Nicaragua Trip

I have been pondering for days about how to write about our trip to Nicaragua. It’s very difficult to know where to begin, because of the intensity. How do you write about a trip to the second poorest nation in the western hemisphere, where 85% of the people live below poverty level?

We went with 16 people. Being missional was new to 11 of the 16 and all came back to Los Anonos with a greater under-standing of Nicaraguans and of what it is like to live in poverty. The young men from Anonos, though in need themselves, saw that there are others who live in worse conditions.

The only glitch that we had in the 12 hour travel day was a three hour wait at the “frontera”, the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua. We had 500 notebooks that we were bringing to a Christian school located in the Managua dump. The border guard was going to charge us $200 to bring the notebooks into the country, but he later changed his mind and charged us $20. Hmmm... That makes you wonder where he was coming from! But this is very typical of the corruption in the government there.

Our first place to visit the next day was “La Chureca”, the dump in Managua. About 1,500 people live here. Please take a look at this video, taken by another ministry. It describes “La Chureca”. http://www.vimeo.com/1054619 Here the people merely exist. They exist by scavenging for garbage to eat. I saw a man who had a bag of bones that looked as if they had been discarded by a butcher or meat shop. Our guide, the vice-principal of the Christian school, said to me, “That’s his dinner.” I saw another man walking on top of a smoldering pile of trash. He had on rubber boots. A man told us that his feet are numb from the heat... not burned, but he was just accustomed to the temperature. This is how he survives. I saw one of the cutest dirtiest little girls that I've ever seen.

We saw trash scattered everywhere, houses of plastic bags, dirty and naked children, and animals looking for food, as well. The air was heavy with smoke to the point that it burned my eyes and I wondered how many had respiratory diseases.
One lady told me she had lived there for eleven years. How can this be? There are some who wouldn’t want to leave... they know nothing else. They wouldn’t know how to live outside of the rubble. They wouldn’t know how to live if they didn’t have to scrounge for every need.

Next, we worked in Tipitapa for 1-1/2 days. Tipitapa is a huge community of shacks. Some of people who live in Tipitapa work in the sweat shops, where they are barely paid enough to buy food. Many homes don’t have refrigerators or stoves. Perhaps just a wood fire to cook the little food that they can buy, perhaps just rice and beans.

We had two focuses in Tipitapa. One was a children’s program and the other was rebuilding an outhouse and a shower for an older couple.

Virginia is 56 years old, but looks 70, because of her hard life. Adam is older and has Parkinson’s disease. He can barely function at this point. Virginia and Adam have a one room wooden house with a dirt floor. Their outhouse had no door and was falling apart. Their outside shower was nothing but a few metal sheets put together with plastic as a curtain and a bucket to fill with water. She has such a look of hopelessness on her face. And he has blank eyes from discouragement because of his disease.
We hope that when they stand under that running water in their new shower that they would be washed and refreshed by the love of Jesus.



The children’s program was held at the local church, a small and humble facility with a tiny enclosed yard. And somehow this small yard was filled with about 300 children!! The group of young people, who went with us, did some activities with the children and then gave them hot dogs, chips, a drink and candy. Many of these children brought their one hot dog home to their family. We were happy to give out hot dogs, but frustrated, because of the endless hunger in this area.

We finished off Saturday with a trip to the Managua Children’s Hospital. We joined with the Vineyard church in Managua, so there were about 30 people who went. It seemed quite strange to me to visit a children’s hospital from 8 to 10 at night. We divided into three groups. One group went to the ward where children were in serious condition, but healing. Another group went to the cancer ward. And the last group went to the waiting room in the general ward and ministered to the parents and some of the children who were out of their rooms. These children were being tested and cared for, but were well enough to visit. What precious children! We can’t say if any healings happened, but we do know that there were tears and blessings on both their part and ours.

This is just an overview of our time in Nicaragua, because of space purposes. We have included here a couple of photos. I will post some photos here and on my Facebook page.

We want you to know that your prayers and your financial support are greatly appreciated. We pray that you will have a wonderful Christmas and a joyfully blessed 2010!

Merry Christmas!
Rodney and Cindy and the Harvest Hands Team


If you would like to see more pictures from the Harverst Hands mission trip to Nicaragua,
please visit Picasa at the link below.

http://picasaweb.google.com/cinrodlaf/NicaraguaTrip2009#

Dear Harvest Hands friends,

Since the beginning of the year, so much has been accomplished! The teams who have come from various churches have been awesome. Yellow houses have been built in Jasmin; work has been accomplished in Anonos and in Veinte Cinco de Julio for FundaVida.

But this month I would like to tell you the story of two women.

These women are from Los Anonos. They are two women with broken lives, two women who MUST come to know the Father.

Theresa is the wife of Rafa, a crack addict. Her husband doesn’t live with her. She, herself, is a crack addict. She has two sons, both of whom are crack addicts. Tony, on two separate occasions, has been shot in the eye and stabbed in his stomach. He also has a punctured lung from a stab wound. His brother is named Luis. Luis is typically in the Quebrada (the road where all of the drug addicts live) with only a pair of shorts on…. no shirt, no shoes. Isn’t it interesting that “quebrada” means broken. These are broken people.

Theresa begs on the corner every day. For the whole day, she stands with her hand outstretched to passing motorists. She will go into the grocery store to buy a little food for her two addicted sons. She feels responsible for her family. Neither of her sons have a job.

She hasn’t wanted to go into rehab, because she is the only one who will care for her sons, but I heard recently that she is considering going. Please pray that she would follow through with this.

