Merry Christmas!

Perhaps one of the toughest times of the year as missionaries is Christmas. Traditionally, this is a season of parties, gatherings, celebrations, and time with friends and family. Many missionaries do, in fact, travel back to the states or Canada to be with family over the holidays. However, with a family of four and a limited budget, it simply is not feasible for us. So, we make the best of it! We have some very close friends here that have become like family to us. We were blessed to spend a few days with them at the beach before Christmas relaxing, singing karaoke, and eating delicious food. Spencer gamed with his close friend who graduated last year from NCA and traveled to Nicaragua to spend time with his parents for the holidays. Hannah spent time in front of the TV and climbing rocks at the beach.

Enjoying an air conditioned room and video games
with a friend

Yummy food and a TV for Hannah.

Building a sand castle just before high tide. They wanted
to see it destroyed.

Relaxing with friends

Decisions
It's difficult to believe we have been in Nicaragua for nearly three years! When we came in 2014, we knew we would commit to a minimum of three years at Nicaragua Christian Academy. Following this, we would prayerfully consider our next steps. Would we stay here for Hannah to finish school at NCA, or move back to the states? With much contemplation, prayer, and family discussion we have decided to return to the states this summer. Factors weighing on our decision included decreasing financial support and family needs. We have grown to love the NCA community and this country. Although it has often been challenging, we have been blessed and honored to serve God here. 

Our home base will be Indiana. There, I will seek employment as a full time teacher. As Jeremy decides on his future plans, he will be doing some much needed work and maintenance around the farm. Spencer will be attending I.U.S. majoring in education (YAY!!), and Hannah will begin as freshman at a local high school. It will be a challenging transition for us as we came here with only 12 suitcases. We will most likely return with less. Essentially, we will be starting over from scratch with the few boxes of items we kept in storage. Please keep us in your prayers as we wrap up life here in the next several months.

Car Update

We want to thank all of you who donated to our car fund! As a reminder, our red Toyota stopped running a few months back. The estimated cost to fix her was in the range of $4000-$5000. This was still less expensive than a replacement vehicle. Vehicles here are quite expensive. Our 1988 Toyota Land Cruiser with umpteen thousand miles, no A/C, and cosmetic imperfections cost us $5500 when we moved here. 

With our decision to return this summer and the lack of funds, we thought it was unwise to purchase a vehicle. So, some missionary friends of ours loaned us a vehicle which is not currently being used. In return, we have done some maintenance on it including new tires, a front-end alignment, and brake repair. We have done this and plan to do some other "fixer-uppers" to the car with the donations from our GoFundMe account. The donations have benefited another missionary family as well!

The little car affectionately known as "Pikachu"

It's tiny, but it gets us from A to B!

 

As always, thanks to all of you for your prayers and financial support. We appreciate you! Have a wonderful holiday season and blessed new year.

The Kane Family