Our PC(USA) Mission Co-Workers, Ian Vellenga and Jhan Dotel-Vellenga, share their March update with us.

2020 is an important year for CEPAD as an institution and for 80 different communities in Nicaragua. This year’s Bible message is inspired by Psalm 26:7 (NKJV): “That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving and tell all of your wondrous works.”

Much like King David, CEPAD wants to proclaim its gratitude to God thankfully recalling the gifts received during this period, the providence and kindness it received in 2019 as an institution, and Nicaragua’s slow recover as a nation.

On February 18th, CEPAD celebrated the groundbreaking ceremony of its new Center for Peace dedicated to Gustavo Adolfo Parajón. Dr. Gustavo Parajón, as many of you remember, was the founder of CEPAD and led the organization for many years. This Center for Peace will become CEPAD’s new central office in Managua, RadioCEPAD’s studio, and provide accommodations for visiting groups.

In terms of our work with the different communities, we are in a very important year. It’s a year where we celebrate the accomplishments of 40 communities as they graduate from CEPAD’s programs. Because of the pandemic, we will be postponing our time in these 40 communities as their graduation was set for April. After we strengthen their community leaders to deal with the pandemic, familiar faces, CEPAD staff, will not have as strong a presence in those communities.

At the same time, a new set of 40 communities will be chosen to work with CEPAD during the next 5-year cycle. This work usually starts with a lot of meetings, evaluations, and learning about each community’s primary concerns and needs, its demographics, and its main sources of income.

In some ways, CEPAD is like a foster parent or family. It chooses to help communities and their individuals to grow, develop, and learn for a period of time. This comes with the hope of improving their living conditions and helping them understand their rights.

CEPAD offers the communities supervision, guidance, and nurture. Different programs are offered that discuss leadership development, women’s economic development, and food security. Courses are taught on environmental practices in agriculture, developing international partnerships, and building solidarity. CEPAD’s main focus also includes the strengthening of families, the improvement of community relations, and the creation of self-sustainable projects and programs.

But being a foster parent or family usually comes with a lot of challenges. Leaving the communities after five years of getting to know many of their members, learning their personal stories, and seeing them grow, is not as easy as it sounds. Every community has a different story, and its members relate to each other and CEPAD in different ways.

One community might already have an established group of leaders, while another community might be made up of individuals who would usually not interact much with each other or the community at large. Some individuals in a community would be willing to work with CEPAD from the beginning, while others might remain skeptical for a long time or never fully integrate themselves into any of CEPAD’s programs.

At the end of the 5 years, we hope the communities are united in their desire for further improvement. We hope that they will have learned new ways of making important decisions and will continue the work they and CEPAD undertook together.

Like a faithful and loving parent, CEPAD rejoices in their steady growth and happiness, and hopes they can continue their journey towards growth and development by using everything that has been shared and taught.

We know the work ahead is long and hard for these communities, so we hope you join CEPAD in this year’s journey and the journeys to follow. We invite you to continue working for the improvement of CEPAD as an institution and also for the betterment of the people of Nicaragua.

You can also help to support CEPAD’s work by donating to support their programs. We are grateful, beyond words, for all the support we have received from all of you this past year.

God bless you,

Jhan and Ian