While prayer walking on one of the streets of Anonos one day with our friend Luis and another lady, Marianne, who was visiting us from Hawaii, we had the privilege of leading Theresa to Jesus. Jesus is her only hope. She may never be rich by our standards, but she can know the peace and the richness of having a relationship with Christ that God can give her through knowing His Son. Please pray that she would come to know His riches and peace.



The second woman is Sandra, who we have talked about before. Sandra is the mother of 8 children, one of whom was just born this week. She lives in a two room shack with a dirt floor. She is a jolly soul, always laughing at her situation. She had no stove and was cooking on a fire. So the last team that was here from Mechanic Falls, Maine bought her a stove and a gas bottle and installed it for her. She, however, now has no money to buy food. We did send some to her house and hopefully, she will get by for awhile. There were a few who were there with Rodney who had an opportunity to pray for her. At that time she was in a destitute place because her partner had left her. Her relationship with him is not good. We are not sure of her marital status. Most women will not acknowledge if they are not married. They call their boyfriends “husbands”, whether they are married or not.



Recently there have been a few homes that are in a dangerous locations that the government has removed. Theses two families also live in physically dangerous areas, where there could be mudslides. Hopefully, they will be able to be relocated to another place with new homes.

This will certainly be a blessing to Theresa. Perhaps it will get her away from her environment of crack.

And to Sandra, a new home with a dry floor and no holes in her roof … She will no longer have to trudge up a muddy path during rainy season to get to her home. She will no longer have a muddy kitchen floor in the rainy season, peppered with buckets to catch the rain that drips through the holes in her roof.

Please pray that these two women will be on the list for new homes in which to spend their lives.

In the photos: Sandra’s house with one of her sons and a photo of Theresa.

Blessings to all and thank you for your support!
Rodney and Cindy

This month’s newsletter is written by Chuck Vincent, better known to all of us as “Carlos Vincente”. Chuck was a member of the last team that came to Costa Rica and a member of our sending church, The Vineyard Church of Mechanic Falls, Maine. Chuck does a great job here giving a detailed account of the very full schedule of a team that comes to build houses. So here is Chuck’s very colorful account of their time.

Monday, 3/16: We arrived at the airport in San Jose. As they were checking our bags, Juan was pulled to the side, so that one of the team’s bags of supplies could be inspected. He was able to go on. It must have been his shifty eyes or that he had 10,000 bandaids and gauze in the suitcase that made the customs people suspicious! We then went to the Harvest Hands house. Before bed we needed to thank the Lord for getting me through with a passport that had less than two months left on it and that we were able to bring all the supplies we needed into country. We watched a short video on building a yellow house and then “nighty-night”.
Tuesday: After an awesome breakfast, we were off to CCA, a church in Alajuelita, to get tooled up to build a big house, but found that everything had changed. Over the years we have learned that the key words on a mission trip is flexibility. The focus changed to building a small house first. So, because we were not expected until Thursday by this sweet lady, many helping hands took down the metal box she lived in. The cement, pre-cast pylons were cemented in place. Not quite as simple as it sounds, digging in polluted ground!!
Wednesday: Floors and walls and prayer walks through Jasmin. Some of our ladies found out what it is like to not have running water and to have to haul it in 5 gal. buckets up the hill. Our Cheryl who intentionally worked out for this trip carried two. I was impressed. The leadership of the church in Jasmin were a huge blessing to us. As we ate with them, they served us. They brought us fruit and drinks throughout the day as we worked. Pastor Carlos, Maximo, and his wife Rebecca were true examples of the Fathers love.
Thursday: Roof, electrical and painting were finished so that the little house was ready to move into. We helped this excited lady, named Alva, move her bed in and her couch. While some did this, others were off serving in other areas - visitations, serving lunches and playing with the children at a small school.
Friday: The big house in the city was still on hold, so instead of taking time off at the end of our trip we left for the Volcano Arenal. We went to the lava fields and worshipped, as we watched this active volcano erupting over and over. Thinking about the fire of God in us, we need to be bubbling over with the message of God. I’ve included a photo of the team at the volcano.

Saturday: Some went to church at La Viña. Many of the team became sick with different ailments. A call went out to our home church for more prayer coverage. Praying for those who are on a mission trip is as important as being there doing the work.
Sunday: Off to CCA church at 8AM. It was a great service, interpreted into English. Then off to make concrete and pour a foundation with our Costa Rican friends from CCA. On Sunday night we visited the Linda Vista church, where our church from Maine first started ministering in Costa Rica. We saw a lot of old friends and worshiped with much vigor.
Monday: The walls went up on the big house. There will need to be much prayer over that house as God sees fit to use it. Pray for the children that need Jesus, because they live in a mixed up situation. We left the job sight tired, but we had another stop on our way back. It was the Men's drug rehab center. The men were so open with their testimonies, as Maximo interpreted for us. The most perplexing thing was that at the end of our time there, they circled us and a elderly man prayed for us. Some of us heard it in Spanish and others in English. We went back to the house and packed first aid kits for Jasmin, 150 of them counted several times over.
Tuesday: The roof, the painting and the window casings were finished on the big house. We went back to Jasmin for the dedication of the small house and the story of how this house was built in memory of a sweet lady in our home church, who had recently gone to be with the Lord. The photo that I have included is of this very emotional dedication. Alba wept and was thankful to God for her new house.
Wednesday: We left Costa Rica with worship to a great God, prayer for those we were honored to work with, Rodney ,Cindy, Rebecca, Joy, and Luis. They are family to all of us. What a wonderful blessing to do a mission trip with people like these. We thank God for a safe trip home.