Nicaragua Newsletter - another runway open

December 18, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,
Christmas is approaching fast, and it will be the first Christmas in 3
years that we will be staying here in Nicaragua. Coming from Montana, it
just doesn't seem the same without snow, but the festive spirit and the
family ties are still in our hearts. As so many people celebrate with so
many material goods, it is refreshing to see the Miskito culture here
where they are not so commercialized. They don't have so many "things",
but they have their families, friends and communities. Somehow all the
"things" just don't seem so necessary down here.

This month has been very busy, which is good! You may recall from last
month, we had just received approval for the San Carlos runway. I have
now flown out 4 emergency medical patients from that runway; you can see
pictures and stories about that on our web site
www.hanleymissions.org/medicalstories.html. The guy who fell on his
machete is still in the hospital, but up and walking around. A little
boy who got kicked by a horse would not have survived. We also flew in
250 pounds of clothes. This whole part of Nicaragua is talking about the
wonderful blessing of an airplane.

On December 16, I flew the inspector from the government to the Lapan
runway, which the village had cleaned and smoothed. I have been there
twice on the motorcycle, as mentioned in previous newsletters, a truly
grueling 6 hour trip. This time a quick 20 minute flight put us on that
runway with a smooth landing, the first time in over 30 years. We
received quite a welcoming party, a few hundred people. Pictures are on
our web site under photos. We were tremendously blessed that the
inspector approved the runway, and we now have two runways open for
medical evacuation! As we look to the future, villages all over this
part of Nicaragua are excited about the possibility of clearing a
runway. We pray that as we expand the Lord will allow us the ability to
service all the people who request our help.

Work to finish the Tasba Pain church is continuing. There are pictures
of that now on our web site, under New Church Building, a direct link is
www.hanleymissions.org/tasbapain.html . The church people there are
thrilled to have a cement church. They are busy plastering and getting
the gable ends, doors, and window shutters made. I hope to go pour the
floor with my new cement mixer soon (Thank you to the donors who
supplied that!!). Willis, who started the church project, is continuing
to support it, as well as working on another project to give bicycles to
the lay pastors in this region.

The work on the wells is coming along. I poured cement pads around both
wells (10 x 10 feet), and the Tronquera well is working. The Santa Rita
well needs a little more work; it should be working sometime in January.

We have been showing the Jesus film for a couple evenings in our village
with our new generator and projector (Thank you to these donors also!).
It is a big hit and brings in the majority of the village. We are
preparing for a big Share Him evangelism series that we are planning
when Rob and Katherine (Marilyn's sister) come toward the end of
January.

The airplane needs a new annual (mechanic checkout) in a few weeks.
Wings of Hope are sending a mechanic the first week in January from St.
Louis down here to Nicaragua to do the annual. They have been a
tremendous help to our program, and their continuing support of the
Aviation program is saving lives in remote communities.

We are even more thankful this Christmas that we have family and
friends. Even though they are spread all over the world, we relish the
fact we can have communication with e-mail.

Have a Merry Christmas and don't forget that happiness is not to be
found in the material items of this world but in the character of Jesus
whom we celebrate.
In Christ's service,
Clint and Marilyn Hanley
www.wingsovernicaragua.org

******************
Tax deductible Donation information:
Wings Over Nicaragua Mission
185 Harris Rd
Goldendale, WA 98620
We also welcome Visa, MC and Paypal online at www.hanleymissions.org
*******************

If you would like to be removed from this mailing list please send an
email to hanley@softhome.net with "unsubscribe" in the subject line.

*******
Wings Over Nicaragua Mission in Tronquera
Clint and Marilyn Hanley
Tronquera, Nicaragua, Central America
www.hanleymissions.org
*******

Wells and Airplanes in Nicaragua - November 2008

November 14, 2008

 

Dear Family and Friends,

 

We were busy this last 2 months, so this newsletter is a little longer. In September my Mom came to visit, her 2^nd visit to our place here. We enjoyed her visit very much, but her two little grandkids especially enjoyed it!

