Mission accomplished

Team T.E.C. Mission is back home with the feeling that we accomplished our goals after a week in Nicaragua - sharing the love and kindness of Jesus.

About 450 people in three communities - Managua and two rural areas, received medical care and/or were fitted with eyeglasses. We had set a goal of serving at least 300 people.

Patients were treated for problems ranging from respiratory, intestinal, joint, rashes and parasites to a young man with a serious eye infection. Doctors insisted on seeing him the next day for a follow up. Virtually everyone needing eyeglasses was fitted and others were given sunglasses.

As usual, people were appreciative of the medical help they received. There were some who were very happy after their vision improved drastically when they were fitted with eyeglasses. One young woman who said she was taken out of school when her vision got so bad, could see to read again after many years.

Following the end of our last workday, the team gathered with parents and the children in our Masaya after-school program to distribute the backpacks with school supplies and shoes that were provided by members of First Christian Church of Cocoa Beach.

In a surprisingly eloquent thank you speech after the items were distributed, 11-year-old Walter Ocon touched the emotions of many. He thanked everyone who helped and said it was such a blessing to receive the items because the parents would not be able to afford to buy the needed supplies and shoes. Afterwards the children and their parents came up to team members to say thank you.

The after-school program has really made a big difference in the lives of these children.

Our team had talked about being able to see about 100 patients per day, but 187 showed up by the end of Monday and they were all served. It was busy and exhausting yet team members left the Managua clinic satisfied that God had allowed us to serve that many people.


In Managua we worked at a clinic that had not been used for several years, but it did offer a good amount of space and exam rooms for the doctors and optician. In addition to our team, we had 16 Nicaraguans from our churches in Managua and Masaya to help us with registration and translation.


Dr. Steve Badolato, Dr. Francis Ruiz and Dr. Christen Doucet coordinated the types of cases each would see, while optician David Bressette had a steady line of people to examine for eyeglasses. Bonnie Bressette kept the eyeglass inventory in order and helps in the exam room.


Danielle Malico and Kyle Ruiz operated the pharmacy with the assistance of a Nicaraguan pharmacist, who is a member of our church in Managua. They also ran the pharmacy under the supervision of the doctors during two other clinics.


Don Driscol registered patients as they came in while Glenn Castro had a constant line of people waiting to get their eyeglasses properly fitted. Myrna Moody helped Dr. Doucet with patients and translated for David Bressette.


Elaine was responsible for pulling eyeglasses from the inventory for each patient. Norman coordinated the clinic and helped with various duties as needed.



After completing our clinic on Tuesday afternoon, the team took about 45 minutes to participate in the distribution of backpacks, school supplies and black shoes to the 15 children in our Masaya after-school program. These were items that were given by members of First Christian Church of Cocoa Beach and shipped ahead of our mission trip. The children's parents were very appreciative. Walter, one of the boys in the program, told the crowd gathered in the Sunday school hall that his and the other parents would not have been able to afford the shoes or the school supplies that were provided.

We wish that those who provided the items for the children could have been here to experience their reactions and the appreciation from them and their parents. They were so happy, they wanted to hug everyone. They all send their thanks.

Successful medical and optical clinic

T.E.C. Mission team arrived as scheduled in Managua, (team minus two in picture) but was delayed several hours in getting to Las Salinas, a three-hour drive. We arrived at 11:00 p.m. Thursday. When we set up to begin work at 9:00 a.m. there were only about six patients, but then they quickly began arriving. By the end of the day 129 patients had received either medical or optical care, or both.

Saturday was left open for any follow up with patients. There were only a couple of eyeglass fittings. We spent about two hours with the children from the area around the church. We had a short Bible lesson, games, and handed out small toys.

After stopping for lunch we drove back to the hostel in Masaya, where we arrived about 4:00 p.m.

Sunday was a day for church. The congregation in Masaya recognized the team with a small gift of appreciation to each of the doctors, the optician and our church.

We distributed small toys to all the children at the church in Masaya.

The team is preparing for an early start Monday morning to our optical and medical clinics in Managua.

