Author: Amanda

Dear Friends and Family, 

These are unique times we are living in.  Covid has had such an effect on our lives and continues to do so.  Nicaragua went through one of the worst waves in September since this whole pandemic started.  Daily we would hear of someone who had passed away or who was struggling with the virus. We were constantly lifting up someone in prayer asking for God’s healing touch on their lives.  However, because the government is so quiet about the number of cases, we really have no idea how bad it was or wasn’t.  But we can pray, so pray we did! 

Our family had its own unique Covid experience.  Thankfully, it did not involve a hospital or any real concern for our health and because of that I can call it an “experience.”  Thomas, who is in his 17^th year of working for the Nicaragua Christian Academy, is often asked to attend the Senior Retreat at the end of the school year as a chaperone.  If you know my husband, then you know what an extrovert he is and how he has never met a stranger.  Needless to say, the students love him and most Senior classes request he be one of their chaperones for the retreat.  So he went on a weekend retreat in June and came back exhausted and not feeling 100%.  But after a day of rest he seemed to feel much better and finished the final week of work at the school with all of the graduations and other activities to finish the school year.  The following Sunday as a family we traveled south to Costa Rica in order to fly out from there to the States to visit my family for the summer.  Flights in and out of Managua are quite expensive and a bit inconsistent right now.  Once in Costa Rica we had to test for Covid in order to enter the US.  Thomas unfortunately tested positive as well as the other male chaperone from the retreat. According to Costa Rican health protocol, Thomas would have to be quarantined somewhere for 10 days.  Soon after we realized that all of us would have to be quarantined for 10 days but separate from Thomas.  Because we had stayed one night in the hotel right across from the airport and we didn’t know of any other place to go, we booked two rooms for the next 10 days.  Thomas in one room and the 5 kids and I in another.  United easily rebooked our flights and we began our quarantine.  We were not allowed to leave our room.  The hotel staff brought us all of our food and any items needed in our room.  They were not allowed to come in to clean or be anywhere near us.  On day 6 I got a fever and did not feel well.  Because the following day was a Sunday I could not be tested until Monday but when I did finally test for Covid, it came back positive.  At that point the lab declared that all five of our kids had to have it too since we had been in an air conditioned room for the past 8 days together.  In order to fly at some point, we felt like we needed to have them tested again so a couple of days later the lab returned and tested all of our kids and their tests all came back positive too.  So our quarantine was then extended based on when my symptoms started.  In the end we stayed in the hotel for a total of 16 days without leaving our room.  Obviously there is a lot more I could share about 16 days in a hotel room with five kids, but I’m sure you can imagine what that might be like.  Overall we survived!

The love and support we felt from the NCA family as well as from close family and friends was enormous!  While this is not an experience I wish to ever repeat, I am grateful for our health and that Covid did not affect any of us too badly.  I am also grateful for the Internet and being able to text and call so many different people during that time.  Above all I am thankful for God’s faithfulness in seeing us through that time and for the ways we have seen good come of it. It has definitely been what impacted all of us the most over these past couple of months and will for years be something that my kids will look back on and remember. 

Thank you for reading our crazy Covid story!  Here are some pictures from our time in quarantine:

What an adventure the backpack project was this year!  For many years St Paul’s Methodist Church has sent a team every January to partner with us at the sports center and to help me pack up and hand out the backpacks. This year was the first year that a team did not come, mostly because of the change of ownership at the sports center. So the challenge for me was to figure out how to pack and deliver almost 700 backpacks and 80 preschool bags. The answer: family and friends!

 After days of reviewing report cards and then finally placing the order, the backpacks and boxes of supplies were delivered on Friday, January 19th. The next day eight gals from our neighborhood came over and spent six hours helping me sort boxes and boxes of notebooks, unzip and count all of the backpacks and unpack the school supplies. By the afternoon we were finally ready to start packing some backpacks!

   On Sunday Thomas’ family showed up. They were so efficient that I’m pretty sure we packed over 400 backpacks that afternoon and into the evening. They were having so much fun helping and were so quick that when dinner time came around I didn’t want them to leave. So Thomas and I ordered 12 boxes of pizza to feed everyone and they stayed til almost 10 o’clock that night. Everyone agreed that it should be a new family tradition. What fun!

   On Monday one of my friends and her daughter came to help since our kids had a teacher work day off of school. So Samantha, Anthony and Nicole joined in to help pack. By the end of that day I knew I was in good shape. Throughout the rest of the week my kids offered to help when they got home from school or after dinner. And Friday we finished packing up the last bags and were ready for a weekend of handing them out.