In the first couple weeks of October, we had two airplane medical transports between Waspam to Port, the only existing runways in NE Nicaragua before our arrival. Both were critical and could not handle the 4-6 hour bus ride over the terrible roads. The 45 minute flight was smooth for them. One teen girl broke her back when her bicycle was hit by a truck. I took her on a stretcher and she was flown on to Managua later. You can see the pictures on our web site, www.hanleymissions.org under Photos.

In the last part of September, we received a donation that allowed us to drill a well in our village of Tronquera (20 minutes walk from our house), and a second one in the next closest village to us, Santa Rita. There are 300 people in each village, and the current wells only collect surface water. Marilyn often sees water born illnesses in her visits to through out the community. These new wells will enable the villages to have access to good clean drinking water. One well is 62 feet deep, and the other 75 feet. They were drilled by an American named Jack Hall, who is here with his family in NE Nicaragua and gave us the wells at cost. It is wonderful to be a part of providing something as vital as good water to so many people who have never had it.

In the first part of October, Willis Hankins came along from Tennessee.  His goal was to build a church in a nearby village. He stayed at our house, and we drove to the village (called Tasba Pine) every day. We worked hard on it for 3 weeks. Many days it rained, but the Lord blessed and at the end of his time we had the cement block walls up and the roof on the new church. It is a solid church and will serve the members of that village for many generations, if we have that long before the Lord comes. We were happy to be a part of the project. Willis also brought down and installed a 2-meter ham radio antenna for us, which improved our communication tremendously.

Our work on the church was complicated by the fact my wife had to leave to Managua, the capital on the other side of the country, halfway through the church building project. This left me in charge of the children and the house, an added challenge while working on the church almost 1 hour from home, 9 hours a day. I now appreciate my wife even more, she does do a lot around our house that I never knew needed done! My wife went to a church meeting in Costa Rica for several countries in Central America. We were invited to give a presentation about the mission work the American’s (two other Adventist America projects are running on this side the country besides ours) are doing in conjunction with our church. Since we are working closely with the church, we felt this meeting of the leaders was important. She left the meeting very encouraged about the work of the Seventh-day Adventist church in Central America.

After we finished the roof of the church, I drove our little truck over to Managua. Willis went with me. It took us 2 days, 25 hours of driving time. The distance is only 200 miles of bad road, but we often used 4x4 creeping in 1^st and 2^nd gear through places that sometimes high centered the truck.

In Managua we “found” Marilyn, it had been a long 10 days for me and the kids without her! She was busy finishing a root cannel and getting a crown on her tooth. Brandel had a hurting tooth, so we took him to the dentist and he also had to have a root cannel. He is in need of more dental work on our next trip to Managua. The children also went for a long overdue check up with an English speaking pediatrician, and received their immunizations.  We had to borrow the money to pay for the dental work and doctor visit on this trip. As many of your know we are volunteer missionaries receiving no wages or benefits, this includes medical or dental insurance.  Because we do live in Nicaragua this cost was much less than it would have been in the US where one root canal can cost over twice as much.

We were very blessed to receive a donation that allowed us to purchase a generator and a projector for evangelism, which Willis brought with him from America when he came to work on the church. We used it a couple times already for church, and it brought in lots of people. People here like technology, so when you have it, everyone comes to see. It is a wonderful evangelism tool. Now we have deep wells of pure physical water, and evangelism tools for giving the Living Water. The end of February Marilyn’s sister and brother-in-law are coming down with their family and will be doing a Share Him evangelism series for a couple of weeks. We are currently starting Bible studies to get ready for this, and look forward to increasing our membership from the one Adventist family we currently have in Tronquera. Our new projector and generator will be vital to this endeavor.

One of the reasons we drove our truck to Managua was to haul back hand pumps to put in our new wells (there is no electricity for 1 hours drive from here). After 3 days of looking, we bought some pumps. They are not exactly what we wanted, but they will get the water out of the well. We were also able to get a little cement mixer, which will be used right away to pour an apron around the well. Our truck was very full for the trip back, which we managed to do in 2 full days, arriving back here November 7. The Lord blessed and our truck ran well.

