Dear Family and Friends,
I have been working on an update to send out to you, but tonight have decided to send you an email to ask you to pray for our NCA family. Nicaragua Christian Academy is a family and one that consists of so many people from all over the world. And yet there is a care and love among us that crosses lines of race and socio-economic levels. Tonight our hearts are heavy and we are just asking God for comfort and protection.
Tonight Dan got a phone call from Liam, NCA's director. Liam said, "I have some very bad news." Liam went on to say that the 14 year old daughter of one of our cooks - her name is Blanca - passed away this afternoon. At around 1:00 this afternoon a very heavy downpour of rain began and did not subside until around 3:30. Our campus was flooded and students were walking over propped up boards with small rivers flowing underneath. NCA's Spanish campus was evacuated due to the severity of the flooding. Blanca's daughter attended school at NCA - Nejapa and was walking home when she got swept up into a current of water and could not get out. She drowned as a result. Blanca's daughter was a sponsored child which means that Dan was involved with her, her family, and her sponsor. He has some very sad news to communicate tomorrow to this child's sponsor. Dan also has a good relationship with Blanca who is always smiling and joking around and likes to give Dan a hard time when Dan gets his lunch. Dan is with Blanca and her family right now along with many other teachers and administrators. So, we ask you to pray for Blanca and for her family and for the staff and students at both the NCA English and the NCA Spanish campus - for comfort and peace and a sense of God's presence.
Please also pray for protection for our NCA family as well. Our new 5th grade teacher (Jed) reported a couple of weeks ago that his family's guard was in a shoot-out with some men who were trying to steal Jed's motorcycle. This resulted in the guard chasing them away. Jed has noticed several men watching their home which has been very unsettling for him and his family. Two nights ago, Jed was driving at night and came upon a group of men who were burning tires and going up to cars and shaking them. The men were armed with guns and machetes. The approached Jed's car and shook it. Jed said that he pulled forward and just kept looking forward and eventually the men went on to another car. He said that people were throwing money out their windows in effort to placate the men. Dan and Rebekah had been on a date that night and ran into that same traffic jam on their way home. However, Dan turned around and found a different way home - not realizing what was really going on. He thought it was an accident. We praise God for Jed and Dan and Rebekah's safety and how they were delivered from harm.
Last Thursday I attended - with several of the teachers - a time of mourning for our friend, Ana, whose mother died suddenly of a stroke. It was the first time I had attended something like this and learned a lot about how Nicaraguans grieve. One of the things that happens is that family and friends stay with you all through the night and then the next morning there is like a funeral service. Ana attended our teacher Bible Study last year and is a good friend of many of our teachers. She is about to have her first child which makes her mother's death especially difficult. Her mother was also the sister of one of our Spanish teachers. We are thankful, however, that Ana's mother received Christ just prior to her death. We ask for your prayers of comfort for Ana and her family as well.
And finally, we ask you for your prayers for Nicaragua as a whole. We are seeing signs now that say, "If reelection, then insurrection." This is a threat that if Ortega is reelected, there will be a response. The election is in the fall of 2011, but it is obvious that things are happening right now that are out of the "norm". Again, we just ask you to pray for God's protection, provision, and wisdom for our NCA family, for Nicaragua.
We have only been here a couple of weeks but a lot has happened. Our family, however, is doing very well. We are enjoying a different home which is so clearly an answer to prayer. We are so much more at peace as we are not dealing with the many difficult things we dealt with in the last house. It does seem strange to be so "at home" in a place that is so unstable. But, we are. We are thankful, so thankful for this life. The hard stuff and the good stuff. We see God and His work so much more clearly here. And we depend on Him so much more.
Thank you so much for your prayers. We see God responding to prayer so consistently and so faithfully.
Peace to you,
Lisa Van Zoest