our way to sleep so axiously waiting to see what God and Nicaragua had in store for us in our 3 months here. I woke up on our first full day here and walked outside to see an active volcano towering over the earth and sending vast plumes of smoke miles into the air. It is just about 10 miles from our base. Apparently that same morning I literally slept through an earthquake as well. The night
before I had found a tarantula about the size of my hand in the bathroom. Seriously, of all places, it had to be in the bathroom. And today I sat down under a palm tree with a friend drinking the milk of a freshly picked and cut open coconut mixed with lime juice. It is so foreign here. It is so beautiful, so different, So exciting. It feels so incredible to just be here in such a breathtakingly beautiful and exotic country. But it feels even better to know that I am finally where God wants me, and I am doing what I am passionate about again. That is bringing his kingdom down to Earth and making desciples of the nations.

        We have had 2 days of ministry so far. The first day we went out into a village named "Bethel". My team of 6 went out into the village expecting God to show up, and without an agenda. We waked around for a few minutes greeting locals as we passed by untill we arrived at one house with about 5 kids behind a barred up front porch. They all started yelling "GRINGOS!!! GRINGOS!!!" that is latin american for "white people". The kids ran outside and jumped into our arms and were immediately offering us flowers as presents and initing us to play whatever new game they could create on the spot. Within 10 minutes the crowd grew from 5 to 15, and then we moved into the center of the village. There al 24 of us missionaries and about 100 kids were playing baseball, tag, and everything in between. It was a great experience. We were able to build
relationships with the children and adults of the village alike, and being here for 3 months, it is a good thing to build good relationships and gain the people's trust early.

    Yesterday we visited an orphanage, but this time not to be with the children, but to do physical labor. We planted so may mango, avocado, and plantain trees. I dont even remember, but I think it was about 30 trees. It was such a blessing to be able to bless the people who were devoting their lives to the orphans. They have their own organic farm that supplies them with the majority of their food, and I was blessed to be able to help them in their vision for that orphanage. Again, we built relationships with the people who work and live there.

    I can't tell you exactly what it is yet, but God's plan has been set into motion. I am so excited to see how these next 3 months in Nicaragua unfold and cannot wait to share them with you. I will only have internet access on Saturday so my posts and availability for communication will be limited. But I will post a new blog
next week! Thanks and God Bless