Back at NCA

This is year 15 for me (Liam) at Nicaragua Christian Academy.  It is the school's 24th year of existence.  So much has happened during this time, including the rapid growth from 7 students in 1991 to over 900 students in 3 campuses!

Last year was an exceptionally busy year.  In addition to finishing the construction of a larger multipurpose center, tackling a first-ever major school musical, and dealing with government-mandated school closings related to seismic activity, it was also the year of our five-year school accreditation review.  This meant lots of work, reporting, preparations, and self-study processes.  Fortunately, NCA came out quite well in the review, with many commendable practices and strengths.  In addition to this, opportunities for improvement were identified.

This new school year is a time for us to focus on growth.  Leading school improvement efforts is one of my main responsibilities as director, and this year brings many new opportunities and challenges.  Our next big project is the construction of a new library in the old chapel area, which will be renovated into a larger and more central area for developing our students' love for reading.  Construction began this week and we hope to move in to the new space by January 2015.

Above all, our continual prayer is that the lives of our students will be touched and transformed by God and the Holy Spirit working inside them.  Our goal is that they will grow into young women and men that love God wholeheartedly and desire to serve Him through loving and serving others.

Earthquake!

As many of you may already know, Nicaragua has experienced quite a bit of "earth movement" in the last 8 days.  On Thursday, April 10 at about 5:30 p.m. we were all at home when suddenly our whole house began to shake!  Judah and Asher were already outside; the rest of us quickly ran outside for safety.  Caleb was excited, Judah was especially afraid, Belen was worried and Asher, who was sitting on his tricycle in the driveway, said, "Woah!" (one of his few words).

We have experienced many tremors over the years.  Some are barely perceptible unless you are sitting down; others are more obvious even if you're standing or driving.  Some are short-lasting and others seem to have a rolling feeling that lasts up to 30 seconds or longer.  This one was easily the strongest earthquake tremor we have ever felt.  The power and cell phone service both went out immediately and was not restored for about 30-40 minutes.  Although there was no damage to our house, several things were knocked over on shelves.  It was reported as a 6.1 on the Richter scale and fairly close to Managua and shallow, which is why it was felt stronger than most others that are off-shore.  A picture of one of the grocery stores we shop in shows how the shaking was enough to knock many of the cans off the shelves.

There have been numerous aftershocks from this quake.  There was a significant one that measured 5.1 just 30 minutes later, causing us to evacuate our house again.  Even this aftershock felt just as strong as anything else we've experienced.  There have been 16 significant aftershocks and hundreds of smaller ones that are less perceptible.  Although damage in Managua has been minimal, there were several homes that were damaged in a city called Nagarote.  Much of the damage was partly due to poorly constructed houses that were not built to withstand earthquakes.

It is safe to say that the people of Managua are very nervous.  After the first earthquake and a few aftershocks, the government issued a "red alert" and school was cancelled for the following day (the last day of school before Semana Santa -- Holy Week).  A second quake the next day resulted in businesses, stores and malls being closed.  Many people remember the big earthquake that leveled Managua in 1972 and have a strong fear of earthquakes.  The media (which normally has fairly sensationalist tendencies) was predicting huge earthquakes, and some people slept outside their homes several nights for fear of more activity.  Hospitals were evacuated and the media reported anything that would make this seem worse.  Most recently, there was report of a 16 meter (52.5 foot) drop in the water level of Lake Managua, which may or may not be true.  Semana Santa is normally a week when everyone in Managua goes to the beach, but this past weekend the beaches were empty!

We are not living in fear.  Although we seem to be imagining small tremors more than normal (only some of which are real), we know and trust in God who is our protector and provider.  Please pray for people who were legitimately affected by these earthquakes -- those who lost their homes or had significant damage.  We are grateful that there were no deaths directly resulting from earthquake damage.  We also know that God can use events like this to draw more people into a saving relationship with Him!

School Musical: The Story of Esther

This has been a busy semester at school, and it all seemed to come to a climax in the month of March.  The three main things that were huge for our school were our re-accreditation process, our students' trip to Panama for HACIA Democracy, and our first ever school musical.  On Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, March 27-29, we presented “The Desires of your Heart” – a school musical based on the Biblical story of Esther.  This was easily the biggest drama production our school has ever undertaken, and it would not have been possible without our new Eagle Center facilities.  We had 42 high school students involved in acting/singing (20), stage crew (7), orchestra (5), audio/video (2), film crew (4), and concessions (4).  There were an estimated 560 people in attendance total.  We were very happy that the first ever NCA school musical in our new Eagle Center facility clearly demonstrated our commitment to honoring God in the arts!

