Hello Friends,
Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you all have a wonderful time with family and friends this week.
PRAY for Nicaragua from NOW through Friday night. Tropical Storm Otto has been upgraded to a hurricane and is scheduled to hit Nicaragua and Costa Rica on Thanksgiving Day. It will hit the eastern side first and then head south to San Juan del Sur. Pass this request on to your friends.
"Heavy rain, flash flooding and mudslides will be major concerns for Central America, including Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. Some locations may pick up over 15 inches of rain from Otto." = https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/tropical-storm-hurricane-otto-caribbean-central-america-forecast
Pray that God would lessen the force of this hurricane, re-direct it, or in some other way limit its impact. Many people live in shacks or other not-strong buildings. Their dwellings will not survive a big storm. And they will not have the resources to go elsewhere, nor rebuild afterwards.
Pray that God will keep people safe and provide for them afterwards. Pray God to guide our team here in Nicaragua for helping afterwards.
(Don't worry about me. I'm fine and will be fine - had planned weeks ago to be in Capitol city with our mission group for a couple days over Thanksgiving to help a co-missionary with some ministry opportunities. The Capitol is not in the main path of the storm, but pray for wisdom and timing for heading back to SJdS afterwards and helping.)
UPDATE NOVEMBER 25:
Hi All,
We serve a mighty, prayer-answering God. Thank you for your faithful praying on behalf of Nicaragua. It is awesome to report that not only did Hurricane Otto downgrade before hitting land, it also swerved so that the eye of the storm was not over Nicaragua.
I just heard from friends in SJdS that they are all fine and all they got was rain. Thank you all.
On top of that, while there was an earthquake yesterday morning off the northwestern coast of Nicaragua, no one was hurt and no tsunamis formed.
So much to be thankful for today. Lord willing, I plan to take the bus back to SJdS later this afternoon.