Nicaragua—finally!

Today’s blog is from Jeffrey yoh, co-founder of servants with a heart

I am writing this while flying home from spending four days in Nicaragua on our first Servants With a Heart trip since September of 2019. We had planned for a group of four men to go down, but as it turned out, only David Hair and I made the trip due to some unfortunate traffic the morning we left.

I am happy to say that it appears the country has made it through the pandemic and other immediate issues and seems safe for us to visit regularly again. Our partner, Samaritan’s International, is doing very well and we had a good visit with Patrick and his team. During the past few years, although they were unable to receive our food, they continued to receive some from other contacts. One difficult change the government has made is to require Samaritan’s to submit a list of all people who will receive the meals as the meals go through the customs process. Then they must show proof that those people did indeed receive the food. This is a very time-consuming ordeal, but they are ready to receive our food again—and one container is already on the way!

We were blessed to meet with one of the groups we have sent our food to in the meantime. Eddie from Orphan Network has been working with different nonprofits in Nicaragua and has a very large network of schools and churches to which he provides food. I am confident that our food over the last couple of years has made a big impact.

The highlight of our trip was a visit to the village of Las Hamacas, an “off-the-grid” area with no cell service, electricity or water. The people there had a church service for us, honoring Servants With a Heart with many kind comments regarding the impact our food makes. It was quite humbling! We also cooked meals for them from the one box of meals we hand carried on the flight down. It was packed on December 11th at Relevant Church in Clover, South Carolina, which is our (Suzanne’s and my) home church. The children and adults we fed there were truly beautiful people.

I certainly look forward to making regular visits to Nicaragua again!