Thanksgiving in Nicaragua

Last Thursday was Thanksgiving day! Although it is not a holiday in Nicaragua and most Nicaraguans are worked on Thursday and Friday, our school celebrates Thanksgiving and we get two days off.

Wednesday was our Thanksgiving Program at NCA. Each class gave a presentation, and Caleb's role was to say, "I'm thankful for God's Word, the Bible." As parents, we were worried that he would get stage fright and not say anything, but he did a great job speaking into the microphone in front of hundreds of people! Great job, Caleb!

Thursday evening we had several other missionary families at our house to celebrate Thanksgiving together with them, although turkey was not on the menu because it is so expensive. Rotisseri chicken was the substitute, along with all of your other traditional Thanksgiving foods.

We already had shared a real turkey dinner last Sunday night at International Christian Fellowship with many other missionary families. The church was full and the pot luck buffet line was long, but most of all, we had a lot to be thankful for!

Christmas Bonuses

In thinking about how life in Nicaragua is different, I thought you might find the following interesting:

• All Nicaraguan workers are legally entitled to a year-end bonus of 1 month salary (aguinaldo).
• There is also a well-founded tradition of employers giving all of their employees a "Christmas basket". In its original essence, this is supposed to be all of the ingredients to prepare a Christmas meal, but it usually ends up growing into a very big gift basket.

Imagine recieving a full month of salary as a Christmas bonus! Anyone thinking about getting a job here in Nicaragua? On the flip side, Nicaragua is the poorest Spanish-speaking country in the world and the minimum wage is only $0.48 per hour ($1,400 per year for a full-time job).

Liam's Recruiting Trip

For the past three years, part of Liam's role as Director at Nicaragua Christian Academy has included traveling to the States to participate in the ACSI International Teacher recruiting fair. The purpose is to connect with potential teacher candidates so that as we have needs for new teachers in upcoming school years, more people will know about our school and be able to apply for openings.

In November, Liam visited six colleges and universities: Dordt College (IA), Wheaton College and Moody Bible Institute (Chicago), Calvin College, Cornerstone University and Hope College (MI). Liam spoke with over 120 potential teachers at these locations and many expressed interest in teaching at NCA in the future.

A Walk in the Woods

One of our favorite family activities is to go for a walk on a dirt road near our house. Many Saturday mornings we will take the short drive out into the "campo", or countryside, to enjoy the cooler fresh air. The kids enjoy seeing chickens, cows, and horses, and the Nicaraguans think it is funny to see us meandering down their road, where they get little or no traffic. We might not have State Parks or National Parks to visit, but God's beauty is always around us if we pause to notice it.

Would You Do It?

Several years ago, our local Managua newspaper (La Prensa) published an interesting survey. One of the questions really caught my eye. They asked youth across Nicaragua the following question: "If you had the chance to leave Nicaragua to another country but could never return, would you do it?" For me (and probably most of you), the answer is easy. I would never want to leave my home country if it meant not being able to return. However, the surprising answer for 84% of Nicaraguan youth was "yes!"

The sad reality is that there are many Nicaraguans who believe they would be better off anywhere else than in their own country. They have given up on the possibility that their country will ever rid itself of the poverty and corruption that have plagued this nation throughout their lifetimes. Unfortunately, the escape mentality (which has led many to leave the country) only furthers Nicaragua's inability to grow.

One factor that has brought our family to such a strong commitment to God's ministry through Nicaragua Christian Academy is that we see something very different among our students. Each year, before our senior class graduates from high school, the soon-to-be graduates share their hopes and dreams for the future. Although the responses of our missionary kids and other international students are always extremely interesting and encouraging, most intriguing to me is what our Nicaraguan students (more than 50%) have to share. While their peers dream of abandoning their country, our NCA students consistently share of their plans to continue their studies (most of them in the United States or Costa Rica, where university education is much better than in Nicaragua) and of their commitment to return to Nicaragua. Their words reflect a mentality of, "This is my country, and I know that with God's help, I can make a difference here in the future." It is this hope that we see in the eyes of our students that gives us a sense of renewed passion each day and year for what God is doing at Nicaragua Christian Academy!

It's Raining, It's Pouring

A few more weeks of this and Nicaragua may be under water! Or so it seems. We have received record levels of rain during the past few months, due to a heavy rainy season and a series of tropical depressions that have dumped heavy rainfall across the country.

For us, this means scrambling to take clothes off the line (or more likely hanging them around inside the house), a few leaky spots in the roof, and a muddy dog. For many people in Nicaragua, though, it has been more than just an inconvenience. On August 19th, a tenth grader at NCA Nejapa, the daughter of one of our cooks at NCA, drowned when walking home from school. Nicaragua has inadequate storm sewer systems, and instead relies on drainage ditches which fill with raging rivers during heavy rains. These are ineffective and dangerous, and she drowned while trying to cross one during her walk home. That same week, Nicaraguan friends of ours called us early in the morning to say that their house, which was made of concrete blocks, had been almost washed away during the night. The runoff from the road had diverted and broken through the wall of their house, leaving a large hole in the side of the house and knocking down the whole back wall. Their house was full of mud and most things were ruined, but they were thankful that their young children had not been sleeping there when the water started pouring into the house.

