Education
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Nicaraguan Christian Relief Ministries, Inc. working for a Country in desperation
We are a non-profit organization that helps improve the quality of life of children and youth in Nicaragua through integral education programs.
The only purpose for forming and continuing this organization has been to work for the betterment of the children of God in Nicaragua when the poverty, starvation and undernourishment that we have witnessed cannot be depicted. Children live a miserable life, working on the streets at the age of five or running wild around the city stealing, in drugs and sleeping on the streets. The Panamerican Health Organization has named Nicaragua a priority country for assistance.
Happening Now
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we regret to announce that our annual Fundraising Dinner Dance scheduled for March 13, 2021 has been cancelled.
This is the second year in a row that our annual fundraiser has been canceled, resulting in a significant setback for our Adopt Child for Education Program. We are calling on all friends and followers of Jesus Christ to open your hearts and help support our mission in providing education to the poor children of Nicaragua . We greatly appreciate any donations and help you could send for them.
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Volunteer
Nicaragua
Nicaragua current population 6.5 million inhabitants (UN 2020). Larger than New York State. 50,337.30 sq mi.; Unemployment rate 7.36 %; Major religion Christianity.
Never rich in the first place, striving to overcome after effects of dictatorship, natural calamities and long war; last 34 years under communism has the country under most atrocious and dreadful poverty and famine; people suffering under this totalitarian regime.
All these, has made Nicaragua the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere after Haiti and poorest in Latin America; 50% of its population live with $2.00 a day, beloved the poverty line; 75% of the population unable to feed and clothe themselves, afford to eat each day, now struggle to find money to pay for medicines, hospitals care and treatment.
Our Story
Over the Years
There are many people and parishioners at Christ the King Catholic Church that do not know about NICARAGUAN CHRISTIAN RELIEF MINISTRIES and why it was found. Let me tell you the story, and you will be amazed when you know how and why it came to life.
My name is AMANDA VALLE PETERS. Born and raised in Nicaragua, I came to the United States for my university studies and have a BA and MBA in Accounting and Finance. I was a healthy woman, belonged to the business world for decades, blessed with three amazing sons and five beautiful grandchildren. In the year 1974, I moved to the USA, and later on became a citizen of this country.
In 1992 I was dying and needed heart transplant. In a Healing Mass, at Christ the King Church, Holy Spirit, through the hands of Fr. Phillip Scott, healed me, NO HEART TRANSPLANT. At the same time Jesus opened my gate for salvation, called me to serve him and asked me to read James 1:27 “ RELIGION THAT IS PUREAND UNDEFINED BEFORE GOD THE FATHER IS THIS: TO CARE FOR ORPHANS AND WIDOWS IN THEIR AFFLICTION AND TO KEEP UNSTAINED BY THE WORLD.”
Nicaraguan Christian Relief Ministries, Inc. is the consequence of a miracle of God.
1993
Founded
After this prodigious experience and revelation, I founded a mission in Nicaragua.
The mission started from my home in Tampa, Florida. In Nicaragua, with mom and sister’s great help, I have a place for storing and distributing sacks and small boxes of clothes, household needs, and school supplies donated from schools in Tampa, to assist the most needed families and children whose parents don’t have money to buy even a pencil. To avoid paying government taxes for donations brought in Nicaragua, we founded a national Non-Profit Organization named “Ministries of Healing Catholic Christian, Inc.” Years later, it was incorporated in the USA as “Nicaragua Christian Relief Ministries, Inc.”
1997
Board of Directors
Mr. Dave Jeffries, a church parishioner, lawyer, and a wonderful holy man, incorporated it, as a tax-exempt 501(c) (3) non-profit organization. In 1997, and Ministries of Healing Catholic Christian was born. Our Board of Directors were then, Father Mike Muhr, Mentor and Director; Amanda Valle-Peters, President and Founder; Cecilia Castillo, Treasurer; Dave Jeffries, Director; Diana Jeffries, Director; Jeff Carr, Accountant; Gelmi Wilkinson, Secretary; Thomas Delgado, Director; Leonor Delgado Director; Jeff Darrey, Director.