We begin our mission

Preparations are complete and we are ready to start our winter Optical / Medical Mission.

After reaching Managua we'll take a three-hour drive to El Astillero, a fishing village on the Pacific coast. El Astillero is just a short drive from Las Salinas, where we will hold our first optical and medical clinic Friday. Saturday morning is left open for any follow up with patients and for the three-hour drive to Masaya, where we will be staying the rest of our time in Nicaragua. Over the next few days we will be working in Managua and Masaya.

We are a team of 12 from Brevard County plus one person from Costa Rica meeting us in Managua.
Keep the team in your prayers that all will go well.
Look for periodic updates while we are in Nicaragua.

Prep work underway for next mission

We are well on our way in preparation for the next eyeglass clinics in Nicaragua.
In the past couple months we have held two eyeglass cleaning, repair and inventory workshops as we get ready for our next mission trip. This now gives us enough of a variety of eyeglass perscriptions to serve about 300 people in three communities.

We will be holding our first planning meeting near the end of November for those wanting to go on the mission trip, which will be Feburary 16 -24. This will be an eyecare and medical mission. The planning meeting date will be announced soon.

Thanks to generous donations, we now have backpacks and school supplies for the fifteen children in our T.E.C. Mission after-school program in Masaya. As you know, these children are among the most needy in the neighborhood around the church in Masaya. We also have commitments from donors for fifteen pair of shoes for these children's school uniform. All this will get there in time for the start of the school year, which is in Feburary.

Masaya children's program

After a rather long break, the children’s after-school program in Masaya is up and running again. It is in the third month since it restarted. A recent donation will keep it running for several months.
There have been some changes. Most notable is that it is running only two days a week and the children are not served a hot meal but are fed a snack that consists of cereal, fruits or other snacks that take little time to prepare.
As some may remember before, we had to pay someone to cook each day, which was a lot more costly than the present system.
The children receive help with schoolwork, participate in Bible lessons and get a snack.
The elders in Masaya picked 15 children from the neediest families from the neighborhood surrounding the church to participate in the program. They then enlisted volunteers, coordinated by the preacher’s wife, Tania Hernandez, to help teach the children.
We are looking to provide each of these 15 children with a backpack with school supplies for the start of their school year in February. We also want to provide them each with a pair of black shoes, which is the most expensive part of the uniform required of all students in Nicaragua.
Please let us know if you would like to participate with us in supplying these needs for the children.
click on photo to enlarge

Nicaragua mission update

There are a lot of exciting things going on with the mission in Nicaragua. The three churches are doing well in sharing the word of God and have programs reaching out to the most needy in their communities.

Our children's program in Masaya is getting cranked back up.

The program had been stopped for a while after some changes were made by the leadership at the church there and because of not having enough funds.

The church leadership in Masaya is in the process of selecting 15 of the most needy children in the neighborhood around the church. Like before, the children will meet twice a week, get Bible study, help with their school work and a nutritious snack, such as cereal with milk, or milk and fruit.

Thanks to a recent donation, we have enough money set aside to get the program started and running again for several months. We are going to also try to help some of the 15 children with school supplies, school uniforms and shoes.
The church in Jinotepe reached its one-year anniversary in May. They had a packed house for the celebration Sunday. Pastor Walter seems to be doing well with the congregation. They are involved in the community and are enthusiastic about the work there. Recently they mobilized to help 12 families that attend the church who were in dire need. The families live in a squatters camp that was hit hard by torrential rains earlier this month. The church did what it could to help and enlisted the church in Managua to cooperate. We, here at First Christian Church of Cocoa Beach, pitched in and helped with money to buy building materials. Our newest church, at Las Salinas de Nahualapa face some challenges with potential flooding with the rainy season. They are doing what they can to make temporary fixes to hold back some of the water from getting into the church and parsonage. We'll have to look at a more permanent fix when we can to keep the overflowing river from causing damage to the building. Despite the challenges, they have started out well. As you know they got started as Cuerpo de Cristo church shortly after we returned from our most recent mission trip in February. About a month later they had gone from 12 people on the first day to 22. And, they are determined to reach a lot more of the town's people for Christ.