CRC Missionary Spiritual Retreat

Each year during Semana Santa (Holy Week) the CRWM and World Renew missionaries from all over Central America gather in Nicaragua for a Spiritual Retreat.  This 4-day retreat is full of encouragement, sharing, sessions led by an invited guest speaker, and some needed rest and relaxation.  We are enjoying the fact that our kids are getting a little bigger and can be more independent.  Caleb (7.5) and Judah (almost 6) can both swim on their own and Belen (3) swims well with a floatie.  Asher (22 months) enjoyed lots of time jumping into the water and lots of splashing.  We were thankful for the time to connect with new friends and old, and to take time out of our normal routines for some relaxing at the beach!

New Library Project

We are very excited to announce that NCA International is getting ready to build a new library!  Although our school is now in its 23rd year of existence and has grown from 7 students to over 340 students, our library is currently in a room that is smaller than the classrooms.  Despite our many attempts to help the library grow and improve, we have reached an impassable wall: without a larger space, we will not be able to make the library into what it needs to be.

It is noteworthy that even the concept of a lending library is still little-known in Nicaragua.  Most schools do not have a library, and the closest they may come is having a set of reference materials that are kept locked away in the office (for fear that they might be lost or stolen) and available to teachers upon request.  Nicaragua's central library in Managua does not allow anyone to borrow books.  Its primary purpose is for research, and all materials must stay inside the library (for fear that they would never be returned).  Most children in Nicaragua have never checked out a book, and many have never even sat down to read a children's fiction book.

As you probably know, instilling in children a love for reading is extremely important to their language development and life skills.  If students are successful in language arts, this opens up the door to success in other academic subjects, and it gives them a strong advantage in life.  We are hopeful that as we build a new library facility, we will be able to continue to strengthen this important area in the lives of our students.

For more information about the library project, please watch the following 4-minute video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Uhr6yePz_4

Family Photo Update

We thought you would enjoy a few pictures from the last two months.

Ready for some warmer weather?  If you're sick of the snow, you're always welcome to come visit us!

Liam's Interesting Ride Home

I (Liam) have a short drive home from school each day, but as I drove home on Sunday, I realized that even in that short drive there are typically many things that are very different from what I would see if I were driving in the states.  Here's what I saw...what does your drive home look like?

First, a police stop in the road just beyond school.  Traffic lined up both ways because of high traffic coming from beach (Sunday afternoons sometimes like that) and it was difficult to get past a car that had been pulled over.  One motorcyclist rudely blared on his horn since traffic wasn't moving and I was pleased to see that the police pulled him over as well.

Just past the police stop, I noticed groups of kids walking with small bags in their hands.  They are coming back home from the local Catholic church, which hands out candy and other small gifts to kids who attend the "Purisima" (Immaculate Conception) services in December.  My mind wanders to wondering whether this is a good practice or not, and what the historical roots of this tradition might be.

Turning onto our side road, I passed a taxi and noticed that a large man was leaning on the back of the taxi and vomiting onto the road.  He appeared intoxicated and I'm guessing he had too much to drink.  Alcoholism is a big problem in Nicaragua, and it is unfortunately all to common to see scenes like this on Sunday afternoons and evenings, especially on weekends after people have been paid (the 15th and 30th of the month for most people).  In the beginning of December, most people also receive an extra month of pay as a Christmas bonus, and unfortunately for some people with drinking problems, this money doesn't ever make it home.

A little further I reached the gate to our community and was reminded that today I needed to pay the $12 contribution we give twice a month for the salary of the guards that watch the 35 houses in our immediate community.  Since it is December, I gave the additional $8 suggested donation toward their "Christmas Chicken" (okay, Christmas turkey might be a better translation, but turkey is not common in Nicaragua).  The note they had given us thanked us in advance for our help with their "gallina navideña".

Finally, nearing our house, I stopped because in front of me on the dirt road was a 5-foot-long boa constrictor, probably enjoying the warm afternoon sun before it set.  It was fairly fat and did not seem like it had plans to move.  I stopped the car and ran past it to get the kids and family so we could see it and take a few pictures.  Although there are snakes around us, we do not often see such a big one or have a chance to stop and admire it (or fear it).  After a few pictures, it started slithering away toward our car, and to our horror, went under the car and started to attempt to climb into the engine.  I quickly jumped in the car and drove it to our house before it could find a nice warm home in the engine, which would undoubtedly cause plenty of problems the next time we wanted to use the car.

The 1.5-mile drive between school and home isn't always this eventful, and sometimes we are so used to many of these things that we forget to stop and write about them.  Hopefully you enjoyed "coming along for the ride."