Volunteers!

As you know, the SOAAR program at NCA currently relies on volunteers, a wide range of wonderful individuals who commit to spending a year of their lives working and serving students with support needs in various classrooms. Right now, there are four SOAAR classroom assistants and a speech and language therapist who splits her time between NCA and Tesoros de Dios. I have the privilege of coordinating schedules of the volunteers, and making sure everything is in place and running as smoothly as possible for the volunteers. It has been a blessing to work with such committed, dedicated professionals this year. While their 7:00-2:30 work is really under my umbrella of "SOAAR Coordinator" responsibilities, their life outside of school is of course, outside of my control.

We learned quickly last year, however, that it can be hard to form community and feel included as a short-term volunteer at NCA. Volunteers don't typically have access to a vehicle, and it is difficult to get to know many people and the lay of the land in a short amount of time. Ruth and I decided that we wanted to prioritize creating opportunities outside of work for SOAAR volunteers to fellowship and explore Nicaragua. Once a month, we gather to eat at our home. And once a month, we host an "event," doing something fun around Nicaragua. So far this year,  as a group we've been to the beach, the volcano, and downtown Managua to explore the parks along the lakeshore. While I hope the volunteers enjoy these gatherings, our family certainly benefits from these relationships, too! Our kids LOVE hanging out with the volunteers, and they are very gracious with giving our wild children attention and love, too! (Two volunteers even babysat last weekend overnight for Ruth and I to celebrate our June anniversary!) We celebrate this micro-community that has become an important part of our lives at school AND beyond.

The Residency Process

Two weeks ago, we celebrated the fact that we were once again able to renew our residency status in Nicaragua.  If I had read that sentence before moving to Nicaragua on one of the blogs of the many people I “blog-stalked,” I would have had lots of questions:

         

          Why do you need residency?

          Why is it something to celebrate?

          What do you have to do to be residents?

Maybe some of you have these same questions.  I hope so, because I’m going to answer them.:)

When we arrived in Nicaragua for the first time over 3 years ago, we entered the country on tourist visas, which is an easy $10 stamp in your passport as you arrive in the Managua airport.  The tourist visa is only good for 90 days, though, and after that there is a daily fee for being in the country 

without a visa (being an illegal immigrant, essentially). 

Even before we left for Nicaragua, we began the residency process by collecting Birth Certificates, Marriage License, Police Reports, Doctors notes, and work contracts, all notarized and apostillized (a step above notary).  This was a long, tedious, and expensive process.  It took us over a year after arriving to finally get our residency.

Now, every year we have to renew our residency.  We have friends that have had babies here, and because of that only have to renew every five years, but as appealing as it sounds, were not quite willing to have another baby just to avoid yearly renewal.  So, every year, we get a new police report, new pictures, and start the process again. 

We are very fortunate to be under the care of Nicaragua Christian Academy, because Jairo, an amazing man that works there basically facilitates the whole process for us.  He tells us what we need, and then submits everything for us and tells us when we need to show up to make it happen.  Then he or Arturo, his assistant run around making it all happen.

When everything is ready we all have to go to the immigration office here in Managua.  We all (including the kids) have to be present at this appointment that we usually plan on taking at least 3 hours.  I have learned to come prepared with lots of snacks and entertainment to pass the time.  There is also a small playground outside where we take turns watching the kids.  You can buy donuts and ice cream inside the immigration office (which is a genius business strategy!), so we make our kids hold out as long as possible (at least until they get their picture taken) and then reward them with sugar. 

This year we celebrated because the whole process went very smoothly—we were in and out in two hours with our cedulas (residency cards) in hand.  We also celebrated because we had been a little fearful that this would be the year that we wouldn’t be granted the privilege of calling Nicaragua our home.  The government has recently instituted new laws about allowing missionaries to enter and work in the country. They have been asking more questions (we have friends who are currently “under investigation” from immigration), and making the process a lot more unsure. 

We love Nicaragua, and living here has been one of the deepest blessings that we have experienced.  We are thankful for God’s faithfulness throughout this necessary but at times inconvenient process. We are thankful to Nicaragua for allowing us to live and serve here for (at least) another year!  

Time to Celebrate!