1998
Hurricane Mitch
Hurricane Mitch strikes Nicaragua. It was an unforgettable, extraordinary experience. Plight of poor and needy intensify. Rev. Michael Muhr, Pastor of Christ the King Catholic Church, was truly the guiding hand who helped us every step of the way in this endeavor. Through him, the church paid for our first 40’ container sent to Nicaragua. I went personally to assist these people in disgrace.
We assisted thousands and thousands of people with household goods, clothing, shoes, food, medical supplies, helped disable people, and more
1999
Storage and Office
After assisting the victims of Hurricane Mitch in Nicaragua, I came back to Tampa. I knew I had to continue with the ministry God put in my hands, but the circumstances in which I was operating it did not make it promising that I’d be able to continue. The donations were pouring in, people called for pickups, but there was no base storage or a way to pick them up. I went to talk to Father Mike Muhr and asked him to let me bring a 40’ semi-trailer to the church surroundings to use it as a storage and office. With the help of God, he agreed. He also said the ministry has to be incorporated for more creditability, and the church would give us financial help. He told me to talk to Dave Jeffries, a parishioner and lawyer with a great heart, who will do the incorporation free. I agreed with Site Storage Inc., to rent a trailer and park it at Christ the King School by the play ground at McKay Ave. and S. Dale Mabry. We agreed that once the trailer was full, they would bring an empty one to Christ the King and take the full trailer to their storage site.
Read more about our work with the Nicaraguan people :
Situation of public schools in Nicaragua: Operation Backpack
Public schools in Nicaragua are poverty stricken. They are not structurally sound, filthy, not well-kept, and there are not many places to sit. You would see kids taking their classes on a bench, which is very miserable to see.
Donations of special wheelchairs for children
Mr. BRUCE BAY FROM ‘CUSTOM MOBILITY” donated these beautiful special wheel chairs. These special children of God were homebound, laying down on a bed or sitting on their parent’s laps.
Wheelchair and Tricycle Donations
Thank you to our medical donors we have changed the life of these people just by bringing them and many others, a wheelchair. We also have assisted the disabled with walkers, crutches, and other medical equipment.
Hello! Do you want to know what we have done during all these years?
Working for the children of God, Our Brothers and Sisters in Nicaragua.
Adopt a Child for education program
This program has been designed exclusively to change the lives of Nicaraguan indigent children through an education and introduce them to society. By an act of charity, a child’s future will be changed. You will save them from becoming a drug addict, a criminal, or jail bound, which is what becomes of these poor children often. On the contrary, by love, a child will be receiving a Catholic education and will learn good principles and morals to become a better person.
Toys donation program
This is an activity we cannot overlook. Although the children love toys, they have a unique reaction when we give them one. They look to us with watery eyes; surprised, afraid, sad, mad and every now and then with a sweet smile. I tell you, it is a heart breaking but completely rewarding experience.
Assist the senior citizens
Time to assist the senior citizens that have such a devastating and terrible life in Nicaragua. They are one of the most vulnerable groups that cry out for our assistance. Our Lord asks us to take care of the elderly and the widows, are you doing it? You can do it with us.
Wheelchair donation project
These special children of God were homebound, laying down on a bed or sitting on their parent’s laps, but through the Mercy of God and Mr. BRUCE BAY FROM ‘CUSTOM MOBILITY” they received these beautiful special wheel chairs and their lives changed. Our eternal appreciation to Bruce for his love and invaluable help for so many years.
Operation Backpack
The Ministry has a program named “OPERATION BACKPACK”. At the end of the school year here in Tampa, FL, we request to the principals of the Catholic schools to collect the leftover school supplies, shoes, and uniforms. We recycle and bring them to these beautiful children to help them to attend school..
