What does education mean to You?

Children in Nicaragua I imagine only think of or dream about getting an education.
Can you imagine what this is like? A book becomes a treasure that you are looking for.

I have met children in Nicaragua who only complete the 2nd-grade education.
The problem is even if they can go to school lots of times they do not have a pencil to write with or paper to write on. When I first found this out it was astounding to me.
The building that I visited that is called a school was a shamble.

Meeting children who are not going to school or who have dropped out weighs heavily on my heart.
They are starting to work as early as seven years old selling food on buses.
In Nicaragua the public buse is a means for these kids to earn a wage.  That wage is usually just to feed them and help their families.
This does not mean they will later get an education as that will be forgotten about.

The second scenario is chiIren are in a home with no opportunity to go to school.  They are lucky enought to have meager amounts of food to eat.

Can you try to imagine what that is like?  A book becomes a treasure that you are looking for.

Meet Caterine, when I met her, her elderly aunt and uncle were taking care of her as her mother abandoned her.  She was a very sad little girl who looked like she had no hope.   They told us we are taking care of her the best we can but life is hard.

Luckily for her we found her a sponsor to help with a her basic daily needs.

 Now, she is much happier and she has enough food to eat.

Her future has a brighter side as she is now being educated.

Our next step in this program is community development.  

You may ask what does that look like?  Well, we want to be able to share the love of Jesus 

with these children.  So, when they start feeling alone and hopeless they will not look to themselves, but to Jesus. We are looking to teach them songs, bible stories and interact with them through

crafts.

I believe one of the best ways is to build a solid relationship with someone is to spend time with them.  That's why I have made it a priority to go and visit the children every 4 months.  I want to be involved in their lives.

These children are living very remotely where no organization has gone before.

If we want to help the problem of poverty for the next generation the time to act is now!

Today I want to ask you would you consider investing in the future of children in Nicaragua?

Women in Missions

Corrie Ten Boon

Holocaust Survivor

After she was released from a concentration camp she travelled the world

to share The Love of God!

January 2017

        

The Child Sponsorship program is to help keep children in school to change the next generation. At the Bethlehem Farm, we want to make an impact on the people of this region.

According to the pastors we work with, the children in this region typically either never go to the school or drop out to go to work.
When parents have no food, everyone has to help, and that means a 7-year-old might work. I know this to be true as my daughter and I (in the early years) rode the buses from Chinandega to the farm. This opened our eyes of child labour issues in Nicaragua.

For us, going to Nicaragua to be with the sponsored children is always a highlight of the winter months.

 When it is winter in Kentucky, it is our summer in Nicaragua. We arrive in Chinandega, where we typically stay in the city at a hotel.

 Chinandega has public transportation and we can buy our food from a local market. The city gives a feeling of a small town where people are very friendly. As we

walk along the streets, everyone is out in their rocking chairs, talking and socializing.

 The Bethlehem Farm is located 45 minutes outside of Chinandega where people live in very rural areas.

It is truly amazing how the Lord fills our hearts with the love of children. Especially when we get there and a child we may not have seen in

many months comes to give us a hug. Now, that's a good day!

Each January, the Nicaraguan Ministry has a Christmas celebration for the children that live close to the farm, as our goal is to have an impact on this region. This year we were able to invite 250 children from the area and each child received a gift: a doll for the girls, a truck

for the boys, and building blocks!

 

This was definitely an exciting time for everyone.

We also presented a video to the children for the first time, and we chose the story of Goliath.

 

My hope is that this story will stick in their minds so when they feel there is a giant in front of them they will not be afraid.

You could be a part of this amazing change that is taking place. Come to Nicaragua and help change lives!

 https://www.missionsdoor.org/project/nicaragua-child-sponsorship-program/

August Trip

The Child Sponsorship Program is getting off to a great beginning.

We are feeding children who were not getting the correct nutrition.
Thankfully, God chose you, the sponsor, to help a little child who is
suffering today.
Have you ever thought about the food a Nicaraguan would eat?
Typically, they have beans for breakfas, with a corn tortilla.

(This would be if you were eating every day, some are not.)
With our program, sponsored children will be able to eat every day. Now that is the type of good news I like to hear about.

Getting an education in Nicaragua is not a given. In America, every child
goes to school.  This is not so here.  I see more children out of school than in.

Chinandega is a city that I stay in when I go to Nicaragua.

 A lot of the villages where we sponsor children in are 45 minutes outside of the city.
To get to their homes it is a rugged ride over dusty dirt roads.
When you get there, and you see the children waiting for you with a smile
on their face, you know it is all worth it.
In August when I came we went to a new village I had not been to before.
This was where the seven new sponsored live.
Besides children being sponsored there Carlos, was getting to know the families there.

Pastor Carlos at The Bethlehem Farm

 We are praying he will be able to establish a church in this community.  When we start to develop
relationships in a community, we begin to understand medical needs also.