This past week, Nicaragua took a break from life-as-normal to celebrate Nicaragua Independence Day, or “Fiestas Patrias.” This past week began with colorful dances, traditional food and outfits, and an annual program showcasing the history and beauty of this country. Click here to see some of the dancing (yikes!) and below to see Charlotte sing and Mae recite some poetry by Ruben Dario, Nicaragua’s most famous poet. Henry's poem is too long to upload here; visit here to hear him show off his Spanish!

The festivities ended with a break from school (3 days, actually), which allowed our family to head to the beach together for an awesome respite.

We are not only celebrating Nicaragua right now!  We’re celebrating a good start to a new school year, and the healthy routines that our family craved after a fun, unpredictable summer. Job charts, family meetings, bedtime routines, exercising, reading together . . . good stuff that typically flies out the window during summer vacation!

We’re celebrating the smooth transition of Charlotte into NCA International; she LOVES school and can’t stop sharing what she learns each day. We’re thankful our other kids are loving their teachers this year, too!

We’re celebrating a good start to our ministries this year. The SOAAR program is off and running; the first month of coordination is exhausting and overwhelming at times, but I think we’ve found a good rhythm with students and volunteers classroom assistants. It is wonderful to NOT be in year 1, though we are by no means experts yet! Ruth is back at House of Hope and AMOS, ministering to groups of women each week; we’re celebrating the partner organizations that exist here in Nicaragua that we are privileged to work with.

We’re celebrating the natural beauty of this place we have the privilege to call home! Our time at the beach ended today—a few days of sand and sun and boogie boarding that was good for the soul and spirit! It was our first-ever “only family” vacation in Nicaragua, and it was a nature-lovers dream! The kids had to say goodbye to her hundreds of hermit crab friends that they gathered and released constantly. We saw a huge whale swimming close off the shore, which was a first for all of us, and the kids came across a troop of howler monkeys in the trees near our room. We followed three baby sting ray in the shallow waters, and Henry and I re-covered a nest of turtle eggs that was under attack by dogs and vultures (I’m guessing they came back to finish their meal, but we tried!).  

Happy Fiestas Patrias week! May you find many things to celebrate this day!

Back to School!

First of all, THANK YOU. We really had a wonderful summer in the US, reconnecting with so many of you in various ways. I would personally rank it the "best summer back" out of the three we've had so far. We were able to recharge, reconnect, and have a lot of fun with our kids doing "US" stuff that we can't do in Nicaragua. We also gained 10 pounds, but that is just a testimony to your hospitality, right? A few (random) peeks at our adventures--we didn't take many pictures:

We've been back in Nicaragua for less than two weeks, and it was a race for me to get ready for the new school year, which began two days ago. While I disappeared into the depths of my classroom at every waking moment, Ruth held down the fort at home, restocking our empty shelves, unpacking from our summer travels, and entertaining wild children who DESPERATELY needed the structure of school again. While excited to be back home in the jungle, the phrase "I'm bored" was certainly thrown around plenty.

What did my work entail these last 13 days?

I unpacked my "stuff" and set up the room. That took about 10 minutes, except for the fact that I had a locked file cabinet with ALL of my files in it, and no key. A local locksmith named Roberto proved invaluable:) It is SO awesome to have a finished classroom and furniture! I didn't recieve furniture until a few months in to the school year last year. . .so it was wonderful to begin this year with a classroom that looks like a. . .classroom.

I've been busy creating schedules (the Puzzle of All Puzzles) and orientating our new team of SOAAR volunteers, who had a good first two days! They are going to be great supports for our five students that need that extra support in the classroom. These first two days I tried to spend ample time working alongside of these assistants, making sure they are comfortable and feel "trained" before I leave them alone:)

I've met with many teachers, making sure they feel ready and supported as they prepared to support students with needs in their classrooms. I made copies of IEPs and APs and information sheets to share with gen. ed. teachers. Knowledge is power.

I've emailed. A lot. I LOVED my empty summer inbox. No longer the case.

And Monday and Tuesday were actually very good days, welcoming students back to NCA.

Charlotte, Mae, and Henry are all at NCA this year. Charlotte is in PreK2, Mae in 2nd, and Henry in 4th. All have wonderful CRC partner missionary teachers! They loved being back in the classroom.

