John, Elifonso and "Juan" (named after John) in February 2007 .
In 1998, Hurricane Mitch swept thru Nicaragua (and much of Central America) and changed the landscape. There was a huge deluge of water, roads and bridges were washed away and thousand of lives were lost. During the deluge, the crater of Las Casitas (volcano) filled with the torrential rainwater. The pressure of the water caused the side of the volcano to collapse, and a wall of mud then slid and covered a little town (I think it was called Las Casitas, but am not sure). What I know is, men - women - and children ran for their lives. They left behind grandmas in their beds who could not walk, cows, dogs, horses and everything they held dear. As they ran thru the mud that was following them, a mom and a dad might have held on to their kids' hands. As one child would begin to slip into the mud, they would "instinctively" use their other hand to not let that happen. BUT, caused the OTHER child slip into the mud, and be covered ... and be lost. There was mayhem and screaming and running. And when it was all over, there was a huge loss. Huge.
The people who were able to run for safety and made it out alive have a “big heartbreak burden” they live with daily. Some feel guilt for leaving a dear one behind, or not running fast enough, or not holding onto a child tight enough ... all are futile thoughts, yet these thoughts remain and make up a pall of despair on this community. When it was all said and done, the survivors of this community had a couple of choices given them by the government. One was to return and build new houses ON TOP OF the newly changed landscape (on top of their old houses, mothers, what have you). The government said they'd rebuild with cement block houses. The other choice was to be relocated in a flat farmland near Leon (called La Ceiba) and be given the land - together with branches and black plastic to build houses. The land doesn't have clear title by the way, but that's another story.
The community is POOR. It is the community Helen and I hope to work with to start microbusinesses.
If you or any group you know can take up prayer for La Ceiba whenever you meet - that would be awesome.
The photos show you a slice of life in La Ceiba. Elifonso now has a cement block home, but many many other houses of this style remain.
This community needs so many things. Desperately. Thus, we have projects in mind. We can’t start them all immediately, but we hope to start them all sooner rather than later.
Thank you for your prayers and support. We appreciate you – and we pray for you too! We pray you would somehow come to understand the richness of life in the U.S. (and how blessed of a nation it is) and also that your hearts would be touched to help bring food and hope, thus joy, to this community. You can visit us and go to La Ceiba with us. Anytime. Just let us know. The people will be thrilled – and we will too.
This is our prayer.
The people who were able to run for safety and made it out alive have a “big heartbreak burden” they live with daily. Some feel guilt for leaving a dear one behind, or not running fast enough, or not holding onto a child tight enough ... all are futile thoughts, yet these thoughts remain and make up a pall of despair on this community. When it was all said and done, the survivors of this community had a couple of choices given them by the government. One was to return and build new houses ON TOP OF the newly changed landscape (on top of their old houses, mothers, what have you). The government said they'd rebuild with cement block houses. The other choice was to be relocated in a flat farmland near Leon (called La Ceiba) and be given the land - together with branches and black plastic to build houses. The land doesn't have clear title by the way, but that's another story.
The community is POOR. It is the community Helen and I hope to work with to start microbusinesses.
If you or any group you know can take up prayer for La Ceiba whenever you meet - that would be awesome.
The photos show you a slice of life in La Ceiba. Elifonso now has a cement block home, but many many other houses of this style remain.
This community needs so many things. Desperately. Thus, we have projects in mind. We can’t start them all immediately, but we hope to start them all sooner rather than later.
Thank you for your prayers and support. We appreciate you – and we pray for you too! We pray you would somehow come to understand the richness of life in the U.S. (and how blessed of a nation it is) and also that your hearts would be touched to help bring food and hope, thus joy, to this community. You can visit us and go to La Ceiba with us. Anytime. Just let us know. The people will be thrilled – and we will too.
This is our prayer.
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