Many people have lost their homes as the waters of Lake Managua have risen. The newspapers tell us that water level of the lake is higher than it was during Hurricane Mitch, back in 1998. Just last week five Red Cross workers and a journalist drowned while trying to bring relief to a remote village. For people who have so very little, a rainy season like this is devastating. The price of beans, a daily staple, has gone up from nine córdobas ($0.43) a pound last year at this time, to 25 córdobas ($1.20) a pound, because an entire crop of beans was ruined due to rain.

Our family is confronted daily with the reality of the difficult lives that those around us lead. We struggle with knowing how to help people. Giving financially or materially is often not the best solution, but promises to pray for people can often sound empty when the needs are so great. We are thankful that God is the provider, both for us and for our friends in need. He is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine. The past two weeks have been much sunnier than the months of August or September. We ask for you to pray with us for wisdom, safety, and an end to the heavy rains. We are thankful, too, that within a month or so, the rainy season will end and the dry season will begin.

Photo shows perimeter wall blown out by water and flooding at NCA Nejapa.

As I write this, it is hot hot hot! This is the time of year in Nicaragua when everything is holding its breath, waiting for it to rain. The ground is dry, the grass is brown, and when we walk on the dirt roads, the dust is thick and billowing. There is little wind, and the air is thick and heavy. It’s not very fun! But yet this is how God made the world…and He will bring the rains back in His timing.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Sometimes we want our God to be a God of comfort, who sets us in a hammock on the porch with a cold drink, gives us a little shower every afternoon to keep the flowers green, and tucks us in at night with a cup of hot chocolate. When adversity comes our way, we do everything we can to avoid it. We say, “well, I guess I shouldn’t do this or that, because it might result in my being uncomfortable, or poor, etc., and God certainly would never ask me to do that!”

But then I look at examples of people in the Bible, who we know were doing what God asked of them: Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Paul—none of them lived easy lives. All walked long dusty roads and, I am sure, longed for a cool breeze and a hammock in the shade. God called them to sacrifice physically, emotionally, spiritually, and financially, and He may just call us to do the same.

So what does this have to do with anything? Well, it has to do with all of our lives as we live them in each day, listening to His voice and His calling. For us, though, I can’t help but think of Nicaragua. Nicaragua has changed a lot in the past few years. We have had a huge increase in home invasion/robbery, as well as an increase in political unrest. It is likely that in the next two years things will continue to escalate. This isn’t just true for Nicaragua, but for many mission fields. We may start to ask ourselves, “Would our God really call us to stay here through this?” And though there may be a time where the answer is “no”, until then, we trust that God is with us in every situation, and that He will help us to be responsible with whatever load He has given us, be it heavy or light.

Please pray for your missionaries around the world, that we may continue to hear God’s calling, to be obedient, and that He would grant us peace and safety in every circumstance.

Month By Month

It’s been way too long since we have written an update! I apologize, and can only blame it on the busyness that I’m sure we all battle. Here’s a quick update of our lives in the past few months:

November—Liam headed to the States for a while to do some teacher recruiting, at Calvin, Cornerstone, Wheaton and Moody, among others. While he was gone, our house was broken into here in Nicaragua, and our computer stolen. Liam was able to buy another one before he left Texas. It was amazing to see how God provided for everything in His timing.

December—We had a bunch of guests! Liam’s parents came for an early Christmas, and then my parents came, along with my sister, Michelle. It was awesome to have them here. We enjoyed the beach, the cooler weather, and spending lots of time together.

January—Was a busy month of getting back to school and getting ready for NCA Nejapa to start in February. Liam kept busy with school, and I kept busy with the kids, as well as with leading a Bible study for some of the teachers at NCA.

February—Was the busiest yet! I worked on planning our annual school Festival, which this year was a fundraiser to support Christian schools in Haiti. We had games, food, a bazaar, fun with water, a petting zoo, and lots more. It was great for the missionaries and Nicaraguans of our school to put forth effort for those in need in Haiti. We raised $6,000, which is more than we’ve ever raised at a festival in the past! February was also the month when our brand new computer stopped working…

March—Liam headed to Costa Rica for HACIA Democracy political debates, with a group of high school students from NCA and NCA Nejapa. I stayed with the kids and prepared for two children’s events: the childcare for our CRC retreat, where we have missionary families from across Central America; and our own church’s Easter Sunday children’s event. At the end of the month, we headed out to the ocean with about 60 other missionaries to enjoy a time of fellowship and relaxing.