It has been an interesting month here in Nicaragua! Maybe some of you have seen Nicaragua on the news and wondered how we are and what is going on. On November 9, the much anticipated municipal elections were held both here in Managua and around the country. They were seen as a test of what people thought of Daniel Ortega’s Sandinista government over the past few years. Would the Sandinistas win the mayoral seats, particularly in Managua?
The elections were held, and within hours there were accusations of fraud coming from the PLC, the main opposition party. The days and weeks that followed were full of marches and rallies by both parties, some of which became violent. After a recount of the votes, Ortega declared that the Sandinistas had won in the majority of the cities, including Managua. Currently the PLC is attempting to annul the election.
Life for us has gone on as normal. We live outside the city and made sure to do our grocery shopping on days when no marches or demonstrations were planned. Our main goal was to not be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The real question on our minds is how the international community and the U.S. in particular will respond to the situation. Already the U.S. has cut off 65 million dollars of aid. Any support denied to the country will inevitably affect those it was sent to help: the poorest of the poor. The economy has been hit hard here, as it has in the U.S. Food and daily necessities have become even more unattainable with the rising of prices.
Please pray for Nicaragua, its leaders, and the leaders of any other countries involved, that they would have, overall, wisdom to see what is truth and what is not.
Despite all this, the construction of our new house continues! We have decided that if this is where God has called us to be, and if we have felt his leading to settle and build a home here, He alone, not any government or fear of the future, will call us to change those plans. We are very excited at the prospect of being moved in, hopefully by February. We thank all of you for your generous donations and commitments to help us as we pay off loans. Please pray, too, for the sale of our current house. We are putting it in God’s hands, but have thought that the library we had hoped to have here may better be located on the same property as our new home, so as not to maintain two properties. We will see what the Lord does!
In times where the future is uncertain, we have been even more certain of the need for Christian leaders in Nicaragua. The Lord is raising up young men and women committed to Him both at Nicaragua Christian Academy and at our Nejapa campus. As more missionaries come to Nicaragua to meet increasing needs, more MKs (missionary kids) come to us for education. As our school becomes more well-known because of the quality of education, more influential Nicaraguan families are sending their children. It is our hope that these kids are the ones who will invest their lives back into Nicaragua, standing up for democracy and leadership by integrity.