Many of the families have to make a choice: do I buy paper, or do we eat today?
You see, when children do not have school supplies such as pencils and paper, they
are not permitted to come to school.
Visiting the sponsored children every time I am in Nicaragua is what I strive to do.
Before we had the program for the children, Rigoberto(one of the missionaries working in Nicaragua), would take me to many different villages to visit families.  I would come home very disturbed at seeing how people were living in plastic houses with not enough food to eat.
He taught me a cold stove was an indication that the family had not eaten in a day or more.

 How were we going to change this situation?

Well, God knew what HE wanted to do I just didn't know it yet.

Thank you to all the people with so much compassion on these little ones.

May we strive to help be part of changing the next generation.

If you are interested in being a sponsor, please contact me, 

we have children waiting for you!

Summer Hapennings

  May was a GREAT time to be in Nicaragua.  We got to see the Child Sponsorship Program in action! I was going to be able to meet all the children that had been sponsored.
This was my request to my ministry partner, Rigoberto Reyes, the Central America Director and missionary to Nicaragua with Missions Door. With him, we were able to meet with the children and guardians.
What was so GREAT you may ask, as this is a third world country. Small changes were about to begin for the next generation.  Our future leaders would be impacted from the many people who showed an act of kindness.

 It was truly amazing as we visited each village, where the
children lived.

They would not understand what was going on now,
but they would see as time passed on. They would have food to
eat.  The children in this photo came from many different villages
in the area.

We were having a celebrating of the Sponsorship program with the children and their families at the farm.

Cafe at Bethlehem Farm

I was able to help each child color a picture and saw their smiling faces. They really enjoyed themselves.

After the worship, we gave them a month-long supply of food.

This ended our day of celebration.

I am so grateful to my sponsors for this

opportunity to serve.

Nicaragua Children

Sponsor a Child Program

Child sponsorship program is a unique program that I became
acquainted with many years ago. I wanted to make a difference in a child's life who did
not have educational opportunities.  In Central America most children are not going to
school as their families lack funds for an education.

We sponsored a little boy from El Salvador, named David.
We were able to help David go to school and provide food for him.
This allowed him to grow and learn like children in America.
The best part was we wrote to him and learned about his life.
He would draw pictures for us and ask us about our life.  These were
some amazing years, but sadly it came to an end one day.  David's families
home was washed away from flash flooding in El Salvador.
My heart was broken and that was the beginning of how I could serve the Lord
with children living in extreme poverty.
Sometimes we are allowed to go through experiences for a reason beyond our own understanding.
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,"declares the Lord," plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

 I believe it was because he had a very special job HE wanted me to be involved in for HIS glory.
While working in a very rural area of Nicaragua over the past 5 years I got to meet lots of children. The problem I saw was no one was helping them.
There was no program for these children that I met.
In the picture below my boss Rigoberto Reyes took me to visit villages where children
 are not being educated.  

Child sponsorship allows people like you and I to step in and  provide help where
needs that are not being met.  Yet the child stays with the family unit for stability.
The child has the opportunity to go to school and get educated, which in the long run will
help the family unit.  The parents get to watch their child develop along side of the sponsor.
The sponsor in one since gets to be a extended part of the family.
You the sponsor gets to be involved with the child and build a relationship with them through
writing letters and or visiting them in their country.

Are you willing to give something up so me and you and me can
minister to these little children.  I am looking for people who would come
along side of me and help in this great task.


 Would you be willing give up some of your time for the ones who cannot help themselves?

One of the task of my job is bringing Short-term teams to Nicaragua.
This has allowed me and the Americans I bring to meet these little children.
When we do these short-term teams we do vacation bible programs in different villages where the name of Jesus is not known.

I started thinking were not just to go and meet them we are help them.

Child sponsorship is the way we can do that together.

There are over 500,000 children in Nicaragua that are not eligible for an education due to a lack of funds.

Agriculture on the Missions Field

Carlos is our new Pastor at the farm

In Nicaragua on the farm we are moving forward with a 

new agriculturist. 

In 2014 the farm staff planted these in the front of 

Bethlehem Farm it was amazing to see when I arrived.

Even though we were in a drought they still grew.  When 

you are waiting sometimes you just can't see how things are

going to work out.

At that time we were praying for God to send us a new 

agriculturist.  Here we are in 2016 and someone came to us

that Pastor Rigoberto discipled many years ago.  Unknown to us God

was working, we just needed to be patient.

When I was in Nicaragua in September Pastor Rigoberto

 brought me to meet Carlos.

I gave him seeds not knowing what he would do with them.

So when I arrived in November this what he showed me.

They are actually zinnia flower seedlings.

 

I was amazed and excited! 

When my family joined the mission as a volunteer back in 2011

we took a big leap of faith, not sure what was going to happen.

 Having always been a grower of plants,  I wanted to share

it with people who had nothing.  One of my desires was to teach 

people how to grow food they did not have today, but they could 

have tomorrow. They just have to be willing to try!

The Lord will share his burdens we need to be ready to act.