Dear Friends,
Greetings to you all! After about five month of staying in my small village I have come back down river, to communication.
My Dad, Mary, and I came to Pueto for classes on the laws of running a Children’s Home in Nicaragua. Today we met with the head lady of the family services of this region. The laws here are very strict, but praise the Lord, he has granted us great favor with this lady. Such a huge blessing. I’m still in aww! Now we are praying that the Lord will direct the top people in Managua as well, as she goes and pleads our case with them.
We have some very very exciting news to share with ya’ll. Someone has promised enough money to build the Children’s Home! We already have a third and the rest will most likely be coming in very soon. We are all very excited about this! We plan on starting construction as soon as we get back up river with supplies.
This past week we were able to feed the community two times due to such hard times. We hired two of the local women (one of them being Alma) to help with the cooking, and one of the men from the community to help with making sure everything runs smoothly. It was amazing how smoothly everything went. For about 45 minutes before we began serving we ran an audio bible in their language. It was amazing for me to see how quietly the children sat and listened till the food was ready. After the first time we had everyone bring a piece of firewood for their plate of food, then we would give them a ticket so they could get their food. We fed about 310 people last time and are expecting more this time. The people are truly thankful for this blessing and I have had numerous mothers tell me how grateful they are, because they don’t have good food to feed their children, much less themselves. If our finances allow, we plan to continue the feedings for about a month, until the new rice is ready to harvest.
The Widow Alma that I had wrote about one time previously, got news that her 10 year old daughter who had been staying in Waspam with a relative was having trouble. So last time Dad came down river he took her home and she is now living with the rest of her family in KrinKrin. Thank you for providing food for this family so they can be together again. The Mama and the children have all put on some weight since they have enough to eat, and they are so much happier.
Dad had wrote to you earlier and told you he had brought Anas and Semena’s grandparents down river because the grandpa was close to death. The grandpa is doing a little better now and they when back up river to KrinKrin. In the mean while the children’s mother came back and is staying for this point and time. She also brought back the big brother Ornasio and their baby sister Linda. Things haven’t been going so well with that. At first, filled with envy of us because the children loved us much more then her, she refused to let the children come see us, but quickly got tired of them. Now the children spend almost all day at our house and eat all but one meal their. The mother never brushes little Semena’s hair or gives her bathes. Many times I wonder how a mother could possibly care so little about her children.
Our little Benjiman has really been amazing. It was really hard at times but at this point he seems to have made some choices in the right direction and it is going a little smoother now.
We are still praying about the medical clinic, that the Lord would have His way in all of it. We still haven’t heard from a medical person who wants to come, but we are convinced that the Lord will not be late with that part either. So we continue praying, knowing that He will work out the details in the time He has chosen.
Dad was able to fix our boat when he was down last time which is a huge blessing. He was able to make the 10 hour trip in only 2 hours and 45 minutes. And coming down we were able to make it in only 2 hours. This is such a blessing to our ministry, and for Dad that he doesn’t have to sit on the side of those boats for hours every month.
We were also reminded again this week how delicate our stay is in this culture. We have just seen two different cases of a village taking back land that they had given to an American group earlier. In both cases the reason they had for taking it back was because of unfulfilled promises they had made at the time of coming in.
Thank ya’ll so much for all your prayers.
In Christ Always, Sarah
Here is a little story that Mary wrote
Last week a young man named Steven died in our community (from what we thing was Dengue) leaving Mijila his wife to be a 17 year old widow with their one year old son Jon.
My heart is broken for this young girl, barely old enough to be a wife and mother and is now widowed at 17.
What can I say to her, words are meaningless. No amount of words can heal her heart. All I have managed to do so far is sit and hold her as we cry together.
Seeing her sit on the ground and cry as they buried her husband tore my heart. All I can do is ask God to be her comforter.
Now their son asks his mom daily “where is daddy”? She just holds him and cries, for how can she explain to him that daddy will never come back. The man they both loved and respected is gone. The man who spent more time with his child then any other man in the community. As Jon grows up he won’t remember that his dad would play with him for hours on their porch, or carry him on his shoulders and take him with him wherever he went. All he will know is what his mom will tell him.
They are living with her parents right now so she has someone to take care of and provide for them, but please pray that God will heal her heart, that she would lean on Him and that through this she would draw close Him. By Mary Lee