You have heard me mention that we are staying at Project Hope while in Nicaragua, but it dawned on me that many of you may not know a whole lot about them. So I thought I’d break away from the usual blog post and tell you a little about this great place, and more importantly, this great ministry.
I need to begin by telling you a little about Nicaragua. Some of the photos I have posted may cause you to think that things here are a lot like they are back at home. Not really. Yes, there are highly populated areas with traffic, shopping, restaurants, etc. And at first glance, it appears that everyone is going about life just like you and I do in the states. However, there is more than meets the eye.
What you can’t see from these pics is the storyline of life here. There are over 5.8 million people in this small country, and half of those live in Managua. Not the suburbs (including where we are)… Nearly 3 million people live in the city of Managua itself. Those cars and trucks you see in our photos?… Maybe only 10% of the people actually drive those. There are only a few main roadways here, so there simply would be no way to accommodate all the vehicles if everyone drove one. But that doesn’t really matter, because most people can’t afford to have a car anyway. Everyone else walks or those who can afford to do so ride buses.
Nicaragua is the second poorest country in Latin America after Haiti. Poverty is huge here… especially in the rural areas, although there are pockets of poverty in Managua, and in other urban areas. Close to half (43%) of the people in Nicaragua live in rural areas. Two out of three of them (68%) struggle to survive on little more than US $1 per day.
Living conditions are quite below what any of us experience in the states. In the city, many people live between or behind street businesses. If they have a structure, it’s usually made of concrete block and sheet metal.
There are some houses in the city, but much smaller than what we would have – and again, only a small group can afford them.
In the rural areas, it’s much worse. Those who cannot afford a house often live in make-shift homes formed from metal, cardboard and plastic. This is a common site when you get outside of the city…
The people who live in these areas have one goal in life… survival. Often a dad (IF there IS a dad in the home) will leave for the week to find work and the mother stays behind to care for the children. If there is a single mother, sometimes she leaves (at least for the day) and an older child is left to care for younger.
Enter Project Hope.
The mission of Project Hope is to help meet the physical and spiritual needs of the impoverished people of Nicaragua. They do this in a big variety of ways, but their largest ministry is building homes for people who live in these awful conditions. Through the help of mission teams who come throughout the year, they are able to construct new houses – which you and I might consider nothing more than a shed – but which are enormous blessings to these families who have never had a real house.
When teams are building homes throughout the year, they are providing shelter and meeting physical needs. They also bring supplies like toiletries, clothes, and basic essentials. But more than that, they are providing hope. Not just hope for a better roof over their heads, but hope for their eternities. Every day before home construction begins, the community gathers and the gospel of Jesus is taught. Lives are being changed as people regularly pray to trust Christ as their savior. These people are learning that Jesus is literally their only hope.
It is a huge blessing to see the joy on people’s faces even though they have so little.
This photo (above) is of our good friends Josh and Dallas along with a family for whom they were helping to build a home this past summer.
In addition to building homes, Project Hope also provides help and ministry to men who are recovering from addiction, women who are finding freedom from prostitution, men who are in local prisons, women in a local cancer hospital, children in special needs orphanages, and so much more.
And then there’s the dump. Seeing this will be something I will never forget.
There is an entire community of people who have established their homes within the boundaries of the local city trash dump. Their means of survival is to “work” in the dump, scrounging for any signs of leftover food. A bite here, a piece there… To us it’s waste. To them, it’s life.
Heartbreaking to say the least. But to offer some bit of assistance, Project Hope has established a feeding center in the middle of the dump community. Here they are able to provide one solid meal a day to over 100 children, along with activities, Bible stories, and a weekly Bible study for women.
How can people who live in such conditions wear smiles like these? For one thing, they don’t know much different… Unlike all of us. But more than that, it’s the power of hope that is dished out when the love of Jesus is shared.
That’s what Project Hope does every day. It’s a staff of 23 people here in Nicaragua, a team of directors and volunteers in the states (the ministry is based out of Springfield, MO), and a host of servants from churches who come throughout the year to help change lives… all working together to deliver one thing: hope.
One last note: Project Hope is not an adoption agency. They have nothing to do with our adoption process. In fact, they would like to help connect families with Nicaragua children who need to be adopted, but they cannot do so because of child trafficking laws. Instead, what they have done is to offer us their resources to assist with our required stay here in the country. They may not be able to help with the adoption itself, but they have graciously extended to us their housing, transportation, translators, facilities and even some food to help with our time here, making things so much easier for us than if we were on our own. It has been their way of partnering with us to bring a better life to a family of Nicaraguans. Casey and I cannot begin to express how grateful we are.
To finish this post, I’m providing a few videos. If you have time, take a look at these to get an even better glimpse of life and ministry here in Nicaragua.
1. This is a link to Project Hope’s website, where you can read more about their ministry, and watch a video of the mission team experience here.
http://www.pjhope.org/nicaragua
2. This is a video that is not from Project Hope, but it is an excellent glimpse at much of life in Nicaragua, including the dump as I described for you above. You’ve got to watch this.
3. Finally, here is a little video I put together to give you a glimpse of the Project Hope base where we are staying, for any of you who are interested. In order to continue to follow the guidelines we’ve been given, it is protected by our usual blog password.
Thanks for taking some time.
Lee
