“Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) – This isn’t just a nice idea. It’s a command!
Getting Started
For those of you who have been following our progress for a while, you will be familiar with the “Baldizon Bathroom Project”. How did this project get started? One of the public schools in the Laguna de Apoyo area of Masaya county, Nicaragua closest to our CrossWay International Nicaragua headquarters and our CrossWay TecNica Laguna campus … it has a long name, so we just call it Baldizon for short. Many of the students from our Laguna campus attend this public school and made us aware of some their needs back in 2019.
P.S. Can you find Jason in the picture?
(hint=he’s the gringo!)
Original Meeting with the Baldizon school community in Summer of 2019
Where in the world is this place?
Nicaragua is located in Central America
CrossWay International and CrossWay TecNica are located in Masaya regioin, near the Laguna de Apoyo
“Baldizon” school is one of the closest schools to our headquarters
Printer and Laptop
We started by donating a laptop and buying them a printer and setting it up for them in the fall of 2019. These were small projects that were in the area of expertise of our team already, that we could do immediately.
Pictured here is Mario, our computer technician, installing the printer and working on their ancient computer.
This local school serves 300 students and only had one “bathroom” … as in a small “closet” with toilet bowl inside and a hole beneath it. No sink. No running water. No light. And especially once the global pandemic hit, we felt the situation warranted immediate attention.
It took quite a while for us to pull all of the pieces together, but we were able to come up with the funding for supplies and the community worked together on their end to find a team of volunteers and construction workers from their own community to get the work done.
The end result is a nice, new, clean building with two bathrooms, each with a toilet and sink, and doors to provide privacy and keep would-be thieves out. You can see a before and after image here.
Before After
Pictures of Construction Progress
Once construction was complete and tested out, the community gathered together to celebrate and give thanks. Josue Ruiz, the director of our CrossWay TecNica school (seen here) and Kevin Aguilar, our field director for CrossWay International Nicaragua (taking the picture) had the honor of sharing their testimonies and the wonderful news of eternal life through trusting in Jesus alone.
Josue Ruiz, CrossWay TecNica Director Speaking
View of the Celebration Meeting with Parents from the back of the room
Thank You Notes
The community wrote some thank you notes …
“Grateful for this project, work from you that God has put in your hearts.”
“Thank God and you for making this project happen.”
We praise God for the privilege of being able to partner with this community for the welfare of all to the glory of God!
