Dear Family and Friends,
On
December 3th, Len Rogers and I will leave on our 18th trip
to Nicaragua. We will return on December
15th. We will meet Sandra
Thomas when we get there. Sandra has
been in Nicaragua for the last two months, living with a Nicaraguan family,
learning to speak Spanish better. We
will be visiting our old friends and meeting new ones, to share God in the
second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Our plans are to build two houses, have a
Christmas party at the New Jerusalem Church for approximately 80 kids, and a
Christmas party at Pastor Enrique’s Church, Holy Mountain Presbyterian Church, for
about 40 kids. All of this is contingent
upon raising enough money. I want to
thank God and all my family and friends who have made our past trips very
successful.
This
has been a fantastic year for our work with the kids. Dennis has become a Doctor! He was given his Diploma on October 30,
2015. Go to my blog, http://jackmease.blogspot.com, after this
letter, you will see the pictures he sent me.
Dina, Dennis’ sister, is finishing her third year of medical college and
Donnie, Dennis’ brother, is finishing his second year of Dental College and is
number 1 in his class. Rachel, the
Granddaughter of the Pastor of New Jerusalem Church, received her accounting
degree this year and Daniel finished his third year in college. What is also very awesome, we have four kids
graduating from High School this year. We
will be able to attend that graduation.
Angelica Moraga, Jordy’s mother and Junior’s wife, monitors all of the
children’s grades throughout the year and makes sure all are doing well. I get emails from her listing the grades. Jordy speaks and writes very good
English. He has been studying hard for
about 4 years now. Jordy sends me emails
after every grading period listing all the grades. The children are all doing well this year.
Last year we purchased materials for Jordy to teach English to the younger kids
at the Church. While there, we will meet
with Angelica and the parents and kids whom we sponsor in school and find out
how everything is. Because of rising
costs, I think we will stay at 25 children again this year and not add any on
this trip. My belief is the more
children we can help educate, the better off everyone in Nicaragua will
be. We will replace the four graduating students
with children from our waiting list.
Over
the past 12 years, with the help of family and friends and Barboursville
Rotary, we have built 35 homes for families with children. We have sponsored numerous kids in school. Several children are now learning English,
which makes it possible to communicate throughout the year by email and
telephone. This will be the 10th
year we have had our Christmas party for the children at the New Jerusalem
Church. We give all kids a Christmas
gift and, for some of the children, it will be the only gift they receive. We always play games, have something to eat,
and, of course, we have a piñata or two.
Last year was the first year for the Christmas party at the Holy
Mountain Presbyterian Church for 30 kids.
This is Pastor Enrique’s Church and is in Masaya. This Church has about doubled since last year
so I don’t know how many kids there will be this year. Pastor Enrique is the father of Dr. Dennis,
Dina and Donnie.
This
year we have two houses to build, as
long as we raise the money. The
houses we build are 18’ x 18’ cinder block, with a tin roof. Paying friends we know to work, it costs us
around $3,500 to build a house. One
house will be for a young lady named Alianna, her husband and two young
children. It will be just up the road from
the New Jerusalem Church. I have known
Alianna for 12 years and she is the sister of Selena, whom I escorted in her
graduation two years ago. The family for the second home hasn’t been
determined yet, that depends on if we raise enough money.
We
will also spend time with the kids at Remar Orphanage and will have a Christmas
party with them and a group coming from Fifth Avenue Baptist Church.
GOD BLESS YOU ALL!
Jack Mease
