Final Updates

Sunday, July 27, 2025

We were able to sleep a little later today and were ready for church at 8:30am. Regan picked us up and we went to Verbo church in Veracruz. After church, we took Jasmine, Jenny, and Angel with us to watch Regan’s son play volleyball in Managua in the National Stadium. He plays for the Veracruz men’s team, and Nestor who graduated from VEA last year, plays for them as well. Veracruz won and moves on to the regional semi-final.

Afterwards, we went to the Masaya market to make a couple purchases, and then to the Volcan Masaya to see inside the volcano after dark. The youth from Veracruz who live just 20 minutes away, had not all been there before at night. We tried to take them in March, the last time I (Dave) was in Nica, but the volcano was closed due to some unusual activity.

After the volcano experience, we went to dinner and visited over a nice meal. The young people always enjoy these outings that are extremely rare for them. We dropped off Regan and Blanca at their home, returned the kids to CasaB, and called it a night.

Monday, July 28, 2025

We were up at 7a and at VEA around 8am to begin our last day teaching at VEA for this trip. It was a great day and Regan assigned us some one on one time with some of the more advanced students. The classes throughout the day were treated to Eskimo ice cream at the end of their class, and we took some photos. After class, our team went to visit some students that missed class and picked up some pen pal letters. We met the Veracruz Verbo School Director and her husband for dinner where we talked about the upcoming youth conference in January, 2026 to be sure they were fully informed. They missed the CBS training because they were out of town for the weekend running a camp for children in another area. We were back at Verbo about 11pm and began packing up for our trip home tomorrow.

Tuesday, July 29, 2025

Dave was up at 6:30am to prepare to meet the Verbo School Director at the school so they could finalize the current business transactions for school payments for the students we sponsor, our stay, etc. He went to pick up Regan and Blanca at 8:30am so they could drop us at the airport. Regan asked Dave to say some “final” words to the students that were there to encourage them. Then, we headed toward the airport where we did some final business with Regan and Blanca before heading thru security. Our flight left at 12:30pm for Miami. We left a little late because the plan was late, so we were then rushed to make our connecting flight in Miami. We bought Cheetos and Gatorade for a gourmet lunch and jumped on our flight to Atlanta. We arrived in Atlanta at 11pm where our oldest daughter, Dani, was to pick us up. She was an hour late in arriving because there was a double fatality on I-285 and the Expressway was closed for a while. Please hold all of the family and loved ones of those involved in prayer as we are sure many lives were changed that night. We, thankfully, were home safely about 2am on Wednesday, July 30th. Dave plans to return in October so that he can take Regan and four others from Veracruz to help with a CBS Youth Conference in Jinotega so they can be more informed about how to prepare all the Veracruz volunteers for our January, 2026 conference.

Thank you very much for all the support each of you provide. We are thankful for the support of our church, Faith Presbyterian, and each person who takes the time to pray, read updates, and for those who give and for those who go with us. We are extremely grateful for the opportunity God has given us, and the heart he has given you to partner with us in this ministry. If anyone would like to travel with us in January, 2026 or anytime in the future, we would love to have you join us and be a part of what God is doing in Nicaragua!

Dave and Katy