Feed the Hungry
We are blessed to say we work in accord with Christ’s Commands: Feed the Hungry; Give Drink to the Thirsty; Clothe the Naked; Shelter the Homeless; Visit the Sick; Visit the Imprisoned; Bury the Dead. It does not fit in my head that in the twentieth century these, deprived people amble for long hours on the streets begging for food. When I am in Nicaragua they come to our warehouse and we feed them.
Hospital assistance
We want to express our most profound appreciation to: St. Anthony Hospital, St. Joseph Hospital, USF Medical Center, Shriners Hospital, and EADM/Bryan Thatcher for the medical supplies and equipment they donated to us when we were in most need to assist the hospitals in Nicaragua that were robbed and devastated after the most atrocious wars.
Computer Labs
We are delighted and fortunate to say that, with the help of God, these school centers have a computer lab for the first time to teach their students!
Donations for Catholic Churches
We have brought to the Catholic Churches an electric organ, an altar, pews, a drum set and other musical instruments, and furniture for parishioners, donated by Tampa Catholic School. Thank you to all our donors.
Check out our Events Calendar and join us!
Children benefited from our program
Donation program ended
Amazing peoples (Volunteers)
Testimony : Power and Divine Mercy of God
WHEN SCIENCE GAVE UP
Four years ago, I had been deadly sick for six months, but here I am to testify that there is a God who is in control of His creation and every human being on Earth.
At MD Anderson Medical Center in Houston, Texas, forty doctors at my bedside told my sister and sons to let me go in peace, for there was nothing they could do to save my life. Funeral arrangements were made, but the Power and Divine Mercy of God had other plans for me.
I am a great believer of the Divine Mercy of God devotion. During my sickness, He never left me alone. In my unconsciousness, I remember seeing the bluish ray of mercy that comes out from the heart of Jesus, pointing down to my body. It never went away. I was constantly praying the Chaplet of The Divine Mercy and asking God to take me home with Him.
A Christian lady from Kenya came to my room and asked my son if she could pray over me, to which he said yes. She came to my bed side and said, “I come to pray for you.” I opened my eyes, and what I saw was the Divine Mercy of Jesus standing next to my bed. He put His hand on my heart and said, “I am Jesus and have come to heal you. You are healed today, don’t be afraid. Your doctors will be surprised when they see you.” From that moment on I began to heal, and now, years later, I am working harder every day for His children in Nicaragua.
ALL GLORY AND PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING BE TO GOD AND HIS DIVINE MERCY AND LOVE
Beneficiaries of the Adopt a Child for Education Program
The children of the Gutierrez family were not attending school because their mother abandoned the family and the father became an alcoholic. The children were going through a severe depression and were affected psychologically. But the Lord did not abandon them, and through an act of love our sponsors paid for their education.
Gutierrez Family
The Mendez family when we met them, they had just gone through an eviction and they were living in the ghetto under the most unimaginable conditions. They all were in public school, but they had to be taken out of it because the parents could not afford it. Through the love and support of the sponsors, they were able to continue school and it changed their lives.”
Mendez Family
Annual Group 2007
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Annual Group 2008
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Annual Group 2009
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Annual Group 2010
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Annual Group 2011
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Annual Group 2012
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Annual Group 2013
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Annual Group 2014
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Annual Group 2015
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Annual Group 2016
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Annual Group 2017
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Annual Group 2018
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Annual Group 2018
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Annual Group 2019
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Annual Group 2020
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Share the ! Donate and help us to help others
We request support from all parisioners and ministry’s friends for these children of God who, through no fault of their own, were born into poverty. They live under extreme and inhuman conditions. Just think, with an education that you can give them, along with love and support, you will save their lives. To our existing sponsors, thank you! If you have not sponsored a child, please join our sponsorship program today. $325 for an entire school year.
Call us today
+1 (813) 294 9426
+1 (813) 229 8008