   On Saturday, January 27th, two gals from my Bible study and four local adults along with four teenagers from the neighborhood came to the sports center to help me haul all of the backpacks from my house to the Ranchon where we would hand out the backpacks to the kids. We set up various tables dividing them by grade level with the hope that handing out the backpacks would go quicker.  I had printed out my lists of backpack recipients, and the various adults took charge at different tables. The line outside the sports center stretched down past the soccer field, but once we got started it moved rather quickly. By 10:30 there was no line, and we were just hanging out waiting for other kids to show up.  It was definitely the fastest I’d ever handed out the backpacks.

   All we had left were the two churches that we have sponsored with backpacks for a number of years.  Word of Life let us borrow a van, and Thomas, the kids and I went to both churches that Sunday afternoon and delivered the backpacks. It went very smoothly. By the end of the weekend, though, I was exhausted.

   Overall, the challenge of packing and delivering backpacks without the help of a team became a very memorable experience. I thoroughly enjoyed having so many different people offer to help – from the neighborhood, from Thomas’ family and from my Bible study. Most of all it was exciting to see how much these folks really enjoyed being able to help.

   Thank you St. Paul’s and everyone else who has contributed to the scholarship fund. Without your gifts these backpacks would not be possible.  Enjoy these pictures!

Summer vacation has come and gone, and our older three are back in school now.  We had a fun, relaxing summer which included hosting two teams at the sports center.  Our kids love it when teams are here.  Samantha always tries to learn everyone’s name within the first couple of days.  She’s an extrovert for sure!  Anthony often finds one or two people with whom he gets close and hangs out with them whenever he can. Nicole is still young but has followed in her brother’s and sister’s footsteps and enjoys hanging around with the teams.

Our first team was made up of my cousin, Elizabeth, and her son along with another mom and her son.  Elizabeth and I had not seen each other in over 20 years, so it was a great reunion with lots of catching up to do.  The two boys thoroughly enjoyed their time here, working hard in the mornings on various projects around the sports center with Halle, and then were ready to play sports with the neighborhood kids and youth or help in the pool in the afternoons.  The moms did lots of hard work around the sports center too and helped Halle and I host a neighborhood clothing sale.  Overall, it was wonderful having them here and reconnecting after all these years!

Our second team was a youth group from a church in Westfield, NY.  They came very well prepared to run an afternoon vacation Bible camp.  They even were prepared to do all of their skits in Spanish!  They worked hard in the mornings helping with various projects around the sports center.  After lunch they prepared for the afternoon activities.  They started each day of camp with games on the soccer field or in the covered basketball court.  Then we met in the Ranchon area for a skit and a teaching and a testimony.  Afterwards they had a time for crafts and ended with more group games.  They also hosted a game night and a family movie night.  Those are always very popular events for the youth and families in our neighborhood.  Overall it was a busy and fun week!

Thank you teams for all your hard work and for partnering with us in ministry!

Alesca is one of the university students in my scholarship program.   She is pictured here with her father, Felipe.  Her two sisters, Erika and Idania, were also scholarship students of mine, but in 2016 all three of them were in a tragic accident when bales of hay being carried by a large truck broke loose and rolled over them as they walked home from church one afternoon.  Erika and Idania died as a result of the injuries from the accident, but Alesca survived.  However, she still suffers from many complications from the accident of which the doctors at the public hospital told her that she would live with for the rest of her life.  When her father came and told me about the accident and that she had survived, I remember grieving with him as we stood at my gate. How much he had suffered, and yet how glad he was that one of his girls had survived.  In his words, “at least the Lord left me with one of my daughters.”  I told him then that if Alesca recovered enough to go back to college I would definitely continue helping her with a scholarship.  This February he came to tell me that she was going to try going back to college on Saturdays.  Because of her not being able to walk well, I went to visit her to figure out the best way to help her out.  She is studying at a public university which means the costs are quite low.  Before I was helping her with $100 a year for materials and transportation, but in hearing her story and how difficult it still is to walk, I realized that the best way to help her out was by providing the funds for her to take a taxi to her classes instead of riding in the overcrowded buses where she could easily be pushed around.  As we talked about this and her health issues, I came to understand that the most unfortunate result of the accident is that she no longer has the ability to urinate.  I’m not going into details here because I didn’t understand all of it myself as to how she manages, but I found it hard to believe that what the doctors said was true, that she would live this way for the rest of her life. Continue reading “Alesca’s story”

Continue reading “What are those kiddos up to?”

 

Continue reading “Changes for El Salero sports center”

Continue reading “It’s backpack time again!”

Happy New Year!  Hope you enjoyed your Christmas and New Years! We had a great time visiting my family in Mississippi. It is such a relaxing time, and our kids really enjoy being with their Grandma and Grandpa. They also love playing with their four cousins.

Continue reading “New Year, New Beginnings”