Another successful year has come and gone with the Smiles for a Child project here in Nicaragua. A huge thank you to all who helped to support this cause.

The pictures can tell the story best of how well they were received.





The only problem with Smiles 2010 is that we just did not have enough gifts for all the requests, and many children did not receive this year. Our goal for 2011 is to have a gift for each request.

Please help us by planning now to be a part of our 2011 Smiles Project. “A Smile for a Child at Christmas.”

October 10th, 2010
The rains have lessened in Nicaragua but have not stopped. The potential of rain over the next three to four weeks continues to be of great concern. It is hard to put into words the needs that we have in Nicaragua that are similar to the needs caused by the rains over all of Central America this year. As we look to serve those affected by the rains, our areas of focus are food, medicine, shelter and concern for their emotional and spiritual needs. Sergio, Doctor Judith, Porfirio and Alberto are leading our team in Nicaragua working with the church and community leaders. In conjunction with the church and community leaders we are also working with the Army, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Family. This allows us to identify the critical situations first and make sure that we are not duplicating what others Quick read more or view full article are doing. Our goal is to follow the words of Paul in Galatians 6:10.

Thanks to the response of so many we have been able to start responding to families in Moncotal, La Concordia and San Rafael. Today the group was going to Wiwili working with Mario, the preacher, and the mayor where over 55 families have lost everything along the river.

We are presently working to secure resources in three ways:

1. Financially so that we can continually move immediately in purchasing food, medical supplies and provide temporary shelter as needed. We will also need resources to rebuild houses in many communities, especially in areas where they lived mostly in plastic.

2. We are looking to secure three containers of food and supplies to send in the next 30 day. One has been secured and will be shipped next Tuesday (Oct 12th). We have funding for shipping of two more containers but need food and medicine for both, one out of Abilene, Texas and the other out of Dothan, AL. We have started a drive for over the counter medicines for the First Aid bags of our community promoters. Contact us misionparacristo@aol.com on more details of this effort.

3. To develop teams of people to come to help with the distribution of food, provide medical care, emotional and spiritual support. Also to help with different construction needs. (The cost per person is $575.00 plus airfare) These are the dates we are trying to develop:

October 23 - 30
November 6 - 13 (we have some scheduled for this week)
November 13 - 20
December 4 -12 (the December dates would also be a time to help with our annual "Smiles" distribution.)
December 11 -19
December 31 - January 8 (a group is coming from Florida)
January 7 - 15 (A group from Kilgore, TX)
January 28 - February 6 (Olive Branch Ministries will be bringing a group to San Andres on the Rio Coco, contact Malena Rampy, malena.rampy@gmail.com, on this group.)
February 7 - 21 (A group from Huntsville, TX)
(Those scheduled to come from December 31 till February 21 where already on the calendar before we knew how great a need we would have this year, God is gracious)

Hopefully one of the dates above can fit into your scheduled. Read Less