La Villa Familiar Nicaragua - VFN

Chris and Corrie are the new directors of La Villa (The Village) an orphanage just outside of Managua, Nicaragua. So many exciting things have been happening that I could not resist letting you in on some of the good news. The needs of La Villa are so great and God has answered so many prayers that we will have to narrow the field to only three areas.

Atmosphere and Attitude:
La Villa had been without a director for about nine months. Chris and Corrie found the buildings in disrepair, the children disorderly and aimless, and the employees basically fearful. They discovered locked buildings with needed supplies that had not been distributed; the school building was infested with angry red wasps; the “kitchen” was worse than dirty, and meals below nutritional needs.

Chris began getting order among the children, establishing boundaries, and meeting one-on-one with staff. Corrie focused on preparations for school to start in less than two weeks. They have 35 children, 10 go to a Christian secondary school and the rest attend school at La Villa.

Chris and Corrie are not challenging their culture; they are challenging using their culture as an excuse to be lazy, dishonest and without integrity. Last semester the teachers had to lock the doors to keep the kids in the classrooms. But on the first day of school, the children were in their seats working, and there was a pleasant hum all through the building. They were proud of their new uniforms and their “new” school—a repaired and freshly painted house next to the old school building. Order brings peace.

Reputation:
Because of some really bad things that happened in the past, the reputation of La Villa had deteriorated to that of being considered a hypocrite ministry by the people in a nearby town. Chris discovered this when trying to do business for the orphanage there.

On the road alongside La Villa’s property there is a strip of shanty houses, a squatter’s village of the poorest of the poor. Water and power are often turned off without warning in Nicaragua. When that happened the squatters would come to the guards of La Villa to get water. This was stopped by a former director and many people suffered needlessly. La Villa has a deep well with plenty of water. After checking out the story, Chris ran a water hose to the fence line and told the guards to give water to the people when theirs was turned off. That soon happened, the people came, and they were given water.

The next time Chris was in the town, he tried to buy some produce, but the farmer wouldn’t sell it to him. Instead, he started putting produce in the back of Chris’ truck and told him, “You’re the man who turned the water back on.”

Bonding with the children:
It is one thing to set rules in place, but it’s another to win hearts. More than 85% of the children have been abandoned, most by their mothers. Some of the teens know where their families are but they have been told that they are not wanted. Crushed is not the word for what they have experienced — devastation is a better one.

There has been heavy spiritual warfare to break through and win the children’s trust. It takes more than repairing buildings, clothing the children, and cleaning up where they live. Chris has made huge inroads, especially with the boys. Corrie sent out an urgent prayer request for one particular breakthrough that was needed. That same day, the breakthrough happened, and the next day an unexpected victory followed close behind. Here’s part of the story as Corrie wrote it:

“Yesterday a couple of the ‘tough kids’, the ones I have had to work with so hard, came to me. One of them is a little boy, seven years old that looks five because he’s so small. In his own eyes, he is the next heavyweight champion of the world! His name is Darwin. I have literally chased him to hug him. He has started to respond.

“He held a crumpled piece of paper with dirty little hands and read to me in Spanish (with one of his front teeth missing so it was really hard to understand him) his decision to Chris and me. He said he has decided to give me his entire heart, that he will love me forever, and that I am his Mama and Chris is his Papa. Soon after, other kids started running up to me with their papers and declarations. It is as if there had been a vote, and we won.”

Prayer moves the hand of God. Why He has chosen to wait for us to pray is a mystery only He understands, but He hears and answers when we ask. Two requests: a major need for La Villa right now is an interpreter with a heart for the ministry. And pray for Martha’s trip. This is more than a family visit—it’s missions.