Sea to Sea Day 3
Day 3 – 48 miles in 8 hours on rocky, dirt, mostly flat roads
As we began the ride from Nazaret Uno to Rosita, I began praying to God for Him to open my eyes to notice when we passed the sites where one of our medical teams had held clinics just a year and a half prior to the Sea to Sea. (It’s easy to miss the scenery around you when you are constantly dodging rocks and mud puddles). I also prayed that I would run across the pastor of the small church near the clinic site that had helped us during the clinic.
I was pleasantly surprised by finding not only the pastor, but also another member of the church who had helped with the clinic. They happened to be sitting on the steps of the church as we rode by.
They recognized me and we had the chance to share with them about why we were riding across Nicaragua. We chatted awhile and the pastor shared that the church is still only has about 10 members and said the people in this region are hard toward the gospel of Christ. This faithful man continues to labor without much encouragement in one of the poorest and spiritually dead areas of Nicaragua. God bless him, and thank Him for answered prayers.
Although all riders made it to the Pacific Coast in one piece, we had a scare this day. One of the riders’ tires got caught between two pieces of wood on a rickety bridge and he fell 8 feet off the bridge, landing on his back, bike falling on top of him, into a river a foot and a half deep. By the grace of God he was back on his bike shortly after the accident with only minor cuts and a questionable cracked rib.
That evening, I was bushed, and my bum was…well…not happy either. It had been an exhilerating and exhausting day. Once we reached Rosita I walked the dusty streets in town at dusk in search of a pinata for the team so that we could have a little New Years fun. I then washed out my clothes and hung them to dry so they’d be ready to wear again the next morning and helped our medic attend to the needs of a dehydrated team member with leg cramping. I actually hit the sack early and missed the pinata beating. It was the first New Years Eve in my adult life that I did not stay up until midnight. I wouldn’t have had it any other way…considering the circumstances.
