SuNica staff & the Leon/Chinandega was spared the worst. Not so for NE Nicaragua. This blog will be updated as Hurricane updates become available.
December 15, 2020

Thank you to those of you who have contributed to relief efforts through prayer and donations. Our friends at Open Hearts have made it out to Wawa Bar & Karata over the past few days. It was impossible to even get to Puerto Cabezas for several days after the Hurricane. My friend Chris Farrington (Open Hearts) is working with Local Pastor Earl Bowie in making sure that folks have food to eat and they are also helping to clean up and rehab roofs (sometimes for homes that are still standing) and sometimes on temporary dwellings that families are erecting until they can afford to rebuild proper houses (which will take years).

See the photos below of the scene in Wawa Bar & Karata. The relief efforts have ranged from Food & Water to clean up with chain saws, to now delivering tin for roof repairs. This is all being done in the name of Jesus and it’s really a beautiful way for Pastor Earl and Verbo church to share the love of God with these folks that he’s been reaching out to for years. 

How is SuNica contributing:

1. We are sending food and supplies via our friends at Open Hearts. They are receiving a semi-truck arranged by Pastor Earl as often as they can. They load the truck in Managua and send it on to Pastor Earl while they either drive or fly a puddle jumper over to Puerto Cabezas.
2. Josh & Betty’s Pastor (Alvaro of IMPACT Church) has also jumped in on relief and rehab efforts and so we would like to help them out as well.

If you’d like to donate to hurricane relief, use the link below. Thank you for your efforts!

Give to Hurricane Relief 

– Alan Wilser

 

UPDATE November 30, 2020 | 4:00pm

Give to Hurricane Relief 

Thank you to all who supported Hurricane Relief! Our partners were able to puddle jump out to Puerto Cabezas and then made their way by boat to Wawa Bar. Unfortunately, the damage is devastating, and entire areas where you could once see 20 homes have been reduced to rubble with maybe one home standing (pictured below).

Thanks to your support, another delivery of food and supplies along with a whole cadre of chain saws was made. The road to reconstruction seems daunting and impossible, but there is Hope. Even with world travel at an all-time low, local Nicaraguans are coming from the west coast with food and supplies to help in any way they can.

We’re so thankful that Josh and Betty’s church along with their pastor, Alvaro, have joined in on the relief. We will continue to help Pastor Earl via our friends at Open Hearts, but we are also going to team up with the Josh & Betty’s home church in Leon – Iglesia Impacto, who have joined in on the relief efforts. 

You can continue to give to hurricane relief here. Thank you for your support!

Give to Hurricane Relief 

 

____________________________________________________________________________________

 

UPDATE November 20, 2020 | 10:00am

Give to Hurricane Relief

We are grateful to report that our team is safe. Leon and Chinandega had a lot of rain and some wind, but overall fared well during Hurricane Iota. Puerto Cabezas has endured serious destruction, and many people are without roofs on their houses. Our connection in Puerto Cabezas is a man named Pastor Earl of Verbo Church. He is graciously feeding 2,000 people while his own roof has been completely blown off by the wind. 80% of homes are damaged or destroyed, and most damaged homes are missing roofs.

Here are the needs that we are prepared to meet if you want to give:

  1. Food – $39 feeds a family of 5 for a month. Our friends at Open Hearts have already sent enough for 280 families, and we are planning to do at least one more delivery like that in the next couple of weeks.
  2. Water Deliveries: It’s a $200/trip in fuel for Pastor Earl’s boat to run fresh water in 55 gallon drums on a 60 mile round trip in the open ocean to Wawa Bar, Haulover, & Karata. He can send a group of locals to do that every other day for the next month or two until their artesian wells can be flushed from the sea water and other contaminants that have filled them. 
  3. Roofs: Tin (for roof repair) $800 is AVG cost of roof repair
  4. Chainsaw: ($750) For clean-up & roof building
  5. Boat: $14,000 – Earl’s panga boat & motor are woefully inadequate to move supplies on the 60 mile open ocean round-trip to the people of Karata, Haulover, & Wawa Bar. New boat for $4,000 and a 150hp outboard for $10,000 would be very helpful. The only way to reach most of these places is by boat so this would be a fantastic need to meet if you’re in position. 

This is a developing situation and the nature of relief work is such that you simply take care of basic needs until boots on the ground can really understand how best to move from relief to restoration and then back to development. 

We are thankful for your continued prayers, support, and concern for our friends in Nicaragua. While the damage will take much effort to rectify, we praise God that He has spared the lives of many. If you would like to help support relief efforts in the Puerto Cabezas region, you can do that directly at www.sunica.org/donate by selecting Hurricane Eta Relief in the dropdown menu.

We will continue to update this blog as information becomes available.

Give to Hurricane Relief 

____________________________________________________________________________________

 

According to weather.com, this is the first time on record there have ever been two major hurricanes to hit Nicaragua in the same season (a major hurricane is a Category 3 or greater). 

Our friends in Managua just returned home from a relief mission dropping a large box truck load of food and supplies to a network of church partners in Puerto Cabezas.  The journey is long and difficult (even without Hurricane issues). 

And now Hurricane Iota is set to slam into the same spot only two weeks later. There are already thousands staying in what few shelters exist in the area. Homes that barely withstood Eta will likely not hold up through a Category 5 hurricane.  

Below are pictures from our friend Chris Farrington. They were able to visit a few of the villages in which they have worked over the years. You can see that their operation is pretty significant. 

If you would like to help make another delivery of food and water into the Puerto Cabezas region, you can do that directly at www.sunica.org/donate. Just choose Hurricane Eta Relief in the dropdown.