La Carbonera

Wow! What a great week! OK, One thing at a time...

First, David traveled to Panama last week to make arrangements for a team going there in March. Unfortunately, he was there during Panamanian Independence Day (from Columbia) so because of the parades and festivities it was impossible to get to the locations they needed to visit. But they did what they could and it will all come together in God's time.

David returned on Thursday night just in time for Shelley to leave on Friday morning. I (Shelley) had a wonderful trip to North Nicaragua. I stayed in the town of Somoto which is less than 10 miles from La Carbonera, the location of one of two Child Development Centers in North Nicaragua. But getting there was an adventure. The pavement ended as we left Somoto and headed northeast. Ahead of us was a huge truck with a flatbed that held, oh I don't know, maybe 40 people all of whom were attending the Building Dedication of the Children's Center/Church in La Carbonera. (You can see it in the photo below). Following close behind was Denis the District Superintendent in his 4x4 truck and then Eliezel (MAC South Work and Witness Coordinator) and me (as well as a bunch of others in the bed of the truck).



Of course the roads were washed out and bumpy, but my biggest concern was the Coco River which separates Somoto from La Carbonera. During the rainy season it is often not passable, but with little rain lately we were hoping to cross without problems. Well, you can guess what happened as we got stuck halfway across and had to be pulled out. (Sorry no pictures of that, just of the guy behind us who got stuck as well, but you get the idea!)

After picking up more folks along the dirt road, we finally arrived at the new building. There are only two buildings in La Carbonera (besides simple homes) : The Primary school and the Child Development Center. So, it is very noticeable and quite a blessing to the community. On this day, the community and church were dedicating Phase One of the building. The next phase will include adding some classrooms all around the building. The building was packed with many children and adults from La Carbonera and neighboring communities.



It was a blessing for me to see the children and put faces with names. They are wonderful kids with many hardships but they are happy and all have big dreams for their futures. I am proud to have just a small part in helping them fulfill their dreams. If you are interested in sponsoring a child, there is always a need for more sponsors. The website is www.ncm.org.



The area surrounding Somoto is simply beautiful with its mountains, rivers and trees. In some ways it reminds me of Iowa (OK, not so much the mountains) since it is very rural and there are fields everywhere. They grow corn and beans (not soy beans like Iowa, other kinds) and there are people riding horses here and there.



There is another part to this adventure that I'll save for next week about our visit to the Center in Jinotega: coffee country.

I arrived back in San Jose at 10 am on Monday morning while David was boarding his plane for Guatemala. He'll be gone this week so I hoped to see him in the airport, but instead our buses passed on the runway. (Yes, they use buses to transport passengers to their planes.) So, our 3 minute phone conversation was all we could arrange.

Please continue praying for travel safety as David will return on Friday for only one day and leave once again, this time for Nicaragua and the hurricane-stricken area of Puerto Cabezas.

God bless you all this week!

The Webb Family