Nicaragua Update #11
Sunday, July 26, 2026
Up at 7am, Dave was at the Downs home by 8:30am. Their oldest son, Isaac, made pancakes for everyone this morning. Church at Verbo Veracruz started at 9:30am. It ended early today, at 11:35am. After church, Dave was talking to some of the youth, including Angel and Jenny. Angel and Jenny had both returned yesterday from a "vacation" to their homes to visit with their families. They are the two older students who resided at the orphanage and were allowed to stay when the orphanage was closed a couple years back, right before that year's trip. They start back to school at the university tomorrow. These young people get up at 4am, get ready, then walk to where they can catch a local bus at 5am so they can make it to class at the university in Managua by 7:30am. They arrive back home on the bus from Managua around 8pm, doing this four to five days per week. They are truly committed to their education and consider it a privilege and not a hardship or trudgery (you can check out the Urban Dictionary for that definition) to be able to receive the education that they do there.
While Dave was speaking with the youth, Regan called him over to introduce him to a couple from Iglesia Verbo Guanacaste. The couple lives closer to Veracruz than to Guanacaste and had decided to visit the church here in Veracruz today. They had shared with Regan that they were praying for children and had been married 15 years. Regan told them there was someone he wanted them to meet. He interpreted as Dave spoke to them for a while about our journey to parenthood. Regan and Dave were able to pray for them before they left. They shared with Regan that they felt visiting church in Veracruz this morning was clearly designed by God and they were grateful to hear our story and for the prayers. They also said that after hearing our story, they were both encouraged and anxious about what God's plan is for them. Dave warned them if they prayerfully made any “deals” with God, they needed to prepare themselves. Duglas said that’s exactly why he was anxious. After spending this time, the guys missed the outreach event to the homeless being hosted at New Jerusalem church. The leadership sent Dave some videos of the event so he could get a glimpse of the happenings there and it seemed to have gone very well.
The team then left for Managua to meet Dr Bayardo and his family for lunch at a Chinese restaurant. They had more time to discuss our upcoming trip in March, 2027 to Bluefields to conduct medical clinics. Dr. Bayardo said the Mennonite community has re-opened the door for him to receive over-the-counter meds again for his clinics. Dave told Dr. B that he could plan to meet with the Mennonites during his next trip, but we aren't sure when that will be right now. He agreed to keep us informed, and they parted ways, both having follow up work to do. The conversation and planning for this trip continues. Let us know if you might be interested in going. We are always happy to get together to talk about what the trip will look like and answer any questions you might have. You do NOT have to have any medical expertise to be an active participant on this trip!
Regan, Blanca and Dave returned to Veracruz and met with Pastora where she gave Dave all of the receipts from both the CBS breakfast yesterday and the outreach event today. From there, they headed to Buena Vista. They were planning to worship with their church tonight as they were having a special service following their outreach event today. Regan called to let Pastor Manuel know they were going to be a few minutes late. When they arrived, they were waved to the front where they asked Dave to share some encouragement. He was not expecting that at all. There were over 200 people from five churches in the area gathered at an outdoor service. He started praying immediately as he shared with Regan what Pastor Manuel asked. As he started praying out of sheer fear, he said he heard, "You shouldn't have to get ready, you should always be ready". (2 Timothy 4:2). This is also something Dave has said repeatedly in his work in law enforcement. He told me he said out loud, "That’s not much help right now". Regan asked Dave, “Excuse me?”. He thought Dave wanted him to interpret something. He was really on the spot, so he started with humor and was not 100% sure what Regan interpreted, but he was assured that he did great.
While the food distribution was in progress, a woman in her 20's turned around from the row in front of Dave. He knew right away that he knew her from the past but couldn't quite place her. She told Dave that she knew our daughter. She went on to say that she resided at Verbo Orphanage and attended Verbo school when she was young, and that our oldest daughter, Dani, was always kind to her. While we were living in Nicaragua in 2008 adopting our daughters, Dani was still in school at Verbo. We paid for her to eat a Nicaraguan lunch with all of her friends at school before we picked her up so that she could still have some foods that she was used to eating (prepared properly, instead of my attempts at cooking Nicaraguan food). Interestingly enough, Dani always came home from school asking for something to eat. We were curious at the time, but didn't push the issue. One day while Dave was at the school, the lady who cleaned there told him that her daughter was also at the orphanage and she thanked Dave for buying her lunch every day. We figured out then that Dani was giving her lunch to Alina everyday. Alina was a few years younger than Dani. She is now 27 and married with two children. After the service they had a good visit and were able to reminisce. She asked Dave to share her gratitude with Dani when he returned home.
After the service, Regan and Dave helped put away speakers, chairs, etc. They spoke for a while with Johnny, the Pastor at Buena Vista. His daughter has learned some English in her public school and is currently in her last year of high school. She expressed an interest in studying at Veracruz English Academy (VEA) along with another teenage girl from the church who was a friend of hers. The guys shared the expectations for VEA students, and asked them to discuss it as a family because it was a big commitment. The team left there at 6:15pm, returning to Veracruz. They stopped by Edgar’s house and finally received the invoice and receipts they needed. He admitted he is not good at completing paperwork. Dave consoled him and said he could not throw stones. Edgar's oldest daughter, who is 9 years old, confirmed that she will begin classes at VEA tomorrow. They had a great time with the family as all of Edgar's children stayed up to visit. The team finally realized what time it was and how gracious they were being, so they left around 8:30pm and headed to Darol and Olga’s house. Olga was sick. Dave was able to share with her quickly that we were leaving money for her next semester of school. She perked up a good bit and confirmed that she would send her grades for last semester as soon as they were accessible online.
Dave took Regan and Blanca home, and he was back at his home by 10:30pm. He visited for a short time with Rudolfo and Amelia, then showered, did a little packing, and turned in around 12am after working on this update.