I've jumped back into life at Tesoros de Dios, welcoming our new shared Speech Language therapist meeting with the director, planning for a new year of Thursday afternoon classes, and working on various board initiatives. The entire staff and a large group of students and moms spent last Tuesday honoring the life of Kevin, a 6th-grade Tesoros de Dios student that died last week. I was able to meet Kevin through my time on Thursday afternoons; Kevin had muscular dystrophy and had been fighting to survive in his slowing body for many years. For a while last year, Kevin was too weak to attend classes at Tesoros so I was able to visit him and his mom at home a few times. It was my first burial here in Nicaragua. It was hard, but I have to think of Kevin's newfound freedom, no longer bound by the chains of a degenerative disease.

I found this picture of Kevin on the internet--the photo is probably four years old. 

Today is a national holiday (after two days of school!), so we're having a lunch gathering with almost 60 of the CRC folks of Nicaragua! There are a number of new faces this year joining this unique community. And then. . .back to work tomorrow:)

Our goodbyes! (A post written two months ago and just now discovered!)

I wrote this one back at the beginning of June but never published it! Oops. Seems like a LONG time ago. Now that the summer is over, it is time for HELLOS again, not goodbyes (we did plenty last week in the US)! But thought I'd share this post anyway:) Lots of fun pictures. . .and makes me excited for our fourth year serving. learning, and living in Nicaragua.

Two days of school left in the 2015-2016 year. 1 week and 2 days until we hop on a plane to Chicago.  Yikes! These last few weeks have been a lovely, exhausting time of "lasts" for this ministry year, at school, church, and on the home front. We've had a lot of parties, baked a lot of cupcakes, sang a lot of songs. Here are a few pictures to give you a glimpse of how things are ending up this year, and some of the "goodbye for nows" that we're saying as we head to the US for 6 weeks.

Goodbye, Mincaito! You have been Charlotte's preschool home for the last two school years. We're so thankful for the love Charlotte has been shown while being immersed in Spanish each day. We're gonna miss your epic programs (see above!) Note: Charlotte will be in PreK2 at NCA when we return to Nicaragua next school year. . .it'll be nice to have Henry, Mae, Charlotte, and Andrew at the same place each day.

Adios for now, Iglesia Bautista Esperanza! Hasta pronto y que Dios les bendiga y su ministerios!

Goodbye, Jim and Candace and Olinda! It's been awesome serving with you as SOAAR volunteers this semester. Blessings as you follow God's call to the "next thing!"

Goodbye, Sofia. I'll see you as a first grader in August! So glad that God brought you into the SOAAR program in January. 

Goodbye, Daniel! My how much you've learned this year! I've had so much fun watching you learn and grow every day.  I'm so glad you'll get to be in Sharkie's class next year at NCA. 

Goodbye, NCA kiddos. It's been awesome getting to know you as learners and friends. You've made SO much progress this year. May you each have an awesome summer and come back in August, refreshed and ready to learn!

Goodbye, piano students! The recital was great. . .promise to practice a FEW times over the summer for Mr. Ippel:)

Goodbye, Volcan Masaya. Settle down a little over the summer!

Goodbye, Ms. Rammell! So glad you'll be serving at Tesoros de Dios next year:)

Goodbye, Dexter. Behave yourself while we're gone. Have fun at Tesoros de Dios and make a lot of kids smile:) We'll welcome you back to your home here when we get back.

Bye, Angel. It has been SUCH a blessing to have you here with our family these three months. I don't know if we'll have the honor of hosting you next year or not. . .but God has a perfect plan for you next year, whether in the US or Nicaragua. We wish you the best, and will miss you.

Goodbye, Boy Scouts! Henry will see you next year, but as a Webelo. 

God is faithful!

About two months ago, I began to doubt that we'd have volunteers to staff the SOAAR program next school year. I'd emailed a few folks that I thought might be interested, posted the position(s) through CRWM and Calvin College, asked people to network, written blog posts and prayer letters about it. No bites. Not a one.

Now, I know it is quite a lot to ask of someone to volunteer at NCA--give up a year of salary, depend on others to provide for all of your needs, move to a foreign country where you likely don't speak the language, enter into unfamiliar community.

