Nicaragua Update #1
Thursday, July 16, 2026
Our oldest daughter, Dani, kindly took Dave to meet the Groome airport shuttle at 3:00am. Thank you so much Dani! His travel was smooth, with no delays or hiccups, arriving in Managua at 11:30am Nicaragua time. We, in GA, are currently two hours ahead of them in Nica. Our partners in ministry, Regan and Blanca (pictured below), once again met Dave at the airport and they had their usual first day routine. After stopping to fill up with gas, they went to Dave's “office", a little restaurant called Casa de Cafe, in the Plaza las Americas. Here, they were able to talk through plans for Dave's time there, through the 27th. With a little nourishment and a well developed plan, they departed Managua for Veracruz around 3:30pm.
The trio stopped on the outskirts of Veracruz to visit a former Veracruz English Academy (VEA) student who you may remember if you’ve been following Faith's Nica Missions. Maritza is a talented artist, now 19 years old and is in her 2nd year of college studying Psychology. We met her when she was 10 years old and first started at VEA. One By One and Faith supported her attendance at VEA for many years. On our mission trip last year, Maritza asked Mason, our grandson, what his favorite animal was. He told her that wolves were his favorite animal and Maritza went home and drew a picture of a wolf for Mason, and gave it to him the next day, our last day in the country for that trip. Dave told her we had the picture framed and that it was sitting prominently in our house where Mason wanted it. This was a good chance to thank her properly for the picture and to catch up with her. They also invited Maritza to the VEA outing on Saturday as an alumnus.
From there, they headed out to meet with Edgar who is a construction guy. Pastora Petronila's bathroom that we built out several years ago needed some attention. You may remember that the church itself did not have a bathroom, so the church members were using Pastora's personal bathroom that did not have a toilet or a real sink or an overhead shower. She had a 30 gallon barrel she kept with water to use for bathing and handwashing. We were able to add a church bathroom and a nice bathroom for her personal use. Her personal bathroom has developed a few leaks, etc. over the last few years, so Edgar is going to fix it up properly. They visited with one another on his front porch for a while and as the sun went down Dave said the temperature was nice with a slight breeze. Edgar shared about his family’s church life, confessing that he doesn’t study the Bible as he feels he should. His church is one of the few in Veracruz not active in CBS, so they shared what some of the other churches in Veracruz are doing through Community Bible Study (CBS). Edgar loved hearing about this way to explore the Bible together with other believers and indicated that he may join a group with his wife. They were able to pray together for him and his family.
From there, they went to Regan and Blanca's house to pick up some things they were contributing to Dave's stay. This is one of the few trips we have made to Nicaragua where we were not able to stay at the orphanage team center. Because of that, Dave doesn't have access to the things we normally have available to us when we are there. They made it to his home away from home for the next 11 days around 8:30pm. It is a large house that is very well secured. Overall, the house is in good condition. However, it has been closed up for three years, so it is very musty. Regan and Blanca did some cleaning of the house prior to his arrival. They focused on the areas he would mainly be using, so you can tell the difference from what the unclean areas look like. They were kind enough to move a bed in for Dave, because the only bed there was full of mold. He left the house open all night, which wasn’t very secure, but was much more comfortable. When Dave was taking his bags in as they first arrived, the key got stuck in the lock. That started a long saga that is still not resolved at this writing.
These are the chickens that greeted Dave as he was leaving the house Friday morning.
More later...thank you for reading!
In Christ,
Katy, on behalf of Dave