Nicaragua
January 6-13, 2008

Martha and Jose stood in the center of their new borne watching the team. Hand in Hand volunteers put the finishing touches of block on the spacious 12 foot walls that were built the previous week. They looked at me and smiled as we laughed at their 8 year-old son, as he helped Bill and Bette move a wheelbarrow twice his size out of the doorway past the indoor bathroom built for Martha’s mom, a luxury beyond belief,  made real by your generosity and the hard work of our immersion trip volunteers.

Our parternership with their family began when we enrolled Estaban in our scholarship program, Pathway to Change, that blossomed into a lasting intimate relationship culminating in the construction of a new home. A hand up, not a hand out is an act of love, giving them dignity and real ownership.

Martha told me that she had been waiting all her life for the feelings she was feeling. The answer to her prayers for longings held in her heart for real security and hope for a better life. She told me to tell all of you that you are welcome in her home. She told me to tell you that you are part of her home and in her family’s prayers every day because you have made her hope a reality.