Thankfully we serve a God who is our provider (despite, and even in spite of our lack of faith!) I'm so thankful that we are going into next year with 3 fulltime volunteer assistants and 1 speech pathologist. And honestly, NONE of these folks found out about the SOAAR program through any of my own "devices" that I mentioned above. I can't claim it. It was really, truly, God at work.

Here is a little info about the awesome, overly-qualified team I'll get to work with next year that was sent as part of an email to the NCA staff recently:

Kellie Voss (Volunteer Speech Pathologist) comes to us from Grand Rapids, Michigan.  She has a Master's Degree in Speech and Language Pathology and a Bachelor's Degree in Communicative Sciences and Disorders with a minor in Spanish.  She has over 5 years of extensive clinical experience in multiple hospitals, schools and hearing centers in Austin, Texas and Grand Rapids, Michigan.  She is fully bilingual in English and Spanish, and recently volunteered at NCA and Tesoros de Dios for about one week.  She will be here for 1 year as a volunteer speech therapist for NCA International, NCA Nejapa and Tesoros de Dios and the greater community.

Danielle Dolifka (SOAAR Volunteer)is a recent graduate of Baylor University (Texas) and learned about the SOAAR Volunteer assistant position as a result of Dan Van Zoest's recent visit to the university as enrichment for our college counseling program.  Danielle has a degree in Speech and Language Pathology from Baylor University.  She already has international experience in Spain, Peru, Nicaragua and Brazil, and is excited about joining the NCA staff next year!

Rylie Enslin (SOAAR Volunteer) is also a recent graduate of Baylor University, friends with Danielle Dolifka, and was the first person to connect with Dan Van Zoest about this opportunity at NCA.  Rylie comes to us from Gig Harbor, Washington.  She has a degree in Speech and Language Pathology from Baylor University.  We're very excited to have Rylie joining our program next year!

PJ (Paul) Miller (SOAAR Volunteer) comes to us from Coral Springs, Florida, and is currently pursuing 4-year degree BA in Christian Education, major in Elementary Education, at Calvary Chapel University.  He has teacher assistant experience at Hinkson Christian Academy (an ACSI school) in Moscow, Russia, among other volunteer experiences.  He comes well recommended for serving with our SOAAR program and has the solid backing of his home church to make this happen; we're very excited to have PJ join the NCA family!

I need to say a final THANKS and goodbye to Jim and Candace Ducharme and Olinda Keegstra for their service in the SOAAR program this past semester. It has been a blessing to work with such dedicated, hard-working people. Our students have forever been changed thanks to the work of these three awesome assistants. Blessings on their future endeavors!

Sometimes all it takes is writing a depressing blog post

Practicing doing postpartum exercises with your baby in today's childbirth class

Exactly 4 weeks ago today, I wrote a blog post about the discouraging attendance at the childbirth class I lead once a week.  That week, we had placed posters in 5 "pulperias" (little corner-stores, pronounced "pooperias," much to our children's delight) and one clinic inviting all pregnant women in a large neighborhood in Managua to attend a special event about Postpartum Depression with a visiting psychologist.  We even advertised that there would be free snacks!  I brought 2 extra large loafs of bread, 4 packages of this orangey sandwich spread that Nica's love, 4 two liters of juice, and 32 bananas, and was worried that I wouldn't have enough.

Two women showed up, both an hour into our 2 hour class.  Each went home with a loaf of bread, juice, sandwich spread, and a huge bunch of bananas.  I left that day feeling very discouraged (not just because only two women showed up, but also because the visiting physiologist commended me on my courage in using Spanish which I "obviously hadn't mastered").  I honestly felt like giving up, and that's essentially what I wrote in my post that day.

I received many kind and encouraging words, and even some helpful suggestions in response to the post that I was so thankful for, but I still wasn't sure what the future held for our group of pregnant women.

And then....

I don't know what changed--I certainly know that I didn't do anything different--but since that post, 6 new women have signed up for the class.  The week after our failed special event, 5 women showed up.  The following week, 6 women were there.  Today, 8 women came!  I have no explanation for our suddenly growing group, but I do know that it is a gift from God--the affirmation that I needed to feel like what I am doing IS indeed worth it and a part of the perfect plan that He has for me.  I am so thankful for this reminder that God is present in our ministries, even when we are discouraged and full of doubt.