the children are starving

Just a quick update on what's been happening. I will fill you in more fully when we get back to the States. We have accomplished our mission here in Nicaragua, and Honduras. We have made broad strides in placing a missionary AVIATION base in either Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, or alternatively in Waspan, Nicaragua. We WERE able to get both of our pilots licenses convalidated in Nicaragua. So Carolyn and I are now officially rated pilots in Nicaragua! We had allocated 2 weeks for THAT task alone, and God blessed us with friends that enabled us to do it more quickly.

We also took a trip out to La Moskitia while we were in Nicaragua. We visited Puerto Cabezas, and toured the village and the airport there. Then we took a bus ride along a windy, bumpy, dirt/mud road to the much smaller village of Waspan.

The next day we took a forty-foot long canoe upriver (arriba rio) to several even smaller villages. The village we ended up spending the night at was called San Carlos, and if you have access to a map of Nicaragua, you can see how far west on the Rio Coco that the village of San Carlos is ... from Waspan. It was a ten-hour journey by dugout canoe...oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we were in feeder bands from Hurricane Beta for the entire day! It was ONE WET TRIP. We got soaked to the bone. We actually were blessed that we went (of course).

We had the opportunity to visit the small dirt airstrip/soccer field at San Carlos. The strip is supposedly still (possibly) mined with explosives from the Nicaraguan/Contra wars. So the pastor that was with us, through Brother Zavala in Puerto Cabezas, was able to contact the authorities in Waspan that are responsible for ensuring the safe removal of devices of that nature...and hopefully by the time we return to San Carlos we will have an airstrip that is functional. We still have to contact the engineers offices in Managua, Nicaragua to "officially" open the strip there though...more to do, more to do...more to do. ALWAYS more to do!

The native Indian people of the La Moskitia region in Nicaragua have very recently had the misfortune to have had a cyclical infestation of rats. The rats have eaten ALL the food in the region, with Waspan being one of the hardest hit. These people need your prayers and support most urgently, and right now. Please keep them in your prayers. The native Indian children in Waspan are being fed tree roots, because there is no other food. The native Indian mothers are taking the 1/2 day long journey into the forest to find the proper roots, and then bringing them home to boil, to make them edible. It is BARE sustenance, and even at that is not enough.

Dios le bendiga grandemente en a su familia y ministerio.

Casa de Servicio, International
Aviation Medical Support & Missionary Flight Training

Richard Becton

flight@flash.net

http://www.casadeservicio.org