Yesterday, November 12, I flew the inspector that came from Managua out to the San Carlos airport for the 3^rd time. She has not approved it the previous two times, so we had people worldwide praying this time it would pass. She carefully looked it over, and approved it! It has taken 6 months and almost $1,000 in airplane gas and government fees to get it opened, but it is the first community on the river in 30 years to get a runway.

Our computer is our only communication here via e-mail and a well used resource in our mission and life.  It is 5 years old and causing us some trouble. We would like to ask for your prayers as we raise money this month to purchase a new laptop on one of the great specials on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. 

In the next couple week we will be painting on the church, installing the hand pumps in the wells, working on our house, and doing a health screening in 3 villages.  Please continue to pray for our work here.

 

Wishing you God's Blessings,

Clint and Marilyn

www.hanleymissions.org

 

 

******************

Tax deductible Donation information:

Wings Over Nicaragua Mission

185 Harris Rd

Goldendale, WA 98620

We also welcome Visa, MC and Paypal online at www.hanleymissions.org

*******************

 

If you would like to be removed from this mailing list please send an email to hanley@softhome.net with "unsubscribe" in the subject line.

 

 

*******

Wings Over Nicaragua Mission in Tronquera

Clint and Marilyn Hanley

Tronquera, Nicaragua, Central America

www.hanleymissions.org

*******

 

 

September Newsletter for our family and friends

September 26, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,
Hello again. Another new month has rolled around. We find ourselves still in Nicaragua.

We would like to ask you to please pray for us on a special issue. This month we would like to pray that the Lord will send us a helper Missionary. We need a person who is interested in Child and Youth Ministries. A person with enough energy, to match the young people, for Pathfinder activities. A person with a desire to create a Sabbath School that children love to attend. A person who has an overwhelming love for the Lord and a desire to do his will no matter what, even if that means living
in the jungles of Nicaragua. Please pray that the Lord will send us His person he has already selected for this special task. Please share this information with anyone who might be interested.

After we were done at the internet café in Waspam on Friday one week, a man from the hospital came to find us. He said they had a patient that needed transport to Puerto. It sounded like she had a very serious blood toxicity, though it is unclear exactly what was causing it. So we rushed off in the truck to drive home (45 minutes). Then Clint got the plane out and flew back to Waspam (8 minutes). Well, when he got to Waspam the doctors came to meet the plane. They had the patient all ready for
transport, with permission and everything, until the family showed up. They didn't want her taken to Puerto so they took her out AMA (against medical advice) to go see a witchdoctor. The doctors strongly warned the family that if they left, the woman would probably die. The next week we found out the lady had died shortly after her departure from the hospital.

After flying home from Waspam (with no transport), Clint got the plane tied down. We were just getting ready to sit down for supper, when two men arrived at our gate. They had a letter from a lay pastor in Tasba Pain, another village about 1 hour drive away. There was an elderly woman who was gravely ill and needed transport to the hospital in Waspam. Tasba Pain is actually within Tasba Raya area but they had come to us because the missionaries in Francis Sirpi right now don't have a regular truck
for transportation. To get to Tasba Pain meant that we had to drive 45 minutes away from Waspam before turning around to take her back to Waspam. They told me a couple little clues of how sick she was so we decided to take her. After Clint returned home that night he confirmed that the lady was diabetic and seemed to be in a coma. We praise the Lord that we were here to help when the time was needed. It was a very long day for all of us but especially for Clint with 3 trips to Waspam in one day.
We found out the next week that the doctors said the diabetic lady would have died within a few more hours had she not been brought to the hospital. Currently (2 weeks later) she is recovered and back with her family in Tasba Pain. Her family was very thankful.

I just returned from a trip to Lapan. It was around 230 miles, and due to some rain and a broken motorcycle chain, it took longer than expected. The last 15 miles into the village the road was very bad. Now here you never get over 20 to 30 miles an hour on the good road (in places passable only in 4x4). The bad road was even worse, driving in 1st and 2nd gear on the motorcycle, weaving around big rocks and fighting to keep the motorcycle upright for 1 ½ hours. I had to spend the night in Puerto Cabezas
because it was closer than going back home to Tronquera. I was on the motorcycle a total of 9 ½ hours, and I was tired out. The village was thrilled to hear about our medical evacuation services, and I staked out their runway with the help of a GPS. It is an old runway from 30 years ago, and shouldn't take too much work to clean. They said they are going to put 500 guys on it and finish it in a few days, they are anxious to have it usable.

The communities of San Carlos and Bismuna also are continuing to work on their runways. We are scheduling another inspection of San Carlos so please pray that it goes well.

Wishing you God's Blessings,
Clint and Marilyn

******************
Tax deductible Donation information:
Wings Over Nicaragua Mission
185 Harris Rd
Goldendale, WA 98620
We also welcome Visa, MC and Paypal online at www.hanleymissions.org
*******************

If you would like to be removed from this mailing list please send an email to hanley@softhome.net with "unsubscribe" in the subject line.

*******
Wings Over Nicaragua Mission in Tronquera
Clint and Marilyn Hanley
Tronquera, Nicaragua, Central America
www.hanleymissions.org
*******

*******
Wings Over Nicaragua Mission in Tronquera
Clint and Marilyn Hanley
Tronquera, Nicaragua, Central America
www.hanleymissions.org
*******

Nicaraguan Newsletter for our family and friends

June 21, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,
This has been a busy month. The San Carlos runway was inspected for the
first time May 13. I flew an inspector from INAC (equivalent of the FAA)
to look over the runway. It was her first time to see bush runways, and
the first time to this side of the country. She was not use to the
standard conditions here (manure on the runway) and did not approve the
runway. It was the first time the runway had been used in almost 30
years. Pictures are on our web site. A new inspection was scheduled
June 18, and it still didn't pass. I will go back in a week or two again
to check it, this time by myself.
We have been running on verbal permissions only to operate the airplane
here in Nicaragua. We hit major road blocks and many thousands of
dollars to get the standard 6 months permission we requested. The cost
is close to $10,000. For the last 1 ½ months we have been praying about
this situation. A friend of ours runs a hotel in Waspam, 45 minutes
from here. He was helping me by translating and communicating with San
Carlos, since he use to live there. He had a delegation of government
personnel stay at his hotel while investigating economic aid to the
region, and they asked about projects in the area. He told them of my
airplane and the San Carlos runway. One of the officials (turns out he
is close to the president of the Nicaragua), gave him his card and told
him if there was any trouble to call him direct, and even gave his home
phone to my friend. A couple weeks later, my friend called him and
requested help with the airplane permissions. I went into Managua last
week and found with this officials name only (they never even called his
office), things happen quite quickly. Within 3 hours I had the
permissions and it cost me US$10.50 (ten dollars). It is truly amazing
to see how the Lord can lead. He can even touch the heart of officials
in this government who might not ordinarily be inclined to help
Americans. When we are facing seeming insurmountable obstacles, God
always has a path through them.
We received money this month from a donor to fix our church here in
Tronquera. We ordered paint last week that will come from Managua. The
church has never been painted. It will be a blessing to have a nice
church building.
Last week we received an urgent e-mail from some friends of ours, Jack
and Lyn Hall, who had broken down half way across the country in a 32
foot motorhome towing a full size truck on their way from California to
Puerto. Marilyn was up for the adventure, so she and the kids came
along. We drove 9 ½ hours over terrible roads, fording rivers, averaging
20 miles per hour. At least if your motorhome breaks down you have a
place to stay! Unfortunately, it was right on the busy rocky road, the
only one between Port of Cabezas and Managua. After 2 days of repairing,
we helped them on down the road. Ten miles later their truck hitch
broke. We left their truck with our watchman, and continued on the way
to Puerto with the motorhome. After a night on the road and 2 days
driving, we made it to Port. Marilyn and I spent a couple days there and
made that our monthly Port trip for buying all our groceries and
supplies. It was nice to get back home to Tronquera after such a long
trip! We were blessed to have a good truck to take to help them. It held
up nicely to the harsh conditions, and we were glad more than once for
our 4x4.
There are pictures of our latest new animal, a Pisote, and of the San
Carlos trip on our web site, www.hanleymissions.org.

