Judy and I had recently returned to the States after a three-year term as Lutheran missionaries in Peru when the earthquake that destroyed much of Managua hit on Christmas, 1972. A few days later I got a call from Church World Service asking if I would go immediately to Managua to coordinate what was certain to be a large humanitarian response from the American Churches.

I arrived a few days later to a city in almost complete ruins, having been advised to look up a Baptist Doctor by the name of Gustavo Parajón.

At the heavily damaged Colegio Bautista, I met Gustavo and found that he had already started meeting under a tree on the school grounds with local evangelical pastors, and was organizing a team of jovenes (young people) to distribute the first supplies of aid. One of the jóvenes was “El Profe”, Gilberto Aguirre, who became the first Program Director. That was the beginning of CEPAD.

I worked for over 40 years with many organizations in over 35 countries and I find CEPAD to be quite unique. It is a remarkable organization with a long record of solidarity with Nicaraguan communities for these many years — through numerous natural and human caused catastrophes, always with a few to building the capacities of the people living in poverty to work on their own destinies.

It is gratifying to see that CEPAD continued to be faithful to its’ original vision of service in the name of Christ, striving to be good stewards of the limited resources available. That is why Judy and I are donors to CEPAD.