Nicaragua!

We’ve decided to start a blog to keep our family and friends updated about our upcoming move to Nicaragua this summer!  I thought I’d begin by answering some of the common questions we’ve gotten since telling people about the changes coming our way.

What are you going to be doing there?

I (Susan) will be teaching English at Nicaragua Christian Academy Nejapa in Managua, Nicaragua.  This is one of three Nicaragua Christian Academy (NCA) schools.  The original NCA (now called Nicaragua Christian Academy International) was started as a school for missionary kids and has grown to include many Nicaragua families as well.  It teaches an American curriculum in English.  Nicaragua Christian Academy Nejapa is a national school made up of mostly Nicaraguan students.  The curriculum is taught in Spanish except for an hour a day of English.  My job will be to teach that hour of English to several classes.  Our kids will also be attending NCA Nejapa.  The third school, NCA Matagalpa, is located in a different city and also a national, Spanish speaking school.  To start out, Jared will not be officially working with any organization.  His primary responsibility will be to help our family to adjust to this transition.  He does hope to eventually start working with a school or other organization.  NCA Nejapa and NCA Matagalpa follow the Nicaragua school calendar which begins in February and goes through the end of November.

How did this all happen?  Have you been thinking about this for a long time?  

You may or may not know that Jared and I spent a year in Tegucigalpa, Honduras teaching at International School (a bilingual Christian school) right after we got married almost 11 years ago.  Since then, we’ve always had it at the back of our minds that God may call us to another foreign country at some point, most likely as teachers or in the area of education.  In the past 11 years we’ve seen lots of changes – Jared working as a teacher, assistant principal, and principal, Susan working as a teacher and then Spanish immersion coordinator, and most importantly, having three kids!  When our friends Andrew and Ruth Ippel began serving in Nicaragua three years ago we enjoyed following their transition and learned more about Nicaragua Christian Academy through them.  This past summer we asked to meet with them when they were in Grand Rapids and they were nice enough to spend some time with us to talk about the possibility of our family also serving in Nicaragua.  The helped us sort through some of our options and eventually put us in touch with the right people in Nicaragua.

We decided to go visit Nicaragua in February for five days and the Ippels were nice enough to put their lives on hold to host us and show us around.  We stayed at their house and saw the school, met tons of great people, looked at possible housing options, and learned about their daily lives in Managua.  We are so grateful for everything they have done so far to help us!

We did a bad job of taking pictures while we were in Nicaragua in February.  Here’s Landon with some of the friends he met at the Ippel’s neighborhood.

When will you be moving?

We hope to move at the end of July.  My job will not actually begin until the beginning of 2017, but we are going early so that Julia and Landon can be in school for the second half of the 2016 school year and so that Jared can do intensive Spanish language classes.

Will you be raising support?

Yes, we are partnering with Christian Reformed World Missions to raise prayer and missionary support.  The school does pay me a small salary and stipend, but we will have to raise financial support to cover our expenses.  We hope to have things set up to begin support raising soon.  Most importantly, we ask for your prayers as we make this transition.

Are you going to sell your house/cars/things?

Yes, we are planning to sell our house, cars, and a lot of our stuff.  My sister and brother-and-law have an apartment in their basement that they are going to let us live in when we sell our house before we leave and when we are in Grand Rapids to visit, so we plan to move some of our furniture and belongings there.  We are so thankful we will have a place to stay when we are in Grand Rapids and the kids are excited to be able to live with some of their cousins!

We have a lot to do in 4 months and the to-do list grows by the day.  We thank you for following along on our journey and are thankful for your prayers and support!