God bless
Sincerely,
Clint and Marilyn Hanley

******************
Tax deductible Donation information:
Wings Over Nicaragua Mission
185 Harris Rd
Goldendale, WA 98620
We also welcome Visa, MC and Paypal online at www.hanleymissions.org
*******************

We are adding a postal mailing to our newsletter. If you or someone you
know would rather receive this newsletter via USPS please send us your
Postal mailing address.
Everything was moved and transported by hand, or in this case shoulder.
If you would like to be removed from this mailing list please send an
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February Newsletter from Nicaragua for our family

Hi.
Just wanted to send you our latest news.  Our airplane has arrived, we purchased a truck, and distributed a 40 foot container of hurricane relief items!

If the attached PDF does not work, please let us know and we'll send you a text e-mail.

God bless,
Clint and Marilyn Hanley

<<...>>

Clint is gone again

Dear Family,
Clint left this morning to return to St Louis and get his airplane. He will be gone for a 2-4 weeks. He worked hard before he left to make sure that everything was in tip-top shape for me while he is gone.
I have lots of projects to work on while he is gone so I won't be too bored.
I hope to start English classes sometime. I would love to get a library started here but that is going to take some more books and some time.
I am writing some bible stories and getting them translated. I hope to get them printed for the Miskito children.
Maybe also a song book. This of course is going to depend on my power. Guess I will wait and see how it goes.

I think that I will go to town on Friday. I will let you know for sure closer to the day.

Love to all.
Marilyn

home at last

Hello everyone!
We are finally home in Tronquera. Our house is dirty but exactly like we left it.
My garden is growing for the most part. Some of it is overrun with weeds but it is still growing.
They harvested sunflower seeds while we were gone. I think I will plant more soon.
The carrots are big enough to eat. We will enjoy those. We also have green peppers and chile peppers. I am very glad for those. I will write more to everyone soon.
Please write us here at this address now. Clint has the radio and email up and working.
Love
Marilyn

Truck update

Hello everyone!
It is Friday evening.  Tonight we spend our first Sabbath hours rejoicing at the Lord's leading, guiding and providing. 

Since we arrived in Managua on Tuesday evening we have been praying and looking for a truck.  After two days of fruitless searching we were a little discouraged.  We had planned to get a Toyota Hilux, which is well used brand of truck down here.  We were starting to think that we should not be looking for a truck, maybe a SUV would be good enough.  There was a SUV in the paper that Clint called on.  The man wasn't going to be home until 6 pm.  Clint left around 6 in a taxi to go look at the SUV.  He decided to have the taxi driver call to make sure the man was home.  The man wasn't home and was not going to be home until after 8 pm.  When the taxi driver found what Clint wanted, he introduced him to a friend with a car lot

They agreed that the car lot owner would pick up Clint in the morning to look at the trucks. 
First thing this morning Clint went to look at the trucks. There were no Toyotas, but there were two Mitsubishis and one Mazda that were all double cabs with four-wheel drive.

The best mechanically looking one was the Mazda, so we bought it.
Thank you so much to our donors who made this possible. 
We ran around crazy all day trying to get enough done that we could leave today after purchasing the truck.  We were not successful finishing all our errands in a timely manner.  Since it was so late we will wait to leave. 

We are looking forward to traveling to Puerto Cabezas Sunday, in time to get the container that is coming Monday. 
Please continue to pray for us as we are amazed by the Lord's generosity, provisions and guidance. 
Sincerely,
Marilyn and Clint Hanley

*******
Wings Over Nicaragua / Tronquera Mission
Clint and Marilyn Hanley
Nicaragua, Central America
www.hanleymissions.org
*******

Getting ready to leave

Hi folks,
I am in Washington getting ready to leave back to Nicaragua one week from today.
Please keep us in your prayers as we get ready to buy a truck and get the container into the country.
